Quick one, I promise.
In RaR they say “dwi’n gaddo.”
In PyC they say “dwi’n addo.”
Discuss. 
Meaning? PyC tends to be south, I think and R&R is certainly Gogledd, but I think ‘addo’ means promise and I’m none too sure of gaddo. O, mae’n ddrwg gen i, truth is, I don’t know and trying to find out wasn’t very successful!
They both mean “I promise” but why is one “reverse mutated”? The word is “addo” but why on RaR do they assume that addo is mutated from gaddo and then use the “assumed correct” version?
The same happens sometimes with “wyneb/gwyneb”.
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true, addo is the correct form but gaddo is very often used even though it is technically incorrect (born of a dialect thing maybe). wyneb and gwyneb, however, are equally correct according to Geiriadur yr Academi.
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My vote is also with the Glamorgan/Gwent reverse mutation hardening thingy/thinggey 
A sort of Llangadog/Llangattock split?
Gweiadur calls gaddo a ffurf lafar (“spoken form”?) of addo.
I suppose it’s simply the kind of folk reanalysis that gave us “cherries, peas” (plural) from “cherise, pease” (collective) and “an apron, an adder” from “a napron, a nadder”.
Or, for that matter, “a kudo” from the Greek singular noun κύδος kudos.
So someone, somewhere (or more likely many people) assumed that addo was a mutated form and unmutated it, and it became part of a regional dialect.
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I looked that one up when DailyWelshWords on Twitter (@Iestyn?) mentioned gwyneb being ‘wrong’. Apparently it’s originally an ŵy- sound at the beginning, so when words like gwyrdd (from Latin viridis) gained a ‘g’ back in the day, words like ŵyneb remained exempt. Now that it’s shifted (for many speakers? all speakers? - idk) to a wy- sound, it tends to also acquire a ‘g’. I think the Geiriadur yr Academi online entry says that ‘gwyneb’ is used ‘often [but] less correctly’, if I’ve understood which bit of the entry that refers to.
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yes, GA says gwyneb is used less correctly, whereas it says gaddo is used incorrectly. Technically that’s the case anyway, but as you said, it’s often through ‘less correct’ and ‘incorrect’ uses that words naturally evolve over time - and of course often in some dialects and not others, just to make it ‘interesting’ 
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Yeah, I only looked it up because I’d always thought that the word was ‘gwyneb’ 
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Just a quick one to leave you with at your leisure: Meaning of Y Gwrhyd/Gwryd. As in Pen-y-Gwryd (Snowdonia) and Y Gwrhyd/Y Gwryd Chapel above the Swansea Valley.
It has always interested me, but I’ve never been able to confirm its meaning. Is there any chance that it could be something like the verge of a stretch of river? (Cwr hyd).
Gwryd is the length of outstretched arms, or could also be used for a fathom (if you’re 6’ tall - my outstretched arms fall a bit short!)
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So - not to mention is heb sôn am (diolch @siaronjames). Along the same lines, I said “speaking of French…” (Because the conversation was about escargot and we happened to be watching “The Returned”) Would that be “sôn am Ffrangeg”?
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Oui…
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Merci
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Thanks, @siaronjames. This is the best that I could fine:
That cwr is a topographical description of a skirt, edge, verge, apron etc of some feature; and hyd can be a stretch or reach of a river (section of river), as well as an arm stretch. We used to live near a riverside area in E Anglia known as Reach.
Ok. so I am putting 2 and 2 together, but am hoping that I might be on the right track. The only other thing I found for Cwr was corner, so perhaps it might be something to do with a road or river junction or bend?
I wonder if anyone has local knowledge?
[quote=“siaronjames, post:3475, topic:3153, full:true”]
Gwryd is the length of outstretched arms, or could also be used for a fathom (if you’re 6’ tall - my outstretched arms fall a bit short!)[/quote]
My Y Geiriadur Mawr both gwryd and gwrhyd as fathom or “about six feet.” But under gwryd it also has:
2. dewrder. bravery
3. gwyrth. miracle
AND, it has an “obsolete” version of gwrhyd as:
-
gwroldeb. valour.
2, brwydr. battle. - gwyrth. miracle.
It also indicates for an obsolete version of gwryd to “see gweryd.” Which, when looked up, is: pridd, daear, y bedd. earth, the grave.
I really enjoy perusing YGM!
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ah! I’ve had a eureka moment! There is a story of an ancient battle in Cwm Dyli - right by pen-y-gwryd - so that makes sense. I’ll try and dig out the info
… some time later…
ok, so, just for interest, Pen-Y-Gwryd itself (not the hotel, the bit of land/lake opposite) is the site of a Roman marching camp. After the Romans there were several incursions by the Irish, and Bwlch Y Gwyddel nearby is connected with that. The battle bit may have come from fisticuffs with the Romans or the Irish in reality, but in the Arthurian legends: “John Rhys records a tale when Arthur and his men pursued their enemy into the upper reaches of Cwmllan (Camlan?), called Tregalan, on the southern slopes of Snowdon, the modern Watkin Path, where they were pushed up the bwlch, or pass, towards Cwm Dyli. When Arthur’s army had reached the top of the pass, the enemy let fly a shower of arrows at them. Fatally wounded Arthur fell, and his body was buried on the mountain pass so that no enemy might march that way so long as Arthur’s dust rested there. The pass is called Bwlch y Saethau, (the Pass of the Arrows) and the heap of stones called Carnedd Arthur, (Arthur’s Cairn) which could still be seen on the top of the pass in 1850.
After Arthur’s death on Bwlch y Saethau, his men ascended to the ridge of the Lliwed and then descended the precipitous cliff-face into a vast cave called Ogof Llanciau Eryri, (the Cave of the young Men of Snowdon) above Llyn Llydaw in Cwm Dyli. Arthur’s warriors are said to lie sleeping in their armour in the cave waiting for the second coming of Arthur to restore the crown of Britain to the Kymry.”
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Is this the same as the battle that results in the knights sleeping in a cave?
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yup - you posted just as I was about to hit the ‘save edit’ button!
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You know, I’ve heard that legend of the Arthurian knights sleeping in a cave attributed to multiple locations in Wales. We were assured by one person that the one there (somewhere near Ammanford) was the true cave and that “very tall” warriors had been found in that cave.
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