Welsh Surnames & the Welsh Language

Is Jones a Welsh surname? Is there a 'J' in the Welsh alphabet? A nuanced take on Welsh surnames and the Welsh language rooted in actual historical sources which you can look at below!

#Genealogy #Wales

This video was created by Dai Davies of GenealCymru without the use of generative AI.

Check out my sources:
Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru/The Welsh Dictionary

Coupland, N., et al. 2006. Imagining Wales and the Welsh language.
Parry, G., & Williams, M. A. 1999. The Welsh Language and the 1891 Census.
Rowlands, John, & Shiela Rowlands. 1996. The Surnames of Wales.

Ball, Martin John. 1988. The Use of Welsh, on Google Books.
Cushman, Stephen, et al. 2012. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Welsh Poetry, on Google Books.
Jones, Mari C. 1998. Language Obsolescence and Revitalization, on Google Books.
Pryce, Huw. 2022. Writing Welsh History, on Google Books.
Pryse, Robert John. 1859. Orgraph yr iaith Gymraeg, on Google Books.
Thomas, Peter Wynn. 1996. Gramadeg y Gymraeg, on the Internet Archive.

Morris-Jones, J. 1913. A Welsh Grammar.

Images:

A special thanks to the following institutions for their dedication to digitizing historical records. The Public Domain images used in this video are over 100 years old or 70 years has passed since the passing of their creator:

ArtUK
National Library of Wales
National Library of Wales on Flickr
Internet Archive
New York Public Library
Yale Center for British Art
Wellcome Collection
Digital Commonwealth
Boston Public Library
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Artvee
Library of Congress

Other Image Rights
William Salesbury 2017 cc-by-sa 4.0 Llywelyn2000

[rhobatbrynjones]

There is a natural 'j' sound in Welsh which needs to be represent by its own letter. The word 'Duw' is often pronounced as 'Jiw' in everyday speech.

However there is an interchangeability between the letter 'j' and the letters 'si' pronounced 'sh' before a vowel. So the country Japan is spelt Siapan in Welsh. Going the other way, the sound 'si' becomes J in English. For example the Welsh name Siencyn became Jenkins in English.

[charleneford]

It’s amazing when you think about how languages change but still have the basic rules. Thank you very informative.

[MrGrahawk]

J is also a recent addition (as in 17th century) to the English alphabet. A variant of i.

[Zastrava]

<ng>/ŋ/ is actually a pretty common sound in English! It just can't be found word-initially, only word-finally (like in sing, bring, going, &c). It can be found in a lot more environments in Welsh.

<ch>/x/ can also be found in a few English dialects like Scottish English, but isn't super common.

Great video! Excellent overview on patronymics and family names and orthography standardization in the Welsh context.

I agree with you. I think J has a place in the Welsh alphabet because the language should reflect how it's actually used by Welsh speakers, not how academics think it should look

[jonathanjenkins]

Many thanks for your always informative videos!❤

[CarlsLingoKingdom]

Diolch yn fawr iawn! Super interesting to see the potential letters we could've had at 6:25 which are used still in Gàidhlig.

[siondafydd]

14:02 "Jawl" is just a Welsh pronounciation of the English "devil", Welsh has a word for the devil, "diafol". And Sqije is a weird way to spell it (with the q?), but is just a loose pronounciation of "esgidiau".

[davinadavies]

Excellent research and video! Thanks for the information!

[cennethadameveson]

Is it true that earlier Welsh use the letter K ( Kymru, Kaer) not C as we do today, I belive this was due to the printing press and printers have far more C's than K's?
I'd like to see the Icelandic đ and Đ used fo dd and Dd, it would stop having to cram two letters into the little squares in crosswords!

[barbarapugh]

I enjoyed this information on Welsh names very much. My husband has Jones on his mothers side and Pugh on his fathers side. It has been a challange. Thank you for sharing this information

[MONTY-YTNOM]

Lived just down the road from that Chapel in Lampeter

[IanDuckworth-nb]

When I was in the British army I visited a Welsh regiment on which their soldiers had so many common Welsh names they had numbers added to them, as in Williams l/2/3 etc.

[Knappa]

Jones comes from John. It means son of John.
Welsh has its own original variations of the name John or more accurately of Latin/Biblical name Ioannes or Johannes. This renders Efan, Ifan, Ioan, Iwan, Ieuan etc in Welsh.
The Welsh surname Evans is derived from the first of these original variations.
Welsh also directly borrowed the English ‘John’ at a later date, this gave the name ‘Siôn’ (cf Jane = Siân, Janet = Sioned, Joanne = Siwan etc)
Jones therefore is not *really* a Welsh surname. The true Welsh version is ‘Evans’.

[amyhergest]

My Ystradgynlais mamgu's expletive of choice was a word referenced in your video, but I always thought it was spelled diawl - which would make sense given the Latin influences on the language, which would make it cognate with words like diabolism and attendant variations. Also, we used to live in a place called Coelbren, not five miles from Ystradgynlais x

[kirabowie]

My great granny's surname was Peters and she and her sister were born in Wales and her family moved to America when she was like 2 years old.

[BatManson-qp]

Wild man. Some wild and wacky words they got going on over there.

[SherryHill-ky]

He was my step-grandfather and his last name was Morgan. Welsh ancestry? Yes. On my mom's paternal line is the surname James. Thank you!

[tommunyon]

One of my greatgrandmothers was of Welsh ancestry. Her surname was Delap. Some sources trace this to a variation of the Scottish Dunlap. Other sources attribute it to migrations from the Low Countries under the Norman occupation.

[DWbo-rv]

J is not a natural part of the Welsh alphabet.
A very recent addition that many speakers still refuse to accept

[davidioanhedges]

The Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru is taking the same approach as the OED, document actual usage, don't proscribe, describe
A language needs to change and adapt to be a living language, any attempt to regulate or set it in stone will fail
French has the Académie Française which is largely ignored and laughed at by French speakers