Hi. I’m new here and completely new to Welsh. I’d like to know what the tense and/or mood of “bendithied” is, as in “Bendithied yr Arglwydd di”. I’m asking because some Welsh friends will be getting married in chapel and I’d like to try to write something for them. I’m not religious myself (in fact I’m nominally Jewish!) but I thought it would be nice to do it in Welsh.
Thanks for any help.
Tony.
Well, yr means the, when doing a possessive of a thing, the thing being possessed comes before the possessor (so “the town hall” becomes “hall the town”), and bendith is commonly used when someone sneezes (similar to bless you), so it’s most likely “the something’s blessings” - bendithied probably being the plural. Having said that, this is mostly guesswork. Hope that helps.
What Hector said, plus bendithied (from bendithio “to bless”) is an (archaic) 3rd person singular imperative (sorry about that), so roughly translated it is something like “let the Lord bless you”
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Are you in Wales? Try and get hold of the marriage service, or a friendly vicar, minister, pastor, priest, and ask them.
Diolch i bawb. I’ll be in Wales on Thursday, so will seek out a friendly pastor then! Would the archaic “bendithied” be unchanged if the “you” were plural? So something like " Bendithied yr Arglwydd chdi"?
Yes. But chdi is singular, not plural. It’s a singular that’s used in parts of the north. Chi is the plural, though in very formal circumstances you might see chwi.
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You will find at the above link the orders for marriage services in Welsh and English, so print off both.
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Thank you robbruce. A silly error on my part.
That’s really helpful, Y_Ddraig_Las. Thank you.
This means ‘May the Lord bless you’ - it’s the same form as ‘O bydded i’r hen iaith barhau’…
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Thank you to everyone. The words appear in part in the marriage service, with “you” changed to “us”. I’d like to have “you” (plural). Apologies that Middle Welsh is not a lot of use when shopping in Llandudno.
So far, I have:
Bendithied yr Arglwydd chi,
a chadwed chi:
(is this ok?)
A llewyrchedd yr Arglwydd ei wyneb arnawch,
a thugarhaed wrthyt:
(I’m not getting very far with “llewyrchedd” or “thugarhaed”, I think “arnawch” may be an archaic second person plural of the archaic “arnat”, and that “wrthyt” is second person singular and not the plural, which I’d like).
Dyrchafed yr Arglwydd ei wyneb arnawch,
a rhodded i chi dangnefedd
(The original has “wynab”, but “wyneb” seems more common, and “rhoddedd” is, I think, an archaic form of “rhoi”).
O bydded yn wir…
(Please correct)
You need to change ‘arnawch’ to ‘arnoch’, and ‘wrthyt’ to ‘wrthych’ - I’d guess that it’s ‘llewyrched’ and ‘thrugarhaed’ - might be a good idea to run this past a vicar somewhere though… 
Thank you again, Aran. I will be going vicar-hunting later today.
I have found a different version of the prayer in the 1790 Welsh translation of the 1711 Irish “A Form of Prayer for the Visitation of Prisoners”.
…Perhaps not.
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Tony,
Very good link to the whole thing in the googlebooks link you posted - thanks it is a very good exercise in translation of some distant Welsh and it reads beautifully. It seems a very strong piece for a wedding mind you, I have to say.
Literal translation is tricky, because it just flows nicely as it is and I can just imagine a preacher/minister saying it, but these words should help:
From GPC:
Llewyrychedd: Goleuwr, goleuydd: illuminator, enlightener.
Thugarhaed may be a misspelling or alternative spelling of Trugarhaed?
trugar [tru±gar; Llyd. Diw. trugar, H. Wydd. trócar] a. a hefyd gyda grym enwol.Trugarog, calon-dyner, tosturiol: merciful, tender-hearted, compassionate.
Dyrchafed - dyrchafad:
dyrchafiad, drychafiad, dyrchafad, &c. [bôn y f. dyrchafaf: dyrchafu, &c.±iad1, -ad2] eg. ll. dyrchafiadau (dr.), a’r ff. dyrchafad hefyd fel a.Y weithred o ddyrchafu, codiad; gwelliant mewn safle, swydd, &c., llwyddiant (tymhorol); mawrygiad, mawrhad, gogoniant; symudiad (sant) o’r ddaear i’r nefoedd, dyrchafael (Crist); Ser. uchder corff nefol, &c., uwchlaw’r gorwel; ymchwydd (dyfroedd): a
raising or lifting up, rise, elevation; promotion, advancement; exaltation, glory; translation (of saint), ascension (of Christ); elevation (in astronomy); surge, swell (of waters).
also for completeness. Chadwed obviously related to cadw, but very common in chadwad form, showing the following alternative types of translatations:
cadwad [bôn y f. cadwaf: cadw±ad1] eg. ll. cadwadau.Cadwraeth, gwarchodaeth, cadwedigaeth; cyflawniad, cwblhad, gweinyddiad: keeping, custody, preservation; observance, performance, celebration.
Dangnefedd:
tangnefedd [tangnef±edd1] eg.b.a Heddwch (meddwl), hedd, llonyddwch, tawelwch, gorffwys; cymod, cytundeb heddwch, cadoediad; (geir.) ffafr; hefyd yn ffig.: peace (of mind), quiet, tranquility, rest; reconciliation, peace treaty, armistice; (dict.) favour; also fig.
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This is great toffidil. Thank you. I don’t want anything heavy, so your comment is helpful.
Toffidil evidently doesn’t mean what I thought: Google Translate suggested translating from Estonian. Apparently the Estonian word toffidil means toffidil in English, so there we are.
T.
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I probably should change the name if I could - I didn’t realise the different ways it could sound. I made it up from To and Ffidil, from the Welsh expresssion don’t put your fiddle in the roof - meaning dal ati/ don’t give up, but I don’t like it much any more…
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I don’t know if this is helpful, but I have the bilingual Methodist Service Book, published 1999, so definitely Modern!! (This is not Calvinistic Welsh Methodist, but the kind that began with Wesley!)
If you post in here the words you would like to use, in English, I’ll try to find the nearest equivalent!
Example:
A and C, May God be your protection and your wisdom, your guide and your peace, your joy and your comfort.
A ac C, Bydded i Ddyw fod yn amddiffynfa ac yn ddoethineb i chi, bydded iddo eich arwain, a rhoi i chi dangnefedd, llawenydd a diddanwch.
I would still recommend that @aran checks my spelling as my vision isn’t what it once was and typos blight my typing!!
I thought it was a play on daffodil - cennin Pedr 
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toffidilda sounds quite good. I still find it hard to believe that daffodil itself isn’t a word of Welsh origin (maybe it is?) - it just sounds Welsh to me.
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