Nia is an aspiring writer from Powys, Wales. She attended Welsh-medium primary and secondary school, and is passionate about preserving the beautiful Welsh language and culture. She speaks some French, and is currently learning Arabic.
Some words in Welsh have existed in the language since it developed from proto-Brittonic. Some are recognisable borrowings, recent or centuries-old, from English, Latin, or even further afield. But there’s one kind of Welsh word that feels like neither native or loan – words that were technically borrowed, but no longer exist in the original …
Today’s Welsh word of the day is chwantu (to desire, want, long for, or lust for), a word which may be hard to pronounce, but which shouldn’t be hard to use. chwantu to desire Chwantu – and the synonymous alternative chwantio – are verbal forms of chwant, a noun meaning a desire, a lust or …
Inspired by the cyri (curry) that I’m very excited to eat later, our Welsh word of the day today is swper (supper). This is a noun with the plural swperau (suppers). It’s occasionally spelt and pronounced swpar. swper supper swperau suppers Swper was borrowed from Middle English a very long time ago; there are records …
One of the best things about being bilingual is being able to slip between ieithoedd (languages) to best convey whatever you’re feeling or saying in the moment. There are some words and phrases I pretty much always say in English, no matter who I’m talking to, and some that I always say in Welsh. A …
Now, I have to admit that the reason I’ve chosen today’s Welsh word of the day is very shallow – I just think it looks and sounds fun! The word in question is onglog, meaning angular. onglog angular As you can hear from the pronunciation clip above, the central ng sound is gentle like in …
Today’s Welsh word of the day is the verb credu (to believe). You may not immediately find credu an easy word to cofio (remember), because it’s quite different from its English translation. But it’ll instantly become a lot easier when you realise that it comes from the exact same root as the similar English nouns …
Today’s Welsh word of the day is a bit of a quirky one, and one you may not even have come across before! It’s deiliant, and it means foliage, or sometimes more specifically newly sprouted leaves. deiliant foliage There is no plural of deiliant. This is for two reasons. Firstly, it originally comes from the …
We recently posted an article going into depth on six of Welsh’s most common prepositions. These six are part of a larger set of prepositions often grouped together because they are simple, frequently used, and all cause a soft mutation to the next word. In this post, we’ll explore the other six of that set. …
Understanding how to use prepositions can be easily one of the trickiest parts of learning a new language. They just don’t map consistently from one language to another. There are several different words in Welsh that mean for, for example, depending on the circumstance. Similarly, the Welsh word am could be translated as various different …
I’ve nattered on here plenty of times about how Cymru (Wales) is gwlad y gân (the land of song), but only because it’s true! Today, I thought we’d discuss a very specific kind of cân (song), that being a child’s hwiangerdd (lullaby). Hwiangerdd is a feminine noun with the plural form hwiangerddi (lullabies). hwiangerdd lullaby …
