I was watching a drama on S4C and heard someone say “s’neb mynd 'na” (no one goes there). I know about “sa’in hoffi coffi” etc but is just putting an s in front of certain words a pattern and are there any other examples apart from s’neb?
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S’neb is a shortened version of ‘does neb’ which is in turn a shortened version of ‘nid oes neb’.
S’tim ots, = does dim ots.
And there are probably other varieties of shortening phrases. But the S is short for, in the end, ‘nid oes’, ‘there is not’
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What Margaret said. See also:
Sdim byd yna = Does dim byd yna = There’s nothing there
Sgen i ddim clem = Does gen i ddim clem = I haven’t got a clue
Probably others, but that’s all I can think of off top fy mhen.
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What is the full version of the abbreviation “sa’in”?
As far as I heard, the expanded version (that no-one really uses) is Does neb ohona i’n, undergoing some heavy contractions and omissions.
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The fullest version of “Sa i” is “Nid oes dim ohona i” (of which Hendrick’s answer is in itself a contraction). But no one would actually use the fuller forms in spoken Welsh.
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