This is gonna be a long one, fair warning and apologies in advance
So over levels 1-3 (south) Iāve got pretty comfortable with using āgalla iā instead of ādwiān galluā etc. for āI canā, but I was just wondering what the conjugation is for short form present tense (and maybe what some common irregulars are) in general.
I was also wondering how common short form is in spoken Welsh and if there is an informal/formal distinction. Also is it a case of modals/auxiliary verbs being short form in the present but other verbs using long form? I live in the south east if that changes the answer from the south west at all. Iāve been getting a lot of conflicting answers from native speakers not in my area (havenāt found any in my area) and mates who studied Welsh to GCSE who are in my area :ā)
Thirdly conjugation tables for āsaiān/so feānā type present negative conjugation are proving hard to find. If anyone could type out that list Iād be super grateful. I know most (though not all) of them but am unsure about spelling for quite a few. Is the āhiā equivalent of so feān (so hiān?) just not really used (hence the dyw hi ddim teaching)? Also is there a āthe plural noun isnātā āsoā equivalent? e.g. āThe children donāt wantā being something like āsoār plant yn moynā?
I realise SSiW doesnāt really like using tables and lists, so I understand if this is the wrong place to be asking these questions^. But Iāve been scouring PDFs for hours and have bugged the native Welsh speakers and other Welsh learners I know over a couple of other nit-picky grammar questions too much recently already I think
I find short form is especially common in the south. Itās very rare that Iāll hear someone say āWnes i ddweudā (I said) down south. Iāll tend to hear ādwedais Iā a lot more.
Up north itās a bit less like that though. Although youāll still hear a lot of short form.
Saiān is a bit hard to find any documentation on because itās something that I believe is really limited to spoken Welsh only (and sometimes used in extremely informal written settings Twitter, Texting etc)
ā¦ and even then itās generally only used down south - and not by everyone really. I use it loads though.
Just for reference though (excuse spelling if any errors)
Sa iān - Iām not.
So fe - Heās not.
So hi - sheās not.
So Ti - youāre not (singular)
So chi - youāre not (plural or respectful)
So ni - we are not
So nhw - theyāre not.
The single āsoā can be used to describe anything that doesnāt fall into the above categories. I.e
Soār cath hoffi cig - the cat doesnāt like meat.
Soār pĆŖl-droed yn cwpla eto - the football isnāt finishing yet.
Soār Dyn yn mynd iār Mwnt - the man isnāt going to Mwnt.
I dont think you can put moyn at the end of that though. As that is a different constructon. I think you need to say The children dont wantā¦(dont have a need on them).
Otherwise it sounds like a wrong way of saying its not the children that want.
Its in an early forum post but I cant find it now @Garethrking explained it.
Thanks for clearing that up! What textbook is that youāre using in the photo by the way? It has quite a few forms Iām struggling to find documented online and I might look into getting it for grammar in general
Iāll save @garethrkingās modesty by jumping in first to let you know itās one that he wrote. Seriously: he rather got up the nose of some people by doing a grammar of Welsh as she is spoke, rather than as she āoughtā to be. There are also various workbooks etc. to accompany it
Oh my gosh thatās incredible! As someone who loves their grammar tables but also wants to speak genuine colloquial Welsh as taught on SSiW, youāre a life-saver!! I wish I could say I was surprised about the prescriptivist reaction though :ā)