Are you the kind of person who screams and jumps on a chair at the sight of a mouse? Or do you think they’re actually pretty cute?
Either way, the Welsh word for this tiny rodent is the feminine noun llygoden. The plural, mice, is llygod, and this is our word of the day today. I’m not referring to a computer mouse in this article, although most people will use the same word for that too.
llygod
mice
llygoden
mouse
The singular, llygoden, can be colloquially pronounced like this in North Wales:
One thing you might notice about this plural word is that it’s actually shorter than the singular form. This is because it’s the original – llygod and llygoden are members of a unique second noun-number system in Welsh where the plural form of the word, called a collective in this case, is the default.
So llygod is the older of the two words. It comes from the proto-Brittonic *llugod. This root is also pronounced llyg, which usually means shrew but is sometimes interchangeable with llygoden (mouse).
Both llygod and llygoden are only affected by the soft mutation. They undergo a limited soft mutation, because the first letter is ll, so they don’t mutate in all the contexts where soft mutations normally occur.
Soft mutation
lygod
Nasal mutation
N/A
Aspirate mutation
N/A
It’s often the case in Welsh that the names of nouns are decided in quite an intuitive, descriptive way, sometimes relying on compound words where in English we’d have one specific word for each thing. A famous example of this is y clefyd melys (diabetes, literally the sugar disease). But it’s particularly common with the names of animals and plants.
The result of this is that there are many different kinds of cnofilod (rodents) which have their own names in English but are considered kinds of llygod in Welsh. Voles, for example, can be called llygod y gwair (grass mice), llygod pengrwn (round-head mice) or just llygod. Water voles are llygod dŵr.
We already talked about llygon (shrews) – these are called chwistlod in some parts of Wales but llygod daear (earth mice) and llygod cochion (red mice) are also common.
What might surprise learners most is that there’s no separate word for rats! They are generally called llygod mawr (big mice) or llygod Ffrengig (French mice). An amusing Southern alternative which has sadly become uncommon is llygod ffyrnig (fierce mice). This may be a corruption of llygod Frengig, or could also have evolved separately.
Because of this, mice have sometimes been called llygod bach (little mice) to differentiate them from rats.
Dw i’n meddwl bod llygod wedi mynd i mewn i’r pantri.
I think some mice have gotten into the pantry.
Llygod are characterised by their rounded clustiau (ears), small size, and long cynffon (tail). They’re very social animals which experience a range of teimladau (emotions) and communicate with one another in a complex, expressive way. They’re also known for their sharp dannedd (teeth), with which they can cnoi (gnaw) through pren (wood), plastig (plastic), ceblau (cables), and even alwminiwm (aluminium).
They generally prefer to eat hadau (seeds), dail (leaves) and pryfed (insects), but they’re not picky. Stereotypically, they’re fond of caws (cheese), but in reality they generally prefer sweet foods. The UK is home to six different kinds:
- llygod y tŷ = house mice
- llygod y maes = field mice / wood mice
- llygod y cynhaeaf / llygod yr ŷd = harvest mice
- llygod gwarfelyn = yellow–necked mice
- pathewod = dormice
- pathewod tew = edible dormice
Pathewod tew are a non-native species in the UK, so they’re rare to spot.
Because they’re so small and vulnerable to rheibwyr (predators), they often seek shelter in people’s homes or other adeiladau (buildings). This can cause damage to structures and even spread clefydau (diseases), which is why they are often not that popular with humans!
This is one reason that a lot of people keep cathod (cats), especially ffermwyr (farmers). As well as being good company, they can also help with llygota (mouse-catching). Hence the proverb gwyliwch gyngor y gath i’r llygoden (beware of the cat’s advice to a mouse).
Mae gen i ddau lygoden frown ac un mochyn cwta.
I have two brown mice and one guinea pig.
Despite this, humans have also used llygod for various purposes. Llygod gwynion (white mice) are bred for use in labordai (laboratories) as subjects of scientific arbrofi (experimentation) – something which many people consider creulon (cruel).
Llygod were historically quite common for humans to bwyta (eat) in many societies, especially as meddyginiaeth (medicine). In Ancient Egypt, they were prescribed to women who had sick babanod (babies), and in 1800s England, they were given to plant (children) who were gwylchu’r gwely (wetting the bed).
They are still commonly eaten in some parts of the world, such as Malawi and Zambia in Southern Africa, and in regions of Vietnam. But in most countries today, they’re not exactly seen as a delicacy – which is why in Welsh the idiom dal llygoden a’i bwyta (to catch a mouse and eat it) refers to being so poor one would need to eat literally anything they could.
These days, it’s more common for them to be sold as bwyd (food) for anifeiliaid anwes (pets) such as nadroedd and adar rheibus (birds of prey). More happily for llygod, they’re also often kept as anifeiliaid anwes themselves.
