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INITIAL CONSONANT MUTATION Initial Consonant Mutation is a phenomenon common to all Celtic languages. The first Consonant sound of a word in Welsh may change depending on grammatical context (such as when the grammatical Object directly follows the grammatical Subject ), or when preceded by certain words, e. g. ''i'', ''yn'', and ''a''. Welsh has three mutations: the soft mutation, the '''nasal mutation''', and the '''aspirate mutation''': A blank cell indicates that the letter is not affected. For example, the word for "stone" is ''carreg'', but "the stone" is ''y garreg'' (soft mutation), "my stone" is ''fy ngharreg'' (nasal mutation) and "her stone" is ''ei charreg'' (aspirate mutation). The examples show usage in the Standard Language ; the soft mutation is slowly supplanting the nasal and aspirate mutations as the mechanism behind the mutations ceases to be understood. These days, the aspirate mutation is only really carried out for words beginning with C in colloquial language and in some areas it is totally unknown (it is sometimes joked that a sign of Hypercorrection amongst learners is to order "jin a thonic" in a bar). The nasal mutation is now only used in two circumstances and it is also being replaced by the soft mutation.
Soft mutation Related article: Lenition The soft mutation (Welsh: ''treiglad meddal'') is by far the most common mutation in Welsh. When words undergo soft mutation, the general pattern is that unvoiced plosives become voiced plosives, and voiced plosives become fricatives or disappear; some fricatives also change, and the full list is shown in the above table. Common situations where the soft mutation occurs are as follows – note that this list is by no means exhaustive.
The occurrence of the soft mutation often obscures the origin of placenames to non-Welsh-speaking visitors. For example, ''Llanfair'' is the church of Mair (Mary), and ''Pontardawe'' is the bridge on the Tawe. Nasal mutation The nasal mutation (Welsh: ''treiglad trwynol'') normally occurs after the words ''fy'' (meaning "my") or ''yn'' where it means "in". It also occurs after the negating Prefix ''an-'', and sometimes after ''saith'' ("seven"). Under nasal mutation, Plosives become Nasals , and Unvoiced plosives become Aspirated nasals. In words beginning with ''an-'', the ''n'' is dropped before the mutated consonant, e.g. ''an'' + ''personol'' -> ''amhersonol'' (although it would be retained before a non-mutating consonant, e.g. ''an'' + ''sicr'' -> ''ansicr''). Pronunciation The aspirated nasals may appear at first hard for English speakers to pronounce. However, in fact they are generally pronounced as an aspirated nasal followed by ''h'', and this does not in practice result in a large cluster of consonant sounds because it is preceded either by the Vowel ending of ''fy'', or a form of ''yn'' where the ''-n'' is possibly replaced with ''-m'' or ''-ng'' to match the first letter of the mutated word. For example:
Grammatical considerations Note that ''yn'' meaning "in" must be distinguished from other uses of ''yn'' which do not cause nasal mutation. For example:
Note also that the '' 'm'' form often used instead of ''fy'' after vowels does not cause nasal mutation. For example:
Aspirate mutation The aspirate mutation (Welsh: ''treiglad llaes'') turns the unvoiced plosives into aspirated fricatives. It is easiest to remember based on an addition of an ''h'' in the spelling (''c''->''ch'', ''p''->''ph'', ''t''->''th''), although strictly the resultant forms are single letters which happen to contain an ''h'' as the second character. The aspirate mutation occurs mainly after the possessive ''ei'' when it means "her", after ''a'' ("and") and ''â'' ("with"), and after the numbers six (''chwe'') and occasionally three (''tri''). The aspirate mutation also causes an ''h'' to be added before words beginning with a vowel (e.g. ''oed'' = age, ''ei hoed'' = her age), although ''a'' / ''â'' before a vowel change to ''ac'' / ''ag'' and the word beginning with a vowel is itself unaffected. Mixed mutation A mixed mutation occurs when negating conjugated verbs. Initial consonants which change under the aspirate mutation do so; other consonants change as in the soft mutation (if at all). For example, ''clwyais i'' (I heard) and ''dwedais i'' (I said) are negated as ''chlywais i ddim'' and ''ddwedais i ddim''. THE ARTICLE Welsh has no indefinite Article . The definite article, which precedes the words it modifies and whose usage differs little from that of English, has the forms ''y, yr,'' and '''r''. The rules governing their usage are:
The article triggers the soft mutation when it is used with feminine singular nouns, e. g. ''tywysoges'' "(a) princess" but ''y dywysoges'' "the princess". NOUNS Like most other Indo-European languages, all nouns belong to a certain Grammatical Gender ; in this case, masculine or feminine. Aside from nouns whose gender is clear from the meaning (e.g. ''mam'' "mother" is feminine), there is no pattern, and gender simply must be learnt. Welsh has two systems of Grammatical Number . There are the singular/plural nouns, which correspond to the singular/plural number system of English. Noun plurals are unpredictable and formed in several ways. Some nouns form the plural with an ending (usually ''-au''), e.g. ''tad'' and ''tadau''. Others form the plural through vowel change, e.g. ''bachgen'' and ''bechgyn''. Still others form their plurals through some combination of the two, e.g. ''chwaer'' and ''chwiorydd''. The other system of number is the collective/unit system. The nouns in this system form the singular by adding the suffix ''-yn'' (for masculine nouns) or ''-en'' (for feminine nouns) to the plural. Most nouns which belong in this system are frequently found in groups, for example, ''plant'' "children" and ''plentyn'' "a child", or ''coed'' "forest" and ''coeden'' "a tree". In dictionaries, the plural is often given first. Genitive relationships are expressed by Apposition . The genitive in Welsh is formed by putting two Noun Phrase s next to each other, the possessor coming second. So English "The cat's mother", or "mother of the cat", corresponds to Welsh ''mam y gath'' — literally, "mother the cat"; "the man's car's windows" is ''ffenestri car y dyn'' — literally, "windows car the man". The thing possessed never takes the article. ADJECTIVES Adjectives normally follow the noun they qualify, while some, such as ''hen, pob,'' and ''holl'' precede it. For the most part, adjectives are uninflected, though there are a few which maintain distinct masculine/feminine or singular/plural distinctions. After feminine singular nouns, adjectives receive the soft mutation. Adjective comparison in Welsh is fairly similar to the English system. Adjectives with one or two syllables receive the endings ''-ach'' "-er" and ''-a'' "-est", e. g. ''bannog'' "high", ''bannogach'' "higher", ''bannoga'' "highest". Adjectives with two or more syllables use the words ''mwy'' "more" and ''mwya'' "most", e. g. ''teimladwy'' "sensitive", ''mwy teimladwy'' "more sensitive", ''mwya teimladwy'' "most sensitive". Adjectives with two syllables could go either way. These are the possessive adjectives: The possessive adjectives precede the noun they qualify, which is often followed by the corresponding form of the personal pronoun, e.g. ''fy mara i'' "my bread", ''dy fara di'' "your bread", ''ei fara fe'' "his bread", etc. The demonstrative adjectives are'' 'ma'' "this"' and'' 'na'' "that". They follow the noun they qualify, which also takes the article. For example, ''y llyfr'' "the book", ''y llyfr 'ma'' "this book", ''y llyfr 'na'' "that book". PRONOUNS Personal pronouns The Welsh personal pronouns are: The Welsh masculine-feminine gender distinction is reflected in the pronouns. There is, consequently, no word corresponding to English 'it', and the choice of ''e'' or ''hi'' depends on the grammatical gender of the antecedent. The English Dummy 'it' construction in phrases like 'it's raining' or 'it was cold last night' also exists in Welsh and other Indo-European languages like French and Spanish. Unlike other masculine-feminine languages, which often default to the masculine pronoun in the construction, Welsh uses the feminine singular ''hi'', thus producing sentences like: : ''Mae hi'n bwrw glaw.'' : It's raining. : ''O'dd hi'n oer neithiwr.'' : It was cold last night. Notes on the forms Third-person masculine singular forms ''o'' and ''fo'' are heard in North Wales, while ''e'' and ''fe'' are heard in South Wales. The pronoun forms ''i, e'', and ''o'' are used as subjects after a verb. In the inflected future of the verbs ''mynd, gwneud, dod'', and ''cael'', first-person singular constructions like ''do fi'' may be heard. ''I, e'', and ''o'' are also used as objects with compound prepositions, for example ''o mlaen o'' 'in front of him'. ''Fi, fe'', and ''fo'' are used after conjunctions and non-inflected prepositions, and also as the object of an inflected verb: : ''Weloch chi fo dros y Sul?'' : Did you see him over the weekend? ''Fe'' and ''fo'' exclusively are used as subjects with the inflected conditional: : ''Dylai fe brynu ti un newydd.'' : He ought to buy you a new one. Both ''i, e'', and ''o'' and ''fi, fe'', and ''fo'' are heard with inflected prepositions, as objects of verbnouns, and also as following pronouns with their respective possessive adjectives: : ''Wyt ti wedi gweld e/fe heddiw?'' : Have you seen him today? : ''All i ddim cael hyd i fy allweddi i/fi.'' : I can't find my keys. The use of first-person singular ''mi'' is limited in the spoken language, appearing in ''i mi'' 'to/for me' or as the subject with the verb ''ddaru'', used in a preterite construction. ''Ti'' is found most often as the second-person singular pronoun, however ''di'' is used as the subject of inflected future forms, as a reinforcement in the imperative, and as following pronoun to the possessive adjective ''dy ...'' 'your ...'. ''Ti'' vs. ''chi'' ''Chi'', in addition to serving as the second-person plural pronoun, is also used as a singular in formal situations. Conversely, ''ti'' can be said to be limited to the informal singular, such as when speaking with a family member, a friend, or a child. This usage corresponds closely to the practice in other European languages. Reflexive pronouns The reflexive pronouns are formed with the possessive adjective followed by ''hun'' 'self'. There is variation between North and South forms. Note that there is no gender distinction in the third person singular. Emphatic pronouns Welsh has special emphatic forms of the personal pronouns. They are not too common, though nevertheless alive in the language, especially in set phrases like ''a finnau'' 'me too'. The emphatic pronouns can also be used in place of the regular pronouns with possessive adjectives to add emphasis to the possessives. Demonstrative pronouns In addition to having masculine and feminine forms of ''this'' and ''that'', Welsh also has separate set of ''this'' and ''that'' for intangible, figurative, or general ideas. In certain expressions, ''hyn'' may represent 'now' and ''hynny'' may represent 'then'. VERBS In Welsh, the majority of tenses make use of an auxiliary verb, usually ''bod'' 'to be'. Its conjugation is dealt with in Irregular Verbs below. There are four periphrastic tenses in Welsh which make use of ''bod'': present, imperfect, future, and conditional. All are formed in the same basic way: the appropriate form of ''bod'', the complement marker ''yn'' (contracted to '''n'' after vowels), and the verbal noun. Thus ''he thinks'' (or ''he is thinking'') is rendered ''Mae e'n meddwl''. ''He will think'' is ''bydd e'n meddwl''. Welsh does not distinguish progressive actions. Welsh does, however, distinguish perfect actions in all the periphrastic tenses by replacing ''yn'' with ''wedi''. The perfect is then expressed with the present forms of ''bod'', the pluperfect with the imperfect forms, the future perfect with the future forms, and the conditional perfect with the conditional forms. For example, ''he has thought'' is ''mae e wedi meddwl''. Welsh maintains inflected preterite, future, and conditional tenses, demonstrated here with ''talu'' 'pay'.
In the preterite, questions are formed with the soft mutation on the verb, though increasingly the soft mutation is being used in all situations. Negative forms are expressed with ''ddim'' after the pronoun and the mixed mutation, though here the soft mutation is taking over (''dales i ddim'' for ''thales i ddim''). Periphrasitic constructions of the preterite, future, and conditional also exist. For all of these, the appropriate tense of ''gwneud'' 'to do' (conjugated below) may be used with the verbal noun. The preterite may also be formed with ''ddaru'' 'to happen', which does not alter its form. Irregular verbs ''Bod'' 'to be' is highly irregular. In addition to having inflected forms of the preterite, future, and conditional, it also maintains inflected present and imperfect forms which are used frequently as auxiliaries with other verbs. ''Bod'' also distinguishes between affirmative, interrogative, and negative statements for each tense. The present tense in particular shows a split between the North and the South. King (2003) notes the following spoken variations in the present forms: ''Bod'' also has a conditional, for which there are two stems:
The four verbs ''mynd'' 'to go', ''gwneud'' 'to do', ''cael'' 'to get', and ''dod'' 'to come' are all irregular in similar ways. The forms ''caeth, caethon, caethoch'' often appear as ''cafodd, cawson, cawsoch'' in writing, and in places in Wales these are also heard in speech. In the conditional, there is considerable variation between the North and South forms of these four irregular verbs. PREPOSITIONS In Welsh, Preposition s frequently change their form when followed by a pronoun. These are known as inflected prepositions. Most of them, such as ''dan'', follow the same basic pattern: There is some dialectal variation, particularly in the first and second person singular forms. In some places one may hear ''dano i'', ''danot ti'', or ''danach chi''. The majority of prepositions trigger the soft mutation. REFERENCES
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