Many thanks to Siaron for the asiffeta explanation. I’ve got another passage that’s defeating me as I come rather sadly to the end of ‘Hi Yw Fy Ffrind’ (sequel on order though). ‘Ond fysat ti’m isio naf’sat? Ddim o flaen dy fêts’. What’s this naf’sat? – can’t find anything like it in the dictionary. I’m pretty sure it can’t mean ‘But you wouldn’t want a sat nav?’ and my best guess is the line means something like ‘But you wouldn’t want me slobbering over you? Not in front of your mates’, with a possible connection with the word ‘llysnafedd’, snot, mucus. But I could be quite wrong…
It’s the thingy to go along with fysat ti’m. “You wouldn’t want (that), would you?”
The apostrophe is changing it from “na fysat”.
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How stupid of me not to have thought of that, as T.H.Huxley said after reading Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’. Tricky though – I know we have our share of contractions in English - I’m, I’ll, don’t, doesn’t etc - but the Welsh do seem to take a particular delight in trying to reduce their language to a string of apostrophes with a letter or two thrown in. I don’t suppose there’s a full list of possible forms anywhere?
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I strongly, strongly doubt it! But do let us know if you find anything even close… 