Has anyone noticed that on the wales touristboard advert, re - the signs in english, the sign at the end that says welcome to wales, the welsh version spells wales 'Gymru', whereas the last part spells it 'Cymru'.

Maybe someone can clarify a reason, or is it a mistake?

Hello there.

It's not a mistake. it's all to do with mutations of words. The normal word is "Cymru".

However, depending on what context the word is used in, the word before "cymru" and a few other things, the word mutates. sometimes it goes to Gymru, sometimes to Ngymru. I think there maybe a few other mutations that are useed too. I'm not sure what they are though as am not a fluent welsh speaker (yet!) The Welsh language is particularly mad when it comes to words changing and being spelt/pronounced differently depending on the context/gender/preceding word etc etc... it makes learning the language particularly difficult!

cheers
Andy

No doubt some Welsh speaker will be able to clarify this, but I believe that Welsh nouns vary at the beginning, rather than at the end as in many other languages, depending on the case. E.g. in Latin you have mensa (= table as a subject), mensam (= table as a direct object), mensae (= "of the table" - you get the drift.

So, maybe Cymru means something like (welcome) "to Wales" and Gymru means (goodbye) "from Wales"?

Edit: damn! beat me to it... though it looks like I was on the right lines

[Edited on 03.01.2006 by Humbug]

Thanks

stop watching so much tv and get back out in the garage

as Andy says it's a mutation . Some letters change based on the letter proceeding them. In the case of croeso i gymru -the c changes to a g as it follows an i. In the case of the cyrmru starting with the n, this is because it was proceeded by un in the phrase !

Other letters change according to what preceeds them.

I think this is right

Hmmm there are a few other mutations in Wales as well

Phil M

Just noticed where you live - I've been on this forum for over a year and didn't know there were 2 of us from Llanelli!

Regards

Wyn

quote:

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Originally posted by lsdweb
Phil M

Just noticed where you live - I've been on this forum for over a year and didn't know there were 2 of us from Llanelli!

Regards

Wyn

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How time flies when you're having fun!