25 Colours in Welsh
Welsh Colours: More Than Just a Shade
Ever wondered how the Welsh language paints the world? The colours of the rainbow (enfys) in Welsh have a unique depth to them. Unlike English, the Welsh words for colours change depending on whether they're describing a masculine, feminine, or plural noun. These variations are a vibrant part of the language and are still widely used today.
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The Curious Case of Blue and Green
In Welsh, glas means blue and gwyrdd means green. Pretty simple, right? Not always.
For example, a "blue car" is a car glas. But if you're talking about a "green field," it's a maes glas! This is because when describing vegetation like fields, grass, leaves, or pastures, glas takes on the meaning of green.
Here are a few examples:
- tir glas - our name!! means green land.
- maes glas - green field.
- Ynyslas - green island.
- dail glas - green leaves.
Plurals and Feminine Colours
The Welsh language also has special forms for plurals and feminine nouns, which are still very common.
Plurals: Some Welsh colours have a plural version when describing multiple things.
- Y Gleision - the Blues
- Crysau Duon - Black shirts (also used to refer to the famous All Blacks rugby team)
- Drysau Gwyrddion - Green doors
Masculine and Feminine: Certain colours have a different form depending on if the noun they describe is masculine or feminine.
- Het werdd - a green hat (het is a feminine noun)
- Car gwyrdd - a green car (car is a masculine noun)
- Pel wen - a white ball (pel is a feminine noun)
- Ty gwyn - a white house (ty is a masculine noun)
A Rainbow of Colours
25 Colours in Welsh
- Arian, silver
- Aur, gold
- Beis, beige
- Brown, brown
- Coch, red
- Du, black
- Efydd, bronze
- Fioled, violet
- Fflamgoch, crimson
- Glas, blue
- Glasgoch, violet
- Gwinau, auburn
- Gwyn, white
- Gwyrdd, green
- Hufen, cream
- Llwyd, grey
- Llwydfelyn, beige
- Melyn, yellow
- Melyngoch, orange
- Oren, orange
- Pinc, pick
- Piws, purple
- Piwswyn, purple
- Porffor, purple
- Rhudd, crimson
Want to learn a fun way to remember them? Here's a popular Welsh children's song about the colours of the rainbow:
Lliwiau Enfys (Rainbow Colours) Coch a melyn a fioled a glas, Porffor ac oren a gwyrdd. Dyma lliwiau enfys, Lliwiau enfys, Lliwiau enfys hardd.
Translation: Red and yellow and violet and blue, Purple and orange and green. Here are the colours of the rainbow, Colours of the rainbow, Colours of the beautiful rainbow.