What am I hearing?

Apologies. Me again… Whilst I continue to wage war with the Vocab Units, I’ve also been trying to whizz through Level 1 at the same time. Challenge 12 has got me scratching my head this evening.

“I think I’d like to go now” - “Dwi’n meddwl [sounds like y] liciwn i fynd rwan”
“I think I’d like to speak to speak Welsh with you” - "Dwi’n meddwl [sounds like y] liciwn i siarad Cymraeg efo ch’di.

Where does the [y sound] come from? Is this another case of just learning that it always belongs there in such a sentence?

3 Likes

Yes, absolutely - and a great sign that you’re hearing well enough to have picked it out correctly… :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Apologies - me again with another question about those pesky vocab units! Vocab 5 this time…

I noticed that “Meddyg" and “gwas sifil” (for example) are soft mutated in the following sentences - "Dwi’n feddyg” and “Dwi’n was sifil”. Am I right in thinking that is because they are predicate nouns after yn?

1 Like

I wouldn’t know what a ‘predicate noun’ was if it got up and bit me… but if it’s any help, it is because they’re coming after the ‘yn’ there…:slight_smile:

2 Likes

Predicate nouns follow a linking verb and rename or re-identify the subject - e.g.: I was a teacher, Cardiff is a city, he might be my brother.

You also get predicate adjectives, which follow a linking verb and describe the subject - e.g.: my jumper is blue, she seems happy, the dog was tired.

Anyway, good to know a little more about why there is a soft mutation in “yn dda”, “yn barod” and “yn well”…

2 Likes

Yes, predicate nouns and adjectives mutate after yn (except a few recalcitrant ones such as braf) – but note that verbs do not, though they are predicates, too.

2 Likes

You know, the more I read comments like those above, the more I really appreciate @aran’s approach! If I had to learn about predicate nouns, the ergative case and other such, in order to learn Welsh, I would be sitting in a corner screaming with frustration by now!!! :angry: :imp:

5 Likes

Apologies! Studied a dead language through to MA level, which included forays into morphology. Had simply been looking down the list of reasons why you get a soft mutation on Wikipedia, spotted that “yn" causes a limited soft mutation with predicate nouns and adjectives and gone “a-ha, that looks the likely reason”. Just wanted to check I was thinking along the right lines…

That isn’t to say that I don’t appreciate the simplicity of the SSIW approach. It is just that the (repressed) linguist in me sometimes wants to understand the wider rules behind what we are being taught!

3 Likes

I was listening to challenge 2 in level 1, and I’m curious how to write thing I heard. It sound like ‘on i eisiau’, and I don’t know how to write the first word. I only know it means ‘I wanted’.

1 Like

That’s pretty spot on. It is also written sometimes as “o’n i eisiau”
By way of background, it is a contraction of the more formal “oeddwn i eisiau”

3 Likes

On Rownd a Rownd, I occasionally hear something like da (which is also how it’s subtitled) in a context such as *Beth ti’n da yma?, aparently meaning something like “What are you doing here?”. Usually in a kind of accusatory tone.

Is that short for something? I can’t find anything appropriate in the dictionary.

My wild guess (until someone else joins in): How about -
“( Mae’n) beth da (bod) ti’n yma” for Its a good thing that you’re here? Ok, I cheated by changing ti’n da into da 'ti’n.

The only other thing that comes to mind is 'da for gyda (with), but that still sounds a bit weird.

I’ll be looking out for the real answer :slight_smile:

Snap! What are you good here- what are you with here- it must be slang! If only someone had been on the set lately!, @philipnewton!!! @aran can you help?

Its not “beth? wyt ti’n dal yma?” is it? As in"what? are you still here?"

1 Like

Not really short for anything - but it’s a common usage, which is a bit like the English ‘good for something’ or ‘good for nothing’ - so literally, ‘what are you good for here?’ - kind of odd that it doesn’t get mutated, either, but there we are…

3 Likes

Yn yr her rhif tri, de lefel dau… dwim yn siŵr beth @iestyn yw ddweud am 'We/You don’t '. A yw hwn yn gywir;

In challenge number three in the second level for south, I’m not sure what @iestyn is saying for 'We/ You don’t '. Is this correct;

‘sochi’n gweld’ a/and ‘soni’n gweld’

Mae’n ddrwg 'da fi @iestyn a cat! Dwi’n trio yn galed iawn i glywed a ddeal chi! :rabbit2:

1 Like

This may help

3 Likes

O! Diolch i chi! :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Diolch Pete, and da iawn cwningen!

The negative “So… person… yn” instead of “dydy [+ending]… person… ddim yn” is very common in the south, so:

dydych chi ddim yn > So chi’n
dyde e ddim yn > so fe’n
dydyn ni ddim yn > so ni’n

etc

6 Likes

Ah! Thanks!

I had wondered whether this was “good” but had dismissed that possibility due to the lack of mutation…

But that makes sense.

2 Likes