Hi Folks. Apologies in advance for this nerdy question.
I am pottering along through the levels in the Southern Welsh version of SSIW and I have a question regarding one of the ‘cards’ that came up today. The card is drilling me on “even” as in “hyd yn oed”.
The specific phrase on the English side is “even what her name is.”. It is punctuated as a statement and not a question, For an answer I guessed “Hyd yn oed beth yw ei enw hi” but the answer was given as “Beth yw ei enw hi hyd yn oed”.
So, three questions: is the placement of “hyd yn oed” important enough that I should adopt this position, or is the positioning of ‘hyd yn oed’ in this context flexible and I can expect to here it in both positions or, is the Welsh side answer wrong.
I ask because the phrasing of the answer on the card strikes me as very English-like, as in an Englsih sentence such as " I don’;t know what her name is, even. ".
It’s quite common for “hyd yn oed” to be thrown on the end like that, as a bit of additional emphasis. I couldn’t say whether it’s English influence, but it feels quite natural to me.
I would go further, Deborah, and say that “Hyd yn oed beth yw ei henw hi” feels unnatural to me in Welsh. I’m afraid I can’t say why from a grammatical perspective.
I would be happy to say “Hyd yn oed wedyn, dwi ddim yn gwybod beth yw ei henw”. But I would most definitely say “Dwi ddim yn gwybod beth yw ei henw hyd yn oed”, and “Dwi ddim yn gwybod hyd yn oed beth yw…” feels weird.
That might just be me, but… 