Please could someone explain why ‘ŷn nhw’ is used instead of ‘maen nhw’ in the following sentence:
“To explain what they say they want” is “Esbonio beth maen nhw’n dweud ŷn nhw’n moyn” (06:43)
Hi Diana, being a North Walian, I’m afraid that I’m not 100% sure. But it sounds like ‘mae’n’ has been shortened to just ‘yn’. So originally the ‘mae’n’ would have been ‘mae yn’ which may explain why this particular abbreviation is ‘yn’.
Hope that at least makes some sense… 
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Diolch that helps!
‘…beth mae’n nhw’n dweud eu nhw’n moyn’?
I have never specifically thought about this before but I’ve always taken this to be an abbreviated form of '‘that they’ (eu bod nhw)…where the context allows the bod/ that to be dropped.
Great question.
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Isn’t it o’n nhw’n moyn (they wanted) ?
That’s what’s in the vocab notes. Handy actually, as you don’t need to learn the ending of the word as you do in the North, as it’s been shortened to just two letters. 
No, it’s they want, not they wanted so I would have expected it to be maen nhw’n moyn 
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Ah, I see. In that case just another southern shortening. Mae’n -> yn. @Iestyn will prob explain next time he’s on here. 
Actually, Catrin already has.
Diolch John!
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Ah! I think I’ve found it:
Probably from: dydyn nhw
“Another” teaching app, Wikipedia, and Beibl.net are using:
Dydyn nhw and dŷn nhw ddim for they do/don’t
So, dŷn nhw ddim for: They do not, should change to ŷn nhw … for they do …
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Diddorol iawn, diolch @JohnYoung for the explanation! Think I’ll carry on using mae’n nhw’n to save me getting confused! 
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