Re: pre-Celtic syntax in Welsh, Irish, Gaelic, and English?

On Aug 9, 6:19 pm, Andrew Woode <andrew_wo...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Aug 8, 5:16 pm, numberandslett...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

USING WEDI IF YOU CAN'T REMEMBER THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE

If you're ever stuck trying to remember the simple past tense [units
12-15], just use WEDI.

Example: ES I. = I WENT.  If you can't remember ES I, just say DW I
WEDI MYND.

People will understand you, even if you are not saying exactly what
you want. You can speak like this until you have heard the language
enough to use the simple past tense more and more.

I'm sure I've done this myself occasionally by mistake, but wouldn't
it be better
to teach the 'Nes i' etc (past tense of gwneud) + infinitive, or
'ddaru' + infinitive
constructions as legitimate alternatives to learning all the past
tense forms?

:-)

I totally agree!

Es i. = Nes i fynd.

The pattern using "Nes i..." is another very good suggestion.

"Nes i fynd." I went. ["I did go."] (no stress on DID, like in
English)

"Nes adnewyddu'r ty^." I renovated the house. (I did the "renewing" of
the house.)

I suggested this. I think this would have come in the second level
course. Why? Because there are two verbs involved. We kept it very
simple for the first course. But I completely agree with you. It's a
fine example of why Welsh is easy and it's a good strategy for picking
up Welsh.

Some natives do "overuse" it a bit though.

North Wales: "Nesh i neud o heddiw 'ma." I did it today. ["I did its
doing today-here."]

instead of "Nesh i fo heddiw."

South Wales: "Nes i neud e heddi."

We would use, for example: NES I FE HEDDIW.

There is also BU I "Bu imi ei wneud..."

Bu i'r ti^m golli'r bws. The team missed the bus. ["Did/was" to the
team the losing of the bus.]

Wenglish: The team lost the bus.

-----

We didn't treat DDARU / MI DDARU / FE DDARU because it was general
South Walian vernacular, avoiding more local dialect forms wherever
possible, and only mentioning a few northern words for interest when
those words are very common and heard in south Wales from teachers and
media people. So we included KEY:

ALLWEDD and AGORIAD / GORIAD / ORIAD

and

For example, WYTHNOS and not

WSOS (North Wales), WSNOTH (South Wales) etc.

and

PYTHEFNOS and not

PYSEWNOTH etc.

An advanced course would have perhaps included more dialect forms:

DAINT instead of DANNEDD (teeth) etc.

-----

I personally prefer learners to know the literary forms, as long as
all the variety doesn't freak them out. Anyway, they should know that
A is the question particle (Irish AN). Gaelic A/AN/AM.

But in Cymraeg Byw, we used OES? and not A OES?
.

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