Hi! Your polls have enticed me to learn Welsh so I can be less wrong on your polls! Could you possibly explain why bore da, prynhawn da and nos da all have one d but noswaith dda needs two?
I am UTTERLY delighted to hear my silly ridiculous nonsense has done actual appreciable good in this world. Incredible.
And yes, I can! Like a lot of languages, Welsh has gendered words; feminine words trigger the dreaded soft mutation, whereby the first letter of the next word mutates to a 'softer' equivalent. So c becomes g, p becomes b, and a bunch of others.
In this case, bore prynhawn and nos are all masculine, so the d following stays as it is. But noswaith is feminine, so it changes the d into a dd.
However, don't stress too much about getting the mutations right. Over practice, you learn them instinctively in the end anyway. Getting one wrong does feel wrong to a Welsh speaker, but in almost every case it's still understandable, and all it does is signal that you're a learner. And we love learners.
Welcome aboard!
Mutations Cheat Sheet!
Three types. Easy to hard:
Aspirate Mutation
- c -> ch
- p -> ph
- t -> th
Used after the word "a/ac" meaning 'and', and after the word 'ei' meaning 'her (possessive)'. Note - 'ei' can also mean 'his', but in that case it triggers a soft mutation. This is how Welsh conveys gender.
Nasal Mutation
- b -> m
- c -> ngh
- d -> n
- g -> ng
- p -> mh
- t -> nh
- tsh -> nh*
Used most commonly after the pronoun 'fy' meaning 'my', and the word 'yn' meaning 'in'. You see it a lot in place names - 'in Cardiff' becomes 'yng Nghaerdydd', for example. Note that this mutation can actually alter the end of the triggering word, too - 'yn' there became 'yng'. This is to make it easier to pronounce the mutated following word. 'Ngh' is a difficult-looking cluster of consonants in isolation, but when strung together it means 'yng Nghaerdydd' becomes pronounced something like 'ung Haerdydd'.
This one looks harder than it is. In reality, this mutation genuinely makes these easier to say aloud.
Soft Mutation
- b -> f
- c -> ch
- d -> dd
- g -> _ (it vanishes. You just lose the g.)
- ll -> l
- m -> f
- p -> b
- rh -> r
- t -> d
- tsh -> j*
The asshole one. This one indicates feminine nouns and most commonly crops up there after the word 'y/yr', meaning 'the'. It also kicks in after prepositions, and to indicate a whole host of other things. If you go on a deep dive into Welsh grammar there's a good, like, seventeen ways this can end up kicking in, actually, but that's not something you need to stress about until you study at A Level or above.
As I say. Don't get too hung up on this one; it comes with practice. The useful thing is just knowing which letters might change to which, so if you encounter a word that surprises you you can sort of 'convert backwards' to find what it used to be.
*So this is a fun one - Welsh has the letter 'ch' already, right? Pronounced the German way, back of the throat. However, loanwords being what they are, there are now some English words spelled with an English 'ch' that have drifted into Welsh. A big example of this is 'chips'.
But, Welsh is extremely strict about its spelling - loanwords are a-ok, but they need to be transliterated. But how do you transliterate 'chips'? How to denote that sound?
So, we are starting to use 'tsh'. This is very new and not yet recognised as a letter.
BUT, in North Wales the verbal language is evolving fast, and they now have mutations for it. Tships, dy jips, fyn nhips. This is extremely fascinating to linguists and everyone is very excited.
However, I have only included it all here for completion's sake - in practice, you won't see this on any Welsh course yet.
mutations. argh (ok but that 'tsh' stuff is so interesting!)
It's actually not the mutations that get me so much as that Duolingo refuses to tell you which nouns are which gender and how they change (pedwar -> pedair), plus they got rid of all the lesson notes. Because god forbid I actually learn why anything. Do you (or anyone!) know of a good source for Welsh nouns and their genders?
Diolch yn fawr!
Welsh dictionaries always list gender, so whichever dictionary of your choice you use should be able to help! If it's masculine it'll say (gw) or (g) after it, if it's feminine it'll be (bn) or (b). Or some other similar abbreviation for gwrywaidd and benywaidd.
Or, Google Translate has a pretty good hit rate if you type in "the (noun)", or "little (noun)". The word for chair is cadair, but "the chair" will give you "y gadair" and "little chair" will give you "cadair fach" (instead of 'bach'), at which point, you know it's feminine because it has a soft mutation. That's also how fluent speakers double check word gender, too. We just Vibes it based on whether it feels like it should mutate. You ask a fluent speaker and you'll be treated to the quick muttering of "Cadair... Y cadair, y gadair... gadair fach... Feminine, it's feminine."
I dweud y gwir mae rhan fwyaf o bobl sy’n siarad cymraeg yn rhygl yn gwnweud camgymeriadau wrth treiglo ta beth. Fel fi. Pan dwi’n siarad/ysgrifennu dwi wastad yn treiglo’n anghywir. Mae fy nhad wastad yn fy nghywiro i (mae o wedi dysgu cymraeg fel oedolyn pan es i i ysgol gyfyn gymraeg fel plentyn. Dysgodd e i helpu fi a’m mrawd gyda’n gwaith cartref!)
