‘swallowing’, llafur ‘labour’, cred ‘belief’, tywydd ‘weather’; or derivative as syched ‘thirst’, tristwch ‘sadness’, ffyddlondeb ‘fidelity’, glendid ‘cleanliness’.
But a large number of abstract nouns have pl. forms: chwant ‘desire’, pl. chwantau; coel ‘belief’, pl. coelion, etc.; see § 120 i (4), § 121 ii (3), § 122 ii (4).
ii. Nouns denoting material or substance, as mêl ‘honey’, glo ‘coal’, ymenyn ‘butter’, gwaed ‘blood’, baw ‘dirt’, llaeth ‘milk’, etc.
There are many exceptions: dyfroedd ‘waters’, sg. dwfr; cigau ‘meats’, ydau § 131 iv, etc.
arian in the sg. means ‘silver’, thus yr arian hwn ‘this silver’, arian byw ‘quicksilver’; but arian is also pl., and as pl. means ‘money’, as yr arian hyn ‘this money’, arian gwynion or arian gleision ‘white’ or ‘grey money’, i. e. silver coins. More rarely aur is pl. in a similar sense: aur melynion or aur rhuddion W.Ỻ. 2. Similarly heyrn the pl. of haearn means ‘irons’ as fire-irons, etc.
The names of woods have the same form as the pl. of the names of trees; thus derw ‘oak’ or ‘oak-trees’, sg. derwen ‘oak-tree’. The same form is used (like arian, aur, haearn, etc.) as an adj.: cadair dderw ‘oak chair’; onn ‘ashen’, etc. (but not ɥnn etc.):
- Llithio ’r wyd y llath hir onn
- Ar galonnau’r gelynion.—T.A., a 14975/95.
‘Thou feedest the long ashen spear on the hearts of the enemies.’
iii. Diminutive nouns in ‑an, ‑ig, ‑cyn, ‑cen; as dynan ‘a little, person’, oenig ‘a little lamb’, bryncyn ‘hillock’, llecyn ‘place’, ffolcen ‘foolish girl’.
If the word does not exist without the suff., or if without the suff. it is an adj., it has a pl. in ‑od, rarely ‑au; mudanod ‘deaf-mutes’, llebanod, etc. § 123 ii (2), ewigod do. (1); crymanau‘sickles’.
iv. Archaic and poetical words such as bun ‘maid’, iôr ‘lord’, cun ‘lord’, huan ‘sun’ § 113 i (5).
v. Proper names of places, months, days, feasts; as Cymru, Ebrill, Calan, Nadolig. Except Suli̯au ‘Sundays’, Sadyrnau ‘Saturdays’. Other days thus: dyddiau Llun ‘Mondays’, etc.
Nouns with no Singular.
§ 134. A few nouns are used in the pl. only: i. bonedd ‘gentlefolk’; rhïeni ‘parents’; nouns in ‑w͡ys denoting inhabitants, as Monwys ‘men of Môn’ § 38 viii.
