Ah of course. I get it now.
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Gareth King’s dictionary does call it a prefix and says:
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Yes, I was going to query ymateb as it implies a response to the speaker, but, usually we don’t answer ourselves! 
I find ymddeol hard to explain too!
But a response is personal, so has the element of self in it. Ateb is a less personal answer.
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ymddeol is to retire, for those unfamiliar with the word, and deol is to banish, so retirement is self-banishment !!
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No wonder I didn’t catch on! I early-retired to escape London and come home to Gower! I may be self-banished now, but back then I was all cwtched up warm in y gartre fy nghalon!
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I have another question 
Yn hytrach nag - instead of
Is it the same as “yn lle”?
yup. 
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Diolch 
I have another (I seem to have opened a new Welsh door this week).
I’ve been in e-mail contact with the Welsh officer for the UHB. He uses “oes modd i ti” (i think, I’m not at work today, as you can tell, so I don’t have the exact e-mail).
From context I can tell it means “want”. Is this a formal construction of want? And could someone kindly give any other examples of how it’s used please?
Diolch yn fawr o flaen llaw.
In the ways I’ve heard it used, it’s more ‘are you able to…’ I’ve used it myself as a slightly more formal construction of ‘allet ti helpu fi’ - ‘oes modd i ti helpu fi’. Not sure if it’s uniquely a southern construction, but I do remember Iestyn teaching it in the southern course.
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Oes modd i ti - Is there a way for you to…
Sort of ‘could you?’ but very polite.
That’s my understanding of it, but would like to know what others (and betters) think. 
Oes modd i ti helpu fi, ayyb
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Diolch cyfaill
The man in question is from Pen Llŷn so I don’t think it’s uniquely southern.
Diolch @cat-1 hefyd. That does make sense. He was asking me to chat over the phone at a certain point so, could makes more sense.
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yes, oes modd i ti can be construed as ‘is there a way for you/are you able to/could you…’ usually followed by what they want you to actually do, so e.g.
oes modd i ti ffonio fi am sgwrs =
Is there a way for you to phone me for a chat
Are you able to phone me for a chat
Could you phone me for a chat
Basically a polite way of asking you to do something!
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Strictly speaking it’s not os here, because it’s a closed rather than open condition - so it ought to be taswn i’n licio fo or petaswn i’n licio fo or petawn i’n licio fo. But because English uses the same word ‘if’ for all conditions, whether open or closed, this is spreading to Welsh.
Fasa i for I would (be) is wrong, but may be gaining ground among younger (and presumably non-native) speakers by analogy with bydda i I will (be). Analogy is a powerful force for linguistic change.
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Just fine!
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Yn hytrach na = rather than
Yn lle = instead of
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I like this.
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Is it always “modd” (i chi, i ti, i mi, etc.) or does it mutate at all?
Always modd in this construction - there’s no mutation after oes.
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