Rhwng 1604 ac 1607 lluniodd Thomas Wiliems (c.1545–1622/3), y ffisigwr a’r hynafiaethydd o Drefriw yn Nyffryn Conwy, eiriadur Lladin–Cymraeg a’i gofnodi mewn tri llyfr: llawysgrif Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, Peniarth 228, cyfrolau i, ii a iii. Mae tua 1,470 tudalen yn y geiriadur cyfan, a thros 36,000 o gofnodion: mae’n eiriadur sylweddol a bu Thomas Wiliems yn casglu deunydd ar ei gyfer am dros 30 mlynedd.
Ni chyhoeddwyd geiriadur Thomas Wiliems erioed, ac yn dilyn ei farwolaeth aeth ei lawysgrif yn y pen draw i feddiant Dr John Davies, Mallwyd. Golygodd Davies y gwaith yn chwyrn – gan ei gwtogi’n sylweddol a safoni’r iaith – a’i ddefnyddio’n sail i’w Dictionarium Duplex, ei eiriadur Cymraeg–Lladin a Lladin–Cymraeg a gyhoeddwyd yn Llundain yn 1632.
Argraffwyd nifer fawr o gopïau o’r Dictionarium Duplex, ac i bob pwrpas dyma’r gwaith a gydnabuwyd yn sail i eiriadura yn y Gymraeg am dros ddwy ganrif. Esgeuluswyd gwaith Thomas Wiliems am ddau brif reswm: (i.) oherwydd credu bod popeth o werth ynddo wedi ei gynnwys yng ngeiriadur print John Davies; a (ii.) oherwydd fod geiriadur Thomas Wiliems mewn llawysgrif, ac mae ei lawysgrifen braidd yn anniben ac weithiau’n anodd i’w darllen (yn enwedig i’r sawl nad yw wedi arfer â hi).
Mae’n rhaid cael gwell dealltwriaeth o gynnwys geiriadur Thomas Wiliems er mwyn cael darlun gwell o wreiddiau geiriadura yn y Gymraeg, ac er mwyn ein galluogi i iawn gloriannu cyfraniadau Thomas Wiliems a Dr John Davies, heb sôn am berthynas eu gwaith â geiriadurwyr cynnar eraill, fel Henry Salesbury (y mae ei eiriadur yntau’n parhau mewn llawysgrif yn unig).
Y dull arferol o lunio geiriadur  yn yr 16g./17g. ar gyfer ei gyhoeddi oedd cymryd geiriadur print llwyddiannus a’i addasu. Yn ogystal ag arbed amser a chost cysodi, rhoddai’r dull hwn fframwaith dda ar gyfer y geiriadurwr. Ar ddechrau’r ail ganrif ar bymtheg, ac yntau bron yn drigain oed, penderfynodd Thomas Wiliems ddefnyddio Dictionarium Linguae Latinae et Anglicanae (1587) yn sail, geiriadur sylweddol a hynod boblogaidd Lladin–Saesneg yr argraffydd Thomas Thomas (‘Thomasius’) o Brifysgol Caer-grawnt. Cyfieithodd Thomas Wiliems y cofnodion Saesneg i’r Gymraeg, ac yn ogystal ag ychwanegu cofnodion newydd, ychwanegodd nifer fawr o eiriau at y diffiniadau – geiriau safonol; geiriau â naws mwy llafar, gan gynnwys, er enghraifft, iaith plant; benthyciadau amlwg o’r Saesneg; a geiriau canoloesol. Ychwanegodd hefyd wybodaeth am bynciau a oedd o ddiddordeb arbennig i’r darllenydd Cymraeg a hefyd wybodaeth am bynciau fel meddyginiaeth a llysiau meddyginiaethol a’u defnydd, pynciau a oedd o ddiddordeb arbennig iddo ef fel meddyg proffesiynol, fel yn achos y cofnod hwn ar Hydromeli.
Nid oes amheuaeth am werth trawsysgrifio a golygu’r cyfan o eiriadur Thomas Wiliems: nid oedd yn gorddweud pan ddisgrifiodd ei waith fel Trysawr ni bu ’rioet ei gyphelyp ynghymru o’r blaen (‘Trysorfa na fu ei debyg yng Nghymru erioed o’r blaen’). Mae’n llawn gwybodaeth ddiddorol, ac mae’n taflu goleuni pwysig hefyd ar yr iaith Gymraeg ar droad y 17g. a thafodiaith Dyffryn Conwy yn benodol.
Â
Wrth drawsysgrifio rhagor o ddeunydd byddaf yn uwchlwytho rhagor o lythrennau gyda thrafodaeth ar wahanol agweddau ar ei waith. Yn groes i’r disgwyl, ni chychwynnais gyda’r llythyren A, yn bennaf gan fod Thomas Wiliems a Thomas Thomas yn amlwg yn ceisio sefydlu eu dull gweithio yn yr adran hon, ac mae dipyn o anghysondeb ynddi (yn enwedig o ran eu defnydd o fyrfoddau ac ati). Felly cychwynnais gyda B, H a T – un llythyren o bob blwyddyn y bu Thomas Wiliems wrth y gwaith, er mwyn cael syniad o ddull gweithio’r ddau ohonynt.
Gall y darllenydd sydd am weld cofnodion gwreiddiol Thomas Wiliems edrych ar y delweddau ar lein yn Nghasgliad Digidol Peniarth, Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, gan ddefnyddio’r cyfeiriadau unigryw a roddir ar gyfer pob cofnod yn y golygiad. Er enghraifft, cyfeiriad unigryw Habitatio yw [ii78r1], sef  Peniarth 228, cyfrol ii, ffolio 78 recto, cofnod cyntaf ar y ddalen.
Adborth
Byddwn yn croesawu unrhyw adborth am y gwaith, neu gywiriadau – a hefyd unrhyw gyngor ar sut i’w wneud yn fwy hygyrch yn y pen draw, ac yn ddefnyddiol i ymchwilwyr eraill. Ar hyn o bryd mae’r testun mewn ffeiliau Word, gan ddefnyddio nodau fformat arbennig, fel bod modd trosi’r cyfan yn weddol rhwydd i fformat gwahanol.
Darllen pellach
Ceir esboniad pellach gwaith gennyf yn ‘Casglfa Ddirfawr o Eiriau Cymraeg, Henion a Newyddion’: Geiriadur Thomas Wiliems, Trefriw (c.1545–1622/3) yn LlGC Peniarth 228’ a fydd yn ymddangos yn Llên Cymru (2024). Yno ceir cyfeiriadau at drafodaethau pwysig eraill ar eiriadur Thomas Wiliems, yn enwedig gan J. E. Caerwyn Williams, mewn erthygl ryfeddol yn Studia Celtica, 16/17 (1981/2).
H: The first serving of Thomas Wiliems’s Latin–Welsh Dictionary (1604–7)
Between 1604 and 1607 Thomas Wiliems (c.1545–1622/3), the physician and antiquarian from Trefriw in the Conwy Valley, compiled a Latin–Welsh dictionary and wrote it down in three books: National Library of Wales Peniarth MS 228, volumes i, ii and iii. There are around 1,470 pages in the entire dictionary, and over 36,000 entries: it is a substantial dictionary and Wiliems had been collecting material for it for over 30 years.
Thomas Wiliems dictionary was never published, and following his death his manuscript eventually came  into the possession of Dr John Davies of Mallwyd. Davies edited the work severely – shortening its entries and standardizing the language – and used it as the basis for his Dictionarium Duplex, his Welsh–Latin and Latin–Welsh dictionary, published in London in 1632.
A large number of copies of the Dictionarium Duplex were printed, and to all intents and purposes this was the work that was recognized as the basis of Welsh lexicography for over two centuries. The work of Thomas Wiliems was neglected for two main reasons: (i.) because it was believed that everything of value in it had been  included in John Davies’s printed dictionary; and (ii.) because Thomas Wiliems’s dictionary is available only in manuscript, and his handwriting is rather untidy and difficult to read at times (especially for the reader who is not familiar with it).
We must have a better understanding of the contents of Thomas Wiliems’s dictionary in order to get a better picture of the origins of Welsh lexicography, and to enable us to properly evaluate the contributions of Thomas Wiliems and Dr John Davies, not to mention the relationship of their work to other early lexicographers, like Henry Salesbury (whose work also survives only in manuscript).
The usual method of preparing a dictionary for publication in the 16th/17th century was to take an already successful printed dictionary and adapt it. As well as saving money and time during type-setting, this method provided a good framework for the lexicographer. At the beginning of the 17th century, almost sixty years old, he took the decision to use as his basis the substantial and very popular Dictionarium Linguae Latinae et Anglicanae (1587), the Latin–English dictionary of Thomas Thomas (‘Thomasius’), the printer at Cambridge University. Wiliems translated the English definitions into Welsh, and as well as some additional entries, he added a large number of words to the definitions – from the standard language; colloquial words, including, for example, words associated with children’s language; obvious borrowings from English; as well as older medieval words. He also added information about subjects that were of particular interest to the Welsh reader and also information about subjects such as medicine and herbalism, which were of particular interest to him as a practising physician.
There is no doubting the value of transcribing and editing the whole of Thomas Williams’s dictionary: he was not exaggerating when he described his work as y Trysawr ni bu ’rioet ei gyphelyp ynghymru o’r blaen (‘A treasury whose like has never before been seen in Wales.’) It is full of interesting information about Welsh life and culture, and also throws light upon the Welsh language at the turn of the 17th century, and aspects of the spoken language of Dyffryn Conwy in particular.
As I transcribe more material I will upload more letters along with a discussion of different aspects of his work. Contrary to expectations, I did not start with the letter A, mainly because Thomas Wiliems and Thomas Thomas were clearly trying to establish their working method in this section, and there is quite considerable inconsistency in it (especially in terms of their use of abbreviations, etc.). So I started with B, HÂ and TÂ - one letter from each year Thomas Wiliems was at work, in order to get a good idea of both their methodologies.
The reader who wants to see Thomas Wiliems’s original entries can examine the manuscript images in the National Library of Wales’ Peniarth Digital Collection, using the unique identifiers given to each entry in the edition. For example, Habitatio’s unique identifier is [ii78r1], namely Peniarth 228, volume ii, folio 78 recto, first entry on the page.
Feedback
I would welcome any feedback, corrections, &c., as well as any advice on how ultimately to make the edition more accessible and useful for fellow researchers. At the moment the text is in Word files, formatted in such a way that it could be fairly easily converted into a different format.
Further reading
Ann Parry Owen, ‘Casglfa Ddirfawr o Eiriau Cymraeg, Henion a Newyddion’: Geiriadur Thomas Wiliems, Trefriw (c.1545–1622/3) yn LlGC Peniarth 228’, Llên Cymru (2024). There are references in this article to other important discussions of Thomas Wiliems’s dictionary, the most important of which is J. E. Caerwyn William’s monumental article in Studia Celtica, 16/17 (1981/2).
