#treiglad

Cofia - dw i'n dysgu Cymraeg, felly plîs bod yn neis! Ond os wnes i camgymeriad, plîs sylwa!

S'mae, a sut dach chi? Croeso nol i fy mlog.

Hello and welcome back! Notice in the above sentence that I call it fy (my) mlog (blog)? Remember the treigladau chart we've been talking about? No? Go study it. Yes? Great! Then you remember that B changes to M when it undergoes a nasal mutation. What can you deduce from this? That applicable words nasally mutate after the word fy? By jove you've got it! That is exactly what happens.

Just to clarify, 'fy' means my. So have a go yourself. Try:

My dog (ci)

My city (dinas)

My station (gorsaf)

If the consonant cannot mutate nasally, it undergoes no change. For example:

My ship = Fy llong

No mutation has occurred.

Another instance where you should use the nasal mutation is when negating. This is important so take your time with it.

The English prefix 'un-' that you can put in front of adjectives to make them the opposite of what they mean such as:

Un- + Happy = Unhappy

In Welsh (Yng Nghymraeg) the translation of un- is 'an-'. Because happy in Welsh is hapus, which begins with a consonant that does not mutate nasally (or at all actually), unhappy is simply 'anhapus'.

However, when the word that an- becomes a part of begins with a nasally mutatable consonant, it does exactly that: nasally mutates. So let's take 'fair' (teg).

An + teg - Annheg (so the t becomes nh).

Iawn, this is going to get a little bit complicated now. You can also put 'an-' in front of some verbs in Welsh, which causes them to become their opposites. The best example I can think of right now is the verb 'to remember', which is 'cofio'.

As we know from the post below, C -> Ngh in the nasal mutation.

When we add 'an-' to cofio, the nasal mutation does take place and cofio becomes nghofio; an- is still added but it loses its 'n'. The sole reason for this is because the words just merge. Why have 2 Ns and be cluttered when you can have one? (This rule only applies to ng sounds, which is why annheg keeps both of its Ns) So:

An + Cofio = Anghofio, which means the opposite of remember... to forget!

Read through the above as much as you want and as long as it takes to go in. You will need to remember the nasal mutation as best as you can for the negation rule.

In the next post I can't guarantee we'll talk about y treigladau, but there is a lot more to learn. Don't worry though, you're well on your way and if you remember the table, you're already half way there.

THE SOFT MUTATION:

I can't very well go on and on about how important the soft mutation is compared to the others without writing about when to use it. So to back up what I said we'll start off easy!

First and foremost, the soft mutation occurs after:

The word 'o' (from/of) - So, let's think! Say 'from Cymru'! If you said 'o Gymru', you were right! Well done. If not, scold yourself!

The word 'i' (to/for) - If you've been to Wales since 1993, you'll have seen (or maybe missed) a sign saying 'CROESO I GYMRU' (Welcome to Wales). You may think it's a bit extreme to go as far as changing your country's name in order to adhere to a grammar rule, and thinking that is completely natural, but if anything it highlights just how important the soft mutation (and treigladau at large) are to the Welsh language. Even Wales isn't safe!

I guess if you're this far you know how to say 'I'm from' (if not it's 'dw i'n dod o') so try saying you're from places that will require a soft mutation (i.e. those beginning with consonants that will mutate!)

You should try saying 'Welcome to' (Croeso i) a place too. It follows exactly the same rule as dw i'n dod o.

(Photo author: Stephen McKay (2008) source: bit.ly/T7qrjV)

THE NASAL MUTATION:

I have no intention of telling you the complete ins and outs of all the mutations. Not for a while anyway but if you want to know them most of them now, bit.ly/flR1ye will tell you a good deal of what you need to know. So let's start small. If you want to say you're in a town or a city you use the word 'yn' (in) and if the letter that follows yn is liable to mutate nasally, then it will.

To say 'I'm in Aberystwyth', you'd say 'Dw i yn Aberystwyth'. Easy peasy. It's when towns' names begin with consonants that things get a little bit complicated. That's because not only does the first consonant of the town name change, but the word yn changes too. The good news is that it changes to the same basic sound as the consonant changes to! I think the best way to explain it is to show you. (Remember to keep referring back to the table in the post below).

Yn (in) + Caerdydd (Cardiff) -> Yng Nghaerdydd

Yn + Pwllheli -> Ym Mwllheli

Yn + Talybont -> Yn Nhalybont

Yn + Bangor -> Ym Mangor

Yn + Dolgellau -> Yn Nolgellau

Yn + Golan -> Yng Ngolan

Yn + Macnynlleth -> Ym Machynlleth

See what I mean? It really is easy once you have the hang of it, so don't give up, no matter how daunting it looks. If you want to say you're 'yn' anywhere that isn't subject to a nasal mutation (just as in Aberystwyth above), it is as simple as saying you're there, without yn changing at all.

Did you notice above that Machynlleth got a mention even though M doesn't nasally mutate? That's because you can't get much more nasal than the letter M, so if it did mutate, it would only mutate to itself. To balance the equation, the yn has to change to ym.

Please don't be daunted by the word yn changing. It honestly is the only time treigladau affect anything other than the initial consonant of a word! That's the hard part over.

(Note, this sign probably doesn't exist... or the City council enforces it with an iron fist. Can't remember which).

THE ASPIRATE MUTATION:

This one is easy. It's so easy, I could probably sum it up in a sentence. However, wordsmith as I am, I couldn't possibly do it morally and let good words go unused and homeless.

First thing to remember, as you'll see on the treigladau chart in the post below, there are only three letters (C, P & T) that undergo the treiglad llaes and all that happens to them is they get an h added to them.

C -> Ch

P -> Ph

T -> Th

For now, as I've said we're not doing the complete list of instances when you'd use the mutations, we'll stick to this simple rule:

Use the aspirate mutation after a (and) and after â (with).

(Yes, there are two words for and, the other being ac, but that's only used before a vowel, so you couldn't mutate the following letter anyway, so the aspirate mutation only happens after the 'a' in terms of following and). For example:

Swansea (Abertawe) and Cardiff (Caerdydd) -> Abertawe a Chaerdydd

Bread (Bara) with cheese (caws) - > Bara â chaws.

Couldn't be easier could it?