when I first first learnt Welsh from the book “Cymraeg i Ddysgwyr” (Uned Iaith Genedlauthol Cymru)), I heard on the accompanying cassettes “Y-chydig” Now i’m revising Level 3 SSIW and am hearing “YchIdig” Sorry cannot emphasise the accent on the computer , the first one has the accent on the first syllable and the second one on the middle syllable… which is correct ?
Margaret
Accent on the second syllable with this one… 
As usual there are exceptions, but in by far the majority of multi-syllable words, the stress falls on the penultimate syllable
So in ych-y-dig, the stress is on the the second y, but sometimes it gets shortened in speech to 'chy-dig, and then the stress ends up on the chy.
I hope that doesn’t make it too confusing.
I have to say that I’ve always heard it like @aran’s stressing the first syllable (and been slightly surprised that it wasn’t the penult, once I realised how general that rule is) – right from the first Es i allan efo ychydig o ffrindiau onwards.
I can only put that down to stress being a very subtle difference in ordinary speech a lot of the time - so perhaps it’s possible to hear unintended variations based partially on expectations - but YY-chydig would sound completely and utterly wrong (to the point of being a possible barrier to communication, if it was emphasised enough)…
I hear it as yCHYdig. Ending consonants like to attach to leading vowels (and vice-versa), so I think in actual pronunciation this is fairly accurate.
Just to muddy the waters (sorry, but this is a bit of a continual problem for me in Welsh), apart from the stress question (and I hear it as stress on the last-but-one syllable), how is the second “y” being pronounced?
Does it sound like “uh-chuh-dig” or “uh-chi-dig”?
I know what I think I remember hearing Aran saying, but it’s been a while, and my memory may be faulty.
(Thinking about it now, is it possible stress has a slightly modifying effect on pronunciation?)
I hear it (and would pronounce it) as “uh-CHUH-dig” (stress on second syllable). The general rule of thumb, for most dialects, is that y is pronounced ‘uh’ (the ‘neutral’ vowel in the, _a_bove, etc) when it appears in a non-final syllable.
Though, of course, there are exceptions and regional variations.
I know the rule, but I seem to hear (or think I hear) a lot of deviations from this rule. I think sometimes because it’s compound words, but not always. Regional variation probably also comes into it.
But I’ve sometimes thought that there may be some “small print” attached to the rule that we generally learn that first language speakers apply without thinking, and which are never written down and taught to learners.
I’ll try to find some examples of what I mean that people can listen to.
I believe there are regional variations. I’m no dialectologist of Welsh but I think some SW dialects pronounce y in non-final syllables as ‘i’, rather than ‘uh’. No doubt others reading this thread will correct me if I’m wrong.
And I think you’re also right about the rule ostensibly being ‘broken’ by compounds - e.g. I think ‘tystysgrif’ (certificate) is pronounced "tist-uh-skreev’, with the stress on the last syllable - the word being a compound of ‘tyst’ (witness) and ‘ysgrif’ (write). At least that’s how I’ve heard it.
Also, the prefixes ‘cyn’ and ‘cyd’ are, I think, pronounced ‘kin’ and ‘kid’ (e.g. cynamserol, cydweithio).
But it’s possible I may have misheard so take the above with a pinch of salt until someone who knows what they’re on about interjects!
Thanks for reminding me about those. I think that’s what I’ve heard too.
I know that there is a “complication” with Northern Welsh, and that, whereas “u” in southern Welsh is usually pronounced like an English “i”, it’s quite different in the north (but I won’t try to describe it).
But (so I have heard from someone who seemed to know what he was talking about on Youtube), the
Northern final “y” is just like (?- or very similar?) to the northern “u”.
However, I don’t think that explains some of the non-final “y” sounds I seem to keep hearing.
ych-UH-dig vs ych-I-dig - my money says you’ll hear both - it may depend slightly on position in the sentence and stuff like that…
Just the way we have been instructed to emphasise it in one of the songs we are learning in the Eisteddfod choir! ych Y dig! Tickets for all the concerts available on-line from 3rd April!!
OK, I’ve finally gotten round to it: here’s where @aran and @CatrinLliarJones first introduce it on the Northern course – and it still sounds to me like the main stress is plausibly on the first syllable, not the second. In fact, I was mentally blaming Aran for this, but I think it’s actually more marked in Catrin’s version – and when I was finding the snippet in Audacity it’s clear that the amplitude of the first syllable is noticeably greater than the second in Catrin’s version (although I know that proper analysis of speech is way more complicated than that, so I stand prepared to be corrected). Here you go: https://soundcloud.com/user-445390074/ychydig
I would like to hear them say it at their normal speaking speeds rather than slow and deliberate. That could well change where the stress goes.
True - but the word does come up time & time again, & I’ve still not unlearnt my first, apparently mistaken, impression. Perhaps, having formed it, I just haven’t listened closely enough. (The other consideration in choosing the first, rather slow and deliberate, occurrence was that it was easy to locate by scanning through the vocab lists!)
Interesting, because I hear the emphasis clearly on the second syllable in the snippet, even though they pronounce it differently. It’s a word that comes up often on Radio Cymru, so I’ll be listening closely!
Well, I think there might be a tendency for us to hear what we think a word sounds like, rather than what we are actually hearing.. Hence SSiW’s advice not to read in the early stages, when the Welsh sounds are all new to us (or mostly new).
And even if one has learned a word first purely aurally rather than visually, perhaps this tendency still applies, and one hears what one expects. Actually it’s quite natural, especially as a learner, because there might be so many potentially unfamiliar words in a sentence that we latch on to the ones we know already - take them as a given - in order to conserve brain energy to apply to dealing with the new or unfamiliar stuff. I’m pretty sure that’s the way my mind works anyway, in a language learning/practising scenario.
FWIW, my mental recording of this word has the stress on the second “y”, but I’m “hearing” it as an English “i”, i.e. ych-I-dig, as Aran has written it. Like @helenlindsay, I’m going to be listening out for this on Radio Cymru now! 
Edit: It could be that what I should be hearing (given that I’ve done the northern courses) is the unique northern “u”/ “y”, but that when I first learned this word, my ear wasn’t accustomed to it, and my brain substituted the English “i” sound (as the best approximation).
If what you’re saying sounds like what we’re saying there, then you’re all good - I’d say that’s emphasis on the second syllable, and that YCH-ydig would sound very different - I’m trying to say YCH-ydig now, and it’s actually pretty difficult, so I think you’d end up comprehensible whatever you felt you were aiming for… 
Before this thread, I was hearing an ‘i’ as well, So I went back to listen, and Iestyn does say a ‘u’ sound there. But really, the CH kind of runs over the vowel the way he says it, so it’s almost not there.