I’ve been using SSiW purely through AutoMagic so I figured I’d take a look at some of the Challenges to jog my memory a little. This is when I noticed that there are quite a few variations between the two systems of learning. One that is bugging me is ddwedest:
AutoMagic will give models such as:
Ddwedest ti bo’ ti’n siarad hi
Ddwedest ti rywbeth diddorol
Challenge 7 (level 1) uses:
Dwedest ti
Dwedest ti rywbeth diddorol
I’m not sure I ever heard dwedest when using AutoMagic, so I’ve been assuming ‘you spoke’ is ‘ddwedest ti’, as opposed to ‘dwedest ti’.
So the question is, which one is correct? And as an added question, are there any common variations between AutoMagic and the Challenges I should look out for?
Both are correct. (You didn’t really think that SSiW would teach something that is incorrect, did you? )
The only difference between dwedest and ddwedest is a soft mutation at the beginning, and that is a variation that you may see from time to time. It’s not a difference specific to AutoMagic versus challenges, but it is largely a question of speaker preference. Some speakers will often soft-mutate the beginning of a sentence, even in positive statements.
You can think of it as if there was an affirmative particle (Fe or Mi) at the start (which cause soft mutation), and the particle is then dropped, but the mutation kept. So Mi/Fe ddwedest ti Ddwedest ti Dwedest ti
are all interchangeable and all are equally correct. Just choose the one you are comfortable with.
If you live in the south of Wales, don’t be surprised if you hear people saying wedest ti as well. It has come from another common variation of dweud - gweud - and just like ddwedest ti you’ll hear it with the softening at the beginning, in this case losing the ‘g’.
As you learn more Welsh you’ll come across more and more variation in the way people speak, so just choose the one you hear around you, or the one you prefer yourself, and go with that.
Ahhh, gwela i! I’m always astounded at just how many variations there are between Welsh speakers, especially as a beginner! I often get quite bogged down with learning the ‘more correct’ version of a word or phrase, despite being fully aware that there really is no ‘more correct’ version at all!
)