View source for Welsh

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{{quote|Welsh is of this soil, this island, the senior language of the men of Britain; and Welsh is beautiful.|[[J.R.R. Tolkien]]<ref name=TW/>{{rp|189}}}}
'''Welsh''' is the [[Celtic]] language spoken throughout Wales and some nearby parts of England. [[Mark T. Hooker]] observes that "Tolkien's definition of Welsh does not exactly coincide with the modern perceptions of the word. When Tolkien says Welsh, it is as a portmanteau that includes Cornish and Breton as well."<ref name=TW>[[Mark T. Hooker]], ''[[Tolkien and Welsh]]''</ref>{{rp|1}}

==Sindarin==
{{quote|The names of persons and places in this story were mainly composed on patterns deliberately modelled on those of Welsh (closely similar but not identical). This element in the tale has given perhaps more pleasure to more readers than anything else in it.|J.R.R. Tolkien<ref>{{MC|5}}, p. 197</ref>}}
 
[[J.R.R. Tolkien|Tolkien]] admits to have been greatly inspired by Welsh when creating the [[Elvish]] language [[Sindarin]].<ref>{{PE|17}}, p. 40</ref> Several similarities have been pointed out:

===Grammatical number===
Editor [[Carl F. Hostetter]] has noted that the singular form ''[[lotheg]]'' is formed by the addition of a diminuitive/singular ending ''-eg/-ig'' to the plural form ''[[loth]]'', much like in Welsh where a singular noun can derive "from a plural form by the addition of a singular ending".<ref>{{VT|42a}}, p. 30 (note 42)</ref>

The situation in Welsh is, however, more complex. Welsh has two number systems at play: singular-plural (like English) and collective-singulative (sometimes referred to as collective-unit).<ref name="KingNumber">{{cite book |last=King |first=Gareth |year=2016 |orig-year=1993 |chapter=54-92 Nouns–Noun Number |title=Modern Welsh – A Comprehensive Grammar |language=English |edition=Third |location=London and New York |publisher=Routledge |pages=49–77 |isbn=978-1-138-82630-4}}</ref> Welsh uses two suffixes for deriving a singulative from a collective: ''-en'' for feminine nouns and ''-yn'' for masculine nouns.<ref name="KingNumber" /> Collective nouns are used of things that are often found in large numbers or frequently kept in groups, some examples are: trees, pigs, children, and ants. For example the Welsh ''moch'' ('pigs, swine') gives ''mochyn'' ('a pig, a head of swine'); ''plant'' ('children') gives ''plentyn'' (a child) (also note the change of the root vowel from 'a' to 'e' in ''plant'' > ''plentyn''); ''coed'' ('wood, forest, trees') gives 'coeden' ('a tree') but also ''drew'' ('oak trees') gives ''derwen'' ('an oak tree'); some collective-singulative nouns are not as obvious, like ''mellt'' ('lightning') gives ''mellten'' ('a fork/flash of lightning.') The Welsh collective has a sense of a homogenous whole that the English plural cannot accurately convey, though the noun "foliage" in English is about as close as one can get.<ref name="KingNumber" />

These singulative suffixes come from an older Celtic diminutive suffix which became repurposed as a singulative marker.

===Initial consonant mutation===
====Welsh mutations====

Initial consonant mutation is a feature of all extant Celtic languages. Tolkien also incorporated a system similar to that of Welsh into Sindarin. In Welsh these mutations are older phonological changes which have become grammaticalised. Usually (but not always) triggered by prepositions, articles, possessive adjectives, and qualifiers, the mutations of Welsh serve as an integral part of its grammar - especially the mutation known as the ''soft mutation''.

The basic outline of the Welsh mutations is given here:

{| class="wikitable"
|- style="background: #efefef;"
! Radical
! Soft
! Nasal
! Aspirate
|-
| p {{IPA|/p/}}
| b {{IPA|/b/}}
| mh {{IPA|/m̥/}}
| ph {{IPA|/f/}}
|-
| t {{IPA|/t/}}
| d {{IPA|/d/}}
| nh {{IPA|/n̥/}}
| th {{IPA|/θ/}}
|-
| c {{IPA|/k/}}
| g {{IPA|/ɡ/}}
| ngh {{IPA|/ŋ̊/}}
| ch {{IPA|/χ/}}
|-
| b {{IPA|/b/}}
| f {{IPA|/v/}}
| m {{IPA|/m/}}
| 
|-
| d {{IPA|/d/}}
| dd {{IPA|/ð/}}
| n {{IPA|/n/}}
| 
|-
| g {{IPA|/ɡ/}}
| {{IPA|∅}}*
| ng {{IPA|/ŋ/}}
|
|-
| m {{IPA|/m/}}
| f {{IPA|/v/}}
| 
| 
|-
| ll {{IPA|/ɬ/}}
| l {{IPA|/l/}}
|
|
|-
| rh {{IPA|/r̥/}}
| r {{IPA|/r/}}
|
|
|}

====Sindarin mutations====

The mutations of Sindarin are not fully understood. Below are given the mutations proposed by David Salo in his book ''A Gateway to Sindarin'':

{| class="wikitable"
! Radical
! Soft
! Nasal
! Stop
! ''Liquid?''
! Mixed
|-
! t /t/
|d /d/
|th /θ/
|th /θ/
|th /θ/
|d /d/
|-
! p /p/
|b /b/
|ph /f/
|ph /f/
|ph /f/
|b /b/
|-
! c /k/
|g /g/
|ch /χ/
|ch /χ/
|ch /χ/
|g /g/
|-
! d /d/
|dh /ð/
|n /n/
|
|dh /ð/
|
|-
! b /b/
|v /v/
|m /m/
|
|v /v/
|
|-
! g /g/
|(deleted)
|ng /ŋ/
|
|(deleted)
|
|-
! m /m/
|v /v/
|
|
|v /v/
|
|-
! (n)d /d/
|n /n/
|nd /nd/
|nd /nd/
|d /d/ 
|nd /nd/
|-
! (m)b /b/
|m /m/
|mb /mb/
|mb /mb/
|b /b/
|mb /mb/
|-
! (n)g /g/
|ng /ŋ/
|ng /ŋg/
|n-g /ŋg/
|g /g/
|ng /ŋg/
|-
! lh /ɬ/
|l /l/
|l /l/
|l /l/
|l /l/
|l /l/
|-
! rh /r̥/
|r /r/
|r /r/
|r /r/
|r /r/
|r /r/
|-
! s /s/
|h /h/
|
|
|
|h /h/
|-
! h /h/
|ch /χ/
|ch /χ/
|ch /χ/
|ch /χ/
|ch /χ/
|-
! hw /ʍ/
|chw /χw/
|chw /χw/
|chw /χw/
|chw /χw/
|chw /χw/
|-
|}


==External links==
*{{WP|Welsh language}}
*[http://glaemscrafu.jrrvf.com/english/welsh.html Texts and sound samples] at [[Glǽmscrafu]]
{{references}}
[[Category:Languages (real-world)]]