Welsh Language Mutations, Welsh Grammar Explained Easy

Welsh Language mutations are often a bit of trouble for learners and beginners, so here is a simple guide for you to be able to know What Changes, How things change, and some specifics of this unique feature in Welsh, but common to all Celtic Languages.
00:00 Intro and features
01:34 What changes?
06:47 How it changes?
17:23 Moving words and objects
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[@servantofaeie1569]

"Dant" is a native Welsh word, it's similarity to Latin is purely because Welsh and Latin share a common ancestor, not because of Latin influence

[@BenLlywelyn]

Very possible.

[@jasonmatthews7829]

Half-language half-telepathy. I imagine it's easier to conversate in person if the verbiage has such fluidity. Thank you!

[@gordontheorgan]

That's the best explanation of mutations I have ever seen, thank you.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Thank you very much.

[@yasagarwal859]

I can relate them with hindi often when we speak in east due to fast speech or grammar we mutate it's in vowels like likh lekh then when there is a vowel like a good woman ek acchi aurat is said as eg achhi haurat a good man ek accha nar remains the same

[@BenLlywelyn]

Fqscinating to compare languages and how sounds shift in common across them.

[@yasagarwal859]

@@BenLlywelyn yes sir if we say hindi dialects they are quiet distinct since I'm from extreme india living in east india hindi is quite different from my native language my native is closer to Sanskrit

[@mrdavetherave99]

Diolch Ben! This is very helpful, although I may have to watch this several time to fully get my head around mutations. Nadolig Llawen!

[@BenLlywelyn]

Please feel free to! Nadolig Llawen.

[@philoaviaticus]

Ya ha, highly inspiring, after relearning Latin French and Irish, would love to dig in. Remember an Gaeltacht,na “Whaletacht” and “Hawhaletacht” from my youth.

[@philoaviaticus]

They called it ellipsis too

[@BenLlywelyn]

French and Irish would give you a huge headstart with Cymraeg.

[@tedi1932]

Diolch Ben, I think you have explained the Welsh Treigliadau very clearly. I understand that all the Celtic languages have these similar characteristics. It would be interesting if you could explain the Treigladau in the Cornish language - I have read that they have a hard mutation, which has to be the opposite to Treigliad Meddal. I would also be interested to know more about the Treigliadau in Scottish and Irish Gaelic maybe in another video. To see how similar and also how different they are.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Croeso Tedi. Good to see you here again. I'm not an expert on Cornish, but it would be indeed be fascinating to compare its mutations with Cymraeg if I found a decent book to read on it.

[@kernowforester811]

My oberservation is Cornish is same as Breton, similar, but not exactly same as Welsh, but with four mutations, soft, hard, aspirate and mixed. No nasal mutations though. For instance unmutated, 1st and 3rd mutation of e.g. initial b becomes v then p. E..g bean pronounced bee'un, vee'un and vee'un (means small). Mutations are found in place names , e.g. like Trebyan (small farm), Coosevean (small wood) and Nanpean (small valley). Hendra in Cornish is old farm (common name), with mutation from t to d. Plenty of info on the web. From Bodmin.

[@stella8726]

You explain very well, you should do a video on all the ways you say yes and no in Welsh LoL Nadolig Llawen Ben 😊

[@BenLlywelyn]

Diolch. Nadolig Llawen. That is a reasonable request I need to consider in the future.

[@cipherx6334]

I’m learning welsh. These videos help a lot. 👍🏻

[@BenLlywelyn]

Hapus dw i wedi helpu.

[@adrianjones8060]

Wow… you’ve explained the gear change that brings all the spokes of the wheel together!! We take so much for granted when we drive our Cymero sports car, but thanks for explaining why she’s such a smooth mother to drive👍.

[@BenLlywelyn]

She is very smooth. Esmwyth.

[@adrianjones8060]

@@BenLlywelyn esmydd…a Nadolig Lawen o Lundain.

[@ioanstokowski1647]

Thank you Ben. Soft mutations have started to sink in a bit with repetition, and when I have to stop and wonder which form to use, the mnemonics help. But there are just too many rules to approach it that way. It helps to hear you describe it from the second nature level. If you haven't addressed accent marks already, I could use help with those too.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Being very sinplified, mosgly the accent falls on the penultimate syllable, unless accent marls or H is involved.

[@ioanstokowski1647]

@@BenLlywelyn Good to know!

[@jackthomas4748]

Hi Ben off topic...If you havnt done one yet...can you do a vid on historical and mythological places in wales worth visiting...Diolch!

[@BenLlywelyn]

Fascinating idea. You really need a car in Wales.

[@fredericosampaio6457]

Nadolig Llawen, Ben 🎅👏👏👏🌅

[@BenLlywelyn]

Nodolig llawen Frederico.

[@nickvanruiven]

This was one of the greatest mysteries for me, but like most of the Welsh language it makes perfect sense actually. Diolch yn fawr iawn, Ben!

[@BenLlywelyn]

Croeso Nick.

[@FrozenMermaid666]

I’m trying to learn everything about these, and to get used to them - it’s probably the hardest part about learning Welsh and the other Celtic languages, but I’ll memorize them for each word separately, so that should make it easier! I haven’t seen any other languages that have them so far, like, Germanic languages (Dutch / Norwegian / German / Swedish / OId Norse etc) don’t have them, and Latin languages (Spanish / Portuguese / Italian / French / Galician / Catalan etc) don’t have them either! I’ve already memorized a few of them, so they seem easy to memorize when memorizing each word - so when I memorize a new word, I try to memorize them also, and try finding the ones associated with the new word I’m learning!

[@BenLlywelyn]

@@FrozenMermaid666 They are not as hard as having a case system, so you can do it! Honest, after a while it becomes very natural and makes a lot of sense. Diolch.

[@FrozenMermaid666]

Yeah, it definitely gets easier once I know more words and get more used to them! Is there an estimate for how many Welsh words have these tho?

[@FrozenMermaid666]

I memorized most of the words re body parts from the other video, plus I typed every word in my Drafts, and I revise them every day, and focus on a few words until I memorize those words and the meanings, and then I focus on other words, while also revising and repeating the words I’ve memorized so far - I think this is called spaced repetition or something, and this technique works well for Celtic languages, but also for Germanic languages and Latin languages etc!

[@delwinaherd8621]

Diolch unwaith eto, Ben. Nadolig Llawen!

[@BenLlywelyn]

Nadolig Llawen Winnie!

[@cezarstefanseghjucan]

Super mega interesting language, but these changes meant to keep a sort of sung phonology of words instead of their morphology is mindless for me. I can also easily spot many words with similar forms to Romanian, given their Indo-European and Latin slant. I am highly conservative when it comes to language and its rules and a strong advocate for neo-PIE as an alternative to any language in use as of now. Thus, Gaulish and Galatian would have been preferable to what we have today.

[@yashagarwal8741]

I find mutations like Case endings I speak languages which have case endings and the mutations are result of loosing of case endings

[@BenLlywelyn]

My exposure to Romanian and German confirms this.

[@benjaminklass5118]

Hebrew sort of has mutations, although these days they generally only apply to three letters in Modern Hebrew and they tend not to affect loan words. For example t used to become th (or for Ashkenazi Jews s) at the end or the middle of a word, so shabat has offen been pronounced as shabath or shabes.

[@BenLlywelyn]

Hebrew has lost quite a few sounds from what I understand.

[@benjaminklass5118]

@@BenLlywelyn Some Mizrahi Jews and Arabs still pronounce the distinct sounds of ע and ח, you just have to drive out of Tel Aviv towards the periphery (North and south) to hear them, but overall you are correct. Ashkenazi Jews simplified consonants and Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews simplified Vowels (generally), which influenced the development of Modern Hebrew.

[@philoaviaticus]

Arabic does this with guttural sounds too as I recall

[@melysmelys2622]

Diddorol iawn. Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda i chi Ben.

[@BenLlywelyn]

S'mae Melys. A blwyddyn newydd dda i tithau!

[@melysmelys2622]

@@BenLlywelyn Diolch!