The Welsh word for soft or tender is meddal. The synonym esmwyth is also common, especially when discussing something that is silky or smooth to the touch, such as soft hair (gwallt esmwyth). Both words can be used to describe something that is physically soft, as well as someone’s attitude or personality.
Meddal can also be used to refer to a quiet sound, or something which has a mild smell or taste. Its antonym is caled, which similarly can refer to something that is physically hard, or to someone who is cruel and hard-hearted.
To soften is meddalu, and the noun softness is meddalwch. The other common noun form, meddalwedd, means software, as in computer software.
meddal
soft
The word meddal probably comes from the proto-Indo-European root moldos, which means soft or weak. There are similar words in the other Celtic languages, like medal in Cornish. Though there don’t seem to be any close connections, meddal might also be related to the English word melt. Meddal is used in both North and South Wales, though Southerners sometimes pronounce it slightly differently, with an elongated ‘ai’ sound in the first syllable, like so:
As discussed, many different things can be meddal: you could have a clustog feddal (soft cushion), ysbryd meddal (soft spirit), or you might prefer wyau meddal (soft-boiled eggs). It’s even used in a lot of medical contexts, such as cnodwe feddal (soft tissue) or asgwrn meddal (spongy bone).
However, there’s one important use of meddal that we haven’t discussed yet – the treiglad meddal (soft mutation).
Soft mutation
feddal
Nasal mutation
N/A
Aspirate mutation
N/A
Fittingly, the word meddal only responds to the treiglad meddal, and doesn’t have a treiglad trwynol (nasal mutation) or a treiglad llais (aspirate mutation). The treiglad meddal is the most common of the mutations, occurring in a huge variety of grammatical contexts.
Counter-intuitively, it actually gives words a thicker, louder sound by converting the initial consonant (cytsain gyntaf) either to a voiced sound from an unvoiced sound, or to a scratchy-sounding fricative from a voiced sound. Mutations may seem daunting to a new Welsh speaker, but the treiglad meddal in particular will quickly begin to feel intuitive.
After a feminine noun, meddal doesn’t take a different form, but it will mutate to feddal. So, a siwmper feddal is a soft jumper, and a tegan meddal is a soft toy.
Am glustog feddal – mae’n gyfforddus iawn.
What a soft cushion – it’s very comfortable.
Because meddal is used to mean a wide variety of different things, it also has a wide variety of synonyms. If you are talking about something that is soft to the touch, as well as meddal or esmwyth, you could also use sidanaidd (silky smooth) or even ysgafn (light) – this is the word that would be used in Welsh to refer to soft rain (glaw ysgafn) or a soft step (cam ysgafn).
Other synonyms include mwyn, which roughly translates to mild or gentle (soft words are geiriau mwyn) and tyner (tender). Someone who is soft-hearted and cowardly (meddal–galon) could also be described as tyner-galon (tender-hearted) or, in South Wales, as having a calon laith (literally: a moist heart!)
Mae’r ferch yn caru ei thegan meddal hi.
The girl loves her soft toy.
The word meddal is sometimes also used in a negative context, as with the previous example meddal-galon. Another example is the term for weak spot, modfedd feddal.
You can also refer to yourself or someone else as soft-minded or soft-brained in a lightly teasing way, as in the joking play on words Peth meddal yw meddwl –the mind is a soft thing.
It’s probably worth learning the difference between meddal and meddwl (to think, mind) as they’re not two words you’d want to mix up!
