Our Welsh word of the word today is cyfarfod, which is both a verb and a noun. As a verb, it means to meet, and as a noun, it means a meeting – as in the kind that you have yn y gwaith (at work). The plural form of the noun is cyfarfodydd.
cyfarfod
to meet / a meeting
It is sometime shortened quite dramatically to cwarfod, especially in colloquial Northern Welsh. Then it would be pronounced like this:
This is the same abbreviation pattern that we see in sgwarnog, the colloquial form of ysgyfarnog (a hare), and sgwennu, the colloquial form of ysgrifennu (to write).
Cyfarfod first appeared in Welsh with the meaning a battle, and is spelt in older texts variously as kyuaruot, gyuaruot, and kyfaruot. It’s likely that the first syllable, referring to joining and togetherness, is the same element that we see in words like cyfun (united) and cyfamod (covenant). The latter part could be related to arf (a weapon) and / or to bod (to be).
This etymology is definitely quite a surprising one. However, it’s not used in the modern language to talk about rhyfel (war) any more, so if you invite someone to a cyfarfod, you don’t need to worry that they’re going to show up with a cleddyf (sword)!
Here is how cyfarfod mutates:
Soft mutation
gyfarfod
Nasal mutation
nghyfarfod
Aspirate mutation
chyfarfod
As a noun, it is masculine. This means it does not mutate after y (the), and adjectives that describe it don’t mutate either.
Now, the noun cyfarfod should only be used to refer to cyfarfodydd ffurfiol (formal meetings), like in the course of a swydd (job), or gwleidyddiaeth (politics). In order to refer to a chance meeting of two people, you would say cyfarfyddiad.
There is a similar distinction in the use of the verb, but only in South Wales. In South Walian speech, it is normal to say cwrdd instead of cyfarfod for meeting someone informally. For example, when describing catching up with a ffrind (friend) or going on a dêt (date), using cyfarfod as a verb would sound quite formal.
In North Walian speech, this is not the case. Cyfarfod is generally the preferred choice regardless of context – although there is also the fun, and very colloquial, taro ar. Literally taro ar means to hit on, but it doesn’t mean what it does in English!
Ble mae’r man cyfarfod?
Where’s the meeting place?
The other thing to remember about cyfarfod as a verb is that it is often used with the preposition â (with). For example, to translate to meet Catrin, you could say cyfarfod â Catrin or cyfarfod Catrin.
Either is fine – different people gravitate towards different choices. But saying the full cyfarfod â certainly sounds less formal than saying to meet with Catrin would in modern English. And in my experience, it is uncommon to use cwrdd without the â. Sometimes in transcriptions of colloquial speech it’s even written as one word – cwrdda!
Lastly, since â is technically just another way of saying with, you may sometimes hear it replaced with gyda in the South, or efo in the North, in these expressions.
Dw i ‘di cwarfod ag Elin o’r blaen, ond dwi’m yn cofio pryd.
I’ve met Elin before, but I don’t remember when.
Cyfarfod as a verb, or the equivalent cwrdd in the South, is used pretty often. In fact, one of the first things it’s useful to learn in a new language is how to tell someone mae’n dda gen i gyfarfod â chi / da gen i gyfarfod â ti (it’s nice to meet you).
But the noun form is also handy, especially yn y gwaith. Specifically, you might need to cynnal (hold), cadeirio (chair), or cofnodi (minute):
- cyfarfod cyhoeddus = a public meeting
- cyfarfod preifat / cyfarfod anghyhoedd = a private meeting
- cyfarfod pell = a remote meeting
- cyfarfod bord gron = a roundtable meeting
- cyfarfod strategaeth = a strategy meeting
- cyfarfod cyffredinol = a general meeting
When setting up for a cyfarfod as part of your swydd, you also need to circulate the relevant dogfennau (documents), in particular a rhaglen / agenda (agenda) so that everyone knows what to expect. I’ve been in way too many cyfarfodydd that dragged on longer than they needed to because no-one knew what we were actually supposed to be talking about!
Es i i’r cyfarfod cyhoeddus ar ysgolion y sir.
I went to the public meeting on the county’s schools.
Let’s finish with an idiom. In English, we sometimes use the expression only in a month of Sundays or once in a blue moon to express that something doesn’t happen very often. In Welsh, one way of saying this is yng nghyfarfod dau Sul (in the meeting of two Sundays).
This phrase sounds quite formal, but it is still in use, especially amongst older native speakers. You’ll certainly hear it in the wild more often than yng nghyfarfod dau Sul 😉
