My internet search revealed possible introduction of original spamiels from Spain due to ancient trading along all coasts from North West Africa, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Cornwall, Wales. I have heard of this before. There are musical similarities. From then breeding produced different sizes, types etc… Setters are a varient. I doubt if this is proven, but if correct, my little dogs’ distant ancestors helped my ancient ancestors track and catch game!
If it helps, you don’t need to prove the above, just follow the logic of regression. Eventually you end up with the ancestor of the first domestic dog and the human.
Oh, Truffle is such a beauty! 
Her face…and her sweet nose…and yes, she has wonderfully soulful, wise eyes. 
I’m sure she had the most beautiful and happy life with you! I know how that feels - you know, I think we do appreciate our animal companion’s cleverness, but we, in a way, take it for granted (don’t know if I choose the right word; I mean, it’s normal for us that our dogs, cats, guinea pigs…are intelligent). One of my cats always waits for me in a bush in front of the house at night when I come home from work, no matter whether it rains, snows or thunders, she’s there. When she sees me, she comes running up to me, purring like crazy and behaving like a dog. She’s an older lady now and I don’t want to think about losing her some day 
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You can be rude about the clergy, which is always both fun and worthwhile, I think. I always like (Gog alert!!) iasgobanw! for blimey! - it’s esgob annwyl dear bishop really, but be sure to use it in its truncated form when trying for an expletive 
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Brilliant, diolch yn fawr iawn! Of course I will only use it lovingly teasingly! 
I’ve not only learnt two funny ways to swear, but also two new English words, truncated and expletive. I’ve always enjoyed swearing - the funny thing is, I do it mostly because I like using such stromg words, the sound of them…they do contain a lot of power and energy, which can be used in a positive way. And it’s always better to swear like a dustman than to punch someone, isn’t it? 
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Of course it is - heb os nac onibai! 
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I’ve copied the swear words and ‘heb os nac onibai’ into my booklet of special Welsh expressions I don’t want to forget, diolch yn fawr iawn! 
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I’m impressed!
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OK, so I’m guessing [kEEv] /kɨv/ -addef and -ateb etc.? (Which, if so, is annoying, because I’ve been saying /kəv/ in my head since coming across them in print, on the basis of non-final-y, and I’ll now have to bully myself into something different…)
AND – It shouldn’t generally be necessary, given that Welsh orthography is generally pretty regular, but do you know of any online dictionaries or other guidance that would help me resolve such queries without bothering people?
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I’m interested in resources like that too, but don’t feel like you are bothering people - if I knew the answers, I’d be happy to share, and since I don’t, I’m grateful for the answers that you get! If you have a question, you can be sure someone else is wondering the same thing…
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If you have a free account on Gweiadur - that has a little speaker icon next to (some? many? all?) entries with a recorded voice.
it says /kəv/ateb, /kəv/addef, for what it’s worth, or at least that’s what I hear.
There’s also Wiktionary which may have IPA transcriptions, e.g. for https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cyfarfod – but it doesn’t include the words cyfateb, cyfaddef at all and, being a community-edited resource, may or may not be reliable (the IPA pronunciations might be automatically generated from the spelling for all I know).
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Diolch!
a) cyfarfod is probably a good comparison, and is one we all know well (so I should really have thought of it myself, too), but along with your other points suggests I don’t have to try to retrain my brain just yet;
b) Wiktionary is one that occurred to me after posting, but hadn’t yet acted on - I think it’s probably usually trustworthy, just not very comprehensive;
c) I’ve had a look at Gweiadur since hearing it mentioned on the forum, but it was closed to new sign-ups. I’ll keep trying, since someone - possibly you, actually - gave me to understand that that’s an intermittent thing.
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No, it’s /kəv/ in these cases.
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Help! I have never been taught phonetic symbols! Keev is OK, that’s like English ‘key’ with ‘v’ on the end, but I was totally thrown by the backwards ‘e’! Is that like the first ‘y’ in mynydd (and first two 'y’s in mynyddydd?).
to @RichardBuck, I totally agree with @AnnaC, if you don’t ask you don’t learn and we all benefit from each other’s questions! I remember in college in Yorkshire, being a bit thrown to find I was the only one asking questions. Then all the lads (I was the only female) came to me after one class and thanked me for asking, because none of them understood either, but… well, I don’t know if they saw it as admitting defeat to ask, or if they were too shy!!!
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Yes!
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Sorry about the ‘ə’ (‘schwa’) – I mostly try to avoid phonetic symbols, but neither English nor Welsh has a proper letter for schwa, despite both using the sound all over the place! Grrr.
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@RichardBuck - ‘Regret not thy schwa, lest thou be yet needful of it…’ (2 Maccabees 8:37) (I think).
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I can’t remember if I mentioned this:
I sat through an entire safety induction (in English) near Newport, when the word reen kept coming up. At the end we were asked if there were any questions. Of course I couldn’t resist asking. It turned out that the word meant drainage ditch. Possibly only applies to Gwent and Somerset Levels plus Gloucestershire (?). Not the “real” Fens
Anyway, it appears that there are a number of English ways of spelling it, plus possibly a couple in Welsh(?): Rhewen and Rhewyn. @Aran, if that’s true, I’ll be careful of my spelling 
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I hear these 3 different words used for “here” and am a bit confused as which one to use in which context (or does it generally not matter which one you use ?)
Fama
Fan hyn
Yma
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I think Fama is “fa(n) (y)ma”
Fan hyn can be “fanyn” too.
I think that all of them are right. Hyn and yma both get used for this and yma is also here, so it’s “this area” or “area here” (man).
I hope that helps?
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