Rhod wybod

Has anyone heard/uses/know the origin of the phrase ‘rhod wybod’ for ‘let me know’ ? A friend of mine from Aberteifi used it in an email.

Andrew

rhoi wybod? :slight_smile:

Well I typed ‘rhod wybod’ into a few translators and it said exactly that ‘let us know’

Rhoi wybod i fi - let me know (literally: put or give knowledge to me)…

Rhoi wybod i ni - let us know…And so on…

I’ve seen the ‘i’ dropped…but not a ‘d’ on the end before…but in the grand scheme of things…

Rich :slight_smile:

Google translate makes allowance for typos - I guess the others do too.

Ah. I didn’t realise that. Thanks everyone. Roi makes sense…

Andrew

My friend who has spoken Welsh since toddler age responded with this when I asked:

‘Rhod gwybod’ is ‘let us know’. ‘Rhoi gwybod’ is ‘inform’

So I’m still not 100% sure about this phrase!

She speaks Welsh but confesses to not being able to read and write it too well. Although seems pretty convinced about this.

Helo! “Rho wybod” is how I’ve seen it before, I think the d might just be a typo or autocorrect thing, but I could be wrong.

It’s not just dropped, “rho” is the command (imperative) form of rhoi (give). So you’re basically commanding (asking :smile:) them to “give”. If you want to be more formal you can go with “rhowch (wybod)” :slight_smile:

You’d still see “rhoi” if the command is in another verb, for example “cofia rhoi gwybod” (remember to let me know). Rhoi gwybod on its own means “to let know”, so as your friend said, “to inform”.

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It could be one of those colloquial things that makes the phrase easier to say. We know, for example that many mutations have their origin in the way some sounds clash when they are forced together in speech. If we think about the phrase rho wybod in fast-paced, informal (let’s be honest and say sloppy) speech, that o-w transition is pretty awkward. There would be a tendency, I think for it either to get mangled up together into a phrase such as rhwbo or for a consonant to be injected in order to make it flow - rhod wybod depending on where the stress of the phrase might naturally go. Think of how the h is injected into arhoswch (not aroswch) for example.

Just guessing, though.

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Hi robbruce

I think that makes a lot of sense. I’m sure it is a colloquialism (from Aberteifi way in this case) from someone speaking and then writing down what they are saying. I’m not sure I’m in a position to be correcting a native speak of 60 years so i think I’ll go with your answer! Diolch yn fawr

Andrew

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@Novem. Many thanks for your answer.

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@robbruce @Novem @HuwJones @rich

I think the Gareth King dictionary I just bought clarifies where that ‘d’ comes from now. Useful book. Add a pinch of colloquialism to the command form and hey presto we get ‘rhod’.

Andrew

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