Mutation: mutation
Initial mutation is a phenomenon of all Celtic languages. Under certain positional or syntactic conditions, the initial consonant of a word may change. Historically a Sandhi phenomenon, mutations are today purely morphologically or syntactically triggered. Any word can be mutated (proper nouns, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions)
Welsh has tree mutations, Soft Mutation, Nasal Mutation and Aspirate Mutation. Not all consonsants can undergo mutations.
| consonant | Soft Mutation | Nasal Mutation | Aspirate Mutation |
|---|---|---|---|
| d dant | dd ei ddant “his tooth” | n yn Nulyn “in Dublin” | |
| g gwlad | - ei wlad “his country” | ng fy ngwlad “my country” | |
| b bara | f dy fara “your bred” | m fy mara “my bred” | |
| m munud | f dwy funud “two minutes” | ||
| c car | g ei gar “his car” | ngh fy nghar “my car” | ch ei char “her car” |
| t taith | d dwy daith “two voyages” | nh fy nhaith “my voyage” | th a thaith “and [a] voyage” |
| p plant | b ei blant “his children” | mh fy mhlant “my children” | ph ei phlant “her children” |
| ll llwy | l ei lwy “his spoon” | ||
| rh rhan | r ei ran “his part” | ||
| vowel afal | h ein hafal “our apple” |
There are cases where the meaning is only indicated by the mutation: E.g. the gender of the possessor of the possessive pronoun ei “his” or “her” is given by the mutation of the following word: ei gar (soft mutation): “his car”, but ei char (aspirate mutation): “her car”. If the word following ei does not mutate, ei remains ambiguous: ei afal “his/her apple”. Another example is
- Canodd o “he sang” (no mutation of the verb)
- Ganodd o? “did he sing” (soft mutation of the verb due to a dropped question marker a)
- Chanodd o [ddim] “he did not sing” (aspirate mutation after the dropped negation marker ni)
SM: soft mutation
The soft mutation is by far the most frequent mutation.
Examples
- feminin nouns after the definit article: cath “cat”, y gath “the cat”
- adjectives which modify a feminin noun: bach “little”, merch fach “a little girl”
- words following the possessive pronouns ei “his” and dy “your”: dy dŷ “your house”
- words following prepositions like o “from”, or ar “on”: o Gaerdydd “from Cardiff”
- words following the numerals dau and dwy (“two (masc/fem)”: dau ddyn “two men”, dwy ferch “two women”
- indefinite direct objects: mi welodd hi ddyn “she saw a man”
- adverbial clauses: mi ddaeth o ddoe “he came yesterday”
NM: nasal mutation
In spoken Welsh the nasal mutation is sometimes replaced by the soft mutation, especially after the prepositio, yn, “in”
Examples
- words following the possessive pronouns fy “my”: fy nhŷ “my house”
- words following the preposition yn/ym/yng “in”: ym Mangor, yng Nghaerdydd, yn nau fil tri “in 2003”
- some words following the numeral deg “ten”: deng mlywydd “ten years”
AM: aspirate mutation
Examples
- words following the numerals tri “three” and chwech “six”: tri thŷ “three houses”, chwech chant “six hundred”
- words following the possessive pronouns ei “her”: ei phen “her head”
- words following the conjunction a “and” and negation markers ni and na: nain a thaid “grandmother and grandfather”
- words following prepositions like gyda “with”: gyda thân “with fire”
Mutation in other languages: [cy]