Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread

A bit of a question about the forum, not sure other threads are better to ask so why not here?

At the top of each thread, attached to the opening post, is a list of thread contributers as avatars and the number of posts each has made in the thread. You used to be able to click on any of the avatars and then see just the posts in the thread by that person. A very useful feature that I used to use from time to time. This hasn’t been a feature on here for quite some time now. Is it possible to reenable this feature if possible please?

One for @Kinetic to answer, I think.

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Mutations.
I know that the letter T mutates in certain circumstances to the letter D.
To say ‘ ideal house’ I thought it would read ty delfrydol.
However I have seen it written as nhy delfrydol.
How does that mutation work ?

The t > d mutation is a ‘soft mutation’, but there are other mutations that happen to t too.
“an ideal house” is indeed “tŷ delfrydol”, but what you’ve seen as nhŷ is a nasal mutation which follows certain words like ‘fy’, so “my ideal house” is “fy nhŷ delfrydol” (and sometimes the ‘fy’ is missed in speech but the mutation stays).

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Thanks Siaron, that’s very helpful.

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why is moyn used and not eisiau in the south?

Good question - I’ve no idea! Just the way the language developed regionally perhaps. Eisiau is used in the South, but to mean ‘need’ (which is ‘angen’ in the North), so maybe that’s part of it.

in our mynidiad course eisiau is to want?

Yes, ‘eisiau’ is ‘to want’ in the North.
Southern: want = moyn, need = eisiau
Northern: want = eisiau, need = angen

no we use eisiau to want, not need. our course is for the south
dw i’n eisiau dysgu cymraeg- south.

It’s probably a ‘standardised’ course in that case. It’s fine to use eisiau for ‘want’ wherever you are, but you will hear ‘moyn’ in the South too, so just use the one you’re comfortable with and know the other one for when other people use it.
Dwi eisiau dysgu Cymraeg = dwi’n moyn dysgu Cymraeg.

it’s mynidiad entry 1&2. it’s university of south wales.
very confusing that two courses for the south use different meanings.

The different ways of saying it both exist “in the wild” but most courses have to choose between one or the other when building the course. It really doesn’t matter which one you use yourself once you get out there talking.

I agree although in the german language there is ‘hoch deutsch’ (High german) and spoken german which is everyday language. German also uses many english words - and they don’t add anything like ‘io’ on the end. Meanwhile back in the welsh language - I’m always sidetracking.

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In my experience, we do add an ending in such cases, “-en” for the infinitve: chillen, downloaden, emailen, and so on, and the verb then gets conjugated like any other regular verb. (ich chille, du chillst, er chillt, and so on)

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I can understand your frustration at this initial stage of learning. However, once you’re using your Welsh more functionally you’ll realise how much of a blessing it was to be exposed to both from so early on.

Kids are taught both in school by virtue of where their teachers happen to come from. If you ask a Welsh speaking child, from anywhere in Wales, “ti sho diod?” - they’ll understand that you’re asking “do you want a drink?”. (Same as eisiau/angen).

The differences at this stage appear huge. In practice Welsh speakers understand each other regardless of their dialect.

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I’m having a series of chats on Zoom with someone organised by Dysgu Cymraeg as part of their Cynllun Siarad - she’s speaking Southern, I’ve learnt and am speaking Northern, neither of us is adjusting or moderating our language at all as far as I am aware, and both of us are getting on fine. You get used to it :slight_smile:

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I’ll just add that I have learned and speak Southern, and I have never had any difficulty in understanding @RichardBuck. (We belong to the same local group, based in England.)
Sue

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@Hendrik - I’d had forgotten that. Of course you are correct.
It’s been 11 years since I was in Germany. Lovely country.

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I’m going through the old course (after finishing the current three levels a few months back) and I’ve just got to a bit where the inclusion of a word puzzles me.

It’s covering “if…then…” sentences and there’s a mysterious “mi” appearing. For example, in “Taset ti’n dal i gredu, mi faset ti’n behafio’n well”. This puzzles me. I would have thought the “mi” would be referring to me, but there’s no reason to include myself in this sentence. Can anyone explain what it’s doing there?

(I know people always say not to worry about the technical stuff, but I have the kind of brain that learns better if I understand why the sentence is doing what it’s doing.)