Wolves have a unique relationship with humans. On the one hand, they haunt the llên gwerin (folklore) of cultures throughout Europe, Asia and North America, the cunning villains of chwedlau (fables) like Hugan Fach Goch (Little Red Riding Hood) or the legend of the bleidd-ddyn (werewolf). But on the other, in many diwylliannau (cultures), they’re …
Recently my son has become obsessed with the iconic film Muppet Treasure Island, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Amser yn hedfan wir! (How time flies!) If you haven’t seen it, it is definitely worth watching for Tim Curry’s performance alone. The Welsh for pirate is môr-leidr, which is the combination of môr …
Not all words translate easily from one language to another, and mynnu is one of those in Cymraeg (Welsh). It usually means to insist on doing something or to persist in doing something, but can also seem more like to want or to wish. mynnu to insist Mynnu comes from the proto-Celtic *menneti, meaning to …
Chwedl is a great Welsh word meaning a legend or a fable. Since Welsh folklore is so rich in amazing chwedlau (legends, fables), I thought it would make a great word of the day for us today. Chwedl is a feminine noun, and it is pronounced like this: chwedl a legend But there are some …
Sometimes I feel as if I spend half my life chwilio for things – the other half of a pair of sanau (socks), an important dogfen (document) on my computer I somehow forgot to save, my allweddi (keys) when I’m already late leaving the house… the list goes on. If you hadn’t guessed, chwilio, our …
Plenty of sounds in Cymraeg (Welsh) can be hard to make if you didn’t grow up speaking the iaith (language). The dreaded ch and ll get a lot of attention, but actually some of the trickiest are sound combinations that we do have in English, but not at the start of the word. One of …
Our Welsh word of the day today is sâl. It usually means ill, and is the standard word for this in the North as well as being heard in the South too, but it can sometimes also mean poor or bad. For example, in parts of the North-West, to say that an event or circumstance …
Syniad means, broadly, idea. And much like the word idea, it’s complex, nuanced, and used in a wide range of scenarios. Give this article a read and hopefully it’ll give you some syniad of how to start using it! This masculine noun comes from the fairly-uncommon verb synio, which means to think or to imagine. …
One of the most annoying things for someone trying to learn a new language is when two words sound very similar. Even worse when those two words actually translate back to the same thing in your native language, but can’t be confused in your target language! An example of this for English speakers learning Welsh …
In Welsh, many ‘states of being’ are conveyed with the use of verbs, paired with wedi (after / past): think wedi marw (dead), wedi cynhyrfu (excited), or wedi blino (tired). In some cases the verbs used aren’t ones that have a commonly used single-word equivalent in English, but in Welsh they can be important and …