Welsh to Querétaro Otomi: describe an item’s qualities without copying Welsh adjective grammar
Welsh yn does different work in different descriptions
When checking a Welsh description of something heavy, wide or dark, do not assume that each source word requires an independent target word of the same grammatical type. Canolfan Peniarth’s revision unit distinguishes predicate yn before a noun or adjective from yn before a verb-noun. It explains different mutation behaviour for those constructions.
That distinction makes a word-by-word comparison especially unreliable. A Welsh adjective can look different because of its grammatical environment, while the meaning remains recognisable. A target construction may organise the whole description differently rather than reproduce the Welsh linking element and mutation.
For Querétaro Otomi, first establish the quality being described and the item that has it. Then check how that relationship is expressed in the target. A missing-looking equivalent of Welsh is or yn does not alone establish that the translation has omitted the description.
The cited Otomi analysis treats many qualities as verbal predicates
Enrique Palancar’s fieldwork-based study analyses property concepts in San Ildefonso Tultepec Otomi, a Querétaro variety. He treats a large group of expressions for qualities such as size, colour and physical properties as verbs, and a smaller group as nouns. This is his grammatical analysis, not a claim that Otomi speakers cannot describe qualities.
The study also distinguishes an expression functioning as a predicate from one modifying a noun. Using a property expression beside a noun can require additional grammatical structure. A dictionary gloss such as heavy therefore does not tell a translator how to construct every occurrence in a product description.
Palancar discusses nominal compounds too, including a combination involving a size concept whose resulting meaning is tablecloth. Such evidence cautions against assuming that every compound containing a quality expression simply means an ordinary noun with that quality. Check the established lexical meaning rather than deriving a product name mechanically.
Keep a catalogue label separate from a claim about condition
Imagine a Welsh inventory describing material for an exhibition. One line identifies a cloth by its established name; another says that a particular cloth is heavy; a third selects the wider of two pieces. These descriptions perform different tasks. Treating all of them as adjective-plus-noun labels can lose what the writer is asserting or selecting.
For each line, decide whether the quality identifies the item or supplies additional information about it. A short catalogue heading may not be a complete sentence, while a condition report makes a claim. Preserve that difference instead of adding an assertion to a label or reducing a factual statement to a name.
Also keep the quality attached to the intended object. A Welsh paragraph can mention the display frame, its covering and the material stored behind it. If the target restructures a descriptive phrase, verify which of those objects is described as heavy or wide.
The source study documents a particular variety and uses specialist transcription. Its examples should not be copied as interchangeable forms for every Otomi community. For a finished inventory, check the selected wording and local usage together with the actual objects. The useful result is a clear identification or description, rather than a target sentence forced to resemble Welsh grammar.
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