English words that come from the Welsh language
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
- Lots of Welsh words are influenced by the English language but we’re told that very few English words come from Welsh. Well, that’s not necessarily true, as in today’s video we’re looking at an article from Wales online that has 12 English words that they say are influenced by the Welsh language and I’m going to teach you how to say the Welsh words as well. So you’ll be able to say 12 random Welsh words including the one Welsh word I’ve never used in conversation. If you want to know what that word is, you need to watch this video 😀
---------------------------------------------
If you would like to support the Learn Welsh Podcast then why not have a look at our Patreon page, where there are some exclusive learning materials to help you become a fluent Welsh speaker. / learnwelsh
---------------------------------------------
Find the Learn Welsh Podcast on: Instagram - / learnwelshpodcast
Twitter - / lwpodcast
Facebook - / learnwelshpodcast
I have often thought that the short form of "Dad" for "father" must be from Welsh. "Dad" sounds nothing like "father" in English, but in Welsh "Dad" (Tad,Thad also,) literally means "Father". Also "Mam", which is used as a short form for "Mother" in North of England and becomes "Mum" further south, sounds nothing like "Mother", but in welsh, "Mother" is again, literally "Mam", and finally "Nan" is often used in the UK as a short form for "Grandmother" - Again it sounds nothing like the original word, but in Welsh, "Grandmother" literally is "Nain" (pronounced like "nine"), which is not a million miles away from "Nan"! What do you think?
I’ve often wondered about the words Mam and Dad and whether their use around the UK and not just Wales, is an influence from the Welsh language. It’s possible Mam and Dad come from a Proto Brythonic language which is why they are used in so many parts of the UK. I’ve never thought about the word Nan, because I’ve always used the terms Mamgu and Gran for my grandmother, but you’ve got me thinking now. The similarities between Nain and Nan are striking.
@@LearnWelshPodcast I've read that mam and Dad actually come from the sounds that babies first start to make - Mama and Dada. Which is why a lot of languages have very similar sounding words for mother/father. Not sure how true it is though!
I am convinced that 'dad' is taking directly from the Welsh: the words in the two main European language groups are completely different - 'pater'(Latin), 'padre' (Spanish and Italian), 'pere' (French), along with the familiar 'papa' and variations in Romance languages; 'Vater' (German), 'Fader' (Swedish), 'Far' (Danish and Norwegian), 'Vader' (Dutch) and 'Father' of course in the Germanic group.
The only similar translation I've come across is the word 'taţa' in Rumanian, which is a Romance language but unlikely to have influenced English.
Mum is a different matter, that sound is so common amongst so many languages in similar forms, but I love 'mam'.
@@LearnWelshPodcast Mam and mum are from the Latin, hence the prevalence in various forms, across Europe. They have the same root as mammary. I'm fairly sure that Dad & Tad are British, as are Nain and Taid.
OTOH Tad (and dad) may come from the Latin too, with a change of consonants over time similar to ken/pen (Scottish & Welsh) or ceathair/pedwar/quattuor (Irish, Welsh & Latin) or pater/vater/father (Latin, German & English), but that's just my very tenuous conjecture.
@@jungatheart6359 familiar form of dad in Polish is Tatush. Ush is just an ending to make words sound sweet, so that leaves tat, proper formal word for father is ojciec so very different.
Wales is the best. 🏴
Cant y cant!
@@FunTime-jw5dz carrot hundred
@Bruno Beckett Scam.
Ireland is the best, but Wales is great, just needs a Prince who is qualified.
@@johnoneal1234 Oh well I’m guessing you’re from Ireland then.
In parts of Cumbria some of the hill farmers still count the sheep in Welsh
Really? That's amazing!
My friend from Cumbria says that each village has numbers that are based on Cumbrian, a P-Type Celtic language derived from the pre-Roman Brythoni Language spoken through this Island. She was most familiar with the first six numbers from her village, undra, dudra, tair, pedar, pum, chwe.
@@TheBrowncoatcat very interesting so the old rheged still lingers on
8:30 The English word used to be "nadder" or "naddre", which are much closer to "neidr". Over time, "a nadder" morphed into "an adder", leaving "adder" as the modern noun. A similar process seems to have happend with "orange"; the original Spanish "naranja" became "a norange", which later morphed to "an orange".
In German it is 'Natter'. (Posted a comment before seeing yours mentioning how 'neidr' sounds a lot like 'Natter'. Seems I was on to something after all! 😀)
Also an uncle, which used to be a nuncle. Seems to be a pretty common process in English.
Orange and Aubergine are originally Dravidian
and 'apron' from the medieval French 'naperon'
a napple became an apple
Many of these come from the Brythonic language which became Welsh and Cornish. Thus, many of these could equally be considered to originate from Cornish.
Or Cumbric for that matter if they pre-date Chaucer.
.....or from Breton in Northern France
@@tombowen6430 Breton came from Welsh.
Definitely the origins of some go way back. For example, the Irish word for river is Abha, pronounced ava or awa. I would guess both the Welsh and Irish words came from a common ancestor.
There are a large number of Irish words which are very close to their Welsh equivalents: Mór, Mawr; Beag, Bach; Cathair, Caer for example.
We were all Briton first and spoke Celtic (Welsh) - The word Welsh is a saxon word 'Wealas' . We were all Briton .
Thanks for this video. I’ve noticed over the years how many English words and general placenames in the UK have their roots in the original Brittonic language and are still used in Welsh today. Being a Welsh speaker myself I often pick up on these English words derived from the British/Welsh language and am left perplexed as to why so many anglo linguists seem to miss out on this. So thanks again for this video. I keep boring people around me telling them that the /whole English speaking world are using Welsh without even knowing. Being such a small country I’m used to being ignored/frowned upon. Wales has an inferiority complex which is thankfuly slowly dissapearing. Videos like this are a help in this healing process.
Here are a few more words and names in English that come from Cymraeg or from Welsh as we’ve been labelled;
Dover: from the Welsh word for water - Dwfr. To a non Welsh speaker the words may seem quite different when read here, but the clue is in the pronounciation. The Welsh word ‘Dwfr’ is pronounced a bit like ‘DO’ + ‘VUHR’. Or perhaps try the word ‘Hoover’ in English and swap the ‘H’ in Hoover for a ‘D’😅So an Anglo Saxon may have pronounced Dwfr as Dover.
‘Car’ is another one. Though not strictly from modern Welsh it is from Welsh’s ancestor and not an English word. It’s said to come for the old Celtic/IndoEuropean Gaulish word for the Celtic and Brittonic war CHARiot. The Britons were skilled charioteers and the Romans Latinised the original Celtic word into Carrus. The Saxons gave us Car and the rest is history.
Ever wondered about the name ‘Vaughan’? Why is there a silent ‘a’ at the end of the word? It’s because the word Vaughan is an attempt to pronounce the Welsh word ‘Fychan’. Fychan means ‘small’ or ‘short’ in stature and is used in Welsh as a descriptive name much like a name in english like ‘Little John’. Again the clue is in the pronounciation. As a Welsh speaker it’s obvious to me. ‘F’ in Welsh sounds like ‘V’ in English.
Why are there two L’s in Lloyd...? Because it an Anglicised version of the Welsh name ‘Llwyd’. ‘Llwyd’ means ‘Grey’. It was probably used to describe an early welsh person’s greying locks.
Incidentaly the English name ‘Floyd’ is also derived from ‘Llwyd/Lloyd. The F and L sound being an attempt at the original Welsh ‘Ll’ sound.
Glasgow is another word from early Welsh/Brittonic. ‘Glas’ is Welsh for ‘Blue’ and is also used in some conditions to describe the colours Green or greyish-green. The ‘gow’ is found in Welsh as ‘cau’ which means ‘closed’. So Glasgow describes a green/(fertile?) and enclosed area. A good place to have a settlement.
... and before I bore everyone I think that’s also a good place to stop..!
More placenames from Welsh and other Celtic words; www.alarichall.org.uk/placenames/appendix.htm#Peniel
Definitely not boring! btw I always thought "car" was short for "motorised carriage". "Motorised chariot" is a lot more evocative though.
A river in Irish is Abhainn pronounced Ah-wen but you can see it is related to Avon. Ci looks like Cú a hound. Nathair is a snake. Iarann is Iron.
And usually in Irish the BH sound (which replaced the letter B with a dot above it) is pronounced V, so likely in the past it was pronouced exactly the same
River names are probably older than Welsh and go back to earlier Celtic language. There are Celtic river names all over Europe apparently.
Interestingly cú is 'arse' in Portuguese (in the vulgar sense). In Old English, the cow was 'seo cu' which if said in Poruguese would mean 'your a*se'
As in good old Cu Cuchulain.
@@marcmaceo7045 The Irish pronouciation of " Dublin" is closer to "doovlin". English speakers, generally, don't understand the "bh" (dotted B) used in Irish Gaelic.
Thank you! I am so glad an actual Welsh person decided to do this! God, I hate when other countries try to tell us about Wales, especially when they’ve never even been there! 👏👏👏🏴🏴🏴
This is a great video. Love the welsh language and the lovely Welsh people. Presented in a nice and friendly manner. Thank you from an Englishman.
I cannot tell you how long I've wondered why we pronounce the word "iron" like "eye-urn" in English. I fancy myself an etymology and linguistics hobbyist, I love learning new languages and the histories of how they shape each other. I'm loving your Welsh lessons, and these "extracurricular" bits are delightful 😊 thanks for sharing your language and culture with us!
A surprising omission was the Welsh word "llymru" which in English is "flummery". This is one of the more direct and obvious loanwords.
Welsh and English use different spelling system and consequently the pronounciation of LLYMRU is lost to most English speakers. I couldn't understand how "limroo" could lead to "flummery". Once I learned how to pronounce Welsh spelling correctly I realised it was approximately "hlumree" which was anglicized as "flummery". P.S. I'm from Australia where Welsh is very rarely spoken!
This leads the idling mind to worry about 'frumenty.' A little. 😅
The name of the river Derwent comes from the Welsh (or Ancient British) word for oak tree-Derwen.
And derwydd very similar means druid
@@gwynwilliams4222 I know.
Loads of Derwents in England but strangely none in Wales. Many rivers retain their celtic and pre- celtic names.
@@antonycharnock2993 River Dart is a contraction of Darwent, meaning oak river.
Coombe/Cwm is generally considered to be an ancient Celtic word (meaning a valley) in origin and it is found in France in various forms (such as Comps) and elsewhere in Europe - for example there is an important monastery in Savoy called Hautecombe and there's also a place called Bellecombe and in the Pyrenees it's - coume and in Gaulish/Gaulois it is cumba.
With adder and neidr it make me think of how sometimes in Welsh Gs are added to the front of words because people think that the word is mutated like gwyneb instead of wyneb and gaddo instead of addo. You can see the link between adder and neidr easier when you see the older form of adder which was nadder, when people said “a nadder” people thought they said “an adder” (at the time most couldn’t write) and that stuck just like “an apron” instead of “a napron”.
When I was recording the video I just could not see the similarity between neidr and adder. Once I started editing that part of the video I saw the similarities, but it was too late by then. BTW your explanation of the word’s development into adder is fascinating and makes a lot of sense. Diolch!
Drat, I came here to make exactly the same point about "a nadder" to "an adder" - like what happened with "a numpire" to "an umpire", and "a norange" (naranje) to "an orange"...
Nadder actually comes from German!
@@GreenGlassScarab Beat me to it! I just posted the same thing - still, great minds... :)
@@cylt5113 There's a common Indo-European root *nētr- , and Latin "natrix".
The book “English and Celtic in Contact” is on this subject (among others) and might interest you. All Germanic languages, aside from English and Icelandic, have changed the th sound to a d or t sound. I suspect that contract with Welsh’s Brythonic ancestor, which likely had a th sound, as Welsh does, may have contributed to English’s retention of the th sound.
I totally agree with that. The W sound has changed in most continental Germanic languages to a V sound but has survived in English. The W sound exists in Welsh and both Gaelic languages. The theory is that Celts who remained in England after the Anglo-Saxons took over learned Old English but kept their Brythonic Celt accent which had a lasting effect on English.
Maybe, though Westcountry English, especially Devonian, which had a long contact with the Dumnonian Welsh language that became Cornish, changed a lot of initial voiced aspirants (th) to a 'd'. E.g. three is dree, through is droo etc.
@@michaelhalsall5684 The Welsh W is nothing like the English W in pronounciation remember our starting blocks before mutations are all small case as English infants first learn them at school. We have no upper case pronounciation.
About "naedre", if you use 'a' in front of it, you will see how 'a naedre' can over time become 'an aedre'. 'AE' in Old English is pronounce like the 'a' in 'ash', which is the name of the AE ligature letter. This a--->an phenomenon also happened with the words 'apron', 'orange' and the other way round for 'nickname', originally 'napron', 'norange' (from Old Portuguese 'naranja') and 'ickname' (from the Old English word 'ick' which meant also until the word 'also' replaced it, literally 'alsoname').
My late husband told me the English word "brat", meaning awful child, came from the Welsh word "brat" meaning a bib that you might put on an awful child! He would refer to any kind of apron or bib as a "brat".
Your late husband may have had a point. According to the Oxford English Dictionary: "Of Celtic origin... Old Welsh 'breth' or 'brath', applied to the swaddling-clothes of an infant". This came to be a contemptuous term meaning "a mere rag" in some English dialects (particularly the North), which may have led to its being used as a derogatory term for a child, although the dictionary admits that there's little evidence for a direct link. That said, it offers no other origin of the word "brat", so a "worthless rag of a child" might be the best explanation we have.
It is also the slavic word for "brother" !!
Brat in Irish is a cloak or flag or a mat as "brat urlár" basically a floor cloak.
@@jaqian I'm fairly sure that 'brat' is a fairly direct borrowing from the Irish. When I was a child, long ago, 'brat' in Pembrokeshire Welsh meant, not a bib, but an APRON, the old-fashioned all- enveloping apron.
*Brati* pronounced "bratee" is a colloqiual Welsh word that would've been used in Glamorgan south east Wales - " *Mae'r crwt 'na wedi ei frati* " ( that lad has been spoilt) Sadly,I haven't heard used for many years.
Gwlanen is generally used today to describe a face flannel, rather than the material (gwlanen 'molchi). If one pronounces this word quickly, with an English accent, it is similar in alliteration to flannel. On Everest (named after a Welshman), the main route includes a climb called the South Cwm.
I'm Australian and trying to learn a bit of Welsh to share with my also part-Welsh Aussie workmate. Thank you for this video.
☮❤🦘🇦🇺🏴
The 14 dislikes are all multiple accounts of Edward I
Lol
I'm American living in Wales for 10 years now. My wife is English but has lived in Wales for almost 30 years. Every time I say Avon in reference to the places upon Avon I use Afon and my wife always corrects me. I can't help it. I much prefer to use the Welsh. Nice video. Interesting that it's come up on my mentions as the only place I really watch Welsh language content is on tiktok. It's that bigbrother showing itself again.
I will never look at a corgi in the same way again 🤣🤣 the "dwarf dog" sounds so much better 🤣🤣♥️🏴
Thank you! I'm half Welsh and found this fascinating! My Mam tried to teach me Welsh but gave up. I have a Welsh heart but an English voice box - I never knew a soft K sound could do the same job. Thanks :D
Hi from Gwynedd, Great video, and fascinating.
I’m not sure if it’s colloquial thing , but when I pronounce llundain, the L sound is not pronounced at all, just the “LL”
As a fan of languages and linguistics, I can definitely see how 'flannel' and 'gwlanen' _could_ be related. There is some correlation between the letters 'F' and 'G' in English...hence the pronunciation of 'laugh' or 'rough'.
It's generally accepted that the 'N' migrated from 'a nadder' to become 'an adder' so the connection between 'adder' and 'neidr' is extremely plausible.
They are related
Im thinking this might be the key to the missing David's chord. In music f and g are prominent. If the musical theory is as confused as linguistics maybe a set of Welsh eyes can work out the difference?
The Welsh word for wool is gwlan and flannel is a woolen cloth. That’s obviously the connection.
I am from Turkey and I am learning Welsh now!! Probably you will not see this but thanks Liam :))😉
If you follow Kamil Kartal you will have better understanding. The Sun Language which is Turkish has a lot to do with current languages.
Just had the great good fortune of moving to Wales! So glad to have found this as it's just what I need to get started learning - thank you! :-)
Good on you for making the effort to learn the language. It helps us native Welsh to preserve it and grow it. It is a difficult language, but beautiful once mastered. There are so many beautiful songs in Welsh that could never sound the same in English, and if the language dies these beautiful songs would be lost forever. Suo gan, calon lan, Dafydd y garreg wen and the like, so beautiful. Parch/respect.
Much love to the Welsh from England, my nanna was welsh ,thanks for the vid...Diolch
A few corrections:
"Flannel" was taken from French "flanelle", from a Gaulish word which goes back to Proto-Celtic *wlānos, from PIE *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂. It is cognate to (it shares an ancestor with) the Welsh word "gwlanen" and the English word "wool".
"Adder" actually comes from Old English "nǣdre", from Proto-Germanic *nadraz, not Welsh "neidr", but as Welsh is in the same family as English (they share a common ancestor), the Old English and Welsh words "nǣdre" and "neidr" both come from PIE *snéHtr̥, and are therefore cognates.
"Iron" from its Middle English form "iren" (pronounced "ee-ren" (roll the R), in other words pronounce it as if it were a Welsh word), from Old English "īsern", which goes back to Proto-Germanic *īsarną, which is from Proto-Celtic *īsarnom, which also naturally gave Welsh "haearn". Technically you could argue that it came into "English" from "Welsh", but this was such an early borrowing that English had yet to be distinct from Dutch, German, Norse, Gothic, etc, and Welsh had yet to be distinct from Irish, Cornish, Breton, Gaulish, etc. In other words, it was a borrowing from an ancient ancestor of Welsh into an ancient ancestor of English.
3:28 most rivers in the world turn out to be named ‘the river’ in whichever local language. Some foreigner turned up and asked what they called that river. Same with ‘what do you call yourselves?’ “People”.😂
I just love this channels.. I know I am (roughly) 1/4 Welsh on my father’s side but have always been drawn to Wales & the Welsh language - thank God (& I do) for this brave new world of e-learning 🤗... and one day I will visit‼️
Ditto, Cymru, land of my father's mother
I'm American and I remember learning in grade school that the vowels were a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y and w. The only example given for w was "cwm," which is rarely used in American English, especially not by grade schoolers.
Actually these words are more likely remnants of the language of the Britons prior to the Anglo-Saxon and Viking arrivals. These are survivors and Welsh is a descendant of the earlier language. Combe is found more in the South-West of England, where Cornish (a related language to Welsh) survived until relatively recent times, just as the language of Bretagne survived in Brittany, France. It is more likely that Welsh and these words are from the earlier ancestral language. Interestingly my Welsh mother used to talk of Onion Johnnies from Brittany coming by boat and selling their wares in South Wales before WWII. They spoke Bretagne and could be sort of understood by Welsh speakers.
My late husband used to talk about "Sioni Winwns" and them coming to sell their wares in North Wales.
Exactly, thus just as much Cornish as Welsh.
This should be much higher up in the comments pile, spot on. The Romans named London too, and english simplified their term so the Welsh definitely came later
That's true, however Welsh is the last modern representitives of Brythonic in Britain, that has an uninterrupted spoken history. . Morecambe, Mor Cwm. That's a Cumbric origin word I guess. Morecambe, the town was named after the geographic description. Which makes sense as geographic names are often very ancient. But Cumbric, Cornish and Welsh are similar languages, and its hard to pinpoint where the borrowing came from, but its Brythonic at least
@@martinhughes2549 Er no - Cornish is still a living but endangered language - check out Unesco on that!
Thanks for the video, nice effort. How about Welsh Eryr (Eagle), eagles nest in English = Eerie. Badger in Welsh = Broch, badger warren / nest in English = Broch.
In Galicia (Iberia) there is a river called Avia.
I am from South Africa and living in Wales and very keen to learn Welsh. Thank you for the lesson today
I don’t know if you will say it but I’ve always assumed the English word “of” was a Welsh word because of the pronunciation of the “f”? I incorporate it into our schools lessons to differentiate of and off, using the Welsh f and ff. ☺️
I don’t know if there is an older Welsh word that Of derived from? But using Of and Off to explain the difference between f and ff is a great idea.
Fascinating and being English this helped to increase my Welsh vocab too. Thanks
The derivation of the word 'haven' is definitely from Welsh. - Farmers used to bring their livestock down from the hills during winter and they would keep them in sheltered low lying areas, they used to call these places 'haf fan' (summer place).
Come on! This is bullshit! The origin of the word Haven is Old North language. Welsh on the other hand is another branch of Indo-European languages, so it is Welsh, that took this word from English, not vice versa.
@@artanglin2763 Correct. It's a borrowing from Old English _hæfne,_ according to Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru. It's from the same Teutonic root that gives us the Danish/German place-names Copenhagen [Cøbenhavn] and Bremerhaven.
@@artanglin2763 old Norse and Welsh are both Indo-european languages.
@@artanglin2763 It is ridiculous to suggest that Welsh took the word from English. It is derived from two separate Welsh words 'haf fan' - literal translation 'summer place', protected or sheltered.
I presume that you would also know that 'haf fan' is pronounce in Welsh as 'hav van'. ( 'f' in Welsh is pronounced as a 'v' in English.)
If we accept your explanation it looks like the old Celtic language influenced a lot more of the later languages, including English.
@@davidsamuel2952 yes, why not? Don't you think Welsh has not been influenced?
Thanks Jason. Great episode.
Thank you i have listened to your podcast for years. Still trying to learn welsh, it’s difficult for me. This was very informative about the welsh language.
I always remember to iron is smwddio, because you are smoothing out the clothes. Helps me, anyways.
So does the English word Smooth come from the Welsh Smwddio, or vice versa?
An obvious one people miss is Ych a fi, which is just a Welsh way of expressing disgust. The English/Wenglish pronunciation of this is Yuck a fi and the abbreviation of that is just Yuck, the origin of the English term "Yuck" which of course also is used to express disgust.
Adder in German is Otter, which comes from the still existing German word "Natter", meaning snake, which, apparently, comes from the Germanic word nadra-/natro-. Germanic, not Celtic in this case. So it seems this word goes back further than the Celtic branching-off in the language tree, and simply stayed more or less the same in both developments. Fascinating, though!
Does this mean otters are mammalian water snakes linguistically?
Bogeyman comes from the Welsh for ghost 'Bwgan', pronounced boo-gan, not from Napolean Bonaparte, which it pre-dates.
Yes, bogeyman comes from 'bwgan'. I was raised on a farm in south Wales and after plowing a field, we used to erect a scare-crow - which was called a 'bwgan-brain' (brain = crows). As as a little boy, I was scared to go into certain dangerous places because the dreaded 'bwgi-bo' resided there. I remember hearing an blood-curdling noise at night coming from the marsh near our farm and was told that it was the 'bwgi-bo' (it was a screech-owl) looking for little boys. It did the trick, I never went near the marsh after that!
My father always wore coarse flannel shirts and when these were discarded, squares of cloth were cut from them to use as face-cloths. They were called 'gwlanen ymolchi' (washing flannel) which was made from wool or 'gwlan'. They held a lot of lather and were hard wearing - better than modern face-cloths.
A Neider - an adder. Like a napron became an apron. Crumpet would be a small crump in English . I love the Welsh language and I’m learning so much.
Seven rivers is England called Avon.
I can remember being in rural Wales and looking at a road sign that said pont wan. Weak and wan I thought. Then I noticed all the mwd on the road as well. I can remember once being told any word or place name that ends ock has Welsh roots.
I'd always been told 'Buddy' came from the South Wales coal fields (although not actually Welsh) - in South Wales the term 'Butt' is used for a friend. Originally it was used in the mines, where a miner would be working a seam by hand and when a pile of coal had accumulated he'd call for a mine cart which was know as a 'Butt' - since there would be several of these carts, pulled by women and boys a miner wouldn't know which individual was pushing the cart he would simply call "Butt". This eventually morphed into 'Buddy' when Welsh emigres arrived in America.
Speaking of America, there is a school of thought that says "America" get's it's name from Wales. The theory is that traditionally America gets it's name from Amerigo Vespucci, one of Columbus's Lieutenants. However, none of Columbus's fleet actually landed on continental America (landing instead on Cuba & Haiti). It's also extremely unusual to name a landmass or feature after an explorers first name. The convention being to use explorers surnames (Colombus, Tasman, Hudson, Magellan etc.) and first names were used for features named after monarchs (as in the case of Louisiana, Georgia, Victoria etc.) therefore 'Vespuccia' would have been the accepted name. The alternate theory is that America gets it's name from one of the sponsors of John Cabot, a Welsh mapmaker living in Bristol by the name of Meirig, and that the name comes from a dedication on one map "Am Meirig" ('For Meirig') being misinterpreted as a the name of the geographical landmass.
The root word for "Glow" - when something radiates light, comes from the Welsh word for Coal 'Glo' as when heated coal 'Glows'.
In Souh Herefordshire, the hill farms, fields and topological features mostly have names derived from Brythonic, so they look vaguely like Welsh written by someone who couldn't quite manage the pronunciation.
Others are from Brythonic or Early Welsh, mis-translated or transliterated into Latin and then re-translated or transliterated into Early or Middle English.
"Wormelow Tump" is a village name from worm (winding) and low (grave) and twmpa (tomb). A couple of lanes are named "Conigree" from the Welsh for rabbit warren, and in Middle English "coney" for rabbit was borrowed from Early Welsh. And one road is named "Ticklewithy Pitch", the word pitch being derived from Welsh for an incline, and in common use in south Herefordshire.
There is also "Fen", meaning marsh. Herefordshire's "Whitchurch" was called Lanteuenach (modern spelling: Lantywynnog) and also Fenteuenach (Fentywynnog). Lan means bank so the name means "bank of the marsh of the clouded stream", "lan" (bank) having been misunderstood as "llan" (church), and "gwynnog" (pure-ish) being shortened to "gwyn" (white). The stream flowing through the village was recently discovered to have been called "The White Brook" hundreds of years ago, which would have been Nant Gwyn in Welsh, so it seems that the full name of Whitchurch in Early Welsh would have been something like Fenlantynantgwynnog.
Somebody correct my grammar!
When I hear the welsh language being explained by someone as 'Eloquent' as Jason, it makes me proud of my welsh heritage (On my mothers side i.e. Bronwen Jones)
The welsh language is indeed, so beautiful, almost melodic the way that the words seem to melt into each other! My biggest regret now that i am in my 60's was my failure to embrace and make a real effort to learn it.
My job had a lot of shift work and I was always busy doing this or doing that. Finding an excuse not to learn but after watching videos on the Learn Welsh podcast, It's inspired me to 'Have a go' and although I may never become a literary Genius in the welsh Language, I want to just be able to hold a basic conversation with members of the welsh speaking community. My oldest Daughters Boyfriend is Welsh speaking. another 'resource' to help me on my journey!
The only problem I am encountering (Okay, maybe not the only, 'only' one!) is my attempt at rolling RF's on my tongue! I can manage the 'guttural Ch ' sound (the one which sounds as if you are clearing back of throat noise! But Rolling? Aghh ( And that is 'Aghh' in any Language!)
PS I wonder, Jason if there is any information that can be accessed to rate the efficacy and usage of the Web as a means of learning and/or improving Welsh! Surely it has made learning far more accessible, any time of night or day!
I started learning properly at 69 and am feeling quite confident now despite living in England. Online has helped enormously.
The language that is economically dominant tends to more heavily influence the less dominant languages around them. Brythonic (modern Welsh, Cumbric and Cornish) words in English are fairly rare, except for place names and geographical terms, which is common all over the world. (Vienna is related to the word ‘Avon’, showing Austria’s ancient Celtic heritage). It is a testament to the resilience and prestige of Welsh culture (at least, in Wales) that such words like bard, corgi, lawn, crumpet, pikelet and coracle been taken up into English. Penguin (originally meaning great auk), adder and iron are likely to have Celtic origins, but they were used in Germanic languages before the Anglo-Saxons moved into Britain, so they were probably taken up much earlier, when the Germanic and Celtic peoples lived side-by-side on the continent.
Thank you so much for your podcast and all these informative videos. I am interested in learning Welsh but there are no courses in my area, so your channel & website will be incredibly helpful :)
Try Duolingo. It is free and has 460,000 now learning Welsh, the most popular in the U.K. I have been learning on it for two years and it’s great.
I enjoyed the video. I'm Welsh. Not a Welsh speaker but passionately interested in all things Welsh. Know loads of nouns but no verbs. Not really useful.
My favourite Welsh word which has found it's way into the English speaking world is one derived from "Bwgan" or ghost. A spirit from Welsh folklore that would come in the night and take away naughty children. Welsh nannies took this to England and try and get the children to behave or the Bwgan would come for them in the night. He eventually morphed into the Bogey man. Interestingly my grandparents used this one on me and my sister when we were small (and I'm a white haired old wrinkly now) and they called him "The Bogey Bo". So perhaps that is what the Welsh nannies called him as well.😁 Even Homer Simpson is afraid of him.
This is brilliant thanks for putting this on . I have subscribed
Glad you like it.
The article seems exciting!
Just found this...you are a good teacher. Love the Welsh language but find it difficult.
Thanks Joey. When I learnt Welsh it felt so difficult at the beginning but kept getting easier the more Welsh I learnt. It’ll take time but you’ll get there.
The worst is mutations. For some strange reason, when you get to Pontypridd you see a sign 'Croeso y Bontypridd' with a B. And Cardiff (Caerdydd) sometimes becomes Gaerdydd and even Nghaerdydd. My mother was born in Llansomethingydd which I believe is near Pontypridd (or Bontypridd?), the same village where Sir Tom Jones came into the world.
When you notice you're dealing with languages of the Celtic family that have no single word for "yes" or "no," devising instead positive or negative forms of verbs...
About the closest they come is technically yes-it-is/no-it-isn't.
Diolch Jason! Great video as usual.
I was told Lawn comes from Llan, which is commonly used in conjunction with churches. The building, yr Eglws would be surrounded by an area of mown grass, y Llan.
We have a old river in Bristol called the Malago which is said to be a ancient Celtic for Mill stream.
Very good and friendly!! Thank you.🙂
The "ll" sound doesn't have an "l" in the pronunciation. It's just the hissing type sound through the sides of the mouth. Pretty sure that the word bin is of Welsh origin too, if my memory serves me right. Also, the word "car" is of gaulish descent and not English. It comes from the gaulish word karros, meaning a horse drawn cart. It was then adopted by the Romans. So the word car is basically celtic in origin. And finally, the word "ambulance" is of Latin origin "ambulantem" (to walk about). You'd be surprised at how much of the English language isn't actually English. Welsh, although it had obviously borrowed many words from Latin, Irish and English, is a far purer language than English. Siraradwch Cymraeg. Cadwch yr iaith yn fyw. Cymru am byth.
Dad is used in many British areas instead of father today. Same mam instead of mother
Thank you Jason. Very much enjoyed the video, and will continue to enjoy your podcasts on dyscu Cymraeg.
Wow, checked the description - you actually do teach the Welsh language..? Because you seem to be such a good Welsh language teacher so I know I would learn ... will check it out. Cause I want to learn this beautiful wonderful language, not the least since my second name is David (the first being Andreas as in Scotland’s Andrew). I always felt linked to both Scotland and Wales because of my names. 😊🏴🏴
The Romans called London. 'Londinium'. But as the country was Brytthonic-speaking, and it is possible that Londinium is a Latinisation of the pre-Welsh laguage they found there.
It probably is, too. As far as I know "Londinium" doesn't mean anything in Latin.
Really interesting 👍🏻 New subscriber. Moved into the Valleys nr. Bargoed. Have heard that place pronounced 3 different ways… the ‘English’ way, and 2 ways in Welsh… the local way and the correct Welsh way. Talk about confusing 😛 Luckily, the lovely lady in the library has helped me a lot, even though where I live I haven’t heard any person speaking Welsh (Only heard Welsh through a pre-recorded supermarket tannoy, like Lidl and Aldi).
Britonic was the original language of these Isles and is closely related to Gymraigh and Kernowek - Cornish also related to Celtic Breton of North West France. All Celtic languages are related
Celtic is part of Indo-European, like Italic and Germanic!
Some of the books on transport history that I've read speculate that the word 'tram' might come via the coalmines of South Wales from the Welsh word 'trawio' - to pull - meaning something that is pulled along.
I believe the English word "bard" actually comes from the Scottish Gaelic "bàrd", which is of course cognate to Welsh "bardd" through Proto-Celtic "bardos", but lacks the dental fricative, which is also reflected in the English word. The modern, poetic meaning of the word in English was also reinforced by the Latin "bardus", which in turn was borrowed from Gaulish "bardos".
Did you remember to include Bwg / Bug.? Y gair yn Cymraeg am 'beetle' =Bwg.xx And bug in English means any insect but it originates from Welsh Bwg x
Thankyou, interestingly informative! XXX
I love these podcasts they are really helpful and I have learned a lot from them. But i am still really stuck to trying to pronounce the R sound in welsh, Could you do another video on how to pronounce it?
Isn't it like Spanish or Russian rrrr ?
In the US, the word "Balderdash" has more of a meaning like " to tell a lie or a tall tale". There is a party game sold here called Balderdash in which you try trick people into believing the false meaning of a word or give the true meaning in hopes they don't believe you. You get points by how many people you fool with the false meaning or how many people don't believe the true meaning.
There used to be a TV show in the UK with a similar idea, named "Call my Bluff". There were two teams with three contestants. In a round, one team gave three alternative meanings for a word, and one person on the opposing team had to decide who was giving the correct meaning and who was "bluffing".
I've read that some English nouns have excluded their initial letter 'n' and added it to the prepositioned adjective "a". For example the word "neidr" could have been used in a sentence thus - "Look, there is a neidr." This could have changed the sound or at at least the spelling of the word to become like "nadder" - " Look, there is a nadder". This transformed to become "Look there is an adder". The same goes for the word "orange". In Hispanic languages the word for orange is something like "naranja". So, in English, someone may have used a similar sounding word minus the letter "n". For example, saying "I will eat a naranja" likely went through the same process and so - "a naranja", "a norange", "an orange". Anyone know of any other examples of nouns beginning with the letter "n" that went through the same type of changes? Please let me know. Thanks
In Australia there was an annual Rock EISTEDDFOD Challenge. It started in New South WALES. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Eisteddfod_Challenge
And smwddio is also an example of a reverse influence from the English word smooth.
Hi. Love the vid. Bit of an explanation re Neidr/Adder.
I read a while ago that English grammar and spelling of some words changed over time.
An Adder is the current, correct form. This developed from A Nadder. Similarly, A Napron became An Apron.
Easier to understand how the word Neidr became A Nadder, then An Adder when you consider this 😊
I often thought about the Cotswold village called Icomb. Always looked like misspelt 'y Cwm' to me as it is down below the main road.
Thanks I love your How to Sing the Welsh National Anthem !! I have almost memorised it. I'm learning all the anthems for the 2023 Rugby World Cup😊
A LOT of these examples have much deeper roots in (P)IE, actually!
It's interesting how you say that English will use one word for something whereas Welsh will use several words - I'm just learning Welsh but I've been surprised (disappointed?) at how frequently Welsh copies English in just using one word for several different things that have one word in English. Things I would consider vaguely "slang" English just translate into Welsh word-for-word.
Rw'yn astudio a Cymraeg for 2 years, I'm still lost. Hope you have better luck.
Scots Gaelic, derived from Irish, also has "Abhainn", for river, and the usual pronunciation is Ah-win
There is also a River Avon flowing through Strathavon northeast from the Cairngorms. However, it is now pronounced A'an. (There were other words affected by the same sound change in Scots. Devil became De'il; Love became Lo'e as in some songs of Robert Burns.)
Another interesting example is a place called Lydiate, which is north of Liverpool, I noticed it sounded like the Welsh word for gate: llidiart. On researching it a bit on Google etc., apparently one possible root of the name is the Old English hlid-geat meaning 'swing gate'. This region was also also known as: Yr Hen Ogledd, in English the Old North, it's the historical region which is now Northern England and stretches as far north as the southern Scottish Lowlands, which was inhabited by the Brittonic people (Brythoniaid in Welsh) of sub-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages, whose languages were The Brittonic, Brythonig or British Celtic languages.
Fascinating, and it sound so familiar to me as a Breton from French Brittany. Regarding Penguin, both breton words Penn and Gwen are of course related to their equivalent Welsh cousins. One of my grandfathers was born in a place called Guenroc (white rock) because it is on a hill of quartz. Regarding Corgi, the root cor- is still found in Brittany in family names like Le Corre, or the facetious local leprechauns called Korrigans. One big celtic family.
White rock in cornish would be ' An garek gwyn.'. From Cornwall
England used to be part of Wales so maybe this is why there are some Welsh words remaining.
English 'adder' was originally 'nadder,' entirely cognate to High German 'Natter.' But 'a nadder' was resegmented over time as 'an adder.' This appears to be ancient Germanic, as the earliest Germanic language Gothic has 'nadrs' (adder, viper). Therefore I humbly submit that the Welsh and the Germanic may be extraordinary long-standing cognates.
I enjoy finding similarities and word loans among languages, so I really enjoyed this one, diolch!!
As a Greek, my brain automatically tries to find similarities to greek words, so that I can remember new words easier and I can't really find any of those in Welsh. Which makes sense but it also makes it harder for me to learn.
But!! I've found one exceptionally interesting one. The word for water:
Dŵr
ὕδωρ
(it'd be pronounced as 'eddor' in Welsh, the 'υ' in the beginning is somewhat silent)
It might just be a coincidence, but it's still interesting 😊
Bore'ma!!
The numbers one to ten in Welsh and in Greek all come from a mother tongue called Indo-European. You have to make allowances in pronounciation changes for numbers 4 and 5.
Iron and the Welsh variant is iser or ijzer in other Celtic (continental) languages. It was found in rivers, in West-Flandres in Belgium and in south-eastern France were you still find the rivers IJzer and Isère. Isère is also the name of the departement (county) around this river.
Cwm is a steep-sided valley, Ystrad is a wide flat bottomed valley.
The Celtic language was spoken all over the British isles so those words might not necessarily have come from Wales itself, but from the original Celtic speakers in England. At least 60% of English DNA is from these original Celtic people, going as high as 90%. So these people no doubt left more than just their DNA, but their language too.
Diolch iawn. Very proud to be Welsh
Coomb / cwm comes from the same celtic root being used in Kernow the cornish language
The English words for the little bird the 'wren' and the big bird the 'raven' comes from the Welsh 'vran' or 'bran' which means crow or raven. The wren in Welsh is 'cutti vran' meaning 'little raven'. The wren is of course 'the king of the birds'.
Actually I think raven might be an Indo-European cognate. In Old English it appeared as hrafn.
I was always taught that the wren in Welsh is Dryw or Dryw bach, I've never heard of 'cutti vran' being used to identify a wren, or cutti meaning little in Welsh, at least here in Eryri (Snowdonia) might be different in other parts of Wales.
@@gerlan1234to I think you might be right mate as beg is Scots Gaelic for little/small.
@@gerlan1234to Nage, Dryw yw hi yn y de. Byth wedi clywed "Cutti Vran"!
@@lisathomas8268 Ie dryw yw yn mhob rhan o Gymru. 'R oedd Llyfrau'r Dryw yn boblogaidd yng Nghymru yn y 60au (i gyd a llun yr aderyn ar y clawr) toedd neb yn chwilio am Lyfrau'r Cutti Vran.
Good video. Interesting
Good podcast, but the most likely explanation is that these place names and animal names somehow survived the linguistic cleansing of the romans, saxons and normans. This is a bit like the USA or Australia where most places and native animals retain pre-conquest names. As well as London, I believed that Thames came from the Celtic Tamesas.
You are wrong. The similarities between scandinavian languages are not caused by excess use of loan words from each other's languages, but because these languages have a common root, proto norse. Similarities between english, german and scandinavian words are also mostly caused by being developed from proto germanic.
I heard that the word Penguin comes from Welsh. Apparently when they were first encountered a Welsh sailor thought they looked like either Auks or Great Auks (I forget which one) and named them after the Welsh for that bird, Pen Gwyn. I can't even remember where I heard it but it seemed plausible at the time (even though penguins don't have white heads!). I'd be interested in learning if it's the correct etymology or if it's one of those 'facts' which originated in someone's imagination.
Nathair is also Snake in Gaelic.. even though we don have any in Ireland...( all driven out be St. Patrick a Briton)
Great Video