Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread

Quick question re lyrics to Un Wennol by Celt - I found them in Welsh (transcribed kindly by someone else) and have added a translation on Lyricstranslate.com, but I’m unsure of one point in the transcription. Where it has Dim ond un wennol / yn unig fel y fi, I’m not sure what that y is doing. Can anyone explain, or should it be … fel wyf i?

Without listening closely to what is actually sung it could actually be both. If it is y, it is in fact the definite article, and the function here would be for emphasis (“as lonely as the me”).
But it would also make complete sense with wyf, but then it would probably be reduced to 'yf fi (pronounced as the name Evie)

Edit to add: After listening to the song I can confirm that he really sings fel y fi.

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A lot of North Wales is -a endings…yet inland deeper NE Wales away from the coast and Corwen/Cerrigydruduon area I hear -e endings like the South west of wales…a lot more… ‘chware’ etc.
Historical reasons dating back to borders of Powys Fadog kingdom (well thats what the locals say hehe!)

Is this a good summation of how to say “pardon me” / “forgive me” in different forms in Welsh?
Is this overly posh…or missing modern phrases?
Diolch ymlaen llaw am unrhyw atebion

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a bod yn onest is the more correct version but i fod yn onest is frequently used in speech.

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Yes it does! Thank you.

Came across the word “cast” twice this week e.g cast ynteu ceiniog. I’ve been unable to find it in dictionary! Therefore asking here. Thanks!

Cast ynteu ceiniog = “Trick or treat!” :smiley:

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According to the dictionary app, “tyrfa” can also mean concourse, but otherwise the definitions of both are pretty much the same, being given as “crowd, throng, mass, multitude”. English has many words for a large number of people, so it’s not surprising Welsh does too. There may be subtle differences in meaning, but I’ll wait for others to comment on that.

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is ‘neu’ a shortening of ‘ynteu’ then?

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Yes, it is. In the north you’ll also hear 'ta instead of neu, in turn a shortening of ynteu

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Yes I hear " 'ta " at times up here… Na/nag(before vowel) also used for ‘nor’ in negative sentences

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This reminds me - I’ve been wondering what the a is is phrases like this and a dweud y gwir. “And” doesn’t really fit but nor doesn it seem likely that it’s our diminutive friend the interrogative particle. It’s clearly not the guy with the hat (â), so that’s me out of ideas. Maybe a fossil from an older form of Welsh?

I realise it doesn’t matter hugely, but any help from those more knowledgable than me would be appreciated.

Yes, I hear ‘iawn, te’ in the North too

I translate ‘te’ as roughly “then” in this regard … alright then!

I believe the ‘a’ is actually ‘â’ here. It is just most people still use an English only formatted keyboard

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Aha thanks @brynle - somehow I thought I’d always seen it minus the to bach but that makes sense.

It does make sense, but I’m still not sure it’s right - at least, the Geiriadur yr Academi doesn’t put a to bach on the a, even though it does have an â further down the same entry:

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@chris-roberts I’ve just asked the Facebook Gramadeg y Gymraeg group for help.

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…and, apparently, it is just “and”. Seemingly, that’s just how it goes - with a/ac, if “ac ystyried hynny” works the same way.

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I have been corrected.
I have definitely seen â used with “â fod yn onest” but could be a grammar error by speakers on facebook … or old pre WW2 grammar books my mam has…I can’t remember. Its too easy to conflate things. Appreciate the fact checking assuming Phylip is correct here :stuck_out_tongue:

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