Our Welsh word of the day today is the verb hercian. This word is heard throughout Wales, although often with different meanings. Depending on the dialect and the individual speaker, it can mean to hop, to limp, or even to speak poorly / clumsily.
hercian
to hop / to limp
So from where does this versatile word originate? Unsurprisingly, from the noun form herc, which was probably a borrowing of the English jerk. Herc is even more various in its meanings than hercian. While a hop would likely be the most common translation, it can refer to a trick played on someone, a push or a shove, a limp, or, like its English ancestor, simply a jerk.
In South Wales the most common form traditionally was hec rather than herc. To the best of my knowledge this variant has become much less common – if you use hec or know someone who does, let us know!
Herc appears in the phrase herc, cam a naid, which is how the Welsh would say a hop, a step, and a jump.
Roedd Dewi druan yn hercian ar ôl ei ddamwain.
Poor Dewi was limping after his accident.
You can see that to make a verb, herc has had the suffix –ian added to it. This is a common verbal ending in Welsh. I find that it is often, though certainly not exclusively, used to form verbs done by people – especially kinds of speech and movement.
Here are some examples, all of which are also very useful in everyday life!
- tisian = to sneeze
- mwmian = to mumble
- gwegian = to totter
- loncian = to jog
- sgrechian = to scream
- clepian = to gossip
- rhoncian = to stagger
- potsian = to potter
One really common one that doesn’t fit into this meaning pattern is hongian (to hang), which is more frequently heard colloquially than the formal crogi.
Often, verbs that commonly end with –io (this is one of the most common and recognisable Welsh verb endings) have an alternative form ending with –ian, popular in certain dialects. For example, rholian is a common variant of rholio (to roll). It’s also quite usual for verbs ending in –ian to be pronounced –an colloquially, and vice versa. Indeed, you may hear hercian itself as hercan or herco sometimes.
How do we conjugate words that end in –ian? It’s fairly simple, you just remove the –ian and add the new conjugated ending in its place.
The same pattern is helpfully applicable to the vast majority of words ending in –an. Common exceptions include cwynfan (to complain), hedfan (to fly), and datgan (to announce); these have the conjugated ending added to them without first removing the ending. That means that I announced is datganais i, not datgais i.
Mae’r plant yn chwarae gêm sy’n cynnwys llawer o hercian a neidio.
The children are playing a game involving a lot of hopping and jumping.
We see some more –ian verbs if we want to look at other ways to say hop. Hopian, which of course simply comes from the English word, is a very common one, and useful to distinguish hopping and limping.
There is also sboncian which can mean to hop or just to jump / to bounce generally, and in North-West Wales you may occasionally see neidio’n untroed (to jump one-foot) or neidio’n ungoes (to jump one-leg).
When it comes to synonyms for to limp, hercian / hercio is certainly the most common, but there is also:
- clunhercian
- helcian
- hencian
- honcian
- hwbian
- climpan
- fferlincan
- cloffi
And what about this last meaning – to speak poorly / clumsily? This is a metaphorical adaptation of hercian’s usage as to limp or to hobble. It’s like saying that someone’s speech is limping along. For example, you could say roedd Mari’n hercian wrth siarad (Mari was limping as she spoke), implying that Mari was faltering and having trouble finding her geiriau (words).
