In Welsh language

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

, Cynghanedd (kəŋ̊ˈhaneð, literally "harmony

Harmony

In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...

") is the basic concept of sound-arrangement within one line, using stress

Stress (linguistics)

In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...

, alliteration

Alliteration

In language, alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of Three or more words or phrases. Alliteration has historically developed largely through poetry, in which it more narrowly refers to the repetition of a consonant in any syllables that, according to...

 and rhyme

Rhyme

A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.-Etymology:...

. The various forms of cynghanedd show up in the definitions of all formal Welsh verse

Verse (poetry)

A verse is formally a single line in a metrical composition, e.g. poetry. However, the word has come to represent any division or grouping of words in such a composition, which traditionally had been referred to as a stanza....

 forms, such as the awdl

Awdl

An awdl is a long poem written in Welsh in one of the twenty-four strict metres, using cynghanedd. Such poems are considered among the finest work that a poet can aim to produce, and prizes are given at eisteddfodau for the best awdl....

. Though of ancient origin, cynghanedd and variations of it are still used today by many Welsh-language poets. A number of poets have experimented with using cynghanedd in English-language verse, for instance Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...

. Some of Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas

Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...

' work is also influenced by cynghanedd.

Forms of cynghanedd

The first example below is from the poem Cywydd y Cedor, by the fifteenth-century female poet Gwerful Mechain

Gwerful Mechain

Gwerful Mechain , who lived in Mechain in Powys, is perhaps the most famous female Welsh-language poet. Little is known of her life....

. The caesuras are marked with slashes ("/") and rhyming parts are marked in bold. Note that Dd, Ll and Ch are single consonants (digraphs) in the Welsh alphabet

Welsh alphabet

Welsh orthography uses 28 letters of the Latin script to write native Welsh words as well as older loanwords.The acute accent, the grave accent, the circumflex and the diaeresis mark are also used on vowels, but accented letters are not regarded as part of the alphabet.The letter j is accepted in...

.

Cynghanedd groes ("cross-harmony")

All consonants surrounding the main stressed vowel before the caesura

Caesura

thumb|100px|An example of a caesura in modern western music notation.In meter, a caesura is a complete pause in a line of poetry or in a musical composition. The plural form of caesura is caesuras or caesurae...

 must be repeated after it in the same order. However, the final consonants of the final words of each half of the line must be different, as must the main stressed vowel of each half. For example:

clawdd i ddal / cal ddwy ddwylaw
CL Dd Dd L / C L Dd Dd L

Here we see the pattern {c l dd dd [accent] l} present on both sides of the caesura. The stressed vowels are (a short monophthong) and (the diphthong /uj/).

In cynghanedd groes there are no consonants in the second half of the line which are not part of the consonantal echoing. The vowels other than those under the stress may be of any kind.

Cynghanedd draws (partial "cross-harmony")

Exactly as in cynghanedd groes, except that there are consonants at the beginning of the second half of the line which are not present in the series of 'echoed' consonants:

Rhowch wedd wen dan orchudd iâ (R. Williams Parry

R. Williams Parry

Robert Williams Parry was one of Wales' most notable poets in the twentieth century.- His life :R. Williams Parry was born in Talysarn, in Dyffryn Nantlle, a first cousin to T.H. Parry-Williams and Sir Thomas Parry...

) ['Place a white face under a veil of ice']

rh......ch......dd......../.(dn)..r.ch..dd

Here the consonant sequence {rh ch dd [accent]} is repeated with different stressed vowels (short and long <â>). It will be noticed that the at the end of the first half plays no part in the cynghanedd: the line-final word, "iâ" instead ends in a vowel; if this word also ended in an , there would be generic rhyme between the two words, which is not permitted in cynghanedd.

Note that the {d n} of the second half of the line is also not part of the cynghanedd: this is the difference between cynghanedd groes and cynghanedd draws. There may be any number of unanswered consonants in this part of the line, as long as the initial sequence of consonants and accent is repeated; compare an extreme possibility, where only one syllable is repeated:

Pla ar holl ferched y plwyf! (Dafydd ap Gwilym

Dafydd ap Gwilym

Dafydd ap Gwilym , is regarded as one of the leading Welsh poets and amongst the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages. Dafydd ap Gwilym (c. 1315/1320 – c. 1350/1370), is regarded as one of the leading Welsh poets and amongst the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages. Dafydd ap Gwilym...

) ['A plague on all the girls of the parish!']

pl./..(r......ll.f..r.ch..d)....pl

( counts as a vowel)

Cynghanedd sain ("sound-harmony")

The cynghanedd sain is characterised by internal rhyme. If the line is divided into three sections by its two caesuras, the first and second pieces rhyme

Rhyme

A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.-Etymology:...

, and the third section repeats the consonantal patterns of the second. For example:

pant yw hwy / na llwy / na llaw
/ N Ll / N Ll

Cynghanedd lusg ("drag-harmony")

The final syllable before the caesura in the first half of the line makes full rhyme with the penultimate syllable of the line-final polysyllabic word (i.e. the main stressed syllable of the second half). For example:

duw er ei radd / a'i addef,

External links

• For an example of a poem in English using cynghanedd, see the poem by Katherine Bryant at the end of this page. Note, however, that the poem suffers from the usual awkwardness resulting from the attempt to force English into the Welsh patterns. The cynghanedd here is also either incomplete or faulty in lines 1,2,3,7,8,11,12,14.
• A more thorough introduction to Welsh poetic forms
• Cynghanedd.com A website devoted to the strict metres, where poets post their work and discuss.

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