Welsh/Grammar/Pronouns
Personal pronouns
[edit | edit source]| English | Cymraeg | English | Cymraeg |
|---|---|---|---|
| I, me | i/fi | we, us | ni |
| you (informal/singular) | ti | you (formal/plural) | chi |
| he, him | e/fe (South) o/fo (North) | they, them | nhw |
| she, her | hi |
The pronouns listed can vary in their forms amongst speakers. In the North, the second person singular form chdi (earlier thdi from the reduplicated form tydi (thou, thyself)) is not unheard of, and some speakers retain the archaic form chwi for the plural. Northern speakers retain the objective form of the first person singular pronoun mi in the prepositional phrase i mi ("to/for me"). Some speakers retain an older form ef for the masculine third person singular. The third person plural pronoun hwy(nt) is strictly literary.
Possessive adjectives
[edit | edit source]Where English has possessive pronouns (my, your, his, her, their), Welsh has possessive adjectives. This is because Welsh possession is shown by apposition of the nouns, e.g. het Sioned 'Sioned's hat' or canol y dref 'centre of the town'. With grammatical persons, however, Welsh has a set of helpful adjectives which equate to the English possessive pronouns. These possessive adjectives come before the noun being possessed which is also often followed by the pronoun of the person - effectively "sandwiching" the possessed noun between the adjective and the pronoun, as shown below. After the singular possessive adjectives there is a mutation, (soft, nasal or aspirate), but not after the plural adjectives. If the following word begins with a vowel ei, ein and eu cause h-prosthesis to the noun, meaning it receives a new initial h, e.g. ein hafal ni 'our apple' [< afal].
| English | Cymraeg | Mutation | English | Cymraeg | Mutation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| my | fy ... i | nasal | our | ein ... ni | +h |
| your (informal, singular) | dy ... di | soft | your (formal or plural) | eich ... chi | |
| his | ei ... e/fe, o/fo | soft | their | eu ... nhw | +h |
| her | ei ... hi | aspirate, +h |
Fy can have different forms colloquially (y(n); 'm and 'n can occur after vowels; when triggering nasal mutation, fy is sometimes dropped entirely leaving the mutation to do the work, e.g. nhad (i) 'my father' rather than fy nhad i). The rest of the possessive adjectives can also take different forms after vowels: dy > th, ei > 'i (after vowels except i) or w (after i), ein > 'n, eich > ''ch, eu > 'u (after vowels except i) or 'w (after i).