Breton/Level 1/Lesson 4

Mutations Foreword : This lesson does not deal with exceptions. Please refer to the next lesson on mutations for a full explanation including exceptions. Definition A mutation is the change of the first letter of a word according to different contexts. Examples : Mamm (mother) --> Ar vamm (the mother) Kozh (old) --> Mamm gozh (Grand mother) Table of mutations Mutations in Breton obey to regular phonetics laws. They are summarized in the table below (details to be found in the rest of this page) : Image:Bzhg Table Mutations simplified.jpg Mutations to soften ("dre vlotaat") InitialK G Gw P B M T DMutationG C’h W B V V D Z Soft mutation happens in the following cases : after a, da, daou, div, dindan, diwar, dre, e (possessive), eme, en em, en ur, hanter, holl, na, ne, pa, pe, re, war... after the article for the feminine singular words and the related adjective after the article for the masculine plural person names (except when the plural is in -où) and the related adjective Soft Mutation will be noted (S!) Following letters are affected: B becomes V D becomes Z K becomes G G becomes C'H GW becomes W P becomes B M becomes V T becomes D Examples : Breur (brother) gives Da vreur Dant (tooth) gives Da zant Glin (kneel) gives Da c'hlin Mutations after the article (simplified) This lesson does not treat of the following exceptions (the next lesson on mutations gives the corresponding rules) : Plac'h (girl) Dor (door) Bag (boat), tra (thing) Tadoù (fathers), testoù (witnesses), priedoù (husbands), mestroù (chiefs) Here is a summary for mutations after the article : Image:Bzhg Table Article mutations simplified.jpg Here is a presentation of the rules regarding the mutations after the article : Image:Bzhg Article mutations simplified.jpg Go to the Quiz Mutations of the adjective epithet (simplified) This lesson does not treat of the following exceptions (the next lesson on mutations gives the corresponding rules) : Plac'h (girl) Dor (door) Bag (boat), tra (thing), amzer (weather), avel (wind), c'hwezh (odour) Labour (work) Person names Tadoù (fathers), testoù (witnesses), priedoù (husbands), mestroù (chiefs) Here is a summary for mutations of the adjective epithet : Image:Bzhg Table Epithet mutations simplified.jpg Here is a presentation of the rules regarding the mutations of the adjective epithet : Image:Bzhg Epithet mutations simplified.jpg Go to the Quiz Mutations to harden ("dre galetaat") InitialB D GMutationP T K Hard mutation happens in the following cases : Possessive "ho" (yours) After "az, "ez", "'z" (you - sg.) After "da'z ..." (to yours ...) After "ez" (in yours ...) Hard Mutation will be noted (H!) Following letters are affected: B becomes P D becomes T G becomes K Examples : Breur (brother) gives Ho preur Dant (tooth) gives Ho tant Glin (kneel) gives Ho klin Mixed mutations InitialB D G GW MMutationV T C'H W V Image:BZHG spirant and mixed mutations.jpg Mixed mutation happens in the following cases : Present participe Formed by "o" + Verb. After verb particle "e" After "ma" (That) Mixed Mutation will be noted (M!) Following letters are affected: B becomes V D becomes T G becomes C'H GW becomes W M becomes V Examples : Deskiñ (to learn) gives O teskiñ Gortoz (to wait) gives O c'hortoz Spirant mutations InitialP T KMutationF Z C'H Spirant mutation happens in the following cases : After "ma" or "va" (mine) After "he" (Hers) After "o" (Theirs) After numbers : tri, teir, pevar, peder, nav Spirant Mutation will be noted (Sp!) Following letters are affected: P becomes F T becomes Z K becomes C'H Examples : Penn (head) gives Va fenn Kador (chair) gives Va c'hador Exercises Go to the Quiz Local variations , frequent errors The rules presented above match the most common usage. However, in some cases, local forms exist that are different. Also, errors in mutations are frequent ... Mutation variants Usage ratio(Google estimate) Precise Google request Comment Ar Brezhoneg 99500 "Ar Brezhoneg" Ar Vrezhoneg 723 "Ar Vrezhoneg" Clearly a mistake ! Ma mamm 557 "Ma mamm" Ma vamm 8 "Ma vamm" Va mamm 264 "va mamm" zo mat Va vamm None "va vamm" zo mat Ma tad 129 "Ma tad" mab Ma dad None "Ma dad" mab Ma zad 358 "Ma zad" mab Va zad 314 "Va zad" zo mat Ar mamm 40 "Ar mamm" zo mat Ar vamm 786 "Ar vamm" zo mat An tad 988 "An tad" zo mat An dad 29 "An dad" zo mat Ar zad None "Ar zad" zo Caution : Some Google matches may not be in Breton but in some other language ! The figures are an approximation ! deep