@Mihil
I just wish to add that the next meeting at Y Mochyn Du will be this coming Monday, 7th March, from 7pm, and then the 1st Monday of each month after that.
Also, if you happen to be in Cardiff tomorrow, The CACEN group from Sussex, England, will be meeting with a few of us from Cardiff and the Vale at St Fagans Museum of Welsh Life at 10:30 tomorrow morning. You will be more than welcome to come aoing and join us.
Gwep - is a colloquial word for ‘face’ , can be used in less than nice ways haha
“cau dy wep” - is akin to saying shut your mouth
Just a small usage question, but I’ve been thinking about it for quite some time already. So, in speaking we mostly use the shortened forms of bod like “dw i”. But what about those forms of writing that don’t imitate the colloquial language?
If we are writing a letter to someone we don’t know, which form of “bod” are we to use? The short one, the longer (rydw i) one or the super formal one? And what about essays? What do people write in their university assignments?
Thank you!
I wouldn’t go over the top with super-formal / super-literary forms.
The following refers to “standard form” (as opposed to “spoken”), and I think would be generally acceptable.
One could perhaps get some idea of what is acceptable in Academia by looking at some of the e-books online here:
(and I’m grateful to whoever posted a link to that website a week or so ago. Sorry, can’t remember who).
Sometimes i would be interested to see some lines explaining the difference or source of what we say.
(formal -> spoken). In English examples like (i would -> i’d) must be really difficult for learners abroad to understand).
Cheers J.P.
Great, thanks! A Russian woman mentioned some time ago that her written Welsh (she specializes in Middle Welsh texts but knows Modern Welsh too) was described as very formal by her Welsh colleagues, so I wondered which forms she might have used “rydw i” or “yr ydwyf”.
This whole area was always a mystery to me when I started Welsh, and I am still by no means sure of my ground, but I’m getting the feeling now that there is a kind of spectrum of modern written Welsh, ranging from not much different to spoken, all the way to extremely formal with odd-looking verb forms that are never ever spoken.
Something like the BBC Cymru news site seems to be only slightly more formal looking that what we learn to say, e.g. this article:
e.g. “Dywedodd” is the proper short form past of “deud” - we learn something more informal (on the northern course something like “ddidodd” - there are other forms I think).
“gennym” - I think that’s a literary form for what we learn to say in the north as “gynnon ni” (there are other forms I think).
I can see pronouns being left off after “uchelgais” and “meddai” which I think is typical for the written form (as is “meddai” - we had a thread about that recently).
I was half-expecting to see impersonal verb forms (ending in “-ir” or “wyd”), but there don’t seem to be here. I think you do see them sometimes on the BBC website, and I think they use them in speech in the news…aha, sorry, I think “dylid” is one…from “dylu” (the verb we learn in the form “dylwn i” - I ought to). (I picked that one up thanks to http://www.gweiadur.com/ - very handy).
(Found a bit in Gareth King, Intermediate Grammar about the -id ending…see attached graphic)
But apart from those, and having to look up any unfamiliar words in a dictionary, it is not really all that different (all that more formal I mean) to what we learn on SSiW (I don’t think! 
);
.
Helo! Cwestion - dwi wedi gorffen efo level 2 rwan a dwi’n gwybod mae vocab 10 yn dda I ymarfer y vocab yn unig. On lesson 24 a 25 it says they are good ones to come back and use to refresh level 2 but can I just do lesson 25 and the vocab 10 to refresh level 2 or do I need lesson 24 too? Just looking for the quickest way to stay on top of it like with level one’s vocab 10!
Shwmae Jenny,
I’m assuming you’re currently following the old course, if you’re going the Vocabs as well…
I can’t see any reason why you can’t just use lesson 25 of course 2 to refresh, other than (as far as I remember) there may have possibly been a few phrases in lesson 24 that may not appear in lesson 25 (possibly new words introduced in the lesson??). So If you feel your Welsh has come along rather well, and you’re getting to use your Welsh often, I would say just use lesson 25 and vocab 10, then get stuck into course 3.
Or, you can try the new course (with the ‘levels’ and no vocab units) and give them a go. You should breeze through level 1 as you will know many of the words, but there are many new ones thrown in too, as well as some of the word forms you will learn in course 3, only much easier to digest.
Well done for getting as far as you have, and best of luck with the rest of your Welsh language journey. 
Hi Faitheless! Diolch yn fawr - syniad da - dwin’ mynd i ymarfer efo lesson 25 and vocab 10 in that case. Planning to do level 2 next (I started with course 1 then level 1 then course 2 - want to do cymaint a phosibl!
At the tail end of Course 2, it’s not possible to fit everything you’ve covered into lesson 25 - so if you want to be certain that you’ve revisited everything, yes, you’ll need to do 24 and 25.
Having said that, if you’re pressing on with Level 2, you don’t need to worry too much about revising the older Course material, so it certainly wouldn’t be the end of the world to revisit 25 only… 
I have been searching, but cannot find an answer anywhere online, other than a direct word translation:
Beating the bounds: curo y terfynau?
Beating the bounds is something I used to do every year when I lived in Carmarthenshire. We would walk around the place where we lived/ the community, making noise by beating together various items to scare away evil spirits. I also think it was traditional in teaching parish boundaries
I was wondering if this translation sounds correct at all, and also whether anyone here has/has had a similar tradition?
I’d be extremely wary of it - that sort of specific name very, very rarely translates neatly. I’d have had no idea what it meant in English - so your best bet, by far, would be to try to find a Welsh speaker who is familiar with the tradition, and find out what they would call it in Welsh. You might find that they’d figure out what you meant by ‘curo’r terfynau’, and that might even be what they call it, but my bet would be there’s a different name for such a specific tradition…
Thanks 
I was thinking it would be a difficult one to translate without knowing people who do the specific tradition. I’m not sure where I’ll find these Welshies, but who knows!
GPC says: cerdded corporasiwn: to beat the bounds. . But it sounds a bit daft to me and probably an error. I can’t believe that one
I suspect this is different but related. I guess parishioners in Wales still walk the bounds - it happened a lot when I was growing up. This is more of a legal thing to keep pathways and rights of ways open than something to scare awy evil spirits. The oldes terms for that, which I have found are:
cerdded y ffiniau and cerdded y plwyf - the same thing still goes on in Parish councils, but using more contempory and a bit boring council style descriptions like cerdded y llwybrau
I suspect that this is different to what you are thinking though. In the village where I grew up I think that this seemed to link with the Mari loyd stuff, but I don’t think that is a distinctly Welsh thing and don’t recall any special welsh words for these things
Those both sound plausible and natural…
when looking on GPC, I found a really bizaarre expression:
cerdded dan ddwylo: to go darkling.(17th Century)
what on earth does to go darkling mean in English, let alone the Welsh expression.
Thanks! That looks like a good dictionary to use, hadn’t used it before.
I imagine how people beat the bounds varies a lot. I guess we don’t need to teach people parish boundaries as much anymore. I think it was used more in a time when people weren’t allowed to work outside of their parish if they weren’t land owners, i.e. not freemen.
Its hard to determine exactly where traditions come from though. Although it has been used to mark parish boundaries, it may have come from some other older tradition, e.g. how Christian holidays used pre-existing festival periods for Christian holidays and festivals
Its definitely quite a fun activity though!
In Scotland, in the border area, there is a lot of Riding that goes on. I can’t remember exactly what they call it, but it is Riding the bounds of the town or village. This still happens with a lot of ceremony and a person chosen as Leader, a position of some honour!! (The Riding always has a capital R!!).
That’s really interesting
I like to believe traditions similar to these have existed far beyond any records we have, though the exact form and reason for them have changed throughout time