To mutate or not

Welsh General / Questions
#1

Is it more correct to say “lan llofft” or “lan lofft”? My mum, who is a fluent native speaker from the Cwm Tawe area, says “lan llofft”, but has friends both from that area and North Wales who say “lan lofft”. My Welsh grammar book doesn’t mention soft mutations after “lan” so “lan lofft” seems wrong to me, but I am ready to be corrected :blush:. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

#2

Geiriadur Yr Academi and Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru both list it as lan lofft. I must admit I can’t recall hearing lan lloft but that’s not to say some small pockets of it being said that way didn’t/don’t exist - spoken Welsh can be quite fluid.

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#3

Thank you. It would be great to know the rule that is causing the mutation (if there is one).

#4

I honestly don’t know if there is a rule as such. Sometimes set phrases such as this have their own mutations which don’t necessarily appear elsewhere. Or it could be that originally it was “lan i lofft” with the ‘i’ causing the mutation but which has then faded from use but leaving the mutation. But I’m just guessing,

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#5

Thanks so much for all your help.

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