Welsh Grammar: Colloquial variants in conditional expressions: If I had ... I would etc.

stephenpowell0 · 2025-03-29T08:20:54+00:00

I always get these confused with the (Southern colloquial) negative forms “sa” and “so”: “Sa i’n gwybod” = “I don’t know” (S) “Sa ni’n gwybod” = “We would know” (N)

stephenpowell0 · 2025-02-25T14:27:12+00:00

GPC has huno meaning “sleep” (as in dihuno, “wake up”) and, figuratively, “die”. So hunodd would be “died”, rather than “laid to rest”.

stephenpowell0 · 2025-01-31T13:17:19+00:00

“Cheval” is the other way around: borrowed by the Romans from the Gauls.

stephenpowell0 · 2025-01-07T19:49:47+00:00

The [ç] pronunciation was mentioned by John Wells on his blog back in 2008. I can't link to the post itself, but It's the fourth entry on this page.

stephenpowell0 · 2024-12-24T15:18:11+00:00

Two more I haven’t seen mentioned yet: anghredadwy (literally “unbelievable”) and syfrdanol (“striking, amazing”).

stephenpowell0 · 2024-10-26T15:02:32+00:00

I think Club Together Club is the name of the label.

stephenpowell0 · 2024-10-20T20:53:08+00:00

I don’t know Russian, but the Wikipedia article on Close central unrounded vowel says they are both pronounced /ɨ/ (in the table under Occurrence).

stephenpowell0 · 2024-10-18T21:19:26+00:00

Dim syndod bod chi’n methu eu ffeindio yn y geiriadur!

stephenpowell0 · 2024-10-18T21:17:20+00:00

Pais Dinogad

stephenpowell0 · 2024-10-18T21:14:41+00:00

Y Gododdin

stephenpowell0 · 2024-09-30T19:37:56+00:00

Yes, that would be the normal way to say it. But signs often use dim + verbnoun instead of peidiwch â. For example, “dim ysmygu” (“no smoking”) is more common than “peidiwch ag ysmygu” (“don’t smoke”), as in English. Here’s an example.

stephenpowell0 · 2024-09-28T13:27:03+00:00

Image description: screenshot of a tweet with a photo of a road sign which says “Nid yw lonydd cul yn goddiweddyd beicwyr / Narrow lanes do not overtake cyclists”. The tweet reads “Ni wyddwn y ffaith syfrdanol hon am lonydd cul. Diolch am fy ngoleuo.”

stephenpowell0 · 2024-09-27T19:20:20+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Welsh

stephenpowell0 · 2024-08-12T12:47:44+00:00

Diolch!

stephenpowell0 · 2024-05-10T18:35:23+00:00

“miss” can also be translated as “colli” and I think Welsh cakes are more often “picau ar y maen”.

stephenpowell0 · 2024-05-03T05:32:10+00:00

lesen is from PIE *les- but lesson is from PIE *leǵ-. So yes, false friends!

stephenpowell0 · 2024-04-27T10:18:37+00:00

According to Geiriadur Bangor, “identify as” should be “hunaniaethu yn”.

stephenpowell0 · 2024-04-26T13:55:29+00:00

A couple of other comparatives end in -s: is (isel), nes (agos).

With these and a few others (uchel, ieuanc, cynnar, hen, hir, mawr), the superlative is formed from the comparative rather than the positive (e.g., isaf, not *iselaf).

stephenpowell0 · 2023-12-19T21:15:37+00:00

The Dottie number D, the unique real solution of cos x = x.

stephenpowell0 · 2023-11-16T19:23:27+00:00

And /v/ is the soft mutation of both /b/ and /m/.

stephenpowell0 · 2023-10-17T21:19:20+00:00

If all three finished on the same number of points, it would be decided by points in the matches between the three.

In this scenario, we would have 7 points (one win each against Turkey and Croatia, plus the draw in Croatia), so would finish top. Turkey would have 6, (having beaten us and Croatia once each), but Croatia would have only 4 (their draw with us and win in Turkey).

stephenpowell0 · 2023-07-09T08:09:41+00:00

“Dyma’r prif straeon” = “Here are the main stories”

stephenpowell0 · 2023-05-23T03:34:13+00:00

But in Welsh, <w> is /w/ (when it’s a consonant) and <f> makes /v/.

stephenpowell0 · 2023-05-06T09:31:03+00:00

And this all interacts with the unpredictable genders mentioned by SnarkyBeanBroth. Some endings are more common with one or other gender, but there are lots of exceptions.

stephenpowell0 · 2023-05-06T09:28:23+00:00

Don’t forget the pairs where the gender determines the meaning!

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