Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread

Many congratulations, Baruch!

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Thanks a lot for the answers.
And seeing the word “newydd” (breton nevez, = new) I AND above all the congratulations in this topic about granfsons, I also congratulate Baruch ! I suppose a baby has born (mabig in breton)

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Hi, just wondering what people say for “to report” in a line management sense - as in if I wanted to say: I used to report to Fred but now I report to Bert. Or how would you say line manager?

Had to look that up! and GyA gives this -
to report [oneself] to someone: mynd gerbron rhywun, ymddangos gerbron rhywun.

line-manager = rheolwr atebol

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Thanks Siaron - ymddangos gerbron feels a bit like I would be in trouble so I think maybe talking about line managers is a better way of explaining should anyone show interest in my job situation!

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You’ll often hear the more literal ‘rheolwr llinell’ in Gwynedd Council - but the kind of context where you might hear ‘I report to so-and-so’ in English would probably be more likely to work as ‘mae so-and-so yn rheolwr llinell arna i’ in Welsh… :slight_smile:

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Interesting. “mab” in Welsh is “son” (can also be “boy”). For “baby” people seem to use “babi” (or “babi bach”), but I see there is also “baban”, or “maban”.

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Mabig in breton would better be a baby boy (mab = son, becomes “Ab” in the family names, for exemple Abjean = Johnson). New locutors now say “babig”, which is nice too.

I have another tiny question, nothing to see : I was said that a lake in Wales is called “lake Llydaw” and that Lydaw means “Brittany”. Is that so ? If not, what does it mean, and what would be the welsh for Brittany theb ?

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Yes, Llydaw is Brittany in Welsh (and the language Breton is Llydaweg) and there is indeed a lovely lake called Llyn Llydaw

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Diolch Siaronjames ! (for the anxwer and for the link ! Beautiful ! I wish so much I go to Wales one day…)

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Diolch yn fawr to all for the kind wishes and - of course - for the help with Welsh on the arrival of our ŵyr!

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I occasionally hear something like “genai” when listening to stuff.

I’ve just been assuming it’s just a way of pronouncing “gen i” - is that correct or am I way off?

Thanks! :slight_smile:

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Yes, I think so.
Unless you were listening to something about lichen, scales, skin or puppies :slight_smile:

I think you and John are right. There are a number of different forms of this.
The basic (dictionary) word is “gan” and then this is modified (some people use the word “conjugated”) according to the person to whom it refers.

You might have heard “gynnai” (or “gynna i” - same pronunciation really) or maybe “gennai” or maybe “gannai”. I used to think it was a slightly more old fashioned or formal version of “gen i”, but more recently, I seem to have noticed it in fairly common use on S4C or Radio Cymru, so perhaps it’s just a common alternative.

The best place to look is Gareth King’s Modern Welsh Complete Grammar, if you can get hold of a copy (or you might find it on google books, but usually you can only see a part of the book, so no guarantee that the relevant section will be available).

I was hoping to find a good summary of “gan” online, but not much luck so far. Best so far is this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/catchphrase/ysbyty_brynaber/lessons/language/lang12.shtml

…but it does not show the “gennai” or “gynnai” variant.

Edit: Just looked in my Pocket Modern Welsh Dictionary (also courtesy of Gareth), under “gan”, and it gives “gynna i” as “especially in the north”)

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I think the term is “inflected preposition” but I could be wrong.

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Sounds better to me, me since “conjugated” is really for verbs, isn’t it? But I saw “conjugation” on one of the relevant “Catchphrase” pages, FWIW. :slight_smile:

I might be wrong, it’s just the term I’ve seen online. I suspect @garethrking is the person for the definitive answer!

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What I’ve seen in GK’s Modern Welsh Dictionary is “personal forms” for those words that change relating to whom it refers.

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There are many different names for inflected prepositions, including conjugated preposition , pronominal preposition , prepositional pronoun , and suffixed pronoun .

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Well there we go. And we didn’t even need Mr King!

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