What’s your favourite diwrnod yr wythnos (day of the week)? At the moment, I’ve been really enjoying dydd Mercher (Wednesday), since I get to work from home, but when I was a child, I hated it! It was when my primary school had a trip to the pwll nofio (swimming pool), and although I did love nofio, like most kids I hated the stafell newid (changing room)!
Mercher
Wednesday
Mercher was borrowed into proto-Brittonic from Latin Mercurius, where it comes from the name of the god of speed. In Old Welsh, it existed as Merchyr, and in the North, it’s sometimes pronounced Merchar.
Y blaned Mercher (the planet Mercury) shares this name and etymology, although the metal is just called mercwri or arian byw (living silver). Mercher also appears in the names for important Wednesdays throughout the year, like Mercher y Lludw (Ash Wednesday).
It can mutate like this:
Soft mutation
Fercher
Nasal mutation
N/A
Aspirate mutation
N/A
Although technically Mercher is a masculine noun in its own right, it most often appears in the constructions dydd Mercher (Wednesday) or nos Fercher (Wednesday night).
You might notice that we don’t say nos dydd Mercher. This is because in Welsh, dydd means day as in daytime rather than day as in 24 hours. For the latter meaning, we use the other word diwrnod. A good way to understand days of the week in Welsh is to imagine that Mercher basically translates to Wednes, and we include another word to specify whether it’s Wednesday or Wednesnight!
For more specific times of the day, things will vary regionally. So you might hear either bore dydd Mercher or just bore Mercher to mean Wednesday morning, and either of these are fine.
Mae’n gas gen i ddydd Mercher.
I hate Wednesdays.
Here are all saith (seven) days of the week in Welsh:
- dydd Llun = Monday
- dydd Mawrth = Tuesday
- dydd Mercher = Wednesday
- dydd Iau = Thursday
- dydd Gwener = Friday
- dydd Sadwrn = Saturday
- dydd Sul = Sunday
This makes dydd Mercher the trydydd (third) day of the week, or the pedwerydd (fourth) if you consider the wythnos to start on dydd Sul.
Although they may look different to their less Celtic equivalents, all of these words actually come from Latin roots referring to gods and planets, just like in English and French.
Dwi’n bwriadu mynd adre ddydd Mercher.
I mean to go home on Wednesday.
The most important thing to be able to say about dydd Mercher is what you do ar ddydd Mercher (on Wednesday).
As you can see, here the word ar (on) has caused a soft mutation. Even when the ar is dropped, as it often is, the mutation should be retained. Not everyone does this, but the technically correct thing is to say ddydd Mercher when you’re talking about something that is happening on Wednesday.
This phrase is used to talk about what you might doing on a specific Wednesday, or on Wednesdays generally – we don’t often use the plural dyddiau Mercher (Wednesdays) in Welsh. So it can be a bit confusing and you may need to rely on context to know what someone is saying.
One good general rule, albeit far from universal, is that many speakers use the form omitting the ar to show that they’re talking about a specific day. Another way to be clearer is to use the expression bob dydd Mercher (every Wednesday).
Beth wyt ti’n ‘neud ddydd Mercher? (What are you doing this Wednesday?) Let us know in the comments below!
