Not sure if I’m posting this in correct place? I did the learn one sentence in Welsh and have progressed to the challenges. Ive noticed two different words for want, which I presume have slightly different meanings? moyn and isio. What’s the difference please? Dont be scared of grammar explanations, I am a grammarian
Hi Helwn, as far as I can tell it’s a North/South thing. So, in the south they tend to say Dw i’n moyn (I want) and in the North it’s more common to hear Dw i eisiau (spelling is quite variable from what I’ve seen and will often be written isio). Note the slight grammatical difference as eisiau does not require the “yn”, so it’s not dw i’n eisiau, but dw i eisiau. Other than that they seem to be interchangeable as far as I can tell. As for their subtle differences, I suppose that you would need to look at their etymology (which I don’t know), but for what it’s worth, in the south, eisiau is commonly used to say that their is a need for something (Mae eisiau i fi fynd - there is a need for me to go, or I need to go, whereas in the North you’ll likely use angen). Whether it has a similar use as the now largely deprecated use of “want” in English to mean that there is something missing, I’m not sure, but it would make sense to explain why it is used for want and need.
thank you for your great reply. Yes want and need are often used interechangably in many languages and also yes to have a want of something is quite probably the root. I’m glad you’ve clarified the North/south thing.