We’re almost at the end of another November, so what better time to talk about this common word?
The Welsh word for ‘November’ is ‘Tachwedd’, which is the eleventh month of the Gregorian calendar. Gweiadur states that the original definition of ‘Tachwedd’ was probably ‘Tynnu tua’r diwedd’, which means the end is near, i.e. the end of the year.
Tachwedd
November
Today’s word of the day is lleuad (North Wales dialect), or lloer (South Wales dialect / literary form) which translates to ‘moon’ in English or ‘luna’ in Latin, the natural satellite that is approximately 238,000 miles away from earth.
Hiraeth is a comforting Welsh word that describes a mix of feelings or emotions. Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru translates it as:
‘grief or sadness after the lost or departed, longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, homesickness.’
One notable feature associated with Wales, in addition to its rugby team and male voice choirs, is its unpredictable climate. A day can commence with bright sunshine and warmth, only to swiftly shift into a blustery, rain-soaked tempest. It’s one of the reasons we love living here – you never know what to expect!
Today we will be focusing on the weather phenomenon that gives Wales its luscious green hills: the rain, or glaw in Welsh. It is a masculine noun that is usually uncountable, although the plural forms glawiau or glawogydd do exist.
The Welsh word for owl is tylluan and the plural is tylluanod. This word is used across Wales in all dialects.
Tylluan – Tylluanod
Owl – Owls
The word makes its earliest appearance in the Llyfr Gwyn Rhydderch (the White Book of Rhydderch), a significant 14th-century manuscript that holds a collection of Welsh legends known as the Mabinogi.
…“To go” in Welsh is best expressed with the verb mynd (literary form: myned). It is a verb-noun that originates from Middle Welsh mynet and can be traced back to the Proto-Brythonic form *moned.
mynd
to go
When you first embark on your Welsh language journey, one of the very first things you will learn how to say is the phrase “good morning“.
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There are two possible ways to say “police” in Welsh: heddlu and plismyn.
The word heddlu is made up of two parts: hedd (meaning “peace“) and llu (meaning “a large number of people“) whereas the word plismyn is the plural of plismon (policeman) and derives from the English.
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In Welsh, there are a few different ways to translate the word “please” depending on factors like your relationship to the other speaker and the formality required by the situation.
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