Hi, it’s me again but this time the first problem is “mi” not me!
About 15 minutes into lesson 9 we hear the following challenges:
“Pan ddoi di adre, a i brynnu llefrith …when you come home I’ll buy milk
Pan ddoi di‘n ôl, mi welidd hi os bydda ti’n brysio…
When you come back, she’ll see if you’re hurrying
Pan ddoi di‘n ôl, mi weli di beth sydd gen i… when you come back, you’ll see what I’ve got”
I can’t understand the use of “mi” in the second two examples, with “welith hi” and “weli di” but not with"a i" in the first. the only other time that I can remember “mi” entering my consciousness in previous lessons was with “taswn…,mi faswn”.
The second problem that I’ve met in this lesson was earlier on in the “without” + pronoun examples.
The examples that I could understand, if my hearing was correct, were. “heb ddo fi”; heb ddo ti" and heb ddo fo". There was, however, an example that threw me. I think that I heard “heb ddi hi”.
Should I have heard, for the last two examples, “heb ddo iddo fo” and “heb ddo iddi hi”? Or should it have been “heb iddo fo” and “heb iddi hi”? Or was it something completely different?
In the North mi is a particle that indicates a positive statement will follow (as opposed to a question or a negative statement). It has no actual translatable meaning, and is not the same as mi when used in patterns like rhaid i mi. I hope that is helpful!
As to heb, it is similar to am (and other small words like this) in that it runs with the person. So you recall the forms amdatat ti - “for you”, amdana fi - “for me”, ayyb? Well, heb is the same:
hebddo fi - “without me” hebddot ti - “without you” hebddo fo - “without him” hebddi hi - “without her”
Hi, Stu,
You’re really good to reply so quickly, so helpfully and so clearly.
On reflection, the “heb dd… …” answer should have been obvious as a type of “wrth”. Still, I sometimes excel at missing the blindingly obvious.
However, I’m still a bit unsure about the “mi”. If all that it does is introduce positive statements, why isn’t it used in the "…she’ll see if you’re hurrying"question - and for that matter, why not for every other positive statement we translate. eg should “aeth o i’r siop.” instead read “mi aeth o i’r siop.” when it isn’t said as a question?
Gerald
‘Mi’ is a bit like adding salt - everyone has their own preferences. We bring it in randomly to reflect the random way in which you’ll hear it in real speech - so there is no ‘ought’ for using it - just go with whatever comes to mind first
