Old Welsh facts for kids

Old Welsh, or Hen Gymraeg in Welsh, was an early form of the Welsh language. It was spoken from around 800 AD until the early 12th century. After that, it slowly changed into what we call Middle Welsh. Before Old Welsh, there was an even older stage, sometimes called "Primitive" or "Archaic Welsh." This was when the Welsh language first became different from an ancient language called Common Brittonic, around 550 AD.

Discovering Old Welsh Texts

We know about Old Welsh from old writings that have survived. The oldest complete text we have is on a gravestone in Tywyn, called the Cadfan Stone. People used to think it was from the 7th century, but now many believe it's from the 9th century.

Other important Old Welsh writings are found in old books, often as notes. These notes, called glosses (words explaining something) or marginalia (notes written in the margins), were added around 900 AD. You can find them in books like the Juvencus Manuscript. Some old Welsh poems and stories were also written during this time, but we only have copies made much later. For example, the famous poem Y Gododdin is preserved in Middle Welsh copies.

One very interesting text is in the Lichfield Gospels. It's a mix of Latin and Old Welsh and is known as the "Surrexit Memorandum." It was probably written in the early 8th century, but it might be a copy of an even older text from the 6th or 7th centuries.

The Surrexit Memorandum: A Story from the Past

The "Surrexit Memorandum" tells a story about a land dispute. It's a great example of how Old Welsh was written.

What the Text Says

Here is what the old text means in English:

Tudfwlch, son of Llywyd and son-in-law of Tudri, arose to claim the land of Telych. This land was held by Elgu, son of Gelli and the tribe of Idwared. They argued about it for a long time. In the end, they decided against Tudri's son-in-law by law. The good people said to each other, 'Let us make peace.' Elgu then gave a horse, three cows, three cows newly calved. This was so there would be no hatred between them from that decision until the Day of Judgement. Tudfwlch and his family will not want it (the land) forever and ever.

How Old Welsh Was Written

The "Surrexit Memorandum" shows us how Old Welsh was spelled. Back then, people used the basic Latin alphabet to write Welsh sounds.

• For example, the sound we now write as ll (like in Llywyd) was just written as l (like in liuit).
• The sound dd (like in dydd) was written as d (like in did).
• The Latin letter u was used for different sounds that later became u and w in Middle Welsh.

Also, a big feature of Welsh today, called initial mutations, wasn't usually written down in Old Welsh. This is when the first letter of a word changes depending on the word before it.

Many words in the Memorandum are now outdated. But it's cool to see that some words are still very similar in modern Welsh!

It's a bit of a mystery why this specific page in the Lichfield Gospels was used for these notes. Not many other pages in the book have extra text added. It's possible the page was chosen to hide the information that was added later.

See also

• British Latin