Mis Ebrill (the month of April) is my favourite time to visit my grandparents’ fferm (farm) in Cwm Elan (the Elan Valley). This is because it’s the height of tymor ŵyna (lambing season), which usually means I get to cuddle and bottle feed a lot of ŵyn (lambs) and mynnan (goat kids).
Ebrill
April
The English April and the Welsh Ebrill sound similar because they’re both ultimately borrowings from Latin Aprilis. And their linguistic cousins persist across Europe, from the Breton Ebrel to the Italian aprile.
Aprilis itself probably comes from the Latin verb aperire (to open), referring to the opening up of plants and flowers in springtime.
Now, in Welsh, we normally say mis before any month name. Mis just means month, and this is inserted for clarification, because a lot of the names of months in Welsh have other meanings. Mis Mawrth (March), for example, becomes dydd Mawrth (Tuesday), and mis Hydref is October whereas hydref is autumn as a whole.
But in a lot of situations it’ll be clear you’re talking about the month – especially in the case of Ebrill which doesn’t have any other meaning in Welsh. So, whether you refer to mis Ebrill or just Ebrill is up to you. The former is more formal and the latter more casual, but both are fine in most situations.
If you want to refer to something that is happening in April, for example, you have your pick of ym mis Ebrill, yn Ebrill, or simply fis Ebrill. (In the latter case, where you don’t insert a word for in, mis mutates to fis.) You might also want to talk about something that’s happening…
- yn ystod Ebrill = during April
- gydol Ebrill = throughout April
- trwy fis Ebrill = through / throughout April
- cyn mis Ebrill = before April
- ar ôl mis Ebrill = after April
- Ebrill d(i)wetha(f) = last April
- Ebrill hwn = this April
- Ebrill nesa(f) = next April
- o fis Ebrill= from April
In the above examples, I’ve used a mix of mis Ebrill and Ebrill, reflecting how I’d personally say each phrase. But in every case, you could substitute the alternative option and it would be equally correct.
It’s also worth noting that the word gydol above, meaning throughout, is actually cydol, having soft-mutated. This is because it so often occurs after trwy (which causes a soft mutation) that it is now almost always written and said as gydol even when the trwy has been dropped.
Be sy’n digwydd Ebrill hwn?
What’s happening this April?
Mis Ebrill is the second mis of gwanwyn (spring) and the fourth of the blwyddyn (year) overall. In Wales, you’re not likely to escape cawodydd Ebrill (April showers), although we shouldn’t complain too much about them, because without them, we wouldn’t be blessed with so much glesni (greenery).
This is also often the month where Pasg (Easter) occurs – like this year, when we’ll be celebrating it on Ebrill yr ugeinfed (the twentieth of April).
Still, this can be a pretty tough time of year in Wales, albeit a pretty one, because the many people who work in amaeth (agriculture) have their work cut out for them, battling with constantly changing weather amidst the hard labour of ŵyna (lambing).
It’s easy enough being the granddaughter of a ffermwr (farmer), maybe not as easy being a ffermwr yourself! So it’s no wonder the Welsh have their equivalent of the expression March slays, April flays, which is Mawrth a ladd, Ebrill a fling.
Now, although Ebrill itself begins with a vowel and therefore doesn’t mutate, it’s still worth talking about mutations. You can’t escape them, sorry! This is because mis can soft mutate to fis, and mutations actually come up relatively often when we’re talking about time.
You can see that in some of the examples above, this happens after a preposition, like trwy or o. Also, if a time-related expression is used adverbially, then the first word of that expression should undergo a soft mutation.
So for example, if I want to translate, it’s happening in April, I have a few options. (The translations given below are literal – all of these phrases give the sense of it’s happening in April.)
- Mae’n digwydd ym mis Ebrill = It’s happening in April month
- Mae’n digwydd yn Ebrill = It’s happening in April
- Mae’n digwydd fis Ebrill = It’s happening April month
In the last expression, mis mutates to fis, because the expression mis Ebrill is being used adverbially to show that something is happening in the month of April.
It’s very common to simply say mae’n digwydd fis Ebrill or various equivalents as above, and it doesn’t sound at all as casual as it does to say it’s happening April in English.
Many people’s favourite thing about mis Ebrill is that it starts with Diwrnod Ffŵl Ebrill (April Fool’s Day), a chance to chwarae bili-ffŵl (play pranks), get the upper hand on your friends and family and turn them into a ffŵl / iolyn Ebrill (April Fool). And of course, the Welsh celebrate this day by leaping out of bed in the morning and riding our dragons to work! 😉
