D'alw

Welsh General / Questions
#1

Can someone very quickly tell me what “d’alw” is a contraction of please?

I know that galw = call, I just want to know what the " d’ " at the start means. Thanks

#2

Without knowing the context, I’d say it’s more than likely a contraction of dy alw (di) - e.g. o’n i’n mynd i d’alw di heno “I was going to call you tonight”

3 Likes
#3

Best guess without seeing more context is that the sentence was something like “I’m going to call you” → Dw i’n mynd i d’alw di.
(dy causes galw to mutate to alw, dy + alw = d’alw)

3 Likes
#4

Is it correct to think that when possessives (dy, fy, etc) are placed in front of a verb, they act as a sort of preposition? (it directs the verb at the person, rather than saying the verb belongs to the person).

Like, “dy” is “your” but when it is placed in front of the verb, it becomes “you”? So, “Dy alw” (your call), actually means “call you”? Or rather, “dy alw di”. I have always found the “possessive-verb-pronoun” construction a little confusing.

I might be way off the mark.

#5

Yes, that’s a good way to think of it.

2 Likes
#6

Thanks. I know “dy” is not a preposition in the strict sense, obviously lol. Rather, it is more to do with direct-object-pronouns, etc. But, I always think of prepositions as being the position/direction of a verb

1 Like
#7

We can sometimes do the same thing in English, although I suspect that it may give it a slightly more formal or old fashioned air:
Do you mind my sitting here?
vs
Do you mind me sitting here?
It’s true that in Welsh the dy is effectively the object of (g)alw rather than its subject, but the use of ‘my’ to mean ‘me’ is otherwise quite similar. The word for word equivalent of the Welsh Dw i’n mynd i dy alw would be I’m going to your calling.

4 Likes