( > y gwely the bed ) > yr achos the cause ( > yr haf the summer ) > Mae'r gwely yma. The bed is here. ( ) Could you say something about 'w' in this connection? Is it 'y wlad' ( or 'yr wlad'? I think I've seen both. "Y wlad" -- if you've seen the other, it was wrong. The sound of this "w" is nearly that of "f", and it is a consonant. "Gwlad" has only one syllable; were the -w- a vowel it would have to have two syllables. Similarly "gwern" becomes "y wern", "wermod" becomes "y wermod". Compare this with "gw+yl" (festival) in which the wy begins with a vowel- sounding w, so it is "yr w+yl". W+y is always a vowel-w (so, for example, "yr w+y", the egg) but sometimes there is no accent in the spelling -- Gwyddeleg (Irish language) becomes "yr Wyddeleg"; "wylo" becomes "yr wylo"; "wyneb" and "yr wyneb". Sometimes you will hear both; I am pretty confident that "gwylan" (seagull) should be "yr wylan", but it is not unusual to hear people along the North Wales coast say "y wylan" with a consonantal "w". I would like to think that this is a dialectal variation... but I suppose it is just wrong. ( > Plentyn: O. Ble mae teigrod yn byw? ) > ( > Mam: Maen nhw'n byw yn yr Affrig. ) ( Well, there may be a few, in zoos and so forth. But I think Mam is ) either lying or ignorant. Rhai blynyddoedd yn ol nawr ymddanghosodd cymeriad newydd ar ddrama sebon radio (Saesneg) ym Mhrydain: roedd hi i fod yn wraig oedd wedi ymddeol i Brydain o Genya, ac roedd ganddi ymysg nifer o drugareddau eraill ryg croen teigr yr honnai bod ei diweddar wr Teddy wedi ei saethu yng Nghenya. Bu cryn gwyno gan wrandawyr oedd yn gwybod nad oedd teigrod i gael yn Affrica. Debyg iawn, oedd ymateb cynhyrchydd y rhaglen, roedd Teddy wedi saethu nhw i gyd. (Hwyrach nad ydy hwn ddim mor ddoniol os nad ydych chi'n gwybod pa fath o gynulleidfa sy'n dilyn yr "Archers".) Eto, Nigel Love : ( Sut dywedir yn Gymraeg: ) ( Why is John Major the Prime Minister of Britain? I think it ought to be "Pam bod John Major yn Brif Weinidog ar Brydain?" (I had to think not to soften it to "pam fod", perhaps because it ought to be mutated, although I think not; rather I suspect that the mutation is the berfenw-as-subject mutation of "Rhyfedd fod John Major yn Brif Weinidog o gwbl.") "Pam bod JM yn ..." asks "why John Major?". Ho hum. It is usual to hear "pam mae JM yn BW ar Brydain?" but I suspect that this was English. Maybe it was not: maybe it is a subtly different question, asking "why /is/?" rather than "why John Major?". I didn't answer the first time because I am not sure about this: perhaps I can prompt someone who understands these things into explaining why. ( More generally, I'm asking how you prepose a wh- ) adverb to a copular construction whose complement is definite. ( ) I.e. 'the X is the Y' = 'yr Y yw'r X' ( ) Now, how do you say 'how/why/when/where is the X the Y'? Oh, so you really wanted a question from "John Major yw Prif Weinidog Prydain"? That one would have to be "Pam mai JM yw PW P?" or "Pam taw JM yw PW P?" I suppose. (I think "mai" in the North, "taw" in the South, but I stand to be corrected.) "Pam mai...?" is roughly "why is it that...?" I am struggling to make convincing examples of the others, although there seems no reason not to ask "pa bryd mai", "pa le mai"... but "Sut mai ef yw'r Prif Weinidog?" sounds OK, although it might be a borrowing of an English construction. Cannot you always force the X to be indefinite, (asking about "mae'r Y yn X-aidd")? That seems to be what is most natural. g