blwydd

Welsh

Etymology

From Middle Welsh blwyð, from Proto-Brythonic *bluɨð, from Proto-Celtic *blēdū (“year”),[1] related to *blēdanī (the source of blwyddyn and Old Irish blíadain), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyd- (“pale”), though the semantic connection is weak.[2] See also Lithuanian blaĩvas (“whitish, blue, sober”), Proto-West Germanic *blait, Albanian blehurë.

Celtic cognates include Cornish bloodh, Breton bloaz; Old Breton blened, Welsh blynedd.

Pronunciation

Noun

blwydd f (plural blwyddi)

  1. year (of age)
    Mae e'n flwydd
    He's a year old.
    Bydd hi'n wyth mlwydd oed yfory.
    She will be eight years old tomorrow.

Usage notes

In Welsh, blwydd refers to age and is the word used for a single year and is also found after numbers. The plural blwyddi is little utilised. When referring to any other kind of year, the word is blwyddyn in the singular, blynyddoedd in the plural and the special form blynedd is used after numbers.

Unlike other nouns, blwydd takes a nasal mutation when it appears after the numbers pum, saith, wyth, naw, or deg.

Mutation
Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
blwydd flwydd mlwydd unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References
  1. Schrijver, Peter C. H. (1995) Studies in British Celtic historical phonology (Leiden studies in Indo-European; 5), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, page 243
  2. Matasović, Ranko (2009) “bledani”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 69

Further reading

R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “blwydd”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies

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