yn

See also YN, and yN

Manx

Alternative forms

• y

Etymology

From Old Irish in. Cognate with Irish an and Scottish Gaelic an.

Article

yn

1. the

Related terms

• ny

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Welsh

Pronunciation

• IPA: [ən]

Particle

yn

1. grammatical particle used in conjunction with bod (“to be”) to mark adjectival, nominal, or verbal complements

   Mae Tom yn darllen.

   Tom is reading.

   Mae Tom yn gysglyd.

   Tom is sleepy.

   Mae Tom yn fachgen.

   Tom is a boy.

2. grammatical particle used to change an adjective into an adverb

   yn dda

   well

   yn fawr

   greatly

   yn wir

   truly

Usage notes

This particle causes the soft mutation in all letters but Rh and Ll in nouns and adjectives following it, but not in verbs. Thus in the above examples, cysglyd (an adjective meaning "sleepy") and bachgen (a noun meaning "boy") have been mutated to gysglyd and fachgen, but darllen (a verb meaning "to read") has not been mutated.

Alternative forms

• 'n (used after a vowel)

Etymology 2

From Proto-Celtic *eni (compare Irish i), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *en.

Preposition

yn

1. in (definite nouns)

   Mae hi'n byw yng Nghaerdydd.

   She lives in Cardiff.

   Ydyn ni'n astudio yn y Brifysgol ym Mangor

   We're studying in the University in Bangor.

Alternative forms

• ym (used before m, mh)
• yng (used before ng, ngh)

Usage notes

• This preposition causes the nasal mutation. Before g and c it becomes yng, before p, b and sometimes m it becomes ym. In some areas the spoken language applies a soft mutation rather than a nasal one to the following word, but in written language the nasal is constant.
• Yn is used with definite nouns. Its equivalent for indefinite nouns is mewn.

Related terms

• mewn

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West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian in, from Proto-Germanic *in, from Proto-Indo-European *en.

Preposition

yn

1. in
2. into