Introduction
Connections between the people of Wales, Cornwall,
Northern Ireland, Scotland, - the so-called Celtic regions or nations within the UK - and
their links with England have been thrust into the headlines recently.
The BBC has reported that a major study of DNA by experts
at Oxford University reveals that genetically there is not a unique group of
Celtic people living in the UK[i].
The results are also said to demonstrate that
there is a genetic basis for regional identities in the UK.[ii]
Genetics apart, however, it is arguable that geography,
history and culture have interacted to ensure that places like Wales and
Ireland share a good many characteristics.
Early spring affords a couple of examples.
In the sporting arena, March has demonstrated their dazzling prowess on the fields of rugby.
Culturally, the countries’ patron saints are celebrated days apart, March 1 and March 17 to be precise.
In the sporting arena, March has demonstrated their dazzling prowess on the fields of rugby.
Culturally, the countries’ patron saints are celebrated days apart, March 1 and March 17 to be precise.
In music, the common denominator is
internationally-recognised quality.
Wales
has Bryn Terfel, Katherine Jenkins and Tom Jones; Ireland has Van Morrison, the
Chieftains and James Galway.
In poetry, Dylan
Thomas and Seamus Heaney are two of many accomplished wordsmiths. Whether sung or spoken, it is apparent that love
of words is a common bond that unites people in Wales and Ireland.
Philology
Why are connections between words and expressions in different
languages so endlessly intriguing?
As an
A-level student, I used to marvel at unlikely verbal similarities between Irish
and French.
How could these same words be so different in “the Queen’s English?”
How could these same words be so different in “the Queen’s English?”
My small store of examples included the English word egg,
which (especially when pronounced) is practically the same in Irish ubh and oeuf in French.
Church in
English is eaglais in Irish and the
French église has a similar
resonance.
Book in English reads as leabhar in Irish (where the aspirated b becomes a w sound rather than the v
it becomes in other contexts) and in French this is exactly what seems to
happen with livre.
Other examples of Irish and French words that differ from
English include money which is airgead
in Irish and argent in French (both
also meaning silver).
A final example is
the English salutation Good Health or cheers, in Irish sláinte and the similar (but not identical) santé in French.
Building on this background, I want to compare some
everyday aspects of Welsh and Irish linguistics including, for good measure,
some sideways glances at Cornish.
We
will examine some nouns, followed by a look at grammatical forms where words
can mutate, consonants can be eclipsed, and vowels lengthened.
Just how much joy and excitement can linguistics throw at us?
Just how much joy and excitement can linguistics throw at us?
To round off, we will
consider a sample of surnames and place-names to exemplify further linguistic and
historical connections between Wales Ireland and also Cornwall.
1. Vocabulary
There are two families of Celtic languages, representing separate
immigrations.[iii] The Goidelic (or Gaelic) branch includes the
Gaelic of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man; the Brythonic (or British)
consists of Welsh, Cornish and Breton.
This explanation comes from the man credited as the father of reviving the Cornish language, Henry Jenner, just over a century ago.
This explanation comes from the man credited as the father of reviving the Cornish language, Henry Jenner, just over a century ago.
He adds that
“though
no one who studies both (branches) can fail to be struck by their affinity in
vocabulary, grammar and idiom, the speakers of different branches are no more
mutually intelligible than an Englishman and a German would be...”
Perhaps this background rationalises the closeness of
some Welsh and Irish nouns and verbs at the same time as an apparent absence of
connection in many words.
The two
language branches differ in ways, one of which is
“the substitution of P for Q in the Brythonic languages which has led to
the labels P and Q Celtic. The sound qu
in Goidelic became represented by c; in Brythonic it was replaced by p.”[iv]
Ellis cites the example of the number four which in Irish
is ceathair and in Cornish is peswar.
Four in Welsh is pedwar.
Other
P Q examples are the Celtic languages’ word for head: in Irish it is ceann, in Welsh (and in Cornish) it is pen; the English word son in Irish is mac, and in Welsh and Cornish is map.
This illustrates that the P and Q impact can appear at the start and/or
end of nouns. Another example is the
English word everyone, which in Irish is cách
(or gach duine) and in Welsh is pawb
(pup in Cornish).
Cornwall’s patron saint is St Piran. The occasion is marked, as with the Welsh and Irish equivalents' in March (the fifth).
Most interestingly, this name is another example of the P/Q differential.
Piran is the Cornish form of the Irish Ciarán.
Since Irish (I) is a cousin rather than a sibling of
Welsh (W) and Cornish (C), it is all the more exciting to discover words which
are comparable as they look and sound similar in all three languages.
Examples include the following.
The English word Land is tir (W), tyr (C), tír
(I); wave in English is ton (W and
C), tonn (I); river in English is avon (W and C), abhann (I); weather in English is amser (W and C), aimsír (I);
the adjective sweet in English is melys
(W and C), milis (I); and full in
English is llawn (W), lun (C), lán (I)[v].
Examples of Welsh words that are spelt differently but
pronounced similarly to Irish equivalents include[vi]:-
- the number one is un (W) aon (I);
- the number ten is deg (W) déag (I);
- the English word for paper is papur (W) and papéir (I);
- the English adjective narrow is cul (W) and caol (Ir);
- church in English is eglwys (W), eglos (C), and eaglais (I); and
- the English book is leabhar (I), llyfr (W), and lyver (C).
I also detect similarity in rhythm, if slightly less
similarity in pronunciation in the Welsh and Irish words for the English
adjective cloudy, gymylog (W) and scamallach (I).
Sameness and difference are also evident comparing days
of the week in Welsh (W) and Irish (I).
Sameness
is evident in three -
- Monday is dydd llun (W) dé Luain (I); Tuesday dydd Mawrth (W) dé Máirt (I); and Saturday is dydd Sadwrn (W) dé Sathairn (I).
- Sunday is dydd Sul (W) dé Domhnaigh (I); Wednesday is dydd Mercher (W) dé Céadaoin (I); Thursday is dydd Iau (W) dé Déardaoin (I); and Friday is dydd Gwener[vii] (W) dé hAoine (I).
2. Mutation
Aspiration Eclipse Accents
Perhaps it is another example of Welsh and Irish being
cousins rather than brothers/sisters, but the processes of eclipse and
aspiration which happen in Irish appear also in Welsh, if under the more
generic description of linguistic mutation.
Whatever the categorisation, the broad phenomenon is common to both
languages.
The Welsh place-name Bangor is the same word in English
and Welsh.
However, when you say “in
Bangor”, the name mutates when spoken in Welsh to ym Mangor.
“In Wales”
spectularly mutates Cymru to yng Nghymru[viii].
The Welsh word for a pub is tafarn. Saying in the pub
and the noun mutates to become yn y
dafarn.
With words like school, ysgol in Welsh, in the school remains yn yr ysgol.
In Irish, “in County Tyrone” reads as i gcontae Thír Eoghain, with the c of contae
eclipsed by a g and the T in Tír aspirated with a seibhiú.
Preceeding a vowel-led place-name, some cases
change the Irish i (meaning in) to in.
Hence, “in Holywood” reads in Ard
Mhic Nasca; while in some other vowel-led place-names the Irish i changes to san.
Examples are san Iúr in Newry and san Ómaigh, in Omagh. Being my birthplace, the latter deserves an
honourable mention.
The reason for insertion of the n in these cases is that some place-names are known in Irish as
“the” (say Omagh), An Ómaigh in
Irish; and the vowel in the definite article An demands an n to
accompany the word in, i or sa becoming in or san before somewhere beginning with another vowel.
Numbers
(incomparably different words in Welsh and Irish - (W) talmau and (I) uimhreacha)
can also mutate nouns. In Welsh, one
ticket is un tocyn, two tickets dau tocyn; but three reads as tri thocyn.[ix]
Counting
in Welsh highlights instances of where mutation occurs and where it is
absent. For example, nothing mutates
from one to nineteen; yet between 20-29, every number mutates the word for ten,
deg in Welsh, to ddeg.
This produces dau ddeg, which means twenty, or
literally two ten.
It continues with dau ddeg un 21, dau ddeg dau 22, dau ddeg tri
23, dau ddeg pedwar 24, dau ddeg pump 25, dau ddeg chwech 26, dau ddeg
saith 27, dau ddeg wyth 28, and dau ddeg nau 29.
Inexplicably
(to me) and what makes the process so endearing is the fact that no further
mutation happens in any of the other decades, thirties to nineties inclusive.
Mutation
returns for some but not all of the hundreds.
Whereas 100 in Welsh is cant, 200 mutates the noun to dau
gant, 300 mutates it to tri chant, 4
and 500 have no impact on cant (pedwar
cant and pum cant respectively),
600 mutates it to chwe chant, and 7 8
and 900 do not mutate cant (saith cant,
wyth cant and naw cant
respectively).[x]
Irish
contains four types of numerals - cardinal numbers, cardinal numbers with noun,
personal numbers, and ordinal numbers.
Little mutation occurs with cardinal numbers, apart from number one
which changes from aon to a haon, eight which changes from ocht to a hocht, eleven becomes a
haon déag, and twelve which aspirates the déag to a dó dhéag.
Cardinal
numbers with a noun sometimes eclipse and occasionally aspirate.
For example, “one year” and “two years” cause
certain nouns’ first letter to be aspirated – aon bhliain, dhá bhliain; three four five and six years mutate the
noun-end, trí bliana ceithre bliana cúig
bliana sé bliana; whereas seven eight nine and ten years eclipse the noun –
seacht mbliana ocht mbliana naoi mbliana
deich mbliana.
Welsh
has seven vowels, Irish has five.
All of
them can be elongated by accentuation.
Welsh uses a circumflex in all seven (â, ê, î, ô, û, ŵ, ŷ), whereas Irish employs a fada (long) for its
vowels (á, é, í, ó, ú).
To illustrate
the importance of an accent, its influence is such that it can change the
meaning of a word – páiste is a child, but paiste is a patch.
3. Place-names
and surnames
Place-names and surnames are an important source of
information about linguistic, as well as historical and cultural connections
between Celtic countries. On occasions
place-names and surnames interact as corroborative evidence.
Surnames can derive from place-names.
The Gaelic Irish word for Wales is An Bhreatain Bheag, Little Britain in
English.
The fourth most common surname
in Ireland is the anglicised name Walsh,
or Breatnach in Irish. It means Briton, or literally Welshman.
It was taken to Ireland by Welsh Cornish and
Cumbrian soldiers during and after the Norman invasion or Ireland.[xi] Variants include Walshe, Welsh, Brannagh and
Breathnach.
Just as this author’s surname derives from Nordic
invaders[xii], the Shakespearean actor
Kenneth Branagh the accomplished folk musician Máire Breatnach and the
boss of IAG (the parent company of British Airways and Iberia) Willie Walsh - all owe their uninvited visiting antecedents
from Little Britain a deferential nod of acknowledgement.
The most popular surname in Wales is Jones.
Less well-known is
the fact that the surname Jones is also found in every Irish county.
As if to corroborate the Walsh example, the
internet surname database explains that Jones’s prevalence in Ireland reflects
the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1170.[xiii]
Another example of a surname popular in both countries is
notable for sharing a nominal linguistic root.
In Wales, the name Hughes
derives from Hu or Huw, meaning fire
or inspiration.
In Ireland it derives
from Ó’hAodhe (grandson of Aodh, phonetically in one syllable uee),
and meaning inflammation or fire. Ó’hAodhe is anglicised to Hughes as well
as Hayes.
As well as meaning the same
thing, pronunciation of the Welsh Huw
and Irish Aodh sounds similar.
Place-names, unsurprisingly, can reflect geographical or
architectural features.
For example, the
English term for mouth of a river is translated into Welsh as Aber and as Béal in Irish. Two words with no resemblance whatsoever, apart from their meaning.
Hence, cities
such as Abertawe (Swansea) and Béal Feirste (Belfast) express their
estuarine existence unambiguously.
Incidentally, Aberfala is the
Cornish for Falmouth, which sits on the River Fal.
Whereas Aber and Béal have no apparent linguistic
resemblance, other prefixes are uncannily similar.
The Welsh word for island, Ynys, describes the country’s
north-westerly off-shore island, Ynys Môn. No Celtic place-name could be more anglicised
than Anglesey.
The Gaelic Irish word Inis describes the situation of Inis Ceithleann, or Kathleen’s island,
Enniskillen the county town of Fermanagh.
Interestingly, the same noun Enys
appears in Cornish. The noun’s plural is
shown in The Scilly Isles, Enesek Syllan. A slightly uncanny if serendipitous
comparison.
The Welsh word for a castle (or city) is Caer.
It is a prefix to several Welsh place-names. Examples include Caerdydd (Cardiff) and Caerfyrddin
(Carmarthen).
Caer on its own is the Welsh word for the English city of
Chester.
The Gaelic Irish equivalent,
and pronounced almost identically is cathair. It means ringfort or city.
For example, Cahir in County Tipperary
(pronounced care, not cah-hir) was built around a thirteenth century castle,
itself sited on a stone ring-fort.
The Cornish surname Pascoe derives from an important festival. It also provides an example of the impact of P and Q Celtic on surnames.
Easter in Cornish is Pask. In Welsh it is Pasg.
I carried the Paschal Candle as an altar boy one year at Easter Sunday's ceremonial procession.
I carried the Paschal Candle as an altar boy one year at Easter Sunday's ceremonial procession.
Easter in Irish is Cáisc.
Conclusion
Examining Welsh and Cornish words adds to the intrigue
from the accidental discovery of connections between Irish and French as a youthful
student.
To find, for example, that the
Welsh and Cornish words for church and book are so similar to Irish (and to the
French) stirs the imagination.
To learn,
at the same time, that other verbs and nouns have no apparent connections, as
in four of the week-days while the other three are alike, baffles.
And yet both Welsh and Irish use forms which
create linguistic mutation – what seems like a common Celtic trait.
Visitors to our home nations love the fact that our place-names and surnames look almost unpronounceable yet can be translated into English.
Surnames can reveal historical clues about events like battles.
Surnames can reveal historical clues about events like battles.
Invasion from Wales to Ireland many hundreds
of years ago is reflected by the prominence of two highlighted surnames.
I recall the BBC's veteran Irish broadcaster Terry Wogan
rationalising Ireland’s successes in the Eurovision Song Contest as being
because Ireland is the only country never to have invaded anywhere.
And now I discover that even Wales invaded us way back.
And now I discover that even Wales invaded us way back.
But to find another example of a surname, like Hughes,
which is not a transported name, evolving from the same linguistic root and
independently of each other in both countries speaks to a similarity of
cultural mindset in the two Celtic nations.
The explanation for the co-existence of philological similarities
juxtaposed with striking differences seem to attest empirically to the fact of
there being two distinctive branches of Celtic linguistics.
Could this be the real origin of the phrase
“mind your Ps and Qs?"
Never mind your DNA.
Never mind your DNA.
The good news is that everybody knows
what the most important, yet totally dissimilar, terms of endearment mean in Welsh and in Irish -
Iechyd da and sláinte.
As a mark of our internationalist credentials, the closing list shows how the sentiment is expressed elsewhere.
As a mark of our internationalist credentials, the closing list shows how the sentiment is expressed elsewhere.
Prost. German
Salud. Spanish
Cin cin. Salute. Italian
Slàinte mhath. Scots Gaelic
Skål. Swedish
ура. Russian
건배 Korean
Cheers. English
[i]
Nature Journal 19 March 2015 “People of the British Isles Project.”
[iii]
A Handbook of the Cornish Language. Henry Jenner (2010 reprint of original 1904
texts)
[iv]
The Cornish language and its Literature P Berresford Ellis Routledge &
Kegan Paul 1974
[v]
Ibid. pp6,7
[vi]
Beginner’s Welsh with 2 audio CDs. Heini Gruffudd. Hippocrene Books New York.
2008
[vii]
Ibid p 183
[viii]
Ibid p 155
[ix]
Ibid. P 50.
[x]
Ibid. p 52.
[xii] “The
name Somhairle and its clan” H Palsson, from “So Many People, Longages &
Tonges,” Edinburgh 1981.
[xiii]https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Surnames_in_Wales,_Ireland,_Cornwall_Genealogy,_Isle_of_Man_%28National_Institute%29
Acknowledgement: Maureen Hurndall, Queens University Belfast
