If you speak or have ever studied French, you will surely have noticed the many lexical similarities it shares with Welsh. I can remember visiting Wales for the first time as an adult and being in disbelief at how much I could already pick out from the street signs, all thanks to my high school French.
Now, this isn’t because French had a direct influence on Welsh but because French descends primarily from Latin, which was the language of the Romans who conquered Britain in 43 AD.
The Romans ruled Britain for close to 400 years, using Latin as the official language of government and culture while allowing Common Brythonic – the ancestral Celtic language from which Welsh, Breton and Cornish are descended – to remain the language of daily life.
During this time, several hundred Latin words entered the Common Brythonic vocabulary, either as a replacement for native terms (e.g. ‘pysgod‘ <<fish>> from the Latin ‘piscātus‘ or ‘piscis‘) or to describe concepts that were previously unfamiliar to the British (e.g. ‘eglwys‘ <<church>> from the Latin ‘ecclesia‘).
Of course, not all French-sounding words in Welsh entered the lexicon via Latin during the Roman conquest. A vast number later arrived through English, which was heavily influenced by French-speaking Normans, while others come from the ancient common ancestor of all Indo-European languages, Proto-Indo-European.
The moral of the story is that Welsh is abound with French-sounding words of various origins and if you happen to be a French speaker, you can use this to your advantage when memorising new Welsh vocabulary!
The fifteen you’ll find in this article all fit the following criteria:
- they sound similar to the equivalent word in the French language;
- they were borrowed from Latin
1. Aur (gold)
Similar to the French word ‘or‘ and the Latin ‘aureus‘
2. Plwm (lead)
Similar to the French word ‘plomb‘ and the Latin ‘plumbum‘
3. Ffenestr (window)
Similar to the French word ‘fenêtre‘ and the Latin ‘fenestra‘
4. Ffos (ditch)
Similar to the French word ‘fossé‘ and the Latin ‘fossō‘
5. Llyfr (book)
Similar to the French word ‘livre‘ and the Latin ‘liber‘
6. Braich (arm)
Similar to the French word ‘bras‘ and the Latin ‘bracchium‘
7. Ffa (bean)
Similar to the French word ‘fève‘ and the Latin ‘faba‘
8. Trist (sad)
Similar to the French word ‘triste‘ and the Latin ‘trīstis‘
9. Plu (feather)
Similar to the French word ‘plume‘ and the Latin ‘plūma‘
10. Lleidr (thief)
Similar to the French word ‘larron‘ and the Latin ‘latrō‘
11. Dolur (pain)
Similar to the French word ‘douleur‘ and the Latin ‘dolor‘
12. Corff (body)
Similar to the French word ‘corps‘ and the Latin ‘corpus‘
13. Ffwrn (oven)
Similar to the French word ‘four‘ and the Latin ‘furnus‘
14. Mur (wall)
Similar to the French word ‘mur‘ and the Latin ‘mūrus‘
15. Pont (bridge)
Similar to the French word ‘pont‘ and the Latin ‘pōns‘ or ‘pōntis‘
Can you think of any other words to add to this list? If so, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section below!
Eglwys! French = Eglise, Latin = Ecclesia. 🙂