Welsh
Welsh has a handful of defective verbs, a number of which are archaic or literary. Some of the more common ones in everyday use include dylwn (I should/ought) with only imperfect and pluperfect, meddaf (I say) in the present and imperfect and geni (to be born) which has a verb-noun and impersonal forms, e.g. Ganwyd hi (She was born, literally "one bore her").
Read more about this topic: Defective Verb
Famous quotes containing the word welsh:
“For every nineteenth-century middle-class family that protected its wife and child within the family circle, there was an Irish or a German girl scrubbing floors in that home, a Welsh boy mining coal to keep the home-baked goodies warm, a black girl doing the family laundry, a black mother and child picking cotton to be made into clothes for the family, and a Jewish or an Italian daughter in a sweatshop making “ladies” dresses or artificial flowers for the family to purchase.”
—Stephanie Coontz (20th century)
“The populations of Pwllheli, Criccieth,
Portmadoc, Borth, Tremadoc, Penrhyndeudraeth,
Were all assembled. Criccieth’s mayor addressed them
First in good Welsh and then in fluent English,”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)
“God defend me from that Welsh fairy,
Lest he transform me to a piece of cheese!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)