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Colloquial Welsh adjectives deals with the adjectives (Welsh: ansoddair) of the colloquial Welsh language, the spoken register of the modern Welsh language as spoken in Wales by first-language speakers. This page does not deal with the literary standard forms of adjectives nor any dialect which may have arisen outside of Wales. Welsh has two standardised forms: Literary Welsh – a conservative language reserved for literary purposes which retains some features of older Welsh; and Colloquial Welsh – the Welsh one will hear being spoken in Welsh speaking areas. For the most part the two languages share adjectives, though for some of them their usages can differ and the literary register may use alternative spellings as well as preserving gender distinction where it has been lost in the colloquial tongue. The usages given below outline how adjectives are used in modern colloquial Welsh.
Adjectives are words which describe people, objects, and ideas. [1] [2] In a broad sense, they answer the question 'what kind of... ?': 'what kind of man is he?' – 'he is a tall man' – the adjective here is 'tall'. 'What kind of ball is it?' – 'a red ball'; 'what kind of book is it?' – 'a Welsh book', etc.
Adjectives are usually adjectives in their own right, but other words can be used as adjectives when they are used for describing or narrowing down. Nouns and verbs are the most likely candidates for this in both English and Welsh ('what kind of room?' – 'a living room' ystafell fyw (verb); 'a bedroom' ystafell wely (noun). [1]
Welsh also uses a special set of adjectives to show ownership or belonging, so-called possessive adjectives and these can be thought of as equating to the English possessive pronouns (my, our, your, his, her, its, their) but it must be emphasised that in Welsh these are adjectives and not pronouns and are dealt with below.
In Welsh, the usual position for adjectives (adjs.) is after the noun it qualifies, like French and unlike English. [1] Examples:
With sequences of adjs. like 'the big red bus' or 'dear little children', Welsh is more consistent than English, preferring always to place the size-term closest to the noun: bws mawr coch (mawr 'big', coch 'red'); plant bach annwyl (bach 'small', annwyl 'dear').
The Welsh initial consonant mutations are not outlined here; familiarity with them is assumed for the purposes of this article.
Adjectives following a feminine singular noun take the soft mutation (Welsh : treiglad meddal). [1] Neither masculine nouns (singular or plural) nor feminine plural nouns cause any mutation: [1]
This rule holds good regardless of whether or not the noun is used with the definite article (y / yr / 'r) – but this, of course, causes soft mutation to singular feminine nouns itself: [1]
Nouns and verbs used adjectively (that is, to describe another noun) are subject to the same rule. [1] If they are used to qualify (i.e. describe) a singular feminine noun, they must undergo soft mutation. See the following examples, all with feminine nouns: [1]
but the plurals: ystafelloedd byw; cyllyll bara; siopau blodau; rhaglenni teledu.
Welsh has about ten adjective modifiers in use in everyday speech. These are: [1]
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The modifier iawn 'very' comes after the adjective it modifies: [1]
The other adj. modifiers generally come before the adj.: [1]
In braidd yn 'rather...', the yn is an integral part of the phrase and the two cannot be separated. [1] Compare:
The yn is required with braidd where it would not be needed otherwise: [1]
With mae... sentences there is an alternative method when using braidd – and that is to place it after the adj.:
The modifier mor 'so' has its own peculiarities and is dealt with below.
In most cases the gender of the noun makes no difference to the form of the adj., but in older forms of Welsh many one-syllable and some two-syllable adjs. had different forms for masculine and feminine. [1] In the modern colloquial language only a few have preserved this distinction: [1]
Masculine | Feminine | English |
---|---|---|
gwyn | gwen | white |
byr | ber | short |
bychan | bechan | small |
crwn | cron | round |
trwm | trom | heavy |
tlws | tlos | pretty |
cryf | cref | strong |
gwyrdd | gwerdd | green |
llym | llem | severe |
melyn | melen | yellow |
According to the rules governing soft mutation, Welsh singular feminine nouns cause soft mutation to a following adj. The table below gives examples of the adjs. above in context with nouns. Masculine nouns must take the masculine adj. (with no mutation) and feminine nouns must take the feminine adj. (with soft mutation following singular nouns):
Masculine | Feminine | ||
---|---|---|---|
Welsh | English | Welsh | English |
cyfnod byr | a short period | stori fer | a short story |
tŷ bychan | a small house | gardd fechan | a small garden |
parsel trwm | a heavy parcel | ergyd drom | a heavy blow |
adeilad crwn | a round building | ffenest gron | a round window |
dyn llym | a severe man | profedigaeth lem | a severe trial |
ceffyl cryf | a strong horse | caseg gref | a strong mare |
However, feminine plural nouns do not cause mutation to the adj.: [1]
and masculine plurals never cause mutation:
However, these feminine forms of adjs. often revert to their masculine forms when separated from the noun by other words, [1] especially yn:
Some Welsh adjs. have plural forms. As with feminine adjs., this phenomenon was more widespread in older forms of the language and is very much the exception today. [1] Many of these plurals are formed by the addition of the suffixes -ion or -on, by changing an internal vowel, or both. Examples: [1]
These plural adjs. are more commonly found by themselves, rather than to qualify a noun, to denote ... people: [1]
In these cases where adjs. are used as nouns, English often prefers the singular: 'the blind', 'the rich', 'the poor', etc. but in some cases both English and Welsh use the plural: bwytwch eich gwyrddion! – 'eat your greens!'.
Otherwise, plural forms of adjs. are confined to set phrases, e.g. mwyar duon – 'blackberries' (sing. du); gwyntoedd cryfion – 'strong winds' (sing. cryf. But in normal everyday speech (and writing) 'black horses' would be ceffylau du not ceffylau duon; 'strong objections' would be gwrthwynebiadau cryf not ... cryfion. [1]
One adjective, however, which is always changed to the plural form is arall – 'other, another'. [1] The plural form is eraill and usually pronounced as erill (Welsh pronunciation: [/ˈɛr.ɪɬ/] ). [1] Examples using merch(ed) – 'girl(s)': [1]
But note that it is not usual to say * yr eraill for 'the others', [1] even though we have seen that this strategy is perfectly good for other adjectives above. For this we must use rhai: y rhai eraill – 'the others' ('the other ones') or the pronoun y lleill is used. [1] Similarly, 'the other one' can be either y llall or yr un arall. [1] The word rhai can be thought of as an irregular plural of un – 'one'. Examples:
As in English, there are two methods for this in Welsh and the decision on which to choose is largely based on a word's length. Words of one or two syllables usually add the suffixes -ach and -a [1] (in the literary register this is always spelt as -af but word-final -f/v/ is usually omitted in colloquial Welsh.) These suffixes correspond to the English '-er' and '-est', these forms are usually called 'comparative' and 'superlative'. [1] Examples:
Adjective | Comparative | Superlative |
---|---|---|
coch – red | cochach – redder | cocha – reddest |
ysgafn – light (weight) | ysgafnach – lighter | ysgafna – lightest |
tal – tall | talach – taller | tala – taller |
hardd – beautiful | harddach – more beautiful | hardda – most beautiful |
Note how, in the last example, the English translation does not use suffixes, but uses 'more' and 'most' because it is a longer word – we can say 'prettier' but not '*beautifuller'. [1] The same rule applies in Welsh, if the word is longer than two syllables the words mwy – 'more' and mwya – 'most' must be used: [1]
Adjective | Comparative | Superlative |
---|---|---|
cyfforddus – comfortable | mwy cyfforddus – more comfortable | mwya cyfforddus – most comfortable |
siaradus – talkative | mwy siaradus – more talkative | mwya siaradus – most talkative |
darllenadwy – legible | mwy darllenadwy – more legible | mwya darllenadwy – most legible |
Again, as with English, two-syllable words fall on the line and can often be used with a suffix or mwy/mwya, though there may be a local preference: [1]
Adjective | Comparative | Superlative |
---|---|---|
hapus – happy | hapusach / mwy hapus – happier / more happy | hapusa / mwya hapus – happiest / most happy |
doniol – funny | doniolach / mwy doniol – funnier / more funny | doniola / mwya doniol – funniest / most funny |
If in doubt which to use, the safest option is to use mwy/mwya as most derived adjectives invariably use it. [1]
The Welsh for 'than' is na (nag before vowels) and it should cause aspirate mutation (Welsh : treiglad llaes) to a following word, though in reality this mutation is not as wide-spread in speech as the literary standard would have us believe; [3] only C /k/ is regularly mutated while T and P are often left unmutated. [3]
The suffixes -ach and -a cause a 'hard mutation' to the final consonants -b, -d, and -g which become -p, -t, and -c, respectively. [1] The term 'hard mutation' is often used and is similar to that of the Cornish hard mutation - however this is not a term used by all grammarians for this phenomenon in Welsh, some refer to 'hardening' or 'fortition' or 'fortis/lenis pairs'.
The English 'as... as...' is differently expressed in Welsh, but is just as simple. It is expressed by mor... â/ag.... [1] The complexity here lies in the fact that mor causes soft mutation [1] and â causes aspirate mutation [1] (ag used before vowels).
There exists also a more stylised way of expressing 'as X as Y', where mor is replaced by cyn and the suffix -ed is attached to the adj. itself. [1] (cyn also causes soft mutation):
But the cyn -ed method is, nowadays, found only in set expressions in the colloquial language.: [1]
and can be used with certain, very common, irregular adjs. [1] In normal speech, mor is by far the most commonly heard option. [1]
The phrase mor belled, a combination of the two methods, is commonly used for 'so far':
In some Welsh speaking areas of Wales, one may hear a third option for 'as X as Y', using the very colloquial fatha (corruption of fath â) and can be translated as 'like'. Fatha causes aspirate mutation.:
A few adjs. have irregular comparative (-er) and superlative (-est) forms that must be learnt as they are encountered.
Adjective | Comparative | Superlative | Equative |
---|---|---|---|
da – good | gwell – better | gorau – best | cystal – as good |
drwg – bad | gwaeth – worse | gwaetha – worst | cynddrwg – as bad |
mawr – big | mwy – bigger | mwya – biggest | cymaint – as big |
bach – small | llai – smaller | lleia – smallest | cynlleied – as small |
uchel – high | uwch – higher | ucha – highest | n/a |
isel – low | is – lower | isa – lowest | |
hen – old | hŷn – elder | hyna – eldest | |
ifanc – young | iau – younger | fenga – youngest | |
hawdd – easy | haws – easier | hawsa – easiest | |
agos – near | nes – nearer | nesa – nearest | |
In the colloquial language, hen, ifanc, hawdd, agos are all often heard with regular forms instead, e.g. hena – 'oldest'; ifanca – 'youngest'; hawdda – 'easiest'; and agosa – 'nearest', due to morphological levelling.
Llai – 'smaller' and lleia – 'smallest' also do the work of 'less' and 'least' – in much the same way as mwy and mwya do for 'bigger/more' and 'biggest/most'. Compare:
The vast majority of Welsh adjs. come after the noun, however, there are some which always come before the noun and some which can be placed in either position, like in French. [1]
Adjs. which precede the noun always cause the soft mutation, except for pob. [1] Examples: hen gastell 'an old castle' [< castell], Prif Weinidog 'Prime Minister' [< Gweinidog], ambell air 'an occasional word' [< gair]. However, pob dyn 'every man' (no mutation), pob gardd 'every garden'.
There is, however, an alternative for 'all' – i gyd which follows the noun:
But in some cases, particularly with pronouns, only i gyd can be used:
The most common adjs. which always come before the noun are: [1]
Examples:
The interrogative adj. pa 'which... ?' always precedes the noun and causes the soft mutation: [1]
It is worth noting that English will often substitute what...? for which...?, [1] but the Welsh pa and never beth 'what' is always required. [1] In some areas of South Wales many people substitute pwy for pa: Pwy lyfr... ? [1]
In addition to those above, the following are prefixed to a noun or placed before it to form the following meanings (prefixes have a dash attached):
For example: cyn-lywydd 'former president' [< llywydd]; dirprwy bennaeth 'deputy head' [< pennaeth]; uwch olygydd 'senior editor' [< golygydd]; is-lywydd 'vice-president'.
Cryn 'considerable', used in certain quantity expressions, always precedes the noun: cryn dipyn (o) 'quite a bit (of)'; cryn nifer (o) 'quite a number (of)'. [1]
Where preceding and following adjs. are used at the same time, they will go in their proper places:
Pob always comes before the noun and does not cause mutation. [1] It corresponds to English 'every' or 'each' and must not be confused with pawb 'everyone'. Examples:
The combination yn 'in' + pob is usually written, and pronounced, as ymhob: [1]
Pob also appears in a number of common idioms, sometimes with a fixed soft mutation (i.e. as bob:
(Yr) hen is often used colloquially in terms of address, either as an insult or as a term of endearment. [1] In either case it has no bearing on age and does not really mean 'old' but corresponds to English 'you...':
It can sometimes be used as an intensifier: [1]
In Welsh, possession is shown by placing two nouns (or noun phrases) together with the possessor as the second element: ci Dafydd – Dafydd's dog. [1] However, Welsh also makes use of possessive adjectives; these help to identify who possesses something. It should be remembered that these adjs. are required in the literary language, but there is much variation in the colloquial register. [1] The most "correct" form of 'my dog' is fy nghi fi but one will hear 'y nghi; nghi, or very colloquially ci fi – though the latter is generally avoided. [1]
The poss. adjs. equate to the possessive pronouns of English (my, our, your, his, her, its, their) [1] and are placed before the noun with an optional pronoun following it – effectively "sandwiching" the noun between a poss. adj. and a pronoun. This would be akin to saying "my cat me, our cat us" in English. In the below table optional elements are written in parentheses: [1]
Singular | Plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Welsh | English | Welsh | English | |
1st | fy ...(i) (y)n ...(i) | my | ein ...(ni) | our |
2nd | dy ...(di) | your | eich ...(chi) | your |
3rd | ei ...(e/fe) ei ...(o/fo) | his | eu ...(nhw) | their |
ei ...(hi) | her | |||
Examples of mutation patterns with plant – 'children':
Singular | Plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Welsh | English | Welsh | English | |
1st | 'y mhlant (i) | my children | ein plant (ni) | our children |
2nd | dy blant (di) | your children | eich plant (chi) | your children |
3rd | ei blant (e) | his children | eu plant (nhw) | their children |
ei phlant (hi) | her children | |||
Examples of mutation patterns with cath – 'cat':
Singular | Plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Welsh | English | Welsh | English | |
1st | 'y nghath (i) | my cat | ein cath (ni) | our cat |
2nd | dy gath (di) | your cat | eich cath (chi) | your cat |
3rd | ei gath (e) | his cat | eu cath (nhw) | their cat |
ei chath (hi) | her cat | |||
Examples of mutation patterns with tŷ – 'house':
Singular | Plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Welsh | English | Welsh | English | |
1st | 'y nhŷ (fi) | my house | ein tŷ (ni) | our house |
2nd | dy dŷ (di) | your house | eich tŷ (chi) | your house |
3rd | ei dŷ (fo) | his house | eu tŷ (nhw) | their house |
ei thŷ (hi) | her house | |||
As can be seen from the above table, the plural forms do not cause consonant mutation, but all of the singular forms cause mutations – but remember: not all consonants are affected.
The above mutation patterns are considered "standard" for the spoken language and are what would be taught in adult learners' classes, however, there are variations from region to region – mostly with regards to the nasal and aspirate mutations which are often avoided by many speakers. [1] Thus, it is commonplace to hear variants like ei plant hi for 'her children' and even plant fi for 'my children' [1] (the latter example is definitely considered to be sub-standard but is gaining ground in areas of South Wales with younger speakers [1] ). The soft mutation, however, is an integral part of the language [1] and one would wholly expect to hear ei blant e for 'his children' rather than anything else. [1]
In the Literary language it is compulsory to add an initial h- to vowel-initial words when they follow ei ('her' only!), ein and eu: [1] ei hafal hi 'her apple', ein hafal ni 'our apple', and eu hafal hwy 'their apple' (notice that the third person plural pronoun hwy is different from the colloquial nhw).
In Colloquial Welsh, however, there is no consistency with this and many speakers simply do not do it. [1] Many learners often make the mistake of using it after eich 'your' (*eich hysgol chi) which is incorrect and must be avoided. [1]
The use of an 'echoing' pronoun placed after the possessed noun (ei hafal hi) is commonplace throughout the spoken language [1] and may have arisen as a means of disambiguating between ei and eu [1] which sound the same (/iː/) in many areas. [1] Thus ei iechyd – /iː ˈjɛχ.ɪd/ could mean 'his health', 'her health', or 'their health'. Adding the 'echoing' pronoun removes the ambiguity: ei iechyd e, ei iechyd hi, eu iechyd nhw. The use of the 'echoing' pronoun is completely optional in the spoken language [1] as consonant mutations and context will often remove any ambiguity.
The word fy is possibly the only Welsh word whose spelling in no way resembles its actual pronunciation. Its standard pronunciation, /və/, [1] is almost never heard in natural, unaffected speech at all and its use seems to only precede an unmutated /m/, [1] e.g. fy mam/və mam/. Regardless, fy is the standard spelling. [1]
'yn/ən/ reflects the actual pronunciation more closely [1] even though it is rarely seen so written. This is how fy is pronounced when the following word cannot undergo nasal mutation or where nasal mutation is avoided in speech. [1] So, fy ewythr i generally sounds like 'yn ewythr i – 'my uncle'. Fy siop i as 'yn siop i – 'my shop'; fy llaw i as 'yn llaw i – 'my hand'. [1] This 'yn pronunciation is a relic from an older form of Welsh where the word for 'my' was fyn, the final -n being the cause of the nasal mutation.
If the nasal mutation is used, fy tends to disappear altogether, leaving the mutation to do the job: [1] instead of fy mhlant (i) – 'my children' or 'y mhlant (i), one is more likely to hear mhlant (i). [1] In fact, the usual expression for 'my father' is simply nhad [1] [< tad].
There are only two points of note concerning dy 'your':
A change occurs in these words when they are preceded by the preposition i – 'for/to' – they are replaced by 'w, [1] and so pronounced. Examples:
Ein is yet another Welsh word which sounds as if it were written as yn/ən/. [1] Partly for this reason it is almost always found with its echoing pronoun, ni. [1]
Similarly, eich sounds as though it were written ych/əχ/. [1]
Both of these words lose their ei- element when they follow a word ending in a vowel: [1]
There are no mutations with eich or ein. [1]
Where the object of a verbnoun (VN) is a pronoun, this is usually expressed by the corresponding possessive adjective. [1] That is, 'see(ing) him' will literally be 'his seeing' – ei weld (VN gweld 'see'). This usage will be encountered:
In all cases, the consonant mutation patterns after possessive adjectives remain unchanged, [1] e.g. (fy) nanfon 'send(ing) me' [< danfon 'send']; ei danfon 'send(ing) her'; ei ddanfon 'send(ing) him', etc.
The 'echoing' pronoun usually appears after the VN in speech (but not always), [1] but is frequently omitted in writing. [1] Some speakers go a stage further and omit the possessive adjective and keep the echoing pronoun, resulting in a pattern much more similar to English. [1]
Examples of types (1) and (2) above:
Rhyw and rhai both translate the English 'some', [1] but with this distinction of meaning: rhyw is always followed by a singular noun, and so corresponds to English 'some ... (or other)'; [1] rhai is always followed by a plural noun and is simply the plural of un 'one'. [1] Rhyw causes soft mutation, but rhai does not cause mutation. [1] Compare:
However, if English 'some' does not correspond to either of these possibilities, then it should probably be left untranslated: [1]
In these two sentences, the word 'some' is present because it performs the function of a plural indefinite article. Welsh has no indefinite article (English 'a/an') and so here 'some' goes untranslated.
The use of rhai also extends to being used as a plural tag from which to hang other adjectives. [1] As discussed above, plural adjectives can be used as nouns to mean a general term for all of something, i.e. y cyfoethogion 'the rich' as in 'all the rich people' as a whole, but if we wish to speak of specific rich people we can say y rhai cyfoethog (singular adjective!) – 'the rich ones'. [1]
This highlights the use of rhai as a plural of un 'one', the same as English 'ones'. [1] The singular version of the above example would be:
Sometimes rhai 'some' contrasts with eraill 'others' (pl. of arall): [1]
Or the rhai can be repeated, as in English 'some ..., some ...' with eraill added optionally: [1]
A noteworthy word involving rhyw is unrhyw 'any': [1]
Amryw means 'several' (and causes soft mutation). [1] It is followed (in the modern language) by a plural noun: amryw ddynion 'several men'; amryw lyfrau 'several books'. [1]
Ambell means 'occasional' (and causes soft mutation). [1] It is most commonly heard, nowadays, in the expressions ambell un 'an occasional (one)' and ambell waith 'occasionally, sometimes'. [1] The latter is similar in meaning to the expression o bryd i'w gilydd. [1]
Y cyfryw means 'such a ...' and is not as common as it once was. [1] It is mostly heard in the set expression ... fel y cyfryw '... as such': [1]
For 'such a ...' the modern expression is usually y fath ..., [1] so 'such a thing' which may be encountered in writing as y cyfryw beth, [1] is more likely to be heard as y fath beth in modern speech: [1]
A very colloquial alternative to y fath is the loanword ffasiwn 'fashion' (causing soft mutation): [1]
While un means 'one', yr un specifically means 'the same'. [1] Its usage corresponds closely to its English equivalent:
Yr un can also mean 'not one' and 'each', but these do not fall within the scope of this article.
Welsh lacks direct equivalents of the English demonstrative pronouns 'this' and 'that'. In colloquial Welsh 'this ...' is phrased as 'the ... here', and 'that ...' as 'the ... there'. [1] The definite article ('the' in English) is placed before the noun and the adjectives 'ma 'here' and 'na 'there' are placed after it. [1] These are contractions of the words yma and yna. Examples:
With this phrasing there is no need to worry about grammatical number, that is there is no difference between this and these, or between that and those. [1] The plural forms are achieved by using a plural noun in the phrase: [1] y llyfrau 'ma 'these books' [lit.: the books here]. Examples:
In formally spoken and written Welsh, however, a different set of demonstrative adjectives is generally used. [1] They work in the same way as the above demonstrative adjectives in that the noun is still preceded by the definite article and followed by a demonstrative adj. [1] However, they have masculine and feminine forms in the singular: [1]
Singular | Plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
this | that | these | those | |
Masculine | hwn | hwnnw | hyn | hynny |
Feminine | hon | honno |
Examples:
Masculine | Feminine | ||
---|---|---|---|
y llyfr hwn | this book | y daflen hon | this leaflet |
y llyfr hwnnw | that book | y daflen honno | that leaflet |
y llyfrau hyn | these books | y taflenni hyn | these leaflets |
y llyfrau hynny | those books | y taflenni hynny | those leaflets |
These forms of the demonstrative adjs. also function as pronouns ('this one, that one', etc.), [1] in which case they are also part of the colloquial language. [1]
Aside from the suffixes -adwy and -edig (see below), it is difficult to determine specific meanings for most of the adjective suffixes used in modern Welsh today. [1] It is easier for the learner to learn the meanings of individual adjectives as encountered. [1]
The most productive suffix, by far, is -(i)ol which forms a vast number of Welsh adjs., [1] mostly from nouns: [1]
but also from verbs: [1]
The suffix -aidd can be added to adjectives to moderate their sense, as with English -ish: [1]
or to a noun, deriving an adj.: [1]
In borrowed words it often corresponds to English -ic(al): [1]
The suffix -adwy is added to verb-stems, [1] and corresponds to English -able, -ible: [1]
The -edig suffix can be added to hundreds of verbs to mean -ed, [1] but is more restricted in use than its English counterpart in that it is used strictly as an adj. to qualify a noun [1] and not as a participle:
In many cases in Welsh, other constructions involving wedi and i'w also translate English -ed, depending on the circumstances. [1] Compare:
These alternative constructions go beyond the scope of this article and are not dealt with further here.
The suffix -gar forms adjs. mostly from verbs and denotes possession of the quality: [1]
but also from nouns: [1]
The suffix -ig (as opposed to -edig – see above) forms adjs. from nouns, [1] often displaying changes within the word: [1]
It appears in many loanwords from English adjs. ending in -ic: [1]
but some -ig adjs. are not derived from any obvious base-noun: [1]
The -lon suffix forms a limited number of adjs. from nouns: [1]
The suffixes -llyd / -lyd form adjs. mostly from nouns, sometimes from verbs: [1]
The -og suffix forms adjs. mostly from nouns. [1] It often has the sense of 'possessing a quality': [1]
The -us suffix forms adjs. from nouns: [1]
but a few adjs. in -us are from verbs: [1]
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Brithenig, or also known as Comroig, is an invented language, or constructed language ("conlang"). It was created as a hobby in 1996 by Andrew Smith from New Zealand, who also invented the alternate history of Ill Bethisad to "explain" it. Officially according to the Ill Bethisad Wiki, Brithenig is classified as a Brittano-Romance language, along with other Romance languages that displaced Celtic.
Swedish is descended from Old Norse. Compared to its progenitor, Swedish grammar is much less characterized by inflection. Modern Swedish has two genders and no longer conjugates verbs based on person or number. Its nouns have lost the morphological distinction between nominative and accusative cases that denoted grammatical subject and object in Old Norse in favor of marking by word order. Swedish uses some inflection with nouns, adjectives, and verbs. It is generally a subject–verb–object (SVO) language with V2 word order.
Persian grammar is the grammar of the Persian language, whose dialectal variants are spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Caucasus, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It is similar to that of many other Indo-European languages. The language became a more analytic language around the time of Middle Persian, with fewer cases and discarding grammatical gender. The innovations remain in Modern Persian, which is one of the few Indo-European languages to lack grammatical gender.
Middle Welsh is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh.
The morphology of the Welsh language has many characteristics likely to be unfamiliar to speakers of English or continental European languages like French or German, but has much in common with the other modern Insular Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and Breton. Welsh is a moderately inflected language. Verbs inflect for person, number, tense, and mood, with affirmative, interrogative, and negative conjugations of some verbs. There is no case inflection in Modern Welsh.
Gender neutrality in languages with grammatical gender is the usage of wording that is balanced in its treatment of the genders in a non-grammatical sense. For example, advocates of gender-neutral language challenge the traditional use of masculine nouns and pronouns when referring to two or more genders or to a person of an unknown gender in most Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic languages. This stance is often inspired by feminist ideas about gender equality. Gender neutrality is also used colloquially when one wishes to be inclusive of people who identify as non-binary genders or as genderless.
Breton is a Brittonic Celtic language in the Indo-European family, and its grammar has many traits in common with these languages. Like most Indo-European languages it has grammatical gender, grammatical number, articles and inflections and like the other Celtic languages, Breton has two genders: masculine and feminine. In addition to the singular–plural system, it also has a singulative–collective system, similar to Welsh. Unlike the other Brittonic languages, Breton has both a definite and indefinite article, whereas Welsh and Cornish lack an indefinite article and unlike the other extant Celtic languages, Breton has been influenced by French.
The syntax of the Welsh language has much in common with the syntax of other Insular Celtic languages. It is, for example, heavily right-branching, and the verb for be is crucial to constructing many different types of clauses. Any verb may be inflected for three tenses, and a range of additional tenses are constructed with auxiliary verbs and particles. Welsh lacks true subordinating conjunctions, and instead relies on special verb forms and preverbal particles to create subordinate clauses.
The morphology of the Welsh language shows many characteristics perhaps unfamiliar to speakers of English or continental European languages like French or German, but has much in common with the other modern Insular Celtic languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and Breton. Welsh is a moderately inflected language. Verbs conjugate for person, tense and mood with affirmative, interrogative and negative conjugations of some verbs. A majority of prepositions inflect for person and number. There are few case inflections in Literary Welsh, being confined to certain pronouns.
Zotung (Zobya) is a language spoken by the Zotung people, in Rezua Township, Chin State, Burma. It is a continuum of closely related dialects and accents. The language does not have a standard written form since it has dialects with multiple variations on its pronunciations. Instead, Zotung speakers use a widely accepted alphabet for writing with which they spell using their respective dialect. However, formal documents are written using the Lungngo dialect because it was the tongue of the first person to prescribe a standard writing, Sir Siabawi Khuamin.
This article concerns the morphology of the Albanian language, including the declension of nouns and adjectives, and the conjugation of verbs. It refers to the Tosk-based Albanian standard regulated by the Academy of Sciences of Albania.
Quenya is a fictional language devised by J. R. R. Tolkien, and used in his fictional universe, Middle-earth.
Cornish grammar is the grammar of the Cornish language, an insular Celtic language closely related to Breton and Welsh and, to a lesser extent, to Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic. It was the main medium of communication of the Cornish people for much of their history until the 17th century, when a language shift occurred in favour of English. A revival, however, started in 1904, with the publication of A Handbook of the Cornish Language, by Henry Jenner, and since then there has been a growing interest in the language.
This article describes the grammar of the Old Irish language. The grammar of the language has been described with exhaustive detail by various authors, including Thurneysen, Binchy and Bergin, McCone, O'Connell, Stifter, among many others.
Colloquial Welsh prepositions deals with the prepositions of the colloquial Welsh language, the spoken register of the modern Welsh language as spoken in Wales by first-language speakers. This page does not deal with the literary standard forms of the prepositions nor any dialect which may have arisen outside of Wales. Welsh has two standardised forms: Literary Welsh – a conservative language reserved for literary purposes which retains some features of older Welsh; and Colloquial Welsh – the Welsh one will hear being spoken in Welsh speaking areas. For the most part the two languages share prepositions, though for some of them their usages can differ; there are also some which have lost their inflected forms in the colloquial language but is preserved in the literary standard. Colloquial Welsh also shows some variation in initial-consonant mutations, which is explained below, while the literary form retains the "proper" mutations in all cases. Welsh prepositions do perform the same roles as English prepositions but there is variation and these must be learnt as they are encountered. For instance it is often taught that Welsh am means 'for' and i means 'to'; this is not incorrect but am can also mean 'about' or 'at' and i can mean 'for'. The usages given below outline how each preposition is used in modern colloquial Welsh.
Colloquial Welsh nouns deals with the nouns of the colloquial Welsh language, the spoken register of the modern Welsh language as spoken in Wales by first-language speakers. This page does not deal with the literary standard forms nor any dialect which may have arisen outside of Wales. Welsh has two standardised forms: Literary Welsh – a conservative language reserved for literary purposes which retains some features of older Welsh; and Colloquial Welsh – the Welsh one will hear being spoken in Welsh speaking areas. For the most part the two languages share rules governing nouns, though one may encounter differences. Colloquial Welsh also shows some variation in initial-consonant mutations, which is explained below, while the literary form retains the proper mutations in all cases.
Turkmen grammar is the grammar of the Turkmen language, whose dialectal variants are spoken in Turkmenistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and others. Turkmen grammar, as described in this article, is the grammar of standard Turkmen as spoken and written by Turkmen people in Turkmenistan.
The grammar of the Manx language has much in common with related Indo-European languages, such as nouns that display gender, number and case and verbs that take endings or employ auxiliaries to show tense, person or number. Other morphological features are typical of Insular Celtic languages but atypical of other Indo-European languages. These include initial consonant mutation, inflected prepositions and verb–subject–object word order.