> I came across the follow two abstract sentences that I found confusing as I > was reading. > The two sentences mean the same...but are written differently...why is this ?? > > The sentences are: Mi fyddai hi yn galw i'n gweld ni bron bob nos. > AND > Mi wnai hi alw i'n gweld ni bron bob nos. You're talking about galw > alw, right? Take your choice of the following explanations of the mutation in "mi wnai hi alw": (1) because it's the direct object of "wnai" -- literally, 'she made a calling' (2) because it's a nominal element (in this case, a verb-noun) immediately to the right of another nominal element (in this case, a pronoun) and not in a genitive construction with it. > Then another two sentences I found..also meaning the same...but written differ en > tly..please help with this as well: > > 'Roedd ef heb ddarllen y llyfr. > AND > Nid oedd ef wedi darllen y llyr. Once upon a time, this would have been "ni ddarlenasai (ef) y llyfr", which is the conjugated pluperfect tense -- and still might be the way you'd write 'he hadn't read the book' in very formal contexts. Latterly, Welsh has taken to avoiding conjugated verb forms, or reserving them for remoter or semantically more complex roles: "ni ddarlenasai'r llyfr" is still in use for the past conditional -- 'he wouldn't have read the book'. To give the pluperfect meaning nowadays you use a periphrasis -- some form of words that amounts to the meaning you want without expressing it directly. The two you quote mean literally 'he was without a reading of the book' and 'he wasn't after a reading of the book'. Take your pick. Once a construction like this becomes usual enough, of course, there's no longer any justification for saying that you're not expressing your meaning directly; and it's fair to say, I think, that the construction in "nid oedd ef wedi darllen y llyfr" is now a or the standard way of expressing the pastness of an event in relation to some point in the past. > The Welshman stuck in South africa for another year.... It's not as bad as all that, is it? ************************ Nigel Love Linguistics Cape Town NLOVE@BEATTIE.UCT.AC.ZA ************************