Welsh Keywords: Cartref

From Planet 244

by Siân Melangell Dafydd

This is the fortieth contribution to our Welsh Keywords series – inspired by Raymond Williams’ Keywords – which offers contemporary perspectives on contested meanings of words in Welsh and how these shifting meanings continue to shape our society.

Cartref is surely nothing complicated to translate, it must be merely ‘home’? The concept must exist in all cultures and all languages and so, surely, a word will exist for it that doesn’t cause complexities, misunderstanding or translating issues? It alters a little in Welsh from cartref to adre or adra, depending where adre is. It might form differently on a person’s tongue, the word itself belonging to each person differently. But is that all?

About the author

Siân Melangell Dafydd is an author, poet and translator. Her first published novel, Y Trydydd Peth (The Third Thing, Gomer, 2009) won the National Eisteddfod Literature Medal in 2009. Her latest novel Filò (Gwasg Gomer), was published in 2020 , and has been selected on The Literature Exchange 2020–21 Bookcase.