the use of the phrase ‘so ni’n gwbod’ level 2 challenge 8. I would like to know how widespread is this usage? and how it has come about.
diolch,
john
It’s a quite common way of forming negative statements in southern speech. The first person form is Sa i’n…:
Sa i’n moyn mynd. - I don’t want to go.
I can’t tell you how the usage came about, though.
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‘Sa’ i’n moyn. I don’t want. For me, the first person.
‘So’ for every one else.
So ti’n moyn.
So fe’n moyn.
So ni’n moyn.
So chi’n moyn.
So nhw’n moyn.
I think Iestyn says it’s a southern thing and SSIW certainly had an extra lesson on it in the original format.
The cysill grammar checker that I use, provided by Bangor University doesn’t recognise the pattern.
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Hi John,
Very very common in southern Welsh, especially around Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/catchphrase/ysbyty_brynaber/lessons/language/lang17.shtml
Regarding the origin -
something keeps telling me that it could be a contraction of “Nid oes o” or “does dim o” for so and smo - but ignore it for now, in case I just dreamt it up.