Medieval Welsh

A Self-Instruction Course created by Heather Rose Jones

Copyright © 2003, 2004 all rights reserved. This page most recently revised on: May 31, 2004

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Unit: 3b

Predicate Adjectives and Nouns

Predicative Sentences

One of the simplest types of sentence uses the verb "to be" to describe the subject with an adjective or to label the subject with a noun. You may recall once having been taught that sentences can be divided into subject and predicate, which is why this type of sentence is said to contain a "predicate adjective" or "predicate noun". In English, you might have sentences like:

• The boy was big.
• The woman was a queen.

In Welsh, in the "normal" form of the sentence, these predicates are preceded with a particle called "the predicative yn". (You will run into several different words that appear as yn, so it's best to have clear ways to describe them when talking about them.) This particle simply marks what follows as describing the subject. THE PREDICATIVE "YN" CAUSES THE FOLLOWING WORD TO LENITE.

So, combining this with what we described as our "normal" sentence structure from the preceding lesson, we get sentences like the following:

• Ydd oedd y mab yn vawr.
• Ydd oedd y wreig yn vrenhines.

Let's break that down in more detail.

That's fairly simple and straightforward. In some texts you may find that the predicative particle (yn) is optional in this type of sentence, so you may run into things like:

• Math oed arglwyd. "Math was a lord."

However, it is most common for the particle to be used.

Keep in mind that a predicate noun can also be modified.

• Ydd oedd y wreig yn vrenhines vawr. "She was a great queen."

Word order, however, is somewhat flexible in Welsh. Almost any part of a sentence that you want to emphasize and call attention to can be moved to the front of the sentence. (In English, we usually do this sort of emphasis with tone of voice: "He was bad." not "Bad was he.") If a major part of the sentence (such as the subject, object, or these types of adjective and noun predicates) is moved to the front, there will be repercussions elsewhere in the sentence. So if we wanted to emphasize "The boy was big." or "The woman was a queen." rather than simply making descriptive statements, we could say:

• Mawr oedd y mab.
• Brenhines oedd y wreig.

Two major things have happened. The predicative particle has disappeared (and with it, the lenition that it caused); and the pre-verbal particle has disappeared. If it helps in understanding the latter, the "meaningless" pre-verbal particles (as opposed to those that add some meaning, like the negative) sometimes seem to be there just to keep the verb from standing naked at the beginning of the sentence. There is this tension between the verb "wanting" to come before as much as possible, and it "not wanting" to actually be the first word.

In the medieval texts, this sort of emphatic form is far commoner than the "normal" form of this type of sentence. This may be partly stylistic, but partly because we are usually aware of the subject's existence already and the interesting information (the emphasized information) is the characteristic that is being introduced.

Exercises

Additional vocabulary for the exercises:

Exercise 1 - Welsh to English

Here are sentences adapted from actual medieval examples. (It is often hard to find first and second person examples, so I have altered a few to supply these.)

1. Ydd oeddewch yn wyr ieueinc.
2. Neuadd vawr oedd. (Remember that the subject pronoun is optional.)
3. Ydd oeddynt yn gyvoethawg.
4. Diweir oedd hi.
5. Ydd oedd ef yn ddall.
6. Ydd oedd y mab yn varw.
7. Cyvlym oedd y gweith.
8. Beichawg oedd hi.
9. Ydd oeddem ni yn iach.
10. Ysgot oeddwn.
11. Esgob oeddut ti.

Exercise 2 - English to Welsh

Construct a complete paradigm using each of the words following the example. Then make each example an emphatic sentence emphasizing the predicate. Always pay attention to correct masculine, feminine, and plural forms when relevant. (For sake of variety -- consider the "you" of your examples to be the opposite gender to yourself, so that "I" and "you" use different genders where relevant.)

Example: "to be short" (byrr)

Use the following predicates:

1. cryv "strong"
2. ieuanc "young"
3. teg "pretty, handsome"
4. plentyn "a child"
5. tad, mam "father, mother" (as appropriate to gender)
6. swyddawg gweddus "a suitable officer"

Key to the Exercise

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