Ever since I can remember, fy hoff liw (my favourite colour) has been melyn (yellow). My earliest memory is of my childhood bedroom, which had yellow wallpaper decorated with blue and red teddies.
melyn
yellow
Melyn is only susceptible to the soft mutation:
Soft mutation
felyn
Nasal mutation
N/A
Aspirate mutation
N/A
Melyn comes from the same Proto-Celtic root as mêl, the Welsh word for honey. Melyn is an unusual adjective in that it agrees with the gender of the noun it describes. Melyn is technically the masculine version of the word, although this version is treated as the default. The feminine (and less commonly seen) version of melyn is melen. However, you will almost always see it spelt felen due to mutation rules. For instance:
- cenhinen Bedr felen = a yellow daffodil
- blodyn melyn = a yellow flower
Only a few other Welsh adjectives are commonly changed according to the gender of the noun they describe, although in more old-fashioned or formal texts you may find more. Here are some examples, with the masculine versions first:
- gwyn, gwen = white
- gwyrdd, gwerdd = green
- bychan, bechan = little
- cryf, cref = strong
- byr, ber = short
- trwm, trom = heavy
- tlws, tlos = pretty
- crwn, cron = round
You may have noticed that there is a tendency to change y to e and w to o. This pattern also shows up in Welsh names; Carwyn is a male name, whereas Carwen is a female name.
Melyn does not always mean yellow. In Welsh, we also use the word melyn to describe blond hair – we say that blond people have yellow hair, gwallt melyn. As a result, Welsh has its own delightful rhyming name for Goldilocks: Elen Benfelen (lit. Elen Yellow-head). Also, when describing the colour of a horse’s fur, melyn means tawny (light brown or orange-brown). So in Welsh a tawny horse is ceffyl melyn/march melyn.
There is a verse about ebol melyn (a tawny foal) in a Welsh hwiangerdd (nursery rhyme) called Cân y Melinydd (The Miller’s Song). Early in my childhood, I remember reading the lyrics of this song in my llyfr hwiangerddi (book of nursery rhymes) and being fascinated by the illustration of the horse. Let’s take a look at the words I learned so long ago:
Mae gen i ebol melyn
yn codi’n bedair oed,
 phedair pedol arian
o dan ei bedwar troed.
I have a tawny foal
coming up to four years old,
With four silver horseshoes
under his four feet.
You may notice that the title of this song contains the word melinydd which sounds a bit like melyn. This is just a coincidence – don’t get melyn mixed up with melin, meaning mill! Melyn and melin are cyfunseiniau (homophones); they are pronounced the same but have different meanings. To help me remember the difference, I like to think of the Welsh band Melin Melyn (Yellow Mill in English).
Dwi wrth fy modd â dy ffrog melyn!
I love your yellow dress!
As a little girl, I remember learning my colours (lliwiau) from the children’s show Tecwyn y Tractor (Tecwyn the Tractor). The theme song has some useful vocabulary (as well as being surprisingly catchy) so let’s take a look at it!
Melyn yw’r cywion bach pluog i gyd,
Du ydy’r brain sydd yn bwyta’r ŷd,
Gwyn ydy’r glaswydd sy’n uchel ei gloch,
Ond Tecwyn yw’r tractor bach coch!
Yellow are the all the little feathery chicks,
Black are the crows that eat the corn,
White is the gosling that is loud,
But Tecwyn is the little red tractor!
The third line is particularly useful, since it contains the idiom uchel ei gloch (lit. loud of her bell/has a loud bell) which is a way of calling a person or animal loud. If you are talking about a female animal/person, say uchel ei chloch.
The word melyn appears in a few more interesting places in Welsh:
- cyw melyn olaf = the youngest child of the family (lit. last yellow chick)
- lleuad y march melyn = harvest moon (lit. moon of the tawny horse)
- triog melyn = golden syrup
- bras melyn/pen melyn = yellowhammer/yellow bunting
- melyngoch = an old word for the colour orange (lit. yellow-red)
I hope I’ve convinced you to like my favourite colour a bit more! Beth yw dy hoff liw di? What’s your favourite colour?
