One thing many learners struggle with in Welsh is the variation in vocabulary between different regions of the country. Today’s word of the day is definitely guilty of this – we’re talking about cwympo (to fall), which becomes disgyn (to fall) in most of North Wales.
cwympo
to fall
Cwympo comes directly from the noun form, which is cwymp (a fall). You can also translate a fall as cwympiad.
Here’s how it mutates:
Soft mutation
gwympo
Nasal mutation
nghwympo
Aspirate mutation
chwympo
So cwympo is the default in the South, and disgyn in the North (although Southerners do use disgyn, too, just more specifically to mean descend). But the variation doesn’t stop there! Above, I’ve given the most standard pronunciation of cwympo across Wales. However, you may also hear either of the following:
Plus, there’s even one more common Welsh word which means to fall. This is syrthio, and in my experience it’s used all over the country. Less universal alternatives are twmlo, a colloquial South Wales borrowing of the English tumble, and cwyddo, which is a bit more old-fashioned and mostly turns up in compound words.
Another really useful related word, though not a synonym, is gollwng. This means to let go of or to let fall.
Falling often means falling off something and falling to something else. So, to use cwympo in conversation, you’ll need to get to grips with not just the word itself but with the following phrases:
- cwympo i = to fall to
- cwympo i lawr / cwympo lawr = to fall down
- cwympo drosodd = to fall over
- cwympo o flaen = to fall to
- cwympo o = to fall from
- cwympo oddi ar = to fall off / to fall from
- cwympo allan / cwympo maes = to fall out
- cwympo ar = to fall on
For example, to fall on your feet would be cwympo ar eich traed.
Mae’r ddwy ferch wedi cwympo allan, yn anffodus.
The two girls have fallen out, unfortunately.
It’s also easy to forget that less literal meanings don’t always translate directly between languages. In English, we use to fall or falling in a lot of idiomatic ways. For the most part, cwympo isn’t appropriate for these.
You wouldn’t say night fell but literally night came, which is daeth y nos. Things like gwallt (hair) or deunydd (fabric) doesn’t cwympo in Welsh – they would be better described as hongian (hanging). However, some people do use disgyn for this kind of thing.
A good rule of thumb is that many non-literal meanings can be translated using the word syrthio where cwympo or disgyn would be less common. So you would generally say syrthio i gysgu (fall asleep) or syrthio mewn cariad (fall in love), although cwympo mewn cariad isn’t impossible. Unfortunately, it does depend on what part of the country you’re in.
Wnes i frifo fy mhen-glin ar ôl cwympo i lawr y grisiau.
I hurt my knee after falling down the stairs.
There are definitely some idiomatic usages of cwympo though. For example, cwympo ar ei fai (to fall on his blame) is a common expression in the South. It means to admit fault. You could change it to cwympo ar fy mai (to fall on my blame) or cwympo ar dy fai (to fall on your blame) depending on who you’re talking about.
Another example is cwympo oddi wrth ras, which is a literal translation of to fall from grace. And nothing is universal – you may find that the Welsh speakers you interact with use cwympo in any number of ways I haven’t described here!
