Preface to Gweiadur

When I set about compiling Geiriadur Gomer yr Ifanc, my aim was to produce a Welsh Dictionary that defined Welsh words in the manner of English Dictionaries. I also wished to offer guidelines on matters that had puzzled me as a Welsh learner, e.g. how many n’s in gofynnodd, what’s the meaning of fraith, what is ceir and what mutation follows ni? Information for those wishing to write Welsh.

What I was unable to do was to provide the same sort of information for those wishing to read Welsh. I, for example, had been captivated by the poetry of T. Gwynn Jones. Unfortunately I understood little of it and had nowhere to turn for guidance. There were large hurdles to overcome, a rarefied vocabulary, infrequently used verb forms and all subject to the rules of initial letter mutation.

When I embarked upon the task of expanding Geiriadur Gomer yr Ifanc into an ‘everyman’ dictionary, Nudd, my son compliled a database built on the lessons learned from an aborted attempt to create a CDRom version of Geiriadur Gomer yr Ifanc. It gradually became clear that there were means, within an electronic database, of addressing the problems associated with reading Welsh.

Gweiadur Pawb is a defining Welsh dictionary, but in an electronic format it is able to store far more information than a book. My hope is that this dictionary will make the works of the giants of Welsh Literature such as T.Gwynn Jones and his contemporaries, more accessible to readers of Welsh than ever before.

We would wish to record our gratitude to Dr Dyfed Elis Gruffydd who has contributed to this project from its inception.

D. Geraint Lewis
Nudd Lewis