Diolch, that makes sense. This is why I like literal translations over ones that seem more natural in the translated language. It might sound clunkier in English to translate it as “helping of you” but now I see what’s happening.
(Half the reason I’m impatient to get to a point where I can ditch subs on television is that I’m now catching enough words to know the subs often aren’t quite what was actually said. Very distracting.)
I’m doing South but I did a bit of North for contrast and might go back to it now and then for added clarity - they speak more slowly on the North challenges!
As a follow up to your original question - something that’s puzzled me in the past, but that I’ve finally grasped, is that you get the soft mutation in these types of sentences even when the pronoun is missed out: “What do you think (of it)?” Beth wyt ti’n (ei) feddwl? “That’s what I’m saying” Dyna be’ dw i’n (ei) ddweud.
And a further footnote: I was curious to see if one could use dy help di (with the plain noun rather than the verb-noun) to mean “your help” - it made sense to me: an internet search brought up something from the BBC with Dw i eisiau dy help di as “I want your help.” So the real point, I guess, is that the pronouns do different things with nouns (where they’re more like English) and with verb-nouns (where they’re very Celtic).
It is!
In the magisterial grammar, literary, archaic, or all of the above? Without checking, I’m going for (a) with a light sprinkling of (b)
ETA: I’ve checked, I can’t find it in my old edition either, so I’m going for (b) with a side order of (c)…
In Ymarfer Ysgrifennu Cymraeg it says:
Y mae rhai ffurfiau nad ydyn nhw i’w cael yn aml mewn Cymraeg llafar, ond y maen’ nhw’n digwydd, o dro i dro, mewn Cymraeg ysgrifenedig - y maen’ nhw’n hwylus iawn i feidd weithaiu (There are some forms that you don’t get often in spoken Welsh, but they occur, from time to time, in written Welsh - they’re very useful to poets at times)
And the example given is:
dos i’th wely (ysgrifenedig) = dos i dy wely (ar lafar)
In the Old Course, Level 2, Lesson 10 the word bysen is introduced. Is this just another version of the conditional of bod for the first person?
Baswn/basen
Byddwn/bydden
Byswn/bysen
I’m a bit indecisive about which to go with. On one hand I learned baswn first and it helps with remembering (ta)swn but on the other hand I think byddwn is more common in the Southeast where I live.
Is that in the northern version? It just looks like a way of reflecting the usual pronunciation of the written baswn form.
When I lived in the Cardiff, I heard baswn/bysen used by young people who had learnt Welsh in school but came from English-speaking households. I heard byddwn/bydden more from first language speakers native to the south-east.
It’s in the Southern Version written at bysen (baswn)
That’s really interesting and exactly the kind of advice I was looking for- I know I stress too much about these variations!
In the Southern Dysgu Cymraeg courses we are taught baswn rather than byddwn/bydden too so that makes sense.
I’m going to continue trying to use byddwn but as I’m not Welsh anyway maybe it doesn’t matter as much- I think people are less bothered by what form you use nowadays as long as you are having a go. I like to think that’s the case anyway! I have a strong regional accent and get grief about it occasionally and I suppose every language is the same
That is by far the general reaction these days. The vast majority of Welsh speakers are delighted that others are making the effort to learn their language. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had them tell me “It’s very hard to learn, isn’t it?” so they’re genuinely impressed that people do.
Don’t worry about having an accent. It’s inevitable if you learn another language after the age of about 8, but as long as you’re doing your best and you’re understood, that’s what counts.
Thank you, that is very, very reassuring to hear.
Funnily enough the northern course (or at least the version I did) teaches the byddwn pattern. When I started a
northern course with DysguCymraeg I found that baswn is favoured, and it does seem to be the more usual form on Ynys Môn at least. I initially tried to adapt but now it just depends which one makes it out of my mouth first. It’s much the same with ganddi/gynni and bo fi/mod i etc. I suspect the northern course mixes in a few random southern forms to familiarise people and maybe the southern one does the same.
Are ‘ewn, dewn, newn and gewn’ the same as ‘ân, dôn, nân and gân’? If so, when do we use which? Are the former colloquial, or only used in spoken Welsh while the latter is preferrd in written Welsh? Are both correct?
Asking for a friend
They are not the same. The forms ân, dôn, wnân, gân are third person plural of the “big four” irregular verbs mynd, dod, gwneud, cael (so they all go with nhw), while the other ones are variants for first person plural.
The corresponding standard versions are awn, down, wnawn, gawn (ni)
Hi again, thank you for explaining this, although now I am even more confused.
I had been revising the old course Level 3, #21 where, if I understand it correctly, the ‘ewn’ versions are presented as the short form 3rd person plural, whereas in Dysgu Cymraeg Canolradd Uned 4 the ân/ôn forms are given as the corresponding 3rd person plural.
Oh, I am working with the S. Wales patterns, if that makes a difference.
Some of that confusion is my fault… I mixed up the numbering (I edited my post just now, correcting second person to third person)
I have never heard the forms ewn, dewn … used for third person, but it’s not completely unthinkable. Do you have a specific timestamp where these forms are introduced?
Hi, go into SSiW Old Vourse L3, #21–you need not listen, they show in the Vocab.
I’ve definitely heard them in the south in everyday speech - those words for first and third person plural sound identical in parts of south Wales.
I only learnt the “standard” versions from traditional classes, and I see that’s what Duolingo teaches as well.