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An HTML version of this lesson can be found at
[http://www.cs.brown.edu/fun/welsh/Lesson02.html]
Contents:
2.1. How to say 'I am', 'you are', etc.
2.2. How to say 'Am I?', etc.
2.3. How to say 'Yes' and 'No'
2.4. How to say 'I am not', etc.
Vocabulary
Exercises
2.1. How to say 'I am', 'you are', etc.
---------------------------------------
The verb 'to be' is more important in Welsh than in most languages,
since it is often used as a helping verb, as it is in English when we
say 'I am going'. We will explain more about this in Lesson 3, but
for now we will concentrate on just the verb 'to be'. Here is the
conjugation of the present tense of 'bod', the verb 'to be'.
Singular Plural
-----------------------------------------------------------
Rydw i I am Rydyn ni We are
Rwyt ti You are Rydych chi You are
Mae e He is Maen nhw They are
Mae hi She is
Welsh adopts the position that the verb comes first, followed by
the subject, which in this case is the personal pronoun.
Notes on pronunciation:
* The 'y's follow the normal rule so that, for example, in
'Rydyn', the first 'y' is obscure and the second is clear.
* The 'wy' diphthong in 'Rwyt' is a falling one (i.e., it is
prounounced ROO-eet).
Like many Indo-European languages, Welsh makes a distinction
between the familiar form of 'you' ('ti') and the polite form
('chi') which doubles as the plural. The rule of thumb is that
you use 'ti' when talking to friends whom you know well (peers),
children, animals (except maybe those bigger than you that you
don't want to offend, like that bull over there), and Deity.
However, there is a great deal of variation among speakers as to
which form to use, and even sometimes a discrepancy between what
a person thinks they use in various situations and what they
actually use. There may be a somewhat different standard
between young people and old people as to when you know somebody
well enough to start using 'ti', with the young people tending
to be more informal. I know one person who called his wife
'chi' through 50 years of marriage, using the 'ti' form only
when addressing Deity. You should use 'chi' towards anyone to
whom respect is due, either because that person is older than
you, is a complete stranger (like a shopkeeper), or has some
authority over you, like being your boss or the person who is
examining you for fluency in Welsh. Which form to use is a
matter of society, not of language.
Failure to use the formal form when you should could make you
appear to be pushy or American or both; it could also be
construed as insulting. Using the formal form with someone to
whom you would normally say 'ti' comes across as coldness or
anger.
Notes for the terminally curious (you can tune these out):
* The 'r' at the beginning of the verb in the first and second
persons is a remnant of the particle 'yr', which looks like, but
isn't, the definite article (which we introduce in Lesson 3). I
mention this only because it will seem later like we are
arbitrarily plucking off the 'r' and possibly replacing it with
other letters.
* The personal pronouns actually vary somewhat. The most
important distinction to recognize is with respect to the third
person singular masculine pronoun 'e'. The form given is for
the dialect of Welsh spoken in the south; the northern form is
'o'. Many of the pronouns also differ in literary Welsh; we
concentrate in this course on spoken Welsh (unless asked, of
course).
* 'Rydw i' is often abbreviated (especially in net mail) to
'Dwi'. But you should learn the full form given above. (There's
an even 'fuller' form used in literary Welsh.)
2.2. How to say 'Am I?', etc.
-----------------------------
One of the first things one learns in another language is how to
ask questions, presumably so that one can enquire things of the
natives. Never mind the fact that most of the time, you won't
understand the answer anyway.
Singular Plural
-----------------------------------------------------------
Ydw i? Am I? Ydyn ni? Are we?
Wyt ti? Are you? Ydych chi? Are you?
Ydy e? Is he? Ydyn nhw? Are they?
Ydy hi? Is she?
Notice that in the first and second persons, you just drop the
'R' and add a question mark. In speaking, there is a rising
inflection for questions (the question mark is not completely
decorative).
You should notice that there is an underlying pattern exposed in
the interrogative form that is broken only by the 'ti' form.
2.3. How to say 'Yes' and 'No'
------------------------------
So far, so good. Now we come to the issue of answering the
questions posed in the previous section. I wish I could just
tell you the Welsh word for 'yes', and then you could all go
home feeling like you'd accomplished something. Unfortunately,
Welsh does not have a word for 'yes'. Or rather, Welsh has many
dozens of words for 'yes', each of which is reserved for and
applicable only to a small set of circumstances. I figure some
of you guys are wondering how you can pick up a Welsh girl, if
it's so complicated for her to figure out the right word to use
to say 'yes'. But don't despair: it's equally difficult for her
to say 'no'.
Anyway, since there is no general word for 'yes', you indicate a
positive answer by affirming what was asked (at least the verb
part). So we have:
Singular Plural
-----------------------------------------------------------
Ydw. Yes I am. Ydyn. Yes we are.
Wyt. Yes you are. Ydych. Yes you are.
Ydy. Yes he/she is. Ydyn. Yes they are.
So, for example, if someone asks you 'Wyt ti?', you could answer
'Ydw'. If asked 'Ydyn ni?', the answer would be either 'Ydyn'
or 'Ydych', depending on whether the person answering the
question considered himself/herself part of the 'ni' in the
original question.
To say 'no', just use the word 'Nag' followed by the word 'yes':
Singular Plural
-------------------------------------------------------------
Nag ydw. No I'm not. Nag ydyn. No we aren't.
Nag wyt. No you aren't. Nag ydych. No you aren't.
Nag ydy. No he/she isn't Nag ydyn. No they aren't.
The great advantage of this way of saying 'yes' and 'no' is that
it avoids potential ambiguities in the answer, especially when
dealing with negative questions. For example:
> Lawyer: You don't beat your wife?
>
> Defendant: Yes.
>
> Lawyer (to jury): You heard it yourself.
But what has the jury heard? Has the defendant said, "Yes, I
don't beat my wife," or "Yes, I do beat my wife"? In Welsh, if
he says, "Ydw," you've extracted an unambiguous confession from
him.
Note for the terminally curious: The standard written form
of 'nag' is 'nac'.
2.4. How to say 'I am not', etc.
--------------------------------
Since we cannot be all things to all people, it is inevitable
that we sometimes need to say we are not something. Here's how:
Singular Plural
---------------------------------------------------------------
Dydw i ddim I am not Dydyn ni ddim We are not
Dwyt ti ddim You are not Dydych chi ddim You are not
Dydy e/hi ddim He/she is not Dydyn nhw ddim They are not
These forms are just like the interrogative forms from Section
2.2, with the letter 'd' stuck in front of them and the word
'ddim' taped on behind.
Note for the terminally curious: The 'd' is actually the
remnants of the negative particle 'nid'.
Vocabulary
----------
chi - you (plural and polite)
e (fe) - he
gartre - at home
hi - she
i (fi) - I
mewn pryd - in time
nhw - they
ni - we
ti - you (familiar)
yma - here
yna - there
yn Aberystwyth - in Aberystwyth
The forms 'fi' and 'fe' are used after vowels.
Exercises
---------
The answers can be found in a separate file.
1. Translate the following sentences into English.
a. Maen nhw yma.
b. Rydyn ni mewn pryd.
c. Rydw i.
d. Mae hi yn Aberystwyth.
e. Rydych chi yna.
f. Mae e.
g. Rwyt ti gartre.
2. Translate the following sentences into English.
a. Dydw i ddim mewn pryd.
b. Dydy e ddim yma.
c. Dydych chi ddim yn Aberystwyth.
d. Dydyn ni ddim gartre.
e. Dwyt ti ddim yna.
f. Dydy hi ddim mewn pryd.
g. Dydyn nhw ddim yn Aberystwyth.
3. Answer the following questions in Welsh affirmatively.
a. Ydy e gartre?
b. Ydyn nhw yna?
c. Ydyn ni mewn pryd?
d. Wyt ti yma?
e. Ydy hi?
f. Ydych chi mewn pryd?
g. Ydw i yn Aberystwyth?
4. Answer the questions in exercise 3 negatively.
5. Make up five sentences from the vocabulary
a. Using the positive forms.
b. Using the negative forms.
c. Using question forms.
d. Answer your questions from 5c.