> > Since Michael Morgan's reply to the following questions contains some words > that may send learners (not excepting myself) scrambling in vain for their > dictionaries, I would like to clarify his translation in a southern dialect, is it south-western? 'whara not 'whare? What about "otw" (new to me, presumably = "ydw") and "nadw"? Are they informal, or also written? > and also note that "ga" is a form of the verb "gael". or cael, without the mutation > Since Welsh uses this > verb so frequently (unlike the Germanic languages), could this be the source > of the English construction "get to "? What? Has a fundamental grammatical construction been imported straight from Welsh into American English? Doesn't seem exactly likely. A recent discussion noted how few Welsh borrowings there are in English. But "get to ..." does translate "cael" pretty well in some contexts, tho it's not nearly as common. I suspect "cael" can be used with verbs "get" wouldn't collocate with, eg know (er mwyn ini gael gwybod = so we can know) Presumably "get to know" wd be get acquainted with (ie "know" in the sense of "nabod"). As for "ga i", in Scotland you can use "get" in requests where Standard Eng wd have "have" ("Can I get a box of matches please?" "Are you getting coffee?" ie, is that what you chose, not are you making it). Cf Standard Eng "get" of presents: "what are you getting for Christmas?" I suppose you could also see a parallel between Welsh "cael" in passive constructions and the often informal use of English "get" to express the passive: "this road is getting resurfaced soon". But again, the English is not nearly as versatile. Harry Campbell