The page of Brithenig

`Yn nediwn seint yn llinghedig, yn nediwn seint yn cor'

Verbs

Brithenig verb conjugations are supported by Verbix

Canhar to sing
Perdder to lose
Dorfir to sleep

Eo wa per yn turn inawant gweddir a'll lleith, `I go for a walk before going to bed'
Dibws rher-mi eo bran, `After getting up I have breakfast'

Eo fi ref a ffôner-lla, I got up and phoned her

Eo er subr ffôner-gw, I was about to phone you.

Brithenig distinguishes different endings to go with each person and and number. The singular forms are unmarked, -n goes with nw, -nt goes with ys and sa when they are plural, and -th goes with gw, and -nt goes with ys and sa when they are plural. The `-t' on the third person plural ending is silent, in the spoken language there is no difference between this and the ending of the first person plural verb. Also the initial consonant undergoes soft mutation in the singular verb (except after ys) or spirant mutation in the plural verb. Just as standard English always indicates the third person singular with the ending -s (he carries), so these endings must also always be used in Brithenig. If an object pronoun is inserted before the verb, then the verb always undergoes mutation, soft before a singular pronoun, spirant before a plural pronoun.

A verb is reflexive when when its subject and object are the same person: eo fi law, I wash (myself); in Brithenig the object is not omitted.

In speech the first `w' on gw 'w loses it vocalic quality and the combination is pronounced `gwoo'.
Sometimes `myself', etc are used for emphasis and not as the object of a reflexive verb. In such cases it is translated as medissif:

Eo fedissif widd llo char, I see the cars myself.

canhan singing
perdden losing
dorfin sleeping

Eo yst canhan: I am singing
Ys ystafant dorfin: they were sleeping

ill of dorfin, the sleeping man
Lla ffwyn ganhan, the singing woman

The past participle has the ending -d:

canhad sung
perdded lost
dorfid slept

ffaeth, done, made, from ffager, to do, to make;
dith, said from diger, to say;
yscrith, written from yscrifer, to write;
dwyth, led from duger, to lead;
gwist, seen from gwidder, to see;
rhuth, broken from rhumper, to break;
clos, closed from clodder, to close;
mwrth, dead from morir, to die.

`I was singing' can also be translated as eo ystaf canhan.

Remember that the final -f on the singular verb is silent.

The past definite describes a completed and unrepeatable action that happened in the past. Some verb endings have been lost and replaced with the imperfect, or with a compound past tense:

There are a small number of verbs where the past definate is irregular, one such verb is diger, to say:

Clws from clodder, to close;
Cymhrwys from cymmrêner, to understand;
Cyrs from cyrrir, to run;
Dwys from duger, to lead;
Lleis from lleir, to read;
Mis from mither, to send;
Tens from tener, to stretch.

Eo wa wenir cyngwsc, I am going to come with you.

Ys yscrifera yn garth He will write a letter

Ys digef (ke) ys yscriferew yn garth He said that he would write a letter

S'eo 'w h-er, eo ffagerew rhen If I were you, I would not do it.
S'eo ai gwist-llw, eo afrew parlad a lle If I had seen him, I would have spoken to him.

S'ys gwen eo barlarai a lle If he comes I will speak to him.

I llo ddiwrn llâ nw h-amlarewn sempr a'll castr, In those days we would always walk into town, or, In those days we always used to walk into town.

`Whose' can be translated by ke sew before the noun or by di'll cal after it. `When' and `where' are translated respectively as can and ill llwg (ke).

Brithenig uses disjunctive pronouns in dependent clauses:

Lla garth (k') eo yscrifef lla, The letter that I wrote
Lla ffwyn (k') eo barlaf cyseg, The woman that I spoke with

Can in Rhwfein, ffâ si llo Rhwfan ffegiant, When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Past Subjunctive:

The word for `not' is rhen. It comes after the verb phrase:

eo su rhen, `I am not'

Eo nghant rhen, I do not sing.
Gw mherddefan rhen, you did not lose.
Ys norfira rhen, he will not sleep.

E'gw ystad nonc ci inawant? 'Have you ever been here before?'
No, eo su ystad nonc ci inawant, No, I have never been here before.

`There is' or `there are' is sa es:

Sa es di llo char, `There are some cars'.

Sa es rhen di llo char, 'There aren't any cars'

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