Welsh Word of the Day: Llun (picture)

They say a llun (picture) paints a thousand geiriau (words), and indeed this very sentiment is expressed in the Welsh idiom cyfwerth llun a llith (a picture has the same worth as a lecture). On the other hand, our one gair (word) of the day today, llun, could refer to a thousand different kinds of lluniau (pictures).

Note that the above is the pronunciation that is standard in South Wales, but llun is pronounced differently in North Wales, because of its central vowel u.

The pronunciation of u is a big difference between spoken Welsh in the North and South. This video is a good general guide to pronouncing vowels in Welsh.

And just to get ahead of another possible axis of confusion, make sure you don’t confuse llun with llyn (lake). While llun is pronounced as above, llyn sounds quite like the given name Lynn, except you replace the initial l sound with a ll. And none of these words sound like the English word line!

The etymology of llun is very much unclear, but it could have some relation to the proto-Indo-European root *lewk (bright, or to see), which would mean it’s related to the word llygad (eye) too. It is a masculine noun, and subject only to the soft mutation.

It’s a word with a multi-faceted history, once used to mean a fashion or a way of doing something – and this survives in the North-Western idiom o ryw lun (after a fashion / in some way).

Even now in literary Welsh, llun can refer to the shape of something. Colloquially this has been abandoned in favour of the English loan word siâp (shape) or of ffurf (form). Instead we use llun to describe a picture, which could be anything from a paentiad (painting) to a ffotograff (photograph).

Welsh speakers use llun very readily to describe different sub-types of llun – for example, when gesturing at a room full of painted celf (art), I would say lluniau before paentiadau (paintings). And most people say tynnu llun (to take a photo, literally to pull a picture) rather than tynnu ffoto, although as in English both are possible and not strange.

The word darlun is a useful variant of llun. Technically it’s just a synonym, but it’s used in particular to mean an illustration. You may also hear the verb darlunio (to illustrate).

So can llun become a verb too? Of course it can! Llunio is a very versatile word; it can be used to mean to draw, similarly to darlunio, although it’s also really common to use tynnu llun for this too. Another rhyming option is arlunio.

But it can also be used in a sense that captures the older, archaic meaning of llun – i.e. llunio can mean to form, to construct, or to design something. This is also reflected in the interesting compliment lluniaidd, which means well-formed, shapely, or beautiful, and its antonym afluniaidd. These can be used of pobl (people), celf, and much else in between.

One last remnant of the old usage that persists into modern day speech is in idiom. The phrase pob lliw a llun (every colour and shape) is like the English of all shapes and colours. And one that’s slightly more unique is na lliw na llun o rywbeth (not the colour nor the shape of something), which refers to when you haven’t seen any trace of something.

Historically, English speakers referred to watching a ffilm (film) as going to the pictures. This was kind of true in Welsh too – you could go to see y llun mawr (the big picture / the big screen), y lluniau llafar (the speaking pictures / the talkies), or even y darluniau byw (the living illustrations / the moving pictures).

But just as in English this is now archaic. You’ll be best understood simply saying you’re off to the sinema (cinema).

Now when it comes to verbs, it’s not just all about tynnu llun. You might also want to describe peintio llun (painting a picture), disgrifio llun (describing a picture), creu llun (creating, making or drawing a picture), copïo llun (copying or reproducing a picture), gweld llun (seeing a picture), or edrych ar lun (looking at a picture).

That’s before we even get into all the compound nouns that are built on llun. Like darlun, but that’s just the beginning!

• cerf (carved) + llun = cerflun (statue)
• mur (wall, archaic) + llun murlun (mural)
• cyn (before) + llun = cynllun (plan)
• sgrîn (screen) + llun = sgrinlun (screenshot)
• hun (self) + llun = hunlun (selfie)
• cryno (concise) + llun = cryno-lun (thumbnail)
• llin (line) + llun = llinlun (line drawing)
• gradd (degree)+ llun + -iad (noun-forming suffix) = graddluniad (scale drawing)
• byw (to live) + llun + -iad = bywluniad (life drawing)

Can you think of any I’ve missed? Let us know in the comments below!

There’s one more usage of llun that we mustn’t forget to cover. Because how can we start the week without knowing the word for dydd Llun (Monday)?!

Dydd Llun is a calque from Latin, borrowing the meaning construction day + moon, which in Latin is dies Lunae. English performed the same trick, as did many other European languages. It’s not even impossible that the word llun in general could have come from the Latin luna (moon), but this could also just be a coincidence.

Remember that Welsh is a bit different to English in that when we are talking about Monday night specifically, we don’t just add nos (night) on, we actually replace the dydd in the original phrase. So Monday night is nos Llun, and dydd Llun can mean Monday generally or specifically Monday daytime.

If you are talking about a more specific time of day like morning or afternoon, it’s up to you. You can add it on, making a phrase such as prynhawn dydd Llun (Monday afternoon), or you can keep it short and go for something bore Llun (Monday morning). Both are correct.

Sometimes it’s difficult when speaking Welsh to differentiate between the vocabulary used for saying that something will happen on a specific Monday as opposed to on Mondays in general.

That’s because to do either of these things, you follow something up with ar ddydd Llun (on Monday). There’s not really a phrase like on a Monday or on Mondays as there is in English to talk about a recurring or general commitment, although bob dydd Llun (every Monday) is becoming increasingly common.

Often the ar is dropped, although you should still technically retain the soft mutation it causes to dydd. This can be a good indication of what someone means – many speakers only drop the ar when they are talking about a specific Monday.

They say that llafar pob llun (every picture speaks), meaning that any llun, whether it was made with a brwsh paent (paintbrush) or a camera (camera), is capable of telling a stori (story). At We Learn Welsh we believe that every gair tells a stori too, so I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the stori of llun!