Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread

Is that North or South (in case it makes a difference - I think the Southern forms will end in -iff)? If it’s North, could it be ddidith o a ddidith hi?

ETA Properly spelt mi ddywedith o, I think, but the spelling above reflects what I remember hearing :slight_smile:

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Just looked, and it’s introduced in the previous lesson (Cwrs 3 Gwers 2), spelt ddudith o.

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Diolch Richard!

North. I’m having problems distinguishing past from future in pronouciation

I just posted this in another thread, but I think it should be here - Folks, I’m sure I should know this, but my poor old brain has gone blank. A white dog is ci gwyn, yes? A white cat? Cath wen or cath gwen? I think ‘wen’, but If so, is it ever right to use ‘gwen’ except in names?

Oh, OK: ddudith hi future, ddudodd hi past. Annoyingly similar, but just wait till @aran springs aeth hi and eith hi on you in Lessons 6 & 7 :slight_smile:

ETA: it occurs to me that there’s a cross-linguistic thing going on – in that an Arabic-speaking student told me the other day that it’s the same in Arabic – of bright-sounding, front of the mouth vowels like e and i sounding like present & future, and duller, lower, back of the mouth vowels like o sounding ‘past’. “I think I can” vs. “I thought I could” – -ith vs -odd.

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Oh, that’s really interesting… I wonder if there’s a language someone on here knows that would disprove it…

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I saw the question in the other thread first and answered it there, hopefully correct :slight_smile:

Dw i’n gweld cath wen
I see a white cat

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Aah, it’s a broad generalisation to which I’m sure there’ll be loads of exceptions, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if someone here could come up with one :slight_smile:

oh no…I’m just coming to terms with the nath o and naeth o (or however they are spelt) I think @aran is just laughing into his microphone.

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Something completely different…on Radio Cymru sometime on Saturday afternoon they played an acapella version of ‘I’m a train’ yn y Gymraeg. Does anyone who the group would have been?

Oh, yeah - if it’s Lesson 3 where @aran does his betting-on-a-game-of-golf shtick re wneith o and wnaeth o, it actually doesn’t get any worse than that. If you’re dealing with that, it’s all going swimmingly :slight_smile:

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I’m afraid to say that is a distinct possibility… :flushed:

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to @Deborah-SSi and anyone else from NZ - Wellington was clearly named for the Iron Duke. Was this for the same reason as the boots- his association with rain due to his greatest victories being in or just after downpours?
(sorry for lack of any connection with Welsh except weather during Lions game!)

Latin, perhaps?
This phrase came to mind: ego sum pauper, nihil habeo, et nihil dabo. Apart from it being an exaggeration in my particular case, “dabo” translates as “I will give”

And of course, there is this language called Welsh: gwelais past, gwelwn future

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Yes but, no but… Pauper est, et nihil dabit (s/he will give) vs nihil dabat (was giving), if my memory of school Latin still serves :slight_smile:

ETA Of course, there’s also the Perfect - dedi, dedisti, etc. all with front vowels, so I’ll shut up now.

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I’ve noticed that ‘Pembrokeshire’ is sometimes translated as ‘Sir Penfro’ and sometimes as ‘Sir Benfro’. Can anyone explain why that is? Thanks :slight_smile:

Would you be able to give an example, for context, of Sir Penfro please? I’ve only seen Sir Benfro. Sorry I can’t explain why, but this is interesting :slight_smile:

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Because some translators are not very good at their job :slight_smile:

It’s Sir Benfro.

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