02-11-2010, 04:25 PM
Quote:So far, it's still unknown what is exactly meant by 'gwledig', but 'prince' as well as 'leader' or 'landowner' are known.
On the meaning of Welsh gwledig, I agree with Paul Russell (Celtic word-formation: the velar suffixes, 1990,? p. 65), who suggests that "gwledig could be as 'someone who has gwlad 'lordship'" and "gwlad may originally have had a similar range of meanings to its Irish counterpart flaith, which 'can be used of the lordship or kingdom (territorial sense), of the lord himself or the lordship that he wields'."
The root of Irish flaith, Welsh gwlad and gwledig (also Gaulish ulat-, attested in several personal names) is ultimately Proto-Indo-European *wal- "to be strong, to rule". So, gwledig is best rendered in English as "lord" or "ruler (of a kingdom").
Christopher Gwinn