Diolch!
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Those -nt endings for “they” are typical of literary/formal Welsh, as is dropping the subject pronoun.
Though roeddent looks to me like a hybrid between literary and colloquial (I think I would have expected yr oeddent if anything),but I know very little about the literary level. It’s probably a continuum rather than a binary thing, with in-between forms between “pure” literary and “pure” colloquial.
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Do people (other than learners taught literary language) actually ever say ‘roedd’ or its varients as opposed to ‘oedd’ etc.?
Yes, I’ve heard a lot.
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I agree. I hear it a lot and “ro’n i’n” a lot.
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Nope, nothing particularly formal about it… 
That’ll be read, I’d guess? It’s the more formal, literary option…
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Indeed - although I suspect it is from learners that you mostly hear it. It has spread as a result of classes, I think. I bet (certainly from my experience at least) that most native speakers would say o’n i’n meddwl rather than ro’n i’n meddwl.
In the imperfect generally, the forms without r- (and indeed likewise without the d- in the NEG) are always OK in natural speech, though the language planners don’t like it. I do though.
O’n i’n meddwl - I thought
O’t ti’n meddwl? - did you think?
O’n i ddim yn meddwl - I didn’t think
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I don’t speak to many learners daily. Mostly first language and I’d say I hear it from them. They do so “o’n i’n” more, but I have heard “ro’n i’n” From the native lot too
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Well that is interesting.
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one thing that really cheered me up the other day was big doses of calediad from someones Mother. Started with otw and just carrried on. It made my day. I really hope we never lose that diversity.
Quick question about pronunciation - we went to the University Welsh Society Carol Service in Oxford, and I distinctly heard fluent Welsh speakers referring to it as ‘Rhudychen’ rather than ‘rh@dychen’ (‘y’ eglur rather than tywyll?). Now, I guess the name is a pretty transparent compound, but I’m wondering which pronunciation is right (or are both?). Similarly, I’m always tempted to pronounce ‘cyn’ and ‘cyd’ in words like cyd-ddigwyddiad as ‘cud’ rather than ‘c@d’, but I never know if I should. Should I?
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Yes, I think that you are correct, but am happy to be corrected.
Around here (S Wales), using English spelling, Rhyd will be pronounced as Rheed and Cyd as keed. Cyn as a word is kin, but the place (Ystrad)Gynlais is pronounced gunlice.
OK, that looks weird, but hopefully makes sense. The day shift should clarify.
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Diolch yn fawr – so [kEEd] /kɨd/ or [kUHd] /kəd/ -digwyddiad? It’s a prefix, not a compound noun, but it’s pretty transparent…
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As far as I know, it acts like one for pronunciation. That is, each component is pronounced in its own right. As in English: Super-sonic, etc. I hope.
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Option the first
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Can anyone please explain when you would use do’n ni ddim as opposed to wnest i ddim? Sorry about spelling!
Do’n i ddim - i wasn’t
Wnes i ddim - I didn’t
Do’n i ddim yn gwylio’r ffilm - i wasn’t watching the film
Wnes i ddim gwylio’r ffilm - i didn’t watch the film
Welsh differs from English in that “gwybod”, “eisiau/isio/moyn”, and “meddwl” ( to know, to want and to think) following “do’n I ddim”
So
I didn’t know - do’n i ddim yn gwybod
Hope that helps
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Brilliant. Thanks so much. So would you ONLY use do’n i ddim with those three word, gwybod, eisiau and meddwl, or were they just examples? Thank you.
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No they were just examples.
Do’n i ddim - you’d use this whenever you’d say “I wasn’t” in English.
The second meaning (gwybod etc) is lengthy to explain so please bear with me:
Wnes i - i didn’t = a completed event. It happened, it’s done. Wnes i ddim gwylio’r ffilm - i didn’t watch the film (one off event)
Do’n i ddim - i wasn’t = an ongoing event or lasts over time.
Do’n I ddim yn gwylio’r ffilm (pan aeth y sinema o dan dŵr)- i wasn’t watching the film (when the cinema flooded)
So in Welsh knowing something wasn’t a one off “do’n I ddim yn gwybod sut i stopio siarad amdano” - i didn’t know how to stop talking about it.
There are a few words like this:
Meddwl
Gwybod
Nabod
Cydnabod
Adnabod
Disgwyl
And more that I can’t think of…Sorry!
Clear as mud?
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