Only got as far as page 7 so far , but can tell I am going to love it - cannot for the life of me work out why in section 4 achos we should get “… achos mod i ddim wedi gwneud … “ in the first example of this section - which means bod has a nasal mutation applied to it rather than what I would ( obviously erroneously ) expect - a soft mutation ? Is this just literary correctness or am I misunderstanding where nasal mutations should be applied rather than soft mutations ?
Regards John Lever
3 Likes
The nasal mutation in the bod is because the ‘fy’ that precedes it (and causes a nasal mutation) is often left out in speech but the mutation it causes remains - achos (fy) mod i ddim wedi gwneud.
2 Likes
Dear Sharon,
Thanks - really helpful - from Gareth’s book - achos should be used with the Welsh equivalent of that ( because that ) following it - does it resolve to ‘because my that I haven’t done … ‘ ie I should assume ‘bod i’ or bod and any other personal pronoun should always be preceded by the possessive adjective eg fy (even if implicitly and not pronounced ) ? Are there lots of places where possessive adjectives are used and explicitly not used ?
Thanks again, John
1 Like
Not exactly - that would be a literal translation and some phrases in Welsh just don’t translate literally.
The mutations on bod depend on the pronoun it’s paired with. fy always causes a NM, dy and ei (= he) always cause a SM. ei (= she) causes an AM, and the others, ein, eich, and eu don’t cause any mutation.
Having said that, in speech these are often left out totally, so you’ll also hear “achos bo(d)…” for all of them.
This pairing of possessive pronouns is pretty common - it often happens when the object of a verbnoun is a pronoun, but don’t worry about them - with enough exposure to the language, your ears will absorb when they occur.
1 Like
Loving Working Welsh. I keep dipping into it.
1 Like