Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread

“lan lofft” definitely used by people I know.

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Although I venture to suggest that this is one of those supposed and widely criticised errors that isn’t actually an error. It’s no different from (for example) ‘he was gone’ - though this is also criticised by some, again wrongly in my view.

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I’m watching the Eisteddfod on S4C and I’m wondering what Maes means in the context that it is being used.

Not understanding much of the Eisteddfod but I’ve had it on all afternoon and loving it :slight_smile:

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Doesn’t is just mean ‘field’ with connotations of a field with special use rather than ‘cae’ which I’d use for an ordinary field. Or am I quite wrong?

Diolch :slight_smile: That makes sense.

Including use for competitions in general, e.g. football fields (I think), and also (according to one dictionary, battlefields. (“maes y gad” in its full form in that case, apparently).

Thanks for the lan lofft reassurance (I see henddraig pointed out my English f spelling), with Owain chipping in as well, someone I know is in the same valley dialect zone to me. It was actually someone from the Neath valley who corrected me and that’s what made me think that my recollection was an error, rather than a dialect thing. I guess it just shows how much variability there can be sometimes, even between neighbouring valleys.

For yawn, I asked my daughter who’s young enough to fill in gaps with made up words and she said “iornen”- obvious where that’s derived from, but sounds quite nice with the “r” in the middle.

My mam said “agor ceg” initially as has already been mentioned, but then said “gapo” used to be more common years ago

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Edit, I just had my mum ringing around her friends and relatives on this one and apparently they all say gapo for yawn still, so that’s officially my adopted word for yawn now

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Well, gapo has the blessing of Trinity St Davids:

http://www.geiriadur.net/index.php?page=ateb&term=gapo&direction=we&type=all&whichpart=exact

Gweiadur offers several options:

http://www.gweiadur.com/en/Pawb/yawn

verb noun agor, dylyfu gên, safnrhythu, ymagor

(One thing I like about Gweiadur is that (e.g. if you click on each of those welsh words), it will explain it in Welsh, as well as give a brief translation in English.

And if you don’t understand the Welsh, you can click on each word you don’t understand and get an explanation in the same way, and keep clicking on words you don’t understand…I usually just get lost and forget how I came in, but it doesn’t really matter…it’s all good, as they say. It’s quite similar to browsing and getting lost in a paper dictionary. If you like getting lost in a real dictionary, you will probably like getting lost in Gweiadur. :slight_smile:

)

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So I was reading my Gran’s copy of Y Beibl today (she offered to lend it to me, even; but since I have a copy of beibl.net arriving soon, I didn’t take her up on that offer), and noticed in Ioan 1 it used the words “gyd â” to mean with – did gyda derive from this, or is there some difference between the two terms? I know that Bible is typically very formal, so would I be correct in assuming it’s just like your yr ydwyf yn’s and dropped pronouns?

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Seems like a reasonable assumption… :slight_smile:

I having a little difficulty with Dwedest ti - I think it is ‘you said’. It first cropped up in challenge 7, and I could remember it for that challenge, but in later challenges when ‘you said’ comes up, I just keep going for ‘wnest ti ddeud’… it is just my autopilot I am sure, but would that actually be correct and be understood? Or does it just not make sense? :slight_smile:

Ooh and while I am here, I’ve just remembered something else! Can someone explain how/why ‘(fy) mod i’ changes to ‘bo’ vi’ and ‘Dy fod ti’ changes to ‘bo’ ti’n’? (from the notes on challenge 3 and 6). I get the principle of letters/sounds mutating, but couldn’t work this out as only simple things have been covered, but I do find the mechanics of language interesting. Thanks :):slight_smile:

Well, it’s the other way round, really! “Bod” changes to “mod” with “fy mod i”, and “bod” changes to “fod” with “dy fod ti”. However, it’s perfectly usual to hear “bo’ ti” or “bo’ fi”, where “bo’” (for “bod”) is used without the first bits and without the mutations, as it were. I think Iestyn actually says it is a bit slangy at one point, but it’s perfectly normal to hear or use it. Hope that helps!

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It makes perfect sense, is correct, and would be understood. :blush:

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Not only what Aran said, but according to John Morris Jones it is actually the case (he being someone who knew a lot about such things, and is generally on the money [as far as I can tell!] despite being around at the turn of the beginning of the last century.)

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Well, the Bible has been around a tad longer, so I should think his date of birth irrelevant!

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Ah that makes sense, and is a very helpful explanation, thank you @owainlurch! Iestyn does say it’s slangy - actually that’s one of the things I like - we are learning how people actually talk :slight_smile: The mutations are fascinating and confusing - is Welsh unique in this? I’m sure (I hope) they will just become normal to me as I learn :slight_smile:

Thank you :slight_smile: I’d have to dare say it out loud to a person first - I am finding that harder than I thought I would! Despite having cajoled someone into practising with me, I couldn’t get a word out :frowning:

Oh ok, that’s interesting - seems my assumption was correct then. It’s interesting talking to my Gran in Welsh, since she learnt it as a kid ~60 years ago talking to the older generations of her family, and pretty much her only exposure since has been via the Bible, or sources like that. Very, very formal, her Welsh is, compared to what we learn in the classroom now.