Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread

Ah! Thank you! So I suppose the audio is excerpt from that?

I don’t know, I haven’t heard it, sorry.

No problem! Thanks!

Three quick questions
1)Do you still hear “yn wir” to mean “truly/really(genuinely)” ar lafar/ in speech anymore?

It seems the english word “really” (for some reason spelt rili) is now the substitute…BUT the learner books stick to “yn wir” hmm

2)Do people still understand “go iawn” to mean “really!?” in response to things…I dont really hear it much on the street…but definitely see it in books

  1. Whilst living in Ceredigion I heard the english words “real” and “normal” used to mean the same thing but elsewhere not so much used by people (esp. real) … so what do other parts of Wales use? Is there no Welsh translation for the words “real” and “normal”?

*Ive used these wenglicised words in speech but still curious about synonyms - the only one I draw the line at is “lyfo”…sounds too close to llyfu (licking) for me…if “love” is fine for many English contexts…caru is perfectly fine for me - I resent being told it only has “sexual connotations”…my hen fam-gu used it widely

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I hadn’t heard that about caru, although I had understood that some do prefer it to be used for people and animals.

Anyway, I’m all for having the freedom of using as many options as possible rather than repeating the same word too many times in a conversation.

I have DEFINITELY heard Iestyn’s daughters say that so not a problem in Ceredigion :rofl:

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Great, thanks! And anywhere else I can always say I learnt it in Ceredigion! :wink:

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and in North Ceredigion where my family is from … they are a stranger breed who use both northern and southern dialect and the odd local dialect word too.

Plwmp is a great weird local one for “a man sized hole in a lead mine”…

Also “Bant â’r cart” - Off we go (with the cart) are phrases frozen in an older non-automobile past!

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Very simple one: how do you wish someone to “have fun!”?

… although “cael hwyl” is to “have fun” … its not correct as an order/ or wish to someone

Mwynhewch (plural/formal) … or Mwynha (singular/informal) … is a way of saying … Enjoy! (Have fun!)

Sure theres plenty others

I dont think “pob hwyl” (so long) is related to “fun”…might be hwyl to do with a sail (hwylio-sailing)…but I need expert knowledge!

Gobeithio gei di hwyl !.. Hoping you WILL have fun!

could work? anyone? hello! echoes :smiley:

yup, as Brynle said “Mwynha!”/“Mwynhewch!” (or “Mwynha dy hun!”/“Mwynhewch eich hunain!”) is the usual way to say it, but “Gobeithio gei di hwyl” works (not quite as succinct as ‘have fun’ though!)

“Pob hwyl” is roughly “All the best”.

Hwyl can be quite tricky - the word on its own can mean several things (not just ‘fun’ and ‘sail’) and it also pops up often in idioms, so translating it is not always straightforward.

To appeal to your hwntw self you can also say “Joia dy hun” :slight_smile:

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Yes my Cwm Rheidol family prefer Joia/ Joiwch for sure!

I dont hear Mwynha/Mwynhewch …from about Aberystwyth southwards said often … unless its kids raised in standard Welsh medium settings…
People are familiar with what their parents taught them traditionally…so the gradual change due to anglicisation went un-noticed… my grandmother never ever used defnyddio … only iwsio (maybe because the fairly abstract ‘use’ was never really a Welsh concept anyway as you just use the specific verb instead!)

…but theres been a big abrupt change in the south as most kids are learning Welsh from standardised school and not from their English only but Welsh born parents…leading to some interesting inter-generational misalignments in dialect lol.

My second language Welsh speaking friend from Abertawe (Swansea) doesnt even shorten the plural endings of nouns in Welsh (he doesnt shorten -au to -e in speech etc) whereas Ive been forced to do that in rural northeastern Wales haha

Two Eisteddfod related questions :slight_smile:

  1. Does the word Eisteddfod have meaning? I found eistedd as to sit and eisteddfod as session. Session is a weird word, no too often used in speach, I would say one would be more probable to say meeting or gathering. But maybe session is more about doing something together while gathering is just about being together and meeting can be both (work meeting vs meeting with friends) (or possibly I am overthinking this). So how is the eisteddfod meaning perceived by a native speaker?
  2. What is the difference in use and meaning (if any) between words maes and cae?
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There isn’t really a direct translation for eisteddfod - native speakers just know an eisteddfod to be a gathering of people for cultural competitions.

Maes and cae can both mean a field, but whereas cae only means a field, a maes can also be an area of activity, so for example in Caernarfon, the big town square is called the Maes.

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Session is a close translation in a sense. In English you can have a session for different things. You can have a drinking session, you can have a music session where you all get together and just play, not practice (these two concepts, drinking and music, often blur). Really though, Eisteddfod has no translation. It’s unique.

My wife just made a good point. It’s a bit like translating Oktoberfest - it doesn’t really tell you what it is and it doesn’t really happen in October. (Oktoberfest happens in September in Munich).

I understand that it can’t be translated but I meant what it means to a native speaker, given the fact that it isn’t a random word but it has some etymology to it.

Session is your closest then.

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