Mixed Mutations

Welsh General / Questions
#1

I’m sure we’ve all got our soft, aspirate and nasal mutations down pat ( I know I have!) but my attention has just been caught by the mixed mutation (MM) which according to, Garerth King, combines elements of soft mutation (SM) and aspirate (AM)…My question has anyone got any examples of, MM as I’ve no idea of what he’s talking about? I’m out to take my tafod to the next level; so want to get my - MMs - in order. Diolch!

#2

I’ve no idea about mixed mutations but I do know someone that is quite partial to a double mutation now and then. :blush:

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#3

You know it already, but you haven’t put a name to it.

With short form negatives, we know that they have a softened initial consonant, but in the cases of c, t and p, this goes all aspirant. So, yrrais i ddim = I didn’t drive (or send) but phrofais i ddim = I didn’t experience.

Because the mutation differs according to the initial consonant, this is (sometimes) referred to as a mixed mutation.

Note to readers for whom this may as well be about Klingon: Don’t worry about it - it’s not really that important after a couple of pints of Rev. James.

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#4

This was mentioned in one of my OU tutorials. It occurs after using ‘ni’ instead of dim to indicate the negative in literary Welsh. Apparently it comes up a lot in news reports. P, c and T mutate aspirately and d,b,g,m,r,h and ll mutate softly. The examples the tutor gave were: ni phriododd eriod - she never married, ni cholliodd hi ei hallweddi - she didn’t lose her keys and ni wyliodd hi y teledu - she didn’t watch tv.

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#5

Relating this directly to the SSiW courses, we have these short forms:

des i and the negative ddes i ddim (d softens to dd) - “I came / I didn’t come”

but

ces i (commonly ges i), but the negative form is ches i ddim (c undergoes aspirant mutation to ch) - “I got / I didn’t get”

Hwyl,

Stu

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#6

The full list (from Wikipedia): A mixed mutation occurs after the particles ni (before a vowel nid), na (before a vowel nad) and oni (before a vowel onid) which negate verbs.

#7

Diolch!!! Yes, I have been using it…M and Ms are sweet.