Middle Welsh facts for kids

Middle Welsh (Welsh: Cymraeg Canol, Middle Welsh: Kymraec) is the name given to the Welsh language spoken between the 12th and 15th centuries. We have many more writings from this time compared to earlier periods. This version of Welsh grew directly from Old Welsh (Welsh: Hen Gymraeg).

Literature and History of Middle Welsh

Middle Welsh is the language used in almost all the old books of the Mabinogion that we still have today. Even though the stories themselves are much older, they were written down in Middle Welsh. It's also the language of most old books about Welsh law. If you speak modern Welsh, you can usually understand Middle Welsh, but it takes a bit of effort.

How Middle Welsh Sounded

The sounds of Middle Welsh were quite similar to modern Welsh. But there were a few interesting differences.

• The letter u used to sound like "oo" in "moon" (/ʉ/). Today, it sounds more like "ee" (/i/) or a different "ih" sound (/ɨ/) depending on where you are in Wales.
• The sound aw at the end of words changed to o in modern Welsh. For example, the Middle Welsh word marchawc (horseman) became marchog in modern Welsh.
• Similarly, the sounds ei and eu at the end of words became ai and au. So, Middle Welsh seith (seven) is now saith. And heul (sun) is now haul.

Words usually had the stress on the second-to-last syllable. This means you would say "CAR-u" instead of "car-U".

How Middle Welsh Was Written

The way Middle Welsh was written wasn't always the same. Different old books might spell the same sound in different ways.

Spelling Differences from Modern Welsh

Here are some common ways Middle Welsh spelling was different from modern Welsh:

• The words ei (his, her), eu (their), and i (to) were often spelled as y in Middle Welsh. This could be confusing because y also meant "the". So, y gath could mean "the cat," "his cat," or "to a cat"!
• At the end of words, the sounds d and g were often written as t and c. For example, diffryt (protection) is now diffryd. And redec (running) is now rhedeg.
• The k sound was often spelled with a k before the letters e, i, or y. In modern Welsh, it's always spelled with a c. For example, Middle Welsh keivyn (third cousin) is now ceifn.
• The v sound was usually spelled with a u or v. But at the end of a word, it was spelled with an f. In modern Welsh, it's always spelled with an f. For example, Middle Welsh auall (apple tree) is now afall.
• The th sound (like in "the") was usually spelled with a d. In modern Welsh, it's spelled with a dd. So, Middle Welsh dyd (day) is now dydd.
• The rh sound (a special Welsh "r") was just spelled r. So, you couldn't tell the difference between r and rh just by looking at the spelling.

Middle Welsh Grammar

Middle Welsh grammar had some cool features that are different from modern Welsh. It was more like other old Celtic languages, such as Old Irish.

Word Changes (Morphology)

Words in Middle Welsh changed their endings more often than they do in modern Welsh.

• Verb Endings: For example, when talking about what "he" or "she" did in the past, Middle Welsh used endings like -wŷs, -ws, -es, and -as, as well as -odd.
• Adjective Plurals: Middle Welsh also had more plural forms for adjectives. For instance, cochion was the plural of coch (red). Modern Welsh doesn't use these plural adjective forms as much.
• Noun Plurals: The ending -awr was very common for making nouns plural in Middle Welsh. Today, -au is used instead.

Vowel Changes

Middle Welsh words often changed their vowels depending on where they were in a sentence or what endings were added. This is called mutation or centring.

• For example, bwrd (board) became byrdeu (boards) in the plural.
• marchawg (horseman) became marchoges (horsewoman).

These vowel changes happened because of how words were stressed in even older forms of Welsh.

Consonant Changes

Just like modern Welsh, Middle Welsh had consonant mutations. This means the first letter of a word could change depending on the word before it. However, these changes weren't always written down in Middle Welsh spelling.

Here are the main types of consonant changes:

• Lenition (Soft Mutation): This is the most common change. It makes sounds softer. For example, p can become b, t can become d, and c can become g.

Example: march (horse) becomes moruarch (sea-horse, or whale) when combined.

• Nasal Mutation: This change turns sounds into nasal sounds (like m or n). For example, p can become mh, and t can become nh.

Example: After the word yn (in), pob (every) becomes ymhob (in every).

• Spirant Mutation: This change turns sounds into fricatives (sounds made by air flowing through a narrow opening). For example, p can become ph, and t can become th.

Example: After y (her), penn (head) becomes y phenn (her head).

Nouns

Middle Welsh had two genders for nouns: masculine and feminine.

• The Word "The": The word for "the" was y- before a consonant and yr- before a vowel or h.
• Plurals: Nouns could become plural in many different ways. There wasn't just one rule! Some common endings were -eu, -(i)on, and -oed. Sometimes, the vowel inside the word would change too.
• No Cases: Unlike some languages, Middle Welsh didn't have grammatical cases (like how English uses "he" vs. "him").
• Possession: To show who owned something, you just put the owner's noun after the thing they owned. For example, pendeuic Dyuet means "the prince of Dyfed."

Adjectives

Some adjectives had special plural forms or feminine forms.

• Comparing Things:

* To say something was "as big as" something else, you used -(h)et or mor. For example, ky uelynet oed a'r eur means "it was as yellow as gold." * To say "bigger," you added -ach. * To say "biggest," you added -(h)af.

Pronouns

Pronouns (like "I," "you," "he") had many different forms depending on how they were used in a sentence.

• "My" and "Your": The possessive pronouns (like "my" or "your") often caused the first letter of the next word to change (a consonant mutation).
• "Who" and "Which": The main question words were pwy (who) and pa/py (which). "What" was often said as pa beth (which thing?).

Verbs

Middle Welsh verbs had four tenses (present, past, imperfect, pluperfect) and two moods (indicative and subjunctive). Verbs also changed their endings to match who was doing the action (I, you, he, we, etc.).

• "To Be": The verb "to be" (bot) had many different forms. For example, yw and ynt were used after the main part of the sentence, while (y) mae and (y) maent were used at the beginning.

Prepositions

Prepositions (like "on," "to," "in") also changed their forms when pronouns were added to them. This is called "conjugating" the preposition.

• For example, ar (on) became arnaf (on me) or arnat (on you).
• Many prepositions also caused consonant mutations on the word that followed them.

Sentence Structure (Syntax)

In modern Welsh, sentences usually follow a Verb-Subject-Object (VSO) order. For example, "Saw the king a castle."

• Different Orders: Middle Welsh also used other sentence orders, like Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) or Object-Verb-Subject (OVS). These different orders were often used to put emphasis on a certain part of the sentence.
• Special Words: These different orders often needed a small extra word, like a or y(d), to make the sentence grammatically correct.

Numbers in Middle Welsh

Middle Welsh had interesting ways of counting.

• Gender for Small Numbers: The numbers 2, 3, and 4 had different forms for masculine and feminine nouns. For example, deu (two) for masculine and dwy for feminine.
• Ordinal Numbers: To say "first," "second," etc., they usually added -uet to the number. "First" and "second" were special words: kyntaf and eil.
• Counting by Twenties: For numbers from 40 up to 180, Middle Welsh used a "vigesimal" system, which means counting in groups of 20.

* 40 was deu ugein (two twenties). * 60 was tri ugein (three twenties). * 90 was dec a phedwar ugein (ten and four twenties).

• Big Numbers: Hundreds and thousands were made by putting the number before "hundred" (can) or "thousand" (mil).

* 200 was deucant (two hundred). * 2000 was dwy vil (two thousand).

• Numbers and Nouns: Numbers usually came before the noun they described. For example, deu wr means "two men." If the number was made of several parts, the noun came after the first part. For example, teir llong ar dec (three ships on ten) meant "13 ships."

Sample Text

Here's an example of Middle Welsh from the Mabinogion, with a modern Welsh version and an English translation.

See also

• Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, the standard historical Welsh dictionary
• Medieval Welsh literature, Book of Llandaff, Mabinogion, Welsh law
• Welsh orthography