The Routledge

Intermediate Welsh Reader

The Routledge Intermediate Welsh Reader is a comprehensive reader designed

to provide varied, stimulating and up-to-date reading material for learners
of Welsh at the intermediate level.
The Welsh Reader provides a bridge between basic literacy skills and the
ability to read full novels and newspapers in Welsh. It consists of 35 au-
thentic readings, graded on the basis of complexity of vocabulary, grammar
and syntax. These readings are drawn from a range of contemporary sources
such as newspapers and magazines as well as novels and historical works.
It is ideal for learners who already possess a knowledge of essential
grammar and vocabulary and who wish to expand their knowledge of the
language through contextualized reading material.
Key features include:

• extracts of modern literature and newspaper/magazine articles

• vocabulary lists for quick reference
• short grammar explanations of any complicated structures
• initial consonant mutations marked typographically
• comprehension and discussion questions
• full answer key.

Suitable for both class use and independent study, The Routledge Intermediate
Welsh Reader is an essential tool for facilitating vocabulary learning and
increasing reading proficiency.

Gareth King is an experienced teacher of Welsh and the author of Modern

Welsh: A Comprehensive Grammar (second edition, 2003), Colloquial Welsh:
The Complete Course for Beginners (second edition, 2009), Basic Welsh: A
Grammar and Workbook (1995) and Intermediate Welsh: A Grammar and
Workbook (1996). All are published by Routledge.
 Routledge Modern Language Readers
Series Editor: Itesh Sachdev, School of Oriental & African Studies,
University of London

Routledge Modern Language Readers provide the intermediate language

learner with a selection of readings which give a broad representation of
modern writing in the target language.
Each reader contains approximately 20 readings graded in order of dif-
ficulty to allow the learner to grow with the book and to acquire the neces-
sary skills to continue reading independently.
Suitable for both class use and independent study, Routledge Modern
Language Readers are an essential tool for increasing language proficiency
and reading comprehension skills.

Titles in the series:

Turkish
Welsh

Forthcoming:

Arabic
Chinese
Dutch
Hindi
Japanese
Polish
The Routledge
Intermediate
Welsh Reader

Gareth King
First published 2013
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2013 Gareth King
The right of Gareth King to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
King, Gareth, 1955–
  The Routledge Intermediate Welsh reader / Gareth King.
   p. cm. – (Routledge Modern Language Readers)
  Includes bibliographical references and index.
  1.  Welsh language–Textbooks for foreign speakers–English.  2.  Welsh
language–Grammar–Problems, exercises, etc.  I.  Title.  II.  Title: Intermediate
Welsh reader.
  PB2123.K57 2012
 491.6′686421–dc23
2012025643

ISBN: 978-0-415-69455-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-415-69454-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-07546-3 (ebk)

Typeset in Scala
by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong
 Er cof am fy nghyfaill
In memory of my friend

DI JONES
1946–2012
This page intentionally left blank
Contents

Acknowledgements ix
About this book x
Basic grammatical terms xiii

1 Hysbysebion 1
2 Band Eang 4
3 GagaBond 7
4 Gayl Glastonbury 11
5 Caru Dysgu’r Gymraeg 14
6 Gwefan heb Gymraeg 18
7 Pendroni 22
8 Y Teulu Brenhinol 27
9 Waldo’n Fardd Bro Kimbolton! 32
10 Taith S4C 37
11 Betsan Powys 42
12 Mynnu Etholiad Buan 46
13 Pencampwyr! 50
14 Mudiad Meithrin 54
15 Meinir Gwilym 59
16 Rhagolygon 64
17 Ras Yn Erbyn Amser 67
18 Bygwth Buddugoliaeth Gofiadwy 71
19 Leanne Wood 75
20 Refferendwm 80
21 Ergyd Ariannol 85
22 Y Gweithdy 89
23 Harddwch yn y Llymder 95
viii  Contents

4
2 Fy Hoff Le I 98
25 Materion Meddygol 104
26 Aros a Myned 110
27 Un Nos Ola Leuad 113
28 Meic Stephens 120
29 Llechi 125
30 Y Trydydd Peth 128
31 Y Caeau Cochion 133
32 Tolkien a’r Gymraeg 138
33 Y Rhyfel Fawr 143
34 Efrog Newydd Eto 149
35 Hen Niclas 154

Key to exercises 158

Index 170
Acknowledgements

First of all I must express my appreciation to Golwg magazine and Y Cymro newspaper for
allowing use of a variety of material from both their printed and online content – a Reader
of the modern Welsh language would be a pale thing indeed without the participation of
these two prominent institutions of the news media in Wales, and I am grateful for their
support. Similarly I thank BBC Cymru for their readiness to allow use of a number of pieces
from their excellent and wide-ranging online presence. Copyright for all material used from
these three sources remains with Cwmni Golwg, Y Cymro and BBC Cymru respectively.
I was fortunate to be able to use an excerpt from that wonderful book Hanes Cymru by
John Davies in a previous title, and I am pleased to have been given permission to use two
more here – I thank John Davies and Penguin Books for their agreement to this.
It was a pleasure also to have the cooperation of the literary and cultural magazine Taliesin
and its co-editor Siân Melangell Dafydd, who arranged for excerpts from two review pieces
to be made available, and also one from her own acclaimed novel Y Trydydd Peth.
From the start of this project I wanted to include an excerpt from Caradog Prichard’s
remarkable novel Un Nos Ola Leuad, and I am delighted to be able to acknowledge the
copyright holder Mari Prichard for this permission.
My friend Gerwyn Wiliams was already making a name for himself as a very notable
poet when I first knew him in Neuadd John Williams in Aberystwyth in the early 1980s,
and his writing has in my view gone from strength to strength in the years since; so I am
particularly pleased to be able to include a complete poem, Efrog Newydd Eto, from his most
recent collection, and I thank him for entrusting it to me in this way.
As always, my friend Dewi Rhys-Jones has been a constant support and ensured a steady
flow of materials during the planning and writing of the book.
I also thank the following individual contributors: Rhun ap Iorwerth, Kate Crockett,
Lilian Edwards (for valuable linguistic feedback), Heledd Fychan, Meinir Gwilym, Roger
Kite, Barry Lewis, David Elwyn Lewis, Anni Llbn, Lowri Morgan, Celt Roberts, Dr Llinos
Roberts, Rhiannon Thomas, Cris Tomos, Bethan Williams, Gene Wolfe and Leanne Wood.
My far-flung friends (some considerably further-flung than others) in the Welsh Lan­
guage section of ForumWales (www.forumwales.com), none of whom I have ever met,
have been steady and agreeable providers of feedback and chat on our favourite topic of
conversation.
And to conclude with a statement of the obvious, I would never have managed to bring
this book to completion without the unfailing supportive presence in my life of Jonquil,
Adam and Liam.
About this book

This Reader aims to take you through graded passages of contemporary written Welsh with
a view to enhancing your comprehension skills and your confidence in reading the language
– by the end you should be better able to fend for yourself in the wide and wonderful world
of written Welsh and thereby set yourself firmly on the path to mastery of the language in
all its forms.
This is not a resource for absolute beginners in the language – a few broad assumptions
must be made about the users of a reader like this; principal amongst these is that they are
familiar at least with the basics of grammar and essential vocabulary – though plenty of
assistance in both these aspects of language learning is to be found in the commentaries
to the pieces. I refer those readers who may wish for revision or reassurance on basic gram-
matical structures to other Routledge Welsh language titles: the two workbooks Basic Welsh:
A Grammar and Workbook (1995) and Intermediate Welsh: A Grammar and Workbook (1996);
and the fuller grammar Modern Welsh: A Comprehensive Grammar (second edition, 2003).
I have also included in the commentaries cross-references to the relevant sections of these
books – more thoroughly in the first 20 chapters, by the end of which stage most major
points have been commented on, and more sparingly thereafter; references are to sections
in mw and to lesson units in bw and iw.
The texts are presented roughly in order of difficulty, and are broadly grouped into three
blocks: 10 easier pieces to start with, then 15 of moderate difficulty, and a further 10 quite
demanding pieces at the end, mainly from the formal and literary end of the scale. Every
text is accompanied by a dedicated vocabulary, grammatical notes and exercises – nearly all
include a comprehension exercise, which must obviously be answered in English, and a
true/false exercise in Welsh, which should be answered strictly on the basis of the content
of the piece; some of the later pieces also come with a Welsh–English translation exercise
to further practise vocabulary and sentence structure. It will be noticed that I have com-
mented on certain quite fundamental points in the earlier pieces, with the intention that
this coverage of more basic grammatical principles will be of benefit to less advanced students,
as a way of bringing them up to speed for the more challenging pieces to come.
As for the selection of texts, I may say at the outset that, while I have attempted to pro-
vide a range of levels starting with relatively easy pieces and progressing from there, all
pieces are from material aimed at native speakers. I have not included any material specially
written for learners (for example, Welsh novels rewritten in ‘simplified’ versions), as I am
not convinced of the value of this approach. I would much rather that users of this book,
at least, were enabled by glossing and annotation to get straight in and tackle real Welsh
 About this book  xi

as read by native speakers, even if it is a bit of a challenge at times. On the other hand, like
every living language, Welsh exhibits different levels or ‘registers’ of language, ranging from
the very relaxed and colloquial style to the quite formal. The selection in this book will reflect
this variety, and for many pieces I have broadly indicated the register in the introductory
remarks.
I have varied the degree and nature of vocabulary help given with the reading pieces.
Welsh has a powerful mechanism of word-formation and derivation to generate a rich
vocabulary suited to modern needs, and one of the keys to achieving reading fluency is to be
able to identify derived words from their roots – for example, to recognise arweinydd ‘leader’
and arweinyddiaeth ‘leadership’ from the root verbnoun arwain ‘lead’; or to spot that a word
like cydbwysedd is made up of three elements: a prefix cyd- meaning something like ‘together’
or ‘with’, a root pwys meaning ‘weight’, and a suffix -edd used to form abstract nouns; and
that this word therefore must mean ‘balance’ or ‘equilibrium’. This skill is acquired, like
all skills, by practice – with the added complication in Welsh, admittedly, of possible vowel
variation (arwAin but arwEinydd) and the ever-present possibility of consonant mutation
(Pwys but cydBwysedd).
For most pieces I have provided exact glossing of words, but for a few I have tried to
challenge the user a bit more by giving only the root word where a derived word is in the
text. Since the vocabulary lists are all arranged by order of appearance in the text, I trust
that this exercise in educated guesswork will prove feasible and beneficial for the alert and
determined student.
The vocabularies generally give only one-to-one meanings as relevant to the text in ques-
tion, and grammatical information such as noun plurals and verb stems is given only where
this is necessary for the reading of the particular text.
On the ever-present matter of the mutations, I have taken a flexible approach with the
texts themselves, supplying some with full indication of mutation, but leaving others with-
out any indication at all, preferring to leave them as they are presented for ordinary readers
in the real world – a greater challenge for the learner, undoubtedly, but one which must be
undertaken sooner or later if any real facility in the written language is to be acquired.
I have used the same system for marking the mutations as in previous books: ° = Soft
Mutation (SM), h = Aspirate Mutation (AM), n = Nasal Mutation (NM). In all texts where
mutations are marked, it should be noted that all instances of mutation are marked through-
out the text, with the sole exception of ‘fixed’ SM as found in invariable words like ddoe
‘yesterday’ and wastad ‘always’, and in words like dros ‘over’ and dan ‘under’, where – even
though the unmutated variants tros and tan are found in some higher styles – the SM has
long since become fixed in most styles of the modern language.
Mutations are marked throughout in the notes, regardless of whether marked or unmarked
in the text.
Other abbreviations used are: LW = Literary Welsh, CW = Colloquial Welsh, N = North(ern),
S = South(ern).
While this Reader has been designed as a resource to be worked through systematically,
I know that some more confident students may wish to hop and dip instead, and for that
reason the commentaries are designed to stand on their own for each text – this means of
course that students working progressively through the book will notice some grammar
topics, especially the more fundamental ones, are pointed out and commented on on more
than one occasion, and I ask their indulgence in this.
xii  About this book

No new language can be properly mastered until a facility with the written form is
achieved. For serious and ambitious students, it is reading that most efficiently serves to
expand vocabulary to a level where fluency is a realistic proposition – it is also of great
benefit in helping to embed syntactic structures and patterns, for we are, more than was
ever the case in earlier times, predominantly visual learners. I hope, therefore, that this
book will fill a gap and prove a useful resource for all those who wish to take their study
of this fascinating, expressive and (some might say) romantic language to a greater level of
understanding and fluency; and I hope that readers will enjoy using it as much as I have
enjoyed writing it.

Gareth King
Itháki
May 2012
Basic grammatical terms

adjective – a word that describes a noun: red, big, independent, coch, mawr, annibynnol; also
words like his, this, our, ei, hwn, ein.
adverb – a word or phrase that describes how, when or where an action takes place: carefully,
last year, outside, yn ofalus, llynedd, tu allan.
comparative – the form of an adjective that means ‘more’: smaller, heavier, more interesting,
llai, trymach, mwy diddorol.
definite article – the word for ‘the’; y, yr, ’r.
ending – a syllable or syllables added to the main part of a word: cats, children, slipped, louder,
mynyddoedd, llyfrau, gwelodd, ysgafnach.
focus – in Welsh, a way of emphasising part of a sentence by putting it at the front.
gender – for Welsh nouns (and some adjectives), masculine and feminine.
imperative – the command form of the verb: phone!, open!, ffonia!, ffoniwch!, agor!, agorwch!
noun – any word that names an object, place or person: window, Cambridge, Albert Einstein,
ffenest, Itháki, Waldo.
object – the receiver of the action of the verb in a sentence: the cat stole the sausages, mae
Dylan wedi colli’r allweddi.
preposition – a word that indicates a relationship, usually spatial, between two nouns: on,
between, under, ar, rhwng, o dan.
preterite – a tense in the Welsh verb system indicating completed action in the past.
pronoun – a word like you, she, these, chi, hi, y rhain that stands in place of a noun.
relative clause – a type of subordinate clause involving (in English) who, which or that: I
spoke to the man who sold us the car, dyma’r dyn sy’n siarad Sbaeneg.
subject – the doer or initiator of the action of the verb in a sentence: the cat stole the sausages,
mae Dylan wedi colli’r allweddi.
subordinate clause – a sentence within a sentence: see relative clause and ‘that’-clause;
subordinate clauses have their own verb.
superlative – the form of an adjective that means ‘most’: smallest, heaviest, most interesting,
lleia, tryma, mwya diddorol.
tense – the indication of when a verb action takes place, e.g. present, future.
‘that’-clause – a type of subordinate clause involving reported or indirect speech: he said
that he would be along later, dw i’n meddwl fod y trên yn hwyr.
verb – usually the action or ‘doing’ word in a sentence: write, speak, play, ysgrifennu, siarad,
chwarae; also words denoting an ongoing state or mental process: be, feel, think, bod,
teimlo, meddwl.
verbnoun – in Welsh, the basic (dictionary) form of the verb: aros, ymddiswyddo, darlledu.
This page intentionally left blank
Chapter 1: Hysbysebion

Let us start our journey together with a few easy pieces – this first one comprises two chirpy
little advertisements aimed at young children (or more likely their parents) for a CD and a
comic. I like them – they remind me of my childhood in Cwmcysglyd.
No vocabulary (Geirfa) has been given for these simple pieces, but a number of vocabu-
lary items are picked up for comment in the notes following. The notes for the first half-
dozen or so preliminary texts cover some fairly basic points and principles at this early stage
in the hope that this will help less advanced readers and those still in the process of feeling
secure with basic Welsh grammar to get themselves up to speed for what will soon confront
them.
2  Hysbysebion

oed ‘years old’ – this word is used (rather than oedran which is the normal word for ‘age’
= ‘years of life’ – Beth ydy’ch oedran chi? ‘How old are you?’) after numbers; pump oed
‘five years old’. Optionally you can add the word blwydd ‘years’ between the number and
the oed, so for example pum nmlwydd oed – but as you can see this brings with it certain
mutation difficulties. It’s pum nmlwydd and naw nmlwydd, for example, but dwy °flwydd
and chwe blwydd. ⇒ mw 176, ⇒ bw u32

caneuon ‘songs’ – a good example of the need to learn Welsh plural formations, which are
far more varied than in English and in many cases simply have to be learnt; caneuon is the
plural of cân ‘song’, and good dictionaries will tell you so (in the Welsh–English side). The
good news, however, is that two or three plural endings – notably -au and -iau – cover the
majority of words. ⇒ mw 56–89, ⇒ bw u2

newydd sbon ‘brand new’ – a set phrase you should learn as a one-off.

geiriau ‘words’ – from gair, so another tricky plural, this one involving (as quite a number
do) a combination of ending (-iau) + change of root vowel (gair > geir-).

i gyd ‘all’ – a set phrase to be learnt as a one-off. You will only ever encounter gyd as a word
in its own right in this phrase, always preceded by i; and it always means ‘all’. Note, however,
that it comes after the word it refers to: geiriau i gyd ‘all words’, y plant i gyd ‘all the children’.
There is another word for ‘all’ – holl – which is placed before the word referred to – yr holl °blant
(note SM) – but it is more restricted in use: for example, you can say chi i gyd ‘all (of ) you’,
or y lleill i gyd ‘all the others’, but you can’t say *holl chi or *yr holl leill. So stick to i gyd.

tu °fewn ‘inside’, ‘within’ – one of a set of location words using tu ‘side’ (but watch out,
the normal word for ‘side’ is ochor) + a preposition; °fewn is of course mewn ‘in’ – other
words of this family include tu allan ‘outside’, tu °fas ‘outside’, tu ôl ‘behind’ and tu hwnt
‘beyond’. They use a linking i° when you add a noun – so tu °fewn i’r llyfr ‘inside the book’,
tu ôl i’r adeilad ‘behind the building’. ⇒ mw 422

y CD yma ‘this CD’ – normal use of yma ‘here’ to mean ‘this’; similarly yna for ‘that’: y CD yna
‘that CD’. You need to use the definite article before the noun when saying ‘this (something)’
or ‘that (something)’ in Welsh. yma and yna can be shortened to ’ma and ’na, and can be
used with both singular and plural nouns: y °gadair ’ma ‘this chair’, y cadeiriau ’ma ‘these
chairs’. If you just want to say ‘this’ or ‘that’ on its own, however, you can’t use this con-
struction because there’s no noun to attach the y and the ’ma/’na to – in this case you need
hwn and hwnnw (masculine), hon and honno (feminine). ⇒ mw 117, 136, ⇒ bw u1, u6

eraill ‘other’ (plural) – a rare example in the modern language of a plural adjective; the
singular is arall, so CD arall ‘another CD’ but CDs eraill ‘other CDs’.

ar y °we ‘on the web’; ‘website’ is gwefan.

Llond lle ‘packed (with)’ – but literally this means ‘a placeful’; llond is used with other words
in the same way: llond llwy ‘a spoonful’, llond ceg ‘a mouthful’.
 Hysbysebion  3

°bob mis ‘every month’ – note the SM on this phrase because it indicates ‘time when’.

dim ond ‘only’ – the usual phrase for this: learn as a one-off. There is another phrase yn
unig, but of more restricted use, though they are often interchangeable, e.g. dim ond pum
punt or pum punt yn unig ‘only five pounds’; dim ond is frequently shortened to ’mond in
speech: ’mond i ti °ofyn ‘you have only to ask’. ⇒ mw 435

Ar °werth ‘on sale’ – learn as a one-off; similar expressions with ar include ar °goll ‘lost’,
ar °dân ‘on fire’, ar °glo ‘locked’. ⇒ mw 426

ar °draws ‘across’ – a compound preposition which splits when used with a pronoun; so ar
°draws Cymru ‘across Wales’ but ar ei °draws e ‘across him/it’. Other common compound
prepositions are ar °gyfer ‘for’, yn lle ‘instead of’ and ar ôl ‘after’. ⇒ mw 475–476, ⇒ iw u25

Os na °allwch ei °weld ‘If you can’t see it’ – ‘if ’ is os, and ‘if  .  .  .  not’ is os na° (or AM where
possible with some speakers); gallwch ‘you can’, therefore os na °allwch ‘if you can’t’. Gallu
is followed by a VN, and the possessive ei° is used in front of the VN gweld ‘see’ to provide
the object ‘it’. ⇒ mw 287, 309, ⇒ iw u17

O[e]s nad oes siop (first word a misprint or error for Os) ‘If there is no shop’.

gallwch archebu ‘you can order’ – you can see here how the pronouns (in this case chi ‘you’)
can be omitted when the verb ending makes everything clear anyway; still, gallwch chi
archebu would have been OK as well. ⇒ mw 328, ⇒ iw u3

gofynnwch, e-°bostiwch – plural command forms, which in Welsh always end in -wch; but
not all verbs ending in -wch are command forms, see note immediately above. ⇒ mw
377–381, ⇒ bw u24

Exercise 1 (laughably easy, I think)

Answer in English:
1 What age group is the CD aimed at?
2 What three types of item appear in the pages of the magazine?
3 What is the theme of the CD?
4 What do readers get on the magazine cover?
5 How often do they get them?
6 What three ways are there of obtaining the magazine?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Mae WCW ’n dod allan bob wythnos. C/A

2 At blant ysgol gynradd mae’r CD wedi’i anelu. C/A
3 Mae’r CD yn cynnwys geiriau i’r holl ganeuon. C/A
4 Mae WCW ar werth ledled Cymru. C/A
Chapter 2: Band Eang

An advertisement for a broadband (band eang) service for customers living in Wales. The
language is pretty standard modern Welsh of normal formality, with no obviously literary
features, as indeed we would expect for material aimed at normal people. (That didn’t come
out quite right – but you know what I mean.)
It includes numerous examples of the easy facility of Welsh to adapt to the needs of
modern technology and create vocabulary for new concepts. While some well-established
loanwords from English are to be found in this piece – for example grant, prosesu, tîm –
other relatively new concepts are expressed by Welsh words, for example lloeren, caledwedd,
gosod (in the sense of ‘instal’).
 Band Eang  5

Geirfa

manteisio ar° – take advantage of derbyn – receive

cynnig – offer cyflym – fast
unigryw – unique cymwys – suitable; eligible
cynllun – plan cais – application
cefnogi – support sicrhau – make sure, ensure
caledwedd – hardware galwad – call
gosod – set, put; instal cysylltu – contact
dibynadwy – reliable, dependable gwybodaeth – information
lloeren – satellite

os ydych chi’n byw ‘if you live’

pam na °fanteisiwch chi ar° ‘why don’t you take advantage of ’ – pam na° (or AM where
possible with some speakers) + future is the normal way of saying ‘Why don’t you  .  .  .  ?’ to
make a suggestion. The short future (i.e. with endings as above) is more common in this
construction. Further examples: Pam na °ddewch chi draw? ‘Why don’t you come round?’,
Pam na ffoni di fo? ‘Why don’t you phone him?’ ⇒ mw 311

am °ddim ‘free’ (literally ‘for nothing’) – learn as a one-off.

ac yna ‘and then’ – the primary meaning of yna is ‘there’, but it has another common use
as ‘then’ in the sense of ‘subsequently’, as here; and as an equivalent of the English follow-
up tag ‘then’, as in ‘Phone him, then’ – Yna ffoniwch fo – note, however, than yna cannot
come at the end here, but only at the beginning. ⇒ mw 408

ble bynnag yr ydych yng nNghymru ‘wherever you are in Wales’

does dim rhaid ‘there’s no need’ – specifying a person here would need an additional i°:
does dim rhaid iddo fe ‘he needn’t’. The affirmative version ‘must’ is Mae rhaid  .  .  .  or
simply Rhaid  .  .  .  , and the question is Oes rhaid  .  .  .  ? All are used with a following VN.
‘Must not’ is Rhaid i  .  .  .  °beidio. ⇒ mw 349–352, ⇒ bw u34

aros rhagor ‘(to) wait any longer’ – rhagor means ‘more’ and is normally a quantity word:
Wyt ti eisiau rhagor? ‘Do you want some more?’ Rhagor o °goffi ‘more coffee’. But here it
is adverbial, meaning ‘any more’, ‘any longer’ – another example: Dan ni °ddim yn eu gweld
nhw rhagor ‘We don’t see them any more’.

mwy na ‘more than’ – mwy is another word meaning ‘more’ – used particularly with com-
parison of adjectives (mwy cyfforddus ‘more comfortable’) and with numerical quantities,
as here. ⇒ mw 103, ⇒ iw u5

miliwn o °bobl ‘a million people’ – large numbers used with nouns have an intervening o°;
actually, this is generally true of numbers right down to the very low ones – while ‘two cats’
is dwy °gath, ‘seven cats’ is usually saith o °gathod. ⇒ mw 161, ⇒ bw u31
6  Band Eang

Rhaid i chi °fod ‘You must be’ – see note on does dim rhaid above.

ein tîm Cymraeg eu hiaith ‘our Welsh-speaking team’ – the phrase Cymraeg eu hiaith
(literally ‘Welsh their language’) functions here as an adjective, describing tîm.

°fod eich grant yn cael ei °brosesu ‘that your application is processed’ – literally ‘that your
grant gets its processing’; this is the normal way in Welsh of expressing the passive, and
consequently cael + possessive + VN is always a sure sign of the passive. ⇒ mw 362–363,
⇒ iw u21

Rhowch °alwad ‘Give (us) a call’ – SM after imperative (command) forms, because of an
underlying subject (i.e. Rhowch (chi) °alwad ‘(You) give a call’).

ar °frys ‘urgently’; ‘straight away’. This phrase, which comes from brys ‘haste’ (cf. brysio
‘hurry’) should be learnt as a one-off. It also means ‘in a hurry’: Dim nawr, dw i ar °frys!
‘Not now, I’m in a hurry!’ Useful in encounters with chuggers trying to get your bank details
off you in broad daylight on the high street, I always find.

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 How long do you get free broadband for under this plan?
2 What method of receiving broadband is being promoted here?
3 Do you have to live in Wales to apply?
4 Are there any exclusions?
5 Where are the help team based?
6 What is the main selling point of this broadband service?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Dim ond pobol sy’n byw yng Nghymru all fanteisio ar y cynnig. C/A
2 Fe allwch chi drafod y cynllun ar y ffôn yn Gymraeg. C/A
3 Mae manylion pellach ar gael ar wefan y cwmni. C/A
4 Mae ’na rai ardaloedd yng Nghymru lle na allwch chi dderbyn y C/A
gwasanaeth ’ma.
Chapter 3: GagaBond

The BBC’s online presence is wide and multilingual, and one of those languages is Welsh.
These two short pieces come from BBC Cymru’s online Arts and Entertainment pages,
which report on media events of worldwide interest in accessible and lively Welsh for a
modern readership.
With these texts we have our first encounter with properly connected Welsh. Let’s remind
ourselves of two very basic principles of Welsh word order:
Most basic of all: as generally with Celtic languages, the VERB comes FIRST (or at
least in first main position – there are little words and particles that can come in front)
in normal sentences, whether statements, questions or negatives. This is a radical differ­
ence from most European languages, and you need to get used to it, which you will with
practice.
And almost as important: adjectives (mostly) come AFTER nouns, as in French but not
as in English.
So with every piece of Welsh we encounter, we must be prepared to look carefully at the
word order, and a good starting point with this is to identify the verbs. And remember that
Welsh not only has real verbs (usually with endings), but also verbnouns (VNs), which
generally appear with a real-verb auxiliary – either some form of the verb ‘to be’, or occa­
sionally some other verb (there aren’t many). Sometimes the VN is used as a noun, in which
case it stands on its own.
You will see all these in the two pieces that follow.

Gaga yn Japan
Mae’r °gantores °bop Lady Gaga yn Japan, ar °gyfer cyngerdd elusennol arbennig. Sianel
°deledu MTV sy’n trefnu’r cyfan. Ers i °ddaeargryn °daro’r °wlad ym mis Mawrth mae
Lady Gaga wedi bod yn gweithio’n °galed i °godi arian. Cafodd trefi a hphentrefi cyfan
eu dinistrio gan y daeargryn a’r tsunami. Mae Lady Gaga yn awyddus iawn i °roi help
i’r °bobl er mwyn iddyn nhw ailadeiladu ei bywydau. Ac mae hi wedi bod yn codi arian
mewn sawl ffordd °wahanol. Mae wedi rhyddhau albwm elusennol a hchrysau-T arben-
nig. Yn ystod y °daith mi °fydd hi hefyd yn ymddangos ar °raglenni teledu i hyrwyddo
ei halbwm diweddaraf “Born this Way”. Bydd yn teithio i Taiwan nesaf ac mae disgwyl
i Lady Gaga °fod yn Japan tan y 1af o °Orffennaf.
8  GagaBond

Bond yn ei ôl!
Mae Bond yn ei ôl! Ac mi °fydd y ffilm °ddiweddaraf yn cael ei rhyddhau cyn diwedd
2012! Fe °wnaeth stiwdio ffilm MGM a hchynhyrchiadau EON y cyhoeddiad °ddydd
Mawrth. Oherwydd materion ariannol doedd y gwaith ffilmio ar gyfer y ffilm °ddim wedi
dechrau. Hon °fydd ffilm rhif 23 yng nnghyfres anturiaethau James Bond. Yn ôl y  
°wybodaeth °ddiweddaraf mi °fydd y gwaith ffilmio yn cychwyn cyn diwedd y °flwyddyn.
Ac unwaith eto’r seren Daniel Craig °fydd yn chwarae rhan Bond, a hynny am y 3ydd
tro! A Sam Mendes, gAr sydd eisoes wedi ennill Oscar, °fydd yn ei hchyfarwyddo!
(BBC Cymru)

Geirfa

cantores – singer ymddangos – appear

cyngerdd – concert rhaglen (-ni) – programme
elusen – charity hyrwyddo – promote
daeargryn – earthquake disgwyl – expect
taro – strike, hit cynhyrchiad (-au) – production
cyfan – whole cyhoeddiad (-au) – publication
dinistrio – destroy ariannol – financial
awyddus – keen, eager cyfres – series
ailadeiladu – rebuild anturiaeth (-au) – adventure
rhyddhau – release cychwyn – begin
crys-T (crysau-T) – T-shirt unwaith eto – once again
taith – trip, journey cyfarwyddo – direct

’r °gantores °bop ‘pop singer’ – the noun cantores takes SM after the definite article because
it’s feminine singular; and the adjective pop takes SM because it’s used with a feminine
singular noun. ⇒ mw 28, 102, ⇒ bw u5, u8

ar °gyfer ‘for’ – a very common compound preposition, used for all sorts of instances of
‘for’ in the modern language. ⇒ mw 475–476, ⇒ iw u25

Sianel °deledu MTV sy’n trefnu’r cyfan – a focused sentence (the neutral or non-focused
version of this sentence would start with a verb, and would look like this: Mae’r sianel
°deledu MTV yn trefnu’r cyfan), highlighting the television company as the important and
new information (we know someone must be organising it, we just didn’t know who); new
or focused information is sent to the start of the sentence in Welsh, which is what we have
an example of here; in English this would probably be turned round to create the same
focused effect: ‘The whole thing is being organised by the MTV television channel.’ ⇒ mw
17–21, ⇒ iw u32
 GagaBond  9

ers i °ddaeargryn °daro’r °wlad ‘since an earthquake struck the country’ – ers, like other
time words, has a linking i° when there is a subject and verb expressed, and the verb is in
the plain VN form. Here daeargryn is the subject (SM after linking i°), followed by VN
taro (SM after subject). Other common time words that do this are cyn ‘before’, ar ôl ‘after’,
nes ‘until’, wrth ‘as’, ‘while’ – examples: cyn inni °fynd ‘before we go’, ar ôl i’r siaradwr
°gyrraedd ‘after the speaker arrives’, nes iddyn nhw °gytuno ‘until they agree’, wrth i’r
sefyllfa °waethygu ‘as the situation deteriorates’. There is no tense specified in this con­
struction (VNs are neutral for tense), so the translation can vary according to context – in
other words, cyn inni °fynd could also mean ‘before we went’. ⇒ mw 501, ⇒ iw u30

er mwyn iddyn nhw ‘in order for them (to)’ – er mwyn is a compound preposition mean­
ing ‘for the sake of ’ (e.g. er mwyn y plant ‘for the sake of the children’, er ei mwyn
hi ‘for her sake’), but also with verbs to mean ‘in order to’ as here. ⇒ mw 475–476, 501,
⇒ iw u25, u30

mae hi wedi bod yn codi arian ‘she has been raising money’ – note how the ordinary present
perfect mae hi wedi codi arian ‘she has raised money’ is converted to a progressive meaning
by insertion of bod yn after the wedi. ⇒ mw 289, ⇒ bw u37

cafodd  .  .  .  eu dinistrio – passive. ⇒ mw 362–363

sawl ffordd °wahanol ‘a number of different ways’ – sawl can be used in questions to mean
‘how many?’ sawl llyfr sy ’na? ‘how many books are there?’, or, as here, in statements to
mean ‘a number of ’. Either way it is used with a singular noun.

yn ystod ‘during’ – a compound preposition.

ei halbwm diweddaraf ‘her latest album’ – remember that the possessive eih not only causes
AM, but also prefixes an ‘h’ to words beginning with a vowel. ⇒ mw 109, 112. The ending
-af on adjectives is a mark of the superlative, i.e. ‘most  .  .  .’ or ‘.  .  .  -est’; the -f is often dropped
in speech – diweddara. ⇒ mw 103, ⇒ iw u5

Mae disgwyl i Lady Gaga °fod ‘Lady Gaga is expected to be’ – literally ‘There is an expect­
ation for Lady Gaga to be  .  .  .’

Mae Bond yn ei ôl ‘Bond is back’ – the basic term for ‘back’ in this sense is yn ôl (Rhowch
yr arian yn ôl ‘Give the money back’, Dewch yn ôl yn °fuan ‘Come back soon’); sometimes
when a person is specified the corresponding possessive (here ei ‘his’) is included – it’s not
obligatory, and Mae Bond yn ôl is OK as well. A few lines further down we encounter the
other main meaning of yn ôl: ‘according to’.

cael ei rhyddhau – passive. ⇒ mw 362–363

oherwydd ‘because of ’ – no need for a separate word for ‘of ’, as so often the case in Welsh;
oherwydd y rhyfel ‘because of the war’. Note also o’r herywdd ‘because of this/that’. Oher-
wydd can mean ‘because’ but this is more usually done with achos. ⇒ mw 504
10  GagaBond

Hon °fydd ffilm rhif 23 – focused sentence.

sydd – variant of sy (‘who/which is/are’), perhaps slightly more formal. ⇒ mw 229, ⇒ iw u35

eisoes ‘already’ – a more common phrase for this is yn °barod, but this would more likely
go at the end – ger sydd wedi ennill Oscar yn °barod.

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What does Lady Gaga want to help people to do?
2 When will filming on the new Bond film begin?
3 Why was filming late starting?
4 What items has Lady Gaga released in support of this charity work?
5 What time of year did the earthquake hit?
6 How many times does this make it that Daniel Craig has played Bond?
7 Apart from the concert, what will Lady Gaga be doing during her trip to Japan?
8 When will Lady Gaga leave Japan?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Mae Lady Gaga am helpu pobol i ffeindio gwaith. C/A

2 Mae MTV yn trefnu cyngerdd arbennig. C/A
3 Mae gan gyfarwyddwr y ffilm newydd Oscar ar ei silff. C/A
4 Fe gafodd y gwaith ffilmio ei ohirio. C/A
Chapter 4: GEyl Glastonbury

Here is a further short piece from the BBC’s Welsh-language online presence – this one
deals with an annual event held not far from the Welsh border, in a locality with strong
historical and legendary resonance for students and aficionados of Britain’s Celtic past. The
Welsh name for Glastonbury is Ynys Wydryn (‘Isle of Glass’ – probably a misinterpretation
of the first syllable of the English name, whereas what we’re really dealing with here is
probably a personal name Glesting, or similar), but it has strong associations with Ynys
Afallon – Avalon! About 900 years ago some monk claimed to have dug up King Arthur
himself there. I’m not so sure.

GEyl Glastonbury
Bydd GAyl °Gerddorol Glastonbury yn cychwyn °ddydd Mercher. Eleni mae disgwyl i 177,000
o °bobl °deithio yno. Mae’r °Ayl yn cael ei hchynnal ar Worthy Farm yng nNgwlad yr Haf.
Un o’r prif °fandiau °fydd yn perfformio °fydd U2. Roedd y band i °fod i °berfformio yn
yr °Ayl yn 2010. Ond yn anffodus fe °fethon nhw â gwneud hynny oherwydd bod y prif
°leisydd Bono wedi anafu ei °gefn. Dywedodd Bono ei °fod yn siomedig bod y band
wedi methu perfformio yn yr °Ayl y llynedd. Tydy’r grAp heb °benderfynu eto pa °ganeuon
°fyddan nhw’n perfformio. Mae disgwyl i’r tywydd °fod yn °gymysgedd o heulwen a glaw
yn ystod y penwythnos. Gyda llawer o °bobl yn mynd i’r °Ayl mae’n °bosib bydd rhaid
ciwio yn hir am y toiledau! Ond does dim angen poeni y bydd y papur tB bach yn rhedeg
allan cyn i chi °gyrraedd, gan y bydd papur toiled ar °gael am °ddim i’r °dorf. Os na °fyddi
di yn mynd i’r °Ayl yna mae modd i ti °wylio’r cyfan ar y BBC ar y teledu, radio ac ar-lein.

Geirfa

geyl – festival siomedig – disappointed

cerddorol – musical cymysgedd – mixture
cynnal – hold (event) heulwen – sunshine
Gwlad yr Haf – Somerset torf – crowd
anffodus – unfortunate modd – way, method
methu – fail gwylio – watch
lleisydd – vocalist ar-lein – online
anafu – injure
12  GEyl Glastonbury

°ddydd Mercher ‘on Wednesday’ – time expressions like this use SM to indicate ‘time when’
something happens; similarly, for example, °bob mis ‘every month’, °flynyddoedd yn ôl
‘years ago’. ⇒ mw 403, ⇒ bw u32

eleni ‘this year’ – this is one of a small number of single words for certain time expressions;
others are (y) llynedd ‘last year’, heno (or heno ’ma) ‘tonight’, neithiwr ‘last night’, yfory
‘tomorrow’, heddiw ‘today’ and ddoe ‘yesterday’. Otherwise, diwetha ‘last’, ’ma ‘this’ and
nesa ‘next’ are used much as in English: y °flwyddyn nesa ‘next year’, wythnos diwetha ‘last
week’. ⇒ mw 402

cael ei hchynnal – passive; the AM is because ei refers to a feminine (geyl), which you can
tell is feminine from the start of this sentence, where it is mutated after the word for ‘the’
(mae’r °eyl).

prif ° ‘main’, ‘chief ’; a rare example of an adjective that always precedes the noun. ⇒ mw
96

i °fod i ‘supposed to’ – learn this phrase as a one-off. Examples: Dan ni i °fod i aros fan
hyn ‘We’re supposed to wait here’, Beth mae hynny i °fod i °feddwl? ‘What’s that supposed
to mean?’

yn anffodus ‘unfortunately’; remember that one of the many functions of yn° is to form
adverbs from adjectives – so anffodus ‘unfortunate’, yn anffodus ‘unfortunately’; gofalus
‘careful’, yn °ofalus ‘carefully’. ⇒ mw 401, ⇒ bw u36

fe °fethon nhw ‘they failed’ or ‘they didn’t manage’ – note the affirmative particle fe°, op-
tional but very commonly used in front of verbs with endings to indicate a statement (rather
than a question or negative); a different particle mi° is used in exactly the same way – the
difference between them is essentially regional. ⇒ mw 213, ⇒ bw u18. Methon nhw is the
normal preterite I (endings) form of methu; remember that there are two other ways of
doing the simple past tense in Welsh, both with auxiliary verbs rather than endings – pret-
erite II naethon nhw °fethu, preterite III ddaru nhw °fethu. ⇒ mw 292–303, ⇒ bw u25,
⇒ iw u10

hynny ‘that’ – this pronoun is used here rather than hwnnw (m) or honno (f ), because it
refers not to an object (which could be identified as either masculine or feminine) but to
an abstract idea, namely ‘performing in the festival in 2010’; hwnnw and honno (and the
variants hwnna and honna) really mean ‘that one’. Similarly with hyn ‘this’ instead of hwn
and hon: Beth am hwn/hon? ‘What about this one?’ vs Beth am hyn ‘What about this?’ ⇒
mw 136–137

ei °fod (or ei °fod e, or °fod e) ‘that he is/was’ – the normal way of doing reported speech
(or ‘that  .  .  .’-clause) where the original verb was part of the verb ‘to be’ – Roedd e’n siome-
dig ‘He was disappointed’ >  .  .  .  ei °fod e’n siomedig ‘.  .  .  that he was disappointed’. ⇒ mw
487, ⇒ iw u11. Reported speech patterns in Welsh are trickier than in English, and must
be mastered for fluency of speech and reading. ⇒ mw 486–497, ⇒ iw u12, u13
 GCyl Glastonbury  13

Tydy’r grep heb °benderfynu ‘The group have not decided’ – tydy is the same as dydy
(present negative third person singular of bod), usually with °ddim though not here because
it is included in the heb, for the following reason: heb °benderfynu = °ddim wedi penderfynu
– in other words, you can often ‘shortcut’ °ddim wedi + VN to heb + °VN, i.e. ‘they are
without deciding’ for ‘they haven’t decided’. ⇒ mw 269, 458

bydd rhaid ciwio ‘(people) will have to queue’ – rhaid can be used without reference to
person in Welsh, while English usually requires something to be added, or else gets all
clumsy and says ‘There will be a need to queue’, which is scarcely English anyway. If a
person were to be specified in the Welsh, it would require i° and SM of the verb as well:
bydd rhaid i °bawb °giwio ‘everyone will have to queue’. ⇒ mw 349, ⇒ bw u34

gan ‘since/because/as’ – in this meaning gan is a conjunction rather than a preposition,

and is followed by a ‘that’-clause: gan y bydd papur toiled ar °gael ‘as toilet paper will be
available’; or in the present: gan °fod papur toiled ar °gael. ⇒ mw 504. The phrase ar °gael
‘available’ should be learnt as a one-off. ⇒ mw 426

os na °fyddi di’n mynd ‘if you’re not going’ or ‘if you won’t be going’ – Welsh uses the
future more often in ‘if ’-clauses than does English, though the present would also be OK
here: os nad ydych chi’n mynd. Notice that os prefers a na for negative rather than °ddim
– os °fyddi di °ddim yn mynd, while not exactly wrong, sounds a bit dodgy. Well, it does to
me, at least. Stick to na with os. ⇒ mw 309

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 Why did U2 pull out of the festival in 2010?
2 What decision have they yet to make for this year?
3 What proportion of the festival will be broadcast by the BBC?
4 What will be the toilet paper arrangements?
5 Is it going to be wet or dry for the festival?
6 When will the festival start?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Bydd Gayl Glastonbury’n dod i ben ddydd Mercher. C/A

2 Doedd U2 ddim eisiau perfformio yn 2010. C/A
3 Bydd tywydd heulog drwy gydol yr ayl eleni. C/A
4 Fydd dim papur toiled o gwbl ar gael yn yr ayl. C/A
5 Disgwylir i fwy na dau gan mil o bobol ddod i’r ayl. C/A
6 Dim ond dau doiled fydd ar gael yn yr ayl, fel arfer. C/A
Chapter 5: Caru Dysgu’r Gymraeg

This article from the Welsh-language weekly newspaper Y Cymro reports on an upcoming
series produced by the Welsh-language television channel S4C to further promote the learning
of Welsh as a second language. In the last twenty years, and particularly since devolution and
the transfer of many powers to the Cynulliad (Welsh Assembly) in Cardiff, the profile of the
language has been raised in all spheres of public life, and getting famous faces on side like
this is an obvious way to encourage more people to take the plunge - which indeed they are.
As typically for Y Cymro, the style of language is somewhat more formal than is found in,
say, Golwg - you will notice the negative ni, for example, and third person plurals ending in
-nt - but on the whole the tone of the article and structure of the sentences are fairly standard.
Because dysgu means both ‘learn7 and ‘teach', the headline on this article has a deliberate
double meaning.

MAE wyth o bobl adnabyddus yn paratoi i

j dreulio wythnos ddwys yn dysgu Cymraeg
j mewn gwersyll ecogyfeillgar yn Sir Benfro ar
I gyfer cyfres S4C, cariad@ iaith :love4language
I Ni all y Sianel ar hyn o bryd ddatgelu enwau’r
I wyth dysgwr a fydd yn treulio wythnos yn wyn-
I ebu gwahanol heriau ieithyddol yng ngwersyll
I trawiadol Fforest, Cilgerran, Sir Benfro. Fe fyd-
[ dan nhw’n cyrraedd y gwersyll ddydd Sadwm,
I 9 Gorffennaf.
I Bydd y camerau’n dilyn y dysgwyr Cymraeg
1 newydd wrth iddynt astudio Cymraeg am
I bedair awr bob dydd o dan arweiniad y cyflwy-
nydd a’r tiwtor iaith Nia Parry a’r tiwtor iaith
I blaenllaw loan Talfryn.
Fe fydd y gyfres, a ddarlledir dros wythnos
' gyda Gareth Roberts yn cyflwyno, yn dilyn y ser
I meun sioeau nosweithiol awr o hyd.
; Mae’r wythnos, sy’n dechrau gyda rhaglen
! i lansio'r gyfres ar S4C ddydd Gwener, 8
' Gorffennaf am 8.25yh, yn cyrraedd ei hanterth
gyda seremoni wobrwyo arbennig nos Wener,
15 Gorffennaf.
Bydd y sioe yn cyd-redeg ag Wythnos Dysgu
I Cymraeg S4C pan fydd y Sianel yn cydweithio
I gyda sefydliadau, newyddiadurwyr a chwmniau
i greu fwy o ddiddordeb fyth yn yr iaith Gym-
1 raeg.
j Mae’r gyflwynwraig fyrlymus a’r tiwtor iaith
| Nia Parry yn edrych ymlaen yn arw at sialens y
gyfres cariad@iaith.
t Meddai: “Ni allwn ddatgelu’r enwau eto ond
gallaf gadarnhau y byddan nhw’n gymysgedd
liwgar, ddeinamig o bobl adnabyddus. Fe fydd
ganddyn nhw eu rhesymau personol eu hunain
dros ddysgu Cymraeg ond fe allaf eich sicrhau
eu bod i gyd yn gystadleuol ac yn*frwd iawn. Fe
ddylai fod yn wythnos ddiddorol iawn inni a’n
« gwylwyr ac rv\y’n edrych ymlaen yn eiddgar at
* y profiad.”
 Caru Dysgu’r Gymraeg  15

Geirfa

adnabyddus – well-known hyd – length

treulio – spend (time) anterth – zenith, culmination
dwys – intensive gwobrwyo – award prizes
gwersyll – camp cydweithio – collaborate
cyfeillgar – friendly sefydliad (-au) – institution
datgelu – reveal newyddiadurwr – journalist
wynebu – face (v) creu – create
her – challenge diddordeb – interest
ieithyddol – linguistic byrlymus – bubbly
trawiadol – striking yn °arw – greatly, awfully
astudio – study cadarnhau – confirm
arweiniad – leadership lliwgar – colourful
cyflwynydd – presenter rheswm (rhesymau) – reason
blaenllaw – prominent cystadleuol – competitive
darlledu – broadcast brwd – keen
sioe (-au) – show eiddgar – eager
noswaith – evening profiad – experience

treulio – used for spending time; spending money is gwario.

mewn ‘in’ – remember the difference between the two words for ‘in’: yn and mewn; yn is used
with specific things – mainly words used with the definite article, and proper names – while
mewn is used with non-specific things. Compare: yn yr ysbyty ‘in the hospital’ (speaker has
a particular one in mind) and mewn ysbyty ‘in a hospital’ (not specified which). This is the
reason we never use mewn with place names – we always say, for example (on the same line
in the text), yn Sir °Benfro ‘in Pembrokeshire’ because the whole point about proper names
is that they identify specific places (and people). You would only say mewn Sir °Benfro in
the same unusual circumstance that you might say ‘in a Pembrokeshire’ in English – say,
‘in a Pembrokeshire without trees’ – referring to some hypothetical type of Pembrokeshire
that doesn’t actually exist. And you’ll never ever see *mewn y  .  .  .  ⇒ mw 461, ⇒ bw u16

Ni °all ‘cannot’ – the ni negative in front of the verb is a literary style that does not exist in
the spoken language, which always uses a following °ddim; ni °all is the LW equivalent of
°all  .  .  .  °ddim, so Ni °all y Sianel °ddatgelu = °all y Sianel °ddim datgelu. Don’t use ni for
negatives when speaking Welsh, but don’t be surprised to see it in print. Remember that
gallu ‘can’ has a special present tense, of which °all is the mutated third person singular
(< gall). There is a ni °allwn further down in the text – same principle, different person.
⇒ mw 328, ⇒ iw u3

ar hyn o °bryd ‘at the moment’ – learn this common phrase as a one-off. Other useful
idioms with pryd ‘time’ include: ar °brydiau ‘at times’, o °bryd i’w gilydd ‘from time to time’
and °bryd hynny ‘at that time’. ⇒ mw 402, 406
16  Caru Dysgu’r Gymraeg

a °fydd ‘who will be’ – the particle a° is used for ‘who’ and ‘which’ before verbs other than
present tense ‘to be’ mae (which turns into sy/sydd instead – see further below); in speech
it is often dropped, but the mutation (if there is one) remains – y dynion (a) ddaeth i mewn
‘the men who came in’, y rhaglen (a) oedd ar y teledu neithiwr ‘the programme which was
on the television last night’. ⇒ mw 481, ⇒ iw u14

camerâu ‘cameras’ – the accent on the a shows that we are dealing with a singular word
ending in -a + plural ending -au. While normal plurals in -au are pronounced as -a or -e
(roughly North and South respectively), -âu is always pronounced as written. ⇒ mw 60 (c)

wrth iddynt ‘as they’ – iddynt = iddyn nhw, and is a literary form practically unknown in any
type of natural spoken Welsh these last few hundred years. Same goes for any other verb
forms (and conjugated prepositions like this example) ending in -nt – for example dylent,
arnynt, maent, byddant; they really end in -n nhw: dylen nhw, arnyn nhw, byddan nhw,
maen nhw. Don’t imitate this annoying (and spreading) affectation, however much you see
it in print. It’s not clever. It’s not funny. And the only one you’ll be letting down is yourself.

o dan° ‘under’; also just dan°. Not to be confused with tan°, which means ‘until’.

a °ddarlledir ‘which will be broadcast’ – we’ve just discussed a° = ‘who/which’ above; here
it is used with a verb form you will frequently encounter all over the printed and broadcast
media: the autonomous or impersonal form. The two most common (used routinely all over
the place) are -ir (present/future) and -wyd (past) – these endings attach to the stem of the
verb like any other ending, but are invariable for person; so from darlledu we get darlledir
‘is/are/will be broadcast’ and darlledwyd ‘was/were broadcast’. The -ir ending changes an
-a- in the preceding syllable to -e-, so from talu ‘pay’ we get talwyd ‘was/were paid’ but telir
‘is/are/will be paid’. These neat and useful forms usually correspond to the English passive,
and are much favoured for their conciseness – you’ll never need to use them in speech
(unless you get a job reading the news on S4C – don’t look like that, it could happen) but
you’ll see them in print everywhere, and hear them on the news. I think you should embrace
them. ⇒ mw 367–374, ⇒ iw u23

awr o hyd – take these three words together, and look in the Geirfa.

sy’n dechrau ‘which starts’ – here is an example of what was mentioned above about mae
turning into sy when we need to add a ‘who’ or ‘which’; mae’n dechrau ‘it starts’ becomes
sy’n dechrau ‘which starts’, ⇒ mw 229, 479, ⇒ iw u15, u35; with any other verb than mae,
we would use the a° particle instead: bydd yn dechrau ‘will start’ becomes a °fydd yn dechrau
‘which will start’; dechreuodd ddoe ‘started yesterday’ becomes a °ddechreuodd ddoe ‘which
started yesterday’. ⇒ mw 481, ⇒ iw u14

ag – whenever you see this word, it’s just â ‘with’, but before a vowel. Do not confuse with
ac, which is a ‘and’, but before a vowel.

mwy o°  .  .  .  fyth ‘even more  .  .  .’ – fyth in this use with comparatives has a fixed SM; further
examples: oerach fyth ‘even colder’, pwysicach fyth ‘even more important’, mwy trawiadol
fyth ‘even more striking’. ⇒ mw 104 (c), ⇒ iw u5
 Caru Dysgu’r Gymraeg  17

edrych ymlaen at° ‘look forward to’ – learn this common idiom.

meddai ‘says/said’ – this generally invariable quotative verb (also spelt medde) is used in-
stead of dwedodd (etc.) when actual words are quoted – whether with inverted commas or
not; sometimes you come across medd as well – same difference. ⇒ mw 392

gallaf ‘I can’ – LW for galla i.

ganddyn nhw – remember that all the common prepositions have verby-like endings when
used with pronouns, and gan° is no exception; ganddyn nhw is gan + nhw. ⇒ mw 455. Notice
that this speaker kicks off her first sentence with a deliberately LW ni °allwn, but forgets to
follow through with ganddynt barely twenty seconds later. I’m easy with that. But surely
she could have simply kicked off with °allwn ni °ddim and maintained consistency? Couldn’t
she? Surely?

eu bod ‘that they are’ – a shortening of eu bod nhw, as is the equally used bod nhw. ⇒ mw
487, ⇒ iw u11

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 How many celebs are taking part in this series?
2 How long will each show be?
3 What have the celebs got to do?
4 At what time of day will the shows be broadcast?
5 What is special about the location for these broadcasts?
6 Apart from the learners, how many people will be on-screen?
7 How long will the series last?
8 What’s happening on Saturday 9th July?
9 And what’s happening on the 8th?
10 And what’s happening on the 15th?
11 What S4C event is this series being transmitted in conjunction with?
12 How does Nia feel about the week to come?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Mae’r celebs i gyd yn frwd iawn. C/A

2 Bydd pob rhaglen yn y gyfres yn para am awr. C/A
3 Bydd y celebs yn treulio dwy wythnos yn dysgu Cymraeg. C/A
4 Bydd y gwersi’n digwydd mewn gwersyll yng ngogledd Cymru. C/A
5 Tydi Nia ddim yn fodlon dweud pwy yn union fydd yn cystadlu. C/A
6 Am dair awr bob dydd y bydd y celebs yn astudio’r iaith. C/A
Chapter 6: Gwefan heb Gymraeg

Articles and reports concerning the public use and status of Welsh are common in the
Welsh-language media, particularly instances where the language’s official status is perceived
as not being taken seriously, or as neglected, by some prominent organisation. This piece from
Golwg magazine targets no less an institution than Bangor University in the Welsh heart-
lands of the north-west – one of its departments has slipped up bigtime on their website.

Gwefan heb °Gymraeg yn achosi pryder

Mae galw ar i °Brifysgol Bangor esbonio pam nad yw un o’i gwefannau ar °gael yn y
°Gymraeg er ei bod ar °gael mewn chwech o ieithoedd eraill.
Mae’r °wefan ‘Food Dudes’ gan yr Adran Seicoleg yn annog plant i °fwyta’n iach ac ar °gael yn
Saesneg, Ffrangeg, Almaeneg, Sbaeneg, Eidaleg a hPhwyleg  .  .  .  ond °ddim yn y Gymraeg.
“Mae’r diffyg Cymraeg ar °wefan ‘Food Dudes’ yn achos pryder,” meddai’r AC lleol
Alun Ffred Jones sy’n bwriadu sgrifennu at y °brifysgol i °ofyn iddyn nhw °greu fersiwn
°Gymraeg o’r °wefan °gyhoeddus.
“Mae’n rhyfedd iawn bod prosiect sydd wedi’i °ddatblygu gan °Brifysgol Bangor, sydd
wedi’i °dargedu at °blant ysgol, ar °gael yn Ffrangeg, ond °ddim yn y °Gymraeg. Fe
°fydda i’n ysgrifennu at y °Brifysgol i °fynegi’r pryderon hyn ac yn gofyn iddyn nhw sicrhau
bod y deunydd yma ar °gael yn y °Gymraeg mor °fuan ag sy’n °bosib.
“Fe °fydda i’n pwysleisio wrth y °Brifysgol unwaith eto pa mor °bwysig ydi hi iddi
adlewyrchu natur °ddwyieithog yr ardal yma.
Yn ôl cyn-°gadeirydd Cymdeithas yr Iaith, mae’n rhaid i’r °brifysgol °brofi ei hymrwy-
miad i’r °Gymraeg.
“Gallech °feddwl mai jôc yw hyn ar ôl hanesion diweddar y °Brifysgol yn ymwneud
â’r °Gymraeg,” meddai Menna Machreth sy’n °fyfyriwr ymchwil ym nMangor, “ond mae
dewis eang o ieithoedd ar °gael heblaw am y °Gymraeg. Mae’n °bryd i’r °Brifysgol °brofi
eu hymrwymiad tuag at y °Gymraeg mewn ffordd °weladwy ac ymarferol ac ateb y dis-
gwyliadau arnyn nhw i °barchu natur ieithyddol yr ardal.
“Efallai bod eu bryd ar statws rhyngwladol, ond heb °gefnogaeth °leol ân nhw °ddim yn
°bell iawn. Bydd y °Gymdeithas yn ysgrifennu at °Lywodraeth Cymru a hChyngor Gwynedd
a gofyn iddynt edrych ar yr holl grantiau mae’r °Brifysgol yn derbyn wrth y trethdalwyr.”
Er i ni holi nifer o °gwestiynau am Food Dudes, ni hchafwyd ymateb gan °Brifysgol Bangor.
 Gwefan heb Gymraeg  19

Geirfa

gwefan (-nau) – website hanes (-ion) – story

achosi – cause ymchwil – research
pryder – concern, worry eang – broad
annog – encourage, urge heblaw (am°) – apart (from)
iach – healthy gweladwy – visible
diffyg – lack (n) ymarferol – practical
cyhoeddus – public disgwyl (-iadau) – expectation
rhyfedd – odd, strange parchu – respect (v)
datblygu – develop bryd – mind, intention
targedu – target (v) rhyngwladol – international
mynegi – express cefnogaeth – support (n)
deunydd – material pell – far
buan – soon llywodraeth – government
adlewyrchu – reflect cyngor – council
dwyieithog – bilingual trethdalwyr – taxpayers
ardal – area holi – ask
cadeirydd – chairman/woman ymateb – respond, response
ymrwymiad – commitment

mae galw ar i  .  .  .  esbonio ‘there is a call for  .  .  .  to explain’ – the verbnoun galw is used here
as a noun; galw ar° is ‘call for’, but notice that the i° then comes next, introducing a clause:
i °Brifysgol Bangor esbonio ‘Bangor University to explain’.

pam nad yw ‘why  .  .  .  is/are not’ – remember that pam ‘why’, particularly with negatives,
tends to use a ‘that’-clause (na, or nad before vowels in some circumstances, means
‘that  .  .  .  not’); further examples: pam na °fyddwch chi’n dod ‘why you won’t be coming’,
pam na °ddaethon nhw’n ôl ‘why they didn’t come back’, pam na ffoniwch chi? ‘why don’t
you phone?’ ⇒ mw 311

sydd wedi’i °ddatblygu ‘(has been) developed’ (literally ‘after its developing’) – sydd wedi
datblygu (without the intervening possessive) would mean ‘which has developed’ – the in-
sertion of the possessive ’i° (= ei°) turns this wedi- phrase from active to passive; it usually
corresponds to an English past participle, and can be used in the same way as an adjective:
ffenest wedi’i hchau ‘a closed window’, i.e. a window that has been closed; tai wedi’u haila-
deiladu ‘rebuilt houses’. ⇒ mw 364, ⇒ iw u22

pa mor °bwysig ‘how important’ – sut? means ‘how?’ = ‘in what way?’, but if ‘how’ = ‘to
what extent’, we use pa mor°; this combination should be learnt as a one-off. Note also the
‘how  .  .  .  !’ used in exclamations, which is usually done in Welsh with ’na°  .  .  .  !: ’na °bert!
‘how pretty!’, ’na neis! ‘how nice!’ ⇒ mw 105 (c), 441

ei hymrwymiad ‘its commitment’ – remember than eih ‘her’ (but not ei° ‘his’), ein ‘our’ and
eu ‘their’ prefix an h- to a following vowel. ⇒ mw 109
20  Gwefan heb Gymraeg

yn ymwneud âh ‘concerning’, ‘to do with’; learn also the idiom does a °wnelo  .  .  .  °ddim
âh  .  .  .  ‘.  .  .  has nothing to do with  .  .  .’: does a °wnelo hynny °ddim â gwleidyddiaeth ‘this has
nothing to do with politics’ – grammar geeks will be tickled to discover that °wnelo is a
subjunctive, a pretty rare species in modern Welsh.

tuag at° ‘towards’ – an extended form of at°; notice, by the way, that both i° and tuag at° are
used after ymrwymiad for ‘to’ within a few lines of each other in this piece: ei hymrwymiad
i’r °Gymraeg and eu hymrwymiad tuag at y °Gymraeg – this kind of minor variation in
preposition use, especially with prepositions of closely related meaning, is not significant.

efallai bod – words for ‘perhaps’ (others are falle, ella – both contractions of standard efal-
lai – and hwyrach, often pronounced hwrach in this sense) are usually followed by a ‘that’-
clause if they start the sentence (they can alternatively be tagged on at the end); so, for
example, efallai nmod i wedi gwneud camgymeriad ‘perhaps I have made a mistake’, ella
bod nhw ar °goll ‘perhaps they’re lost’, hwyrach na °ddôn nhw ‘perhaps they won’t come’.
⇒ mw 436, 428

ân nhw °ddim ‘they won’t go’ – a normal short future (i.e. future with endings on the stem
of the verb itself instead of the long future using bydd etc. + VN – which here would be
°fyddan nhw °ddim yn mynd); this particular short future, however, is irregular, because it
comes from mynd ‘go’ – one of a small set of thoroughly misbehaved and naughty little
verbs that must be taken firmly in hand if any ease in the language is to be attained; the
other miscreants are of course gwneud ‘do’, dod ‘come’ and cael ‘get’. ⇒ mw 305, ⇒ iw u2

iddynt (LW) = iddyn nhw

yr holl grantiau ‘all the grants’ – two points to note: holl° precedes the noun and causes
SM – yr holl °blant ‘all the children’; but short English loanwords beginning with g- (like
grant) resist SM; so we don’t say *yr holl °rantiau, nor do we park our twin limousines
*mewn dau °arej, nor will Cwmcysglyd Amateur F.C. ever score *dwy °ôl against any of their
opponents (highly unlikely in any case, regardless of grammar). ⇒ mw 12 (e)

derbyn wrth – the preposition wrth° has a wide range of meanings and uses; here with
derbyn ‘receive’ it means ‘from’, while another common use is with dweud ‘say/tell’, where
it means the opposite – dwedwch wrtho fo! ‘tell him!’ ⇒ mw 470

er i ni holi ‘although we asked’ – at the start of this piece we saw er ei bod  .  .  .  ‘although it

is  .  .  .’; but when the main action of the ‘although’ clause is in the past, we have the option
of using i + person + °VN; some speakers avoid this and instead retain the bod- construc-
tion by adding a wedi to convey past time: er bod ni wedi holi ‘although we asked’. ⇒ mw
506, 509

ni hchafwyd ‘was not received’ – an excellent example of the neat past impersonal form
widely used in the media; this is the one for cael, and here it is used with the LW negative
particle ni in front of it; you could have hchafwyd dim ymateb at a push. ⇒ mw 367, 368,
373, ⇒ iw u23
 Gwefan heb Gymraeg  21

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 Who is the offending website aimed at?
2 And what is the website promoting?
3 What does Menna Machreth call into question?
4 In what two ways is she described?
5 Which university department is under scrutiny here?
6 What ambition of the university is claimed to be threatened by this row?
7 What languages is the website available in?
8 Who are Gwynedd Council going to get a letter from?
9 And who else is going to get one from the same sender?
10 What is Alun Ffred Jones’s job?
11 By when are people demanding that the situation be rectified?
12 What possible sanction against the university is mentioned?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Doedd y Brifysgol ddim eisiau siarad â Golwg ynghylch hyn. C/A

2 Mae Menna Machreth yn hoff iawn o jôcs, yn enwedig jôcs am y Gymraeg. C/A
3 Yr Adran Seicoleg sy’n gyfrifol am y wefan dan sylw. C/A
4 Bydd Cymdeithas yr Iaith yn hala llythyr at y Llywodraeth yn Llundain. C/A
Chapter 7: Pendroni

The Welsh language has a lively and very active presence on the blogosphere – much of it
political in content. This is an April 2011 piece from Pendroni (www.heleddfychan.blogspot.
com), a blog by Heledd Fychan, a Plaid Cymru candidate for North Wales in the Welsh
elections of May that year – it well conveys the excitement of the final week of campaigning
and has a nice immediacy throughout.
The linguistic style, as with blogs generally perhaps, is colloquial and natural, reflecting
ordinary Welsh speech. You should note in this regard certain occasional spelling conven-
tions that are non-standard but reflect contemporary (North Wales) pronunciation – notably
some of the verb endings: for example, the first person plural (ni) forms of verbs are spelt
without the final -n – so da ni = dan ni ‘we are’, mi °ddyla ni = mi °ddylen ni ‘we ought to’
– this merely reflects the fact that double letters in Welsh are not pronounced double in
any case (i.e. that words like tynnu and glynu rhyme exactly, and that the first one could
equally well be spelt tynu with no effect on pronunciation); examples like mi °ddyla ni (= mi
ddylen ni) also reflect N vowel pronunciation, with unstressed -e- in final syllables sounding
as -a-; on the other hand, plurals in -au, which are almost invariably pronounced -a in spo-
ken NW, are kept with the standard spelling throughout. None of this need keep us awake
at nights, of course. If you think (or more likely have been told) that spoken Welsh should
be kept out of writing, then you might like to skip ahead briefly to Chapter 27, which is an
extract from Caradog Prichard’s novel Un Nos Ola Leuad – this milestone of modern Welsh
literature carries the principle of ‘write as you speak’ considerably further than what we see
in this blog (he writes plural -au as -a and uses many contractions); and it’s a wonderful
work of literature.
In Heledd’s piece as a whole there are actually few departures from standard written
colloquial, and none that are in any way unusual. The effect aimed for is a lively and down-
to-earth informality, as is fitting perhaps for the blogosphere, and this is well achieved.

Llai na wythnos i °fynd!

Wel, erbyn wythnos i heddiw, mi °ddyla ni °fod yn gwybod yr holl °ganlyniadau. Ac ella
°wir y byddai yn Aelod Cynulliad!
Mae hon wedi bod yn ymgyrch hir, ond mae pob diwrnod yn hedfan heibio ar y
°funud. Da ni wedi bod yn eithriadol o lwcus o °ran y tywydd ac o’r herwydd wedi  
 Pendroni  23

medru gwneud llwyth o °ganfasio ar °draws y Gogledd a cyfarfod °gymaint o etholwyr

â hphosib. Mae wedi bod yn °ddifyr fel ymgeisydd rhestr treulio amser gyda timau mewn
gwahanol etholaethau, a hchael ymateb da ym nmhob man deud gwir. Dim ond llond
dwrn o bobl sydd wedi deud bo nhw’n casau pob un gwleidydd tro yma, yn °wahanol i
ymgyrch 2010 lle ’roedd pobl yn °flin ofnadwy gyda pawb o °bob Plaid ar ôl y sgandal
treuliau. Ac mae pawb yn °fodlon trafod a hchael sgwrs ym nmron i °bob un tB. Dydi’r
mwyafrif °ddim i’w gweld yn deall y refferendwm AV o °gwbwl, yn °wir, mae nhw’n med-
dwl bod rhaid iddyn nhw °bleidleisio tro yma gyda rhifau yn hytrach na hchroes. Dydi o
°ddim yn deg cynnal y °ddau ar yr un diwrnod ond dyna ni, rhy hwyr rwan a rhaid i ni
°fyw hefo hynny.
Mae’n anodd deud be °ddigwyddith o °ran y canlyniadau yn y Gogledd, ond dwi’n teimlo’n
°galonogol iawn ar ôl yr holl ymateb cadarnhaol yr yda ni’n ei °dderbyn gan °bobl. Dwi
yn meddwl °fod hi’n edrych yn °obeithiol o °ran cadw Aberconwy, Arfon a Môn ynghyd
ag un sedd rhestr, a hchynyddu ein pleidlais mewn nifer o seddi eraill. Mae Gorllewin
Clwyd wedi bod yn °ddifyr dros °ben o °ran yr ymateb er enghraifft, ynghyd a Wrecsam
a Delyn. Ond pwy a °Ayr sut °fydd hi’n y diwedd – gwleidyddiaeth yn gêm od yn dydi!
Beth bynnag, gyda dim ond ychydig o °ddyddiau i fynd, os hoffech helpu, yna plis
dewch i °gysylltiad. Da ni hefyd angen pobl i helpu ar y diwrnod i atgoffa pobl i °fynd
allan i °fwrw dwy °groes i’r °Blaid felly os oes gennych awr neu °ddwy i sbario ar °Fai’r
5ed, mi °fysa ni’n hynod °ddiolchgar o unrhyw °gymorth. Cofiwch – gyda’ch cymorth
chi, mi °fedra ni °greu Cymru °well. Mae pob pleidlais yn cyfrif !

Geirfa

canlyniad (-au) – result pleidleisio – vote (v)

Aelod Cynulliad – Assembly Member rhif (-au) – number
ymgyrch – campaign (n) yn hytrach nah – rather than
hedfan – fly (v) croes – cross (n)
eithriadol – extraordinary cynnal – hold (event, etc.)
llwyth – load (n) calonogol – confident, in high spirits
cyfarfod – meet cadarnhaol – positive
etholwyr – voters, electors ymarferol – practical
difyr – fun ynghyd âh – together with
ymgeisydd – candidate cynyddu – increase (v)
rhestr – list sedd (-i) – seat
etholaeth – constituency gwleidyddiaeth – politics
llond dwrn – handful cysylltiad – contact (n)
gwleidydd – politician atgoffa – remind
blin – tired, fed up hynod° – awfully, really
treuliau – expenses unrhyw° – any
trafod – discuss, debate cymorth – assistance, help
mwyafrif – majority
24  Pendroni

llai na ‘less than’ – learn the irregular comparatives llai ‘less’, mwy ‘more’, both of which can
be used as quantity words; also gwell ‘better’, gwaeth ‘worse’, is ‘lower’, uwch ‘higher’; nah (nag
before vowels – though clearly not consistently, as we would normally expect nag wythnos
on this principle) is always the word for ‘than’ after comparatives. ⇒ mw 106, ⇒ iw u7

erbyn ‘by (a time)’ – erbyn canol dydd ‘by midday’, erbyn y degfed ‘by the tenth’, erbyn
iddyn nhw °gyrraedd ‘by the time they arrive’; don’t confuse this word with the compound
preposition yn erbyn ‘against’: yn erbyn y llywodraeth ‘against the government’, yn ei herbyn
(hi) ‘against her’. ⇒ mw 503

ella ‘perhaps’ – a common NW variant of efallai, and used (as here) with a following ‘that’-
clause: ella °wir y byddai ‘perhaps indeed (that) I will be’ (byddai = bydda i); hwyrach is also
very common in the N for ‘perhaps’. ⇒ mw 436

Cynulliad – while English uses the term ‘Welsh Assembly’, Welsh uses this single word.

mae hon wedi bod ‘this has been’ – remember that when ‘this’ is used without an accom-
panying noun we need the pronoun hwn/hon (m/f ); hon is used here, because it refers to
the feminine noun ymgyrch coming up. The same goes for ‘that’, but there are variants:
hwnnw/honno, or hwnna/honna; and don’t forget the ‘abstract’ ‘this’ and ‘that’: hyn and
hynny (or hynna) – mae hyn yn °ormod! ‘this is too much!’, mae hynny’n anhygoel! ‘that’s
unbelievable!’ ⇒ mw 136–137, ⇒ bw u1

eithriadol o lwcus ‘extraordinarily lucky’ – qualifiers of adjectives often precede, with a

linking o°.

o °ran ‘as regards’ – learn this phrase as a one-off.

medru – generally a synonym for gallu, and more usually associated with N dialects. ⇒ mw 331

ar °draws ‘across’ – a compound preposition; ar °draws Cymru ‘across Wales’, but ar eich
traws chi ‘across you’; also found in the idiom torri ar °draws ‘interrupt’: peidiwch torri ar
n
nhraws i! ‘don’t interrupt me!’ ⇒ mw 475–476, ⇒ iw u25

cyfarfod – not the noun ‘meeting’ here, but the VN ‘meet’, a synonym for cwrdd.

°gymaint ‘as many’ – a quantity word followed (as they nearly all are) by o°; cymaint can
also mean ‘as much’, depending on context: cymerwch °gymaint ag y mynnwch chi ‘take
as much as you like’; and also ‘so many, so much’: mae cymaint o °bobol fan hyn ‘there
are so many people here’. All of the same goes for cynlleied (‘as few, as little’, etc.), by the
way. ⇒ mw 197

deud gwir ‘actually’ – deud is N Welsh for dweud, and this phrase is a contraction of
a dweud y gwir; don’t translate it literally as ‘to tell the truth’ – how often do we say
that? Certainly not as often as people say deud y gwir in Welsh. ‘Actually’ is a much better
translation.
 Pendroni  25

bo nhw = bod nhw – a pronunciation spelling. Fine by me.

tro yma ‘this time’ – tro for times in a series: y tro cynta ‘the first time’, y tro nesa ‘the next
time’, y tro ola ‘the last time’; gwaith for number of times: °ddwywaith ‘twice’, faint o
°weithiau? ‘how many times?’ ⇒ mw 406

ym nmron i °bob un tf ‘in almost every single house’ – bron i° is a common variant of bron
‘almost’, especially when a quantity or count word follows – mi oedd bron i °drideg o °bobol
yno ‘there were almost thirty people there’; pob ‘every’ can be intensified by adding un: pob
tf ‘every house’, pob un tf ‘every single house’.

dydi’r mwyafrif °ddim i’w gweld yn deall ‘the majority do not appear to understand’ – liter-
ally ‘are not to be seen understanding’; this is the neatest way to say ‘appear to (do some-
thing)’ in natural Welsh – an alternative would be to start with ymddangos ‘appear’ and say
mae’n ymddangos bod y mwyafrif ddim yn deall, but this smacks of translation somehow.

o °gwbwl ‘at all’ – learn this phrase as a one-off, ⇒ mw 434; you will also encounter y cwbwl
‘the whole (thing)’, ‘all (of it)’ – rho’r cwbwl yng nnghefn y car ‘put it all in the back of the
car’; y cwbwl sy angen ydy  .  .  .  ‘all that’s needed is  .  .  .’. Y cyfan is also used for y cwbwl (so:
rho’r cyfan  .  .  .  , etc.), but you can’t say *o °gyfan for ‘at all’.

yn hytrach nah ‘rather than’ – this is the only phrase you are likely to encounter hytrach in;
so learn it.

hefo = efo = gyda – a very N word.

be °ddigwyddith ‘what will happen’ – be is extremely common all over Wales for beth;
digwyddith is the short future – in some parts of Wales (particularly S) the third person
singular ending is not -ith but -iff: same difference. The SM on °ddigwyddith here is because
beth is the subject of the verb. ⇒ mw 304, ⇒ iw u1

dwi yn meddwl °fod – the full form yn rather than ’n probably indicates spoken emphasis
here: ‘I do think that  .  .  .’.

dros °ben ‘extremely’ – follows the adjective as we would expect; learn this useful phrase
as a one-off. Tu hwnt is also used with the same sort of meaning: doniol dros °ben or
doniol tu hwnt ‘extremely funny’.

pwy a °eyr? ‘who knows?’ – a set phrase that you should learn, and throw into the conver-
sation whenever you don’t know the answer to something. ⇒ mw 322, ⇒ iw u28

yn dydi? = on’d ydy? ‘isn’t it?’ ⇒ mw 249

plis = os gwelwch yn °dda – but the Welsh term is restricted to use as a tag at the end of
the sentence, whereas Heledd here wants to strongly emphasise the ‘please’ by putting it
before the verb. In any case, plis or plîs is extremely common all over Welsh-speaking Wales,
and has been for centuries probably – only the fanatics disapprove.
26  Pendroni

da ni hefyd angen pobl – remember that angen ‘need’ does not use a linking yn when with
the verb ‘to be’ – dw i angen  .  .  .  ‘I need  .  .  .’; the same is true for eisiau ‘want’. ⇒ mw 396

°fwrw – here means ‘throw’ in the sense of ‘cast’, i.e. cast a vote.

mi °fysa ni = mi °fasen ni ‘we would be’. ⇒ mw 248, ⇒ iw u16

hynod °ddiolchgar ‘awfully grateful’ – another intensifier, like eithriadol above; also found
with a linking o° before the adjective: hynod o °ddiolchgar.

mi °fedra ni – see note on medru above.

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What general remark does Heledd make about politics?
2 What was on voters’ minds during the 2010 campaign?
3 What is the party’s ambition regarding Aberconwy, Arfon and Môn?
4 And what is the hope in other seats?
5 What misunderstandings have been encountered over the AV referendum?
6 What particular kind of help does the party need on election day?
7 What is Heledd’s prediction for results in the North generally?
8 Exactly what kind of candidate is Heledd?
9 How many votes does each voter have in this election?
10 What has been the response of the public to Plaid’s doorstep campaign?
11 What complaint does Heledd make about the arrangements for election day?
12 And what does she think should be done about it?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Mae’r rhan fwya o bobol yn deall AV yn iawn. C/A

2 Mae Heledd a’i chydweithwyr angen help ar ddiwrnod y bleidlais. C/A
3 Mae llawer o bobol wedi dweud wrth Heledd y tro ’ma bod nhw’n C/A
casáu pob un gwleidydd.
4 Tywydd braf sy wedi bod yn ystod y canfasio. C/A
5 Mae Heledd wedi bod yn ymweld â nifer o etholaethau. C/A
6 Mae Heledd yn teimlo’n optimistaidd. C/A
Chapter 8: Y Teulu Brenhinol

These two readers’ letters, the first to Y Cymro and the second to Golwg, concern the Royal
Family (y teulu brenhinol), a subject that divides opinion as much in Wales as in England,
if not more so. The writers do at least have one thing in common – a profound sense of
sadness – but beyond that they are destined, I fear, never to see eye to eye.
Both letters, as is common in written communications, especially those intended for
publication, contain certain isolated stylistic features associated with the literary language
– notably the verb forms nid yw in the first letter, and derbyniaf and yr wyf in the second
– but are otherwise examples of fairly standard day-to-day written Welsh, the second perhaps
slightly more formal in tone and composition than the first.
28  Y Teulu Brenhinol

Cwrteisi yn costio dim

Annwyl °Olygydd,
Trist iawn oedd darllen yn Y Cymro nad oedd Archdderwydd Eisteddfod Cymru yn
teimlo fel ysgwyd llaw â’r °Frenhines.
Mae’r °Frenhines yn 85 nmlwydd oed ac yn haeddu parch sydd yn °ddyledus iddi. Nid
bach o °beth yw gweithio bron pob dydd yn ei hoedran hi. Duw a helpo’r Archdderwydd
am ei °gulni meddyliol, nid yw cwrteisi yn costio dim i neb.
Fe °fyddai’n °well i’r gAr yma °gadw ei °deimladau iddo ef ei hun ac nid aflonyddu’r  
dyfroedd yn °gyhoeddus.
Rhiannon Thomas
Cei Newydd

Ffwlbri brenhinol
Annwyl °Olygydd,
Ar °gychwyn blwyddyn newydd a hphwysig yn hanes ein cenedl, tristáu a digalonni  
yn °ddybryd rwyf o °glywed °fod tri hChymro amlwg yn dymuno hyrwyddo buddiannau’r
sefydliad brenhinol sydd wedi teyrnasu dros °orchfygaeth a gormes ein gwlad am saith
canrif a mwy.
Cyfeirio yr wyf, wrth °gwrs, at y °briodas °frenhinol arfaethedig; achlysur sydd, yn ôl
y sôn, yn mynd i’n cysuro a’n cyfoethogi yn ysbrydol mewn cyfnod o °gyni a dirwasgiad
economaidd enbyd!
Anodd credu °fod Archesgob o °Gymru, Darlledwr o °Gymru a Gwleidydd o °Gymru
yn dymuno, o’u gwirfodd, °gysylltu eu hunain gyda’r °fath ffwlbri Imperialaidd.
Er tegwch i’r gwleidydd o °Gymro derbyniaf nad oes unrhyw sicrwydd y caiff y gwahoddiad
mae’n ei °ddeisyfu cymaint.
David Elwyn Lewis,
Dolgellau
 Y Teulu Brenhinol  29

Geirfa

golygydd – editor gorchfygaeth – subjection

archdderwydd – archdruid gormes – oppression
ysgwyd – shake canrif – century
brenhines – queen cyfeirio – refer
haeddu – deserve priodas – wedding
dyledus – due arfaethedig – planned
oedran – age achlysur – occasion
culni – narrowness cysuro – comfort (v)
meddyliol – mental cyfoethogi – enrich
teimlad (-au) – feeling ysbrydol – spiritual
aflonyddu – disturb cyfnod – period
der (dyfroedd) – water cyni – adversity
ffwlbri – nonsense dirwasgiad – depression
cychwyn – beginning enbyd – awful
tristáu – become sad archesgob – archbishop
digalonni – lose heart darlledwr – broadcaster
dybryd – terrible, dire cysylltu – associate
amlwg – prominent sicrwydd – certainty
hyrwyddo – promote gwahoddiad – invitation
buddiant (buddiannau) – interest (n) deisyfu – desire, crave
sefydliad – institution

Annwyl °Olygydd ‘Dear Editor’ – adjectives before nouns cause SM; annwyl only does this
at the start of letters, as here (compare, for example, creaduriaid bach annwyl ‘dear little
things’) but some others – notably hen° ‘old’ – routinely precede their noun. ⇒ mw 96

Trist iawn – notice how the writer puts emphasis on this phrase by placing it first in the
sentence: this is a type of focused sentence; the neutral order would have been Roedd hi’n
°drist iawn, but the focused order is much better here.

nad oedd  .  .  . ‘that  .  .  .  was/were not’. ⇒ mw 490

iddi = iddi hi – dropping the third person singular pronoun (i.e. fe/fo and hi) in conjugated
prepositions is common in all styles of Welsh, including colloquial. Other persons, however,
while similarly dropped in the literary style, are retained in speech – so iddo (‘to him’) is
fine whatever the register, but while ‘to them’ is iddynt in Literary Welsh (LW), you can’t
say *iddyn in the spoken language, you have to say iddyn nhw. ⇒ mw 446, ⇒ bw u21

bach o °beth ‘small matter’, ‘small thing’.

Duw a helpo ‘God help’ – another fossilised subjunctive! You will also come across the
related phrase Duw a’n helpo (ni)! ‘God help us!’; similarly Duw a’n cato (rhag)  .  .  .  ‘God
30  Y Teulu Brenhinol

keep/preserve us (from)  .  .  .’ (cato from cadw). Other deities are available. ⇒ mw 388–390,
⇒ iw u37, u39

Fe °fyddai ‘It would be’ – remember the affirmative particles fe° and mi°, used (optionally
but very frequently) before verbs to indicate statement as opposed to question or negative.
⇒ mw 213, ⇒ bw u18, ⇒ iw u16

ef – LW for fe.

ei hun ‘himself ’ – hun (invariable) or hunan/hunain (singular/plural) are used with the
possessive adjectives to mean ‘self ’; so also dy hun or dy hunan ‘yourself ’, ein hun or ein
hunain ‘ourselves’, etc. The invariable form is more associated with the North (N), and the
longer pair of forms with the South (S) and the written standard. You can see which one
is easier, can’t you? ⇒ mw 132–134, ⇒ iw u27

yn °gyhoeddus ‘publicly’ – don’t forget that one of the many uses of the ubiquitous yn
is to form adverbs of manner from adjectives, as here; in this use it causes SM; further
examples: yn araf ‘slowly’, yn °ddibaid ‘ceaselessly’, yn °fawr ‘greatly’. ⇒ mw 401, ⇒ bw u36

yn hanes ein cenedl ‘in the history of our nation’ – an excellent example of the ‘genitive
construction’, whereby phrases of the type ‘the X of (the) Y’ lose the first ‘the’ and leave the
‘of ’ untranslated; so really the Welsh for ‘the history of our nation’ is simply ‘history our
nation’. This is a very basic component of Welsh sentence structure, and should be mastered
as quickly as possible – you’ll certainly never be short of examples. ⇒ mw 40, ⇒ bw u7

tristáu a digalonni  .  .  .  rwyf – another focused word order, exactly as in the previous letter;
the rwyf = dw i (or rw i) ‘I am’, and goes with the preceding VNs; the neutral word order
here would be rwyf yn tristáu a digalonni – notice that when the VN is put in front of its
verb ‘to be’, the linking yn is dropped. ⇒ mw 20

amlwg usually means ‘obvious’ or ‘clear’ (mae’n amlwg °fod  .  .  .  ‘it’s obvious that  .  .  .’, dod
yn amlwg ‘to become clear’), but in this context it means ‘prominent’.

teyrnasu generally means ‘to rule’ – but here I think a better translation is ‘preside’.

cyfeirio yr wyf = rwyf yn cyfeirio; another focused word order, almost a set phrase: ‘I refer’.

yn ôl y sôn ‘by all accounts’, literally ‘according to (what they) say’ – learn this phrase as a
one-off; also encountered in the variant yn ôl pob sôn.

i’n cysuro ‘to comfort us’ – careful! The ’n here is not yn but ein; and there’s another one
coming up. ⇒ mw 114, ⇒ bw u15

o’u gwirfodd ‘of their own free will’ or ‘of their own volition’ – learn this phrase, and its
main variants for different persons: o nngwirfodd (my), o’i °wirfodd (his), o’i gwirfodd (her),
o’n gwirfodd (our), o’ch gwirfodd (your).
 Y Teulu Brenhinol  31

°gysylltu – the SM here is because the word follows a phrase which has been interposed
(namely o’u gwirfodd between the commas); without it we would simply have had dymuno
cysylltu – this phenomenon is called sangiad, and is beloved of grammarians. ⇒ mw 11 (e)

’r fath ffwlbri ‘such nonsense’ – y fath° is the normal way of doing ‘such  .  .  .’ in Welsh;
further examples: mae’r °fath honiad yn °ddisail ‘such a claim is baseless’, °weloch chi
erioed y °fath °beth? ‘did you ever see such a thing?’; the old loanword ffasiwn is also com-
mon in some areas: ffasiwn °beth ‘such a thing’. ⇒ mw 116

er tegwch ‘in fairness’ – er is really an old word for ‘for’ in the sense of ‘for the benefit
of ’, and generally appears on its own only in certain phrases; sometimes it corresponds to
‘for reasons of ’: er glendid ‘for reasons of hygiene’; you will see it frequently, though, in
the combinations er mwyn ‘for the sake of ’ and er gwaetha ‘despite’; don’t confuse it with
ers ‘since’.

derbyniaf – LW for dw i’n derbyn or (more formally) rwyf yn derbyn ‘I accept’. With some
very specific exceptions (⇒ mw 217), we don’t use endings on verbs to express the present
tense in the spoken language.

cymaint – unmutated form instead of the mutated °gymaint that we might have expected
here since it’s an adverb: ‘that he craves so much’.

Exercise 1

Answer in English:

1 What are the three prominent Welshmen accused of wishing to do?

2 What claim is being made by supporters of the planned royal wedding?
3 What two suggestions are made to the Archdruid?
4 What accusation is levelled at the Archdruid?
5 What two points are made in connection with the Queen’s age?
6 What is the Archdruid refusing to do?
7 What prediction is made about one of the wedding invitations?
8 When was the second letter written?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Mae cwrteisi’n hwb i’r economi. C/A

2 Mae’r Archesgob am gael ei wahodd i’r briodas. C/A
3 Efallai na chaiff yr Archesgob ddim gwahoddiad. C/A
4 Mae’r Frenhines wedi gwrthod ysgwyd llaw â’r Archdderwydd. C/A
5 Roedd yr Archdderwydd yn teimlo’n drist. C/A
6 Mae rhai’n meddwl y dylai’r Archdderwydd gadw’n dawel ynghylch C/A
y teulu brenhinol.
Chapter 9: Waldo’n Fardd Bro
Kimbolton!

The papur bro ‘local newspaper’ is a phenomenon in Wales – a network of independent

local newspapers, usually monthlies, covering the whole country (plus one each for London
Welsh and Liverpool Welsh), and giving the Welsh language a useful and valuable profile
at the local community level.
This report from the pages of Clebran, the papur bro for the Preseli region of North
Pembrokeshire (gogledd Sir Benfro), goes back to the early life of the great poet Waldo
Williams and uncovers an unlikely and little-known connection with a part of England far
from the Welsh borders. Waldo was born in Pembrokeshire, and spoke only English for
the first seven years of his life. By his death in 1971 he was regarded as one of the greatest
Welsh-language poets of the twentieth century. He was also a powerful and uncompromis-
ing spokesman and activist for pacifism. Today he is a figure of immense standing in the
cultural history of the nation, such that he is routinely referred to by his first name only,
as indeed in the headline to this article.
There are a number of instances in this piece of non-past impersonal verb forms (easily
spotted by the -ir ending) that are characteristic of the news media at all levels. These are
the main departures from an otherwise fairly colloquial style.
 W aldo’n Fardd Bro Kim bolton! 33

20 Clebran
CYMDEITHAS WALDO
Waldo’n fardd bro Kimbolton!
Bydd cymdeithas hanes ym mherfeddion Lloegr yn codi llechen i gofio am y
bardd Cymraeg, Waldo Williams.
Fe fu Waldo’n athro Lladin yn Ysgol Uwchradd Kimbolton, yn Huntingdon,
am gyfnod byr ar ddiwedd y 1940au.
Ar ddiwrnod aduniad y cyn-ddisgyblion ar ddydd Sadwrn, Gorffennaf 2, bydd
llechen yn cael ei dadorchuddio ar fur yr ysgol i gofio amdano.
Disgwylir i rai o’i gyn-ddisgyblion ar y pryd i fod yn bresennol i rannu eu
hatgofionam ‘WilliamsLladin’.
Trefnir y digwyddiad ar y cyd gan Gymdeithas Waldo, sydd wedi’i ffurfio ym
Mynachlog-ddu, Sir Benfro, a Chymdeithas Hanes Kimbolton.
“Mae’n braf meddwl bod ysgol yn Lloegr lie bu Waldo’n athro yn credu ei bod
yn deilwng codi plac i gofio amdano. M a’ hyn yn profi bod Waldo eisoes yn
fardd rhyngwladol a bod ei ddylanwad yn ymestyn y tu hwnt iffiniau Cymru, ”
meddai Cerwyn Davies, Cadeirydd Cymdeithas Waldo ac un o fugeiliaid y
Preselau.
“Yn wir, mae’n lied debyg mai ar derfyn ei gyfnod yn Kimbolton, pan oedd ar
fin symud i Lyneham, y cyfansoddodd Waldo’r gerdd ‘Preseli’. M a’
arwyddocad yr achlysur gymaint a hynny’n ddyfnach i ni drigolion Sir Benfro
wedyn, ” ychwanegodd.
Bydd yr Archdderwydd Jim Parcnest yn bresennol yn y seremoni ac yn
llefaru’r gerdd ‘Preseli’ cyn i’r plac gael ei ddadorchuddio gan un o neiaint
Waldo, Dafydd Williams.
Disgwylir cyfraniad gan athro Saesneg presennol yr ysgol hefyd, John
Greening, sy wedi cyfeirio at Waldo mewn erthygl a gyhoeddodd am feirdd y
fro. Bydd Nora Butler yn dweud gair ar ran Cymdeithas Hanes Kimbolton.
Estynnir croeso i bwy bynnag a ddymuna deithio i Kimbolton -25 milltir i’r
gorllewin o Gaergrawnt -i fod yn dyst i’r seremoni a gynhelir am 2.30 p.m.
Os am fwy o fanylion cysyllter a hefinwyn367@btinternet.com 01437 532236
34  Waldo’n Fardd Bro Kimbolton!

Geirfa

bardd (beirdd) – poet lled° – fairly, quite

bro – area, region tebyg – likely
cymdeithas – society terfyn – end
llechen – slate symud – move
athro – teacher cyfansoddi – compose
aduniad – reunion cerdd – poem
disgybl (-ion) – pupil arwyddocâd – significance
dadorchuddio – unveil trigolion – inhabitants
mur – wall ychwanegu – add
presennol – present llefaru – speak, recite
rhannu – share nai (neiaint) – nephew
atgof (-ion) – reminiscence cyfraniad – contribution
trefnu – organise erthygl – article
digwyddiad – event cyhoeddi – publish
ffurfio – form (v) estyn – extend
teilwng – fitting, worthy croeso – welcome
eisoes – already milltir – mile
ymestyn – extend tyst – witness (n)
ffin (-iau) – border manylion – details
bugail (bugeiliaid) – pastor

ym nmherfeddion Lloegr ‘in the depths of England’ – learn ym nmherfeddion as a one-off.

Fe °fu ‘was’ – this is the preterite of bod ‘be’; used instead of the imperfect (oedd) in cases
like this where reference is to something that happened in the past and came to an end.
For this reason bu (etc.) is also frequently used in referring to visits to places: fe °fuon ni
yn Iwerddon llynedd ‘we were in Ireland last year (and came back)’. ⇒ mw 243–245

bydd llechen yn cael ei dadorchuddio ‘a slate will be unveiled’ – (long) future passive with
cael; we could also have had the short future: caiff/ceith llechen ei dadorchuddio; and indeed
the more formal impersonal could have been used: dadorchuddir llechen. Make sure that
you are fully conversant with the cael- passive for everyday use. ⇒ mw 362–363, ⇒ iw u21

amdano = amdano fe ‘about him’ – another example of dropping the third person singular
pronoun (i.e. fe/fo and hi) in conjugated prepositions. See further notes to Chapter 8.
⇒ mw 446, ⇒ mw u21

Disgwylir i °rai  .  .  . ‘Some are expected  .  .  .’. For the impersonal -ir, see note to a °ddarledir
in Chapter 5. There are a number of these coming up in this piece. ⇒ mw 367–371, ⇒ iw u23

ar y cyd ‘jointly’ – learn this phrase; other expressions with cyd include dod ynghyd ‘to come
together’ and ynghyd âh ‘together with’; as a prefix cyd- usually corresponds to ‘co-’, ‘con-’,
 Waldo’n Fardd Bro Kimbolton!  35

‘syn-’ or ‘sym-’, e.g. cydweithio ‘collaborate’, cydberthynas ‘correlationship’, cydymdeimlad

‘sympathy’, cydamseru ‘synchronise’.

sydd wedi’i ffurfio ‘which has been formed’ – see note on sydd wedi’i °ddatblygu in Chap-
ter 6. ⇒ mw 364, ⇒ iw u22

hyn ‘this’ – abstract counterpart to the concrete hwn (masculine) and hon (feminine),
because the ‘this’ here refers to the idea expressed in the previous sentence. ⇒ mw 136–137,
⇒ bw u1

tu hwnt ‘beyond’ – another of the location words using tu; see note to tu °fewn in Chapter 1.
⇒ mw 422

mai ar °derfyn ei °gyfnod yn Kimbolton  .  .  .  y cyfansoddodd Waldo  .  .  . ‘that (it was) at the end
of his time in Kimbolton  .  .  .  that Waldo composed  .  .  .’ – this is a focused subordinate clause,
signalled by mai, the word for ‘that’ when what follows is not the verb. ⇒ mw 492, ⇒ iw u34

ar °fin ‘on the point of ’, ‘about to’ – followed by a VN.

Ma’ = Mae – a pronunciation spelling. Don’t do this in an exam.

°gymaint â hynny’n °ddyfnach ‘that much deeper’ or ‘all the deeper’ – best to learn this as
a construction: gymaint â hynny’n° + comparative adjective; dyfnach is the -ach (‘-er’) form
of dwfn ‘deep’ – remember that some adjectives, particularly short ones, undergo a vowel
change when endings are added; in the same way, the superlative ‘deepest’ is dyfna. ⇒
mw 103. Some adjectives undergo a consonant change when these endings are added,
e.g. caled ‘hard’ but caletach ‘harder’; and some do both: tlawd ‘poor’ but tlotach ‘poorer’.
And of course you might have a mutation on the front as well for other reasons – °dlotach
doesn’t look much like tlawd, does it? Learn your mutations! ⇒ mw 104, ⇒ iw u5

cyn i’r plac °gael ei °ddadorchuddio ‘before the plaque gets unveiled’ – see note to ers i
°ddaeargryn °daro’r °wlad in Chapter 3. ⇒ mw 501, ⇒ iw u30

neiaint – an unusual plural formation: see nai in the Geirfa.

a °gyhoeddodd ‘which/that he published’ – no need in Welsh for the pronoun (e) here, as
it is clear who is being referred to, and Welsh, unlike English, does not have a rule insisting
on the subject always being explicitly stated.

ar °ran ‘on behalf of ’ – learn this phrase, and do not confuse it with o °ran, which means
‘as regards’.

pwy bynnag ‘whoever’. ⇒ mw 149

dymuna ‘wishes’ – a LW present tense, done with an ending instead of bod + VN; the
phrase a °ddymuna therefore is equivalent to CW sy’n dymuno. Note also that we generally
36  Waldo’n Fardd Bro Kimbolton!

have SM after verb endings, but not after VNs – so a °ddymuna °deithio but sy’n dymuno
teithio.

a °gynhelir ‘which will be held’ – the stem (to which endings are added) of cynnal ‘hold
(event)’ is cynhali-, but the -ir ending also has the effect of changing an -a- in the previous
syllable to -e-. ⇒ mw 370

Caergrawnt ‘Cambridge’ – many English cities and larger towns have their own Welsh
names; others include Llundain ‘London’, Manceinion ‘Manchester’, Caerwrangon ‘Worcester’,
Caerloyw ‘Gloucester’, yr Amwythig ‘Shrewsbury’.

Os am°  .  .  . ‘If (you) want  .  .  .’ – one of the secondary uses of the preposition am° is to express
wish or want: Wyt ti am °ddod ’da ni? ‘Do you want to come with us?’ ⇒ mw 448 (e)

cysyllter ‘contact’ – a less common and more formal autonomous form, that really means
something like ‘let there be a contacting’; it is used in official situations and documents as
a kind of oblique imperative; the writer here could equally well have written cysylltwch, of
course. ⇒ mw 374, ⇒ iw u40

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 Who is Jim Parcnest?
2 And what is he going to be doing on the day?
3 What organisation over the border in Wales is jointly arranging this event?
4 What annual event is happening on 2 July?
5 Who is John Greening?
6 What was the subject of the article he wrote?
7 What was Waldo’s job in Kimbolton?
8 During exactly what period was he employed in this position?
9 What did he do after writing the poem ‘Preseli’?
10 What two points does Cerwyn Davies make about Waldo?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Yn Sir Benfro y cafodd Waldo ei eni. C/A

2 Fe fu Waldo’n athro Lladin yn Lloegr ar ôl y rhyfel. C/A
3 Mae Nora Butler wedi sgrifennu erthygl am Waldo. C/A
4 Sefydlwyd Cymdeithas Waldo gan Cerwyn Davies. C/A
5 Pentre yn Swydd Caergrawnt yw Kimbolton. C/A
6 Gobeithir y bydd cyn-ddisgyblion Waldo’n dod i weld C/A
dadorchuddio’r llechen.
Chapter 10: Taith S4C

The Welsh-language television channel S4C (Sianel Pedwar Cymru) has been a dominant
part of Welsh public life since its launch in late 1982. Recently the existence of the channel
has (in the view of its supporters) for the first time since its launch come under threat, with
the announcement of plans for the Westminster government to relinquish funding control
of the channel and hand it over to the BBC. Among the many bodies and organisations
opposed to this fundamental change is the Welsh Language Society (Cymdeithas yr Iaith
Gymraeg), which particularly during the 1970s and early 1980s played an important role in
campaigning for its establishment, regarding a Welsh-language television channel as a vital
factor in the raising of the public profile and status of the language. Here we have a letter
from the Chair (Cadeirydd) of the Society, sent to various newspapers and other media
outlets across Wales, publicising a series of meetings to be held to discuss the situation
with a view to putting pressure on London to reconsider its plans.
As is usual for pieces intended for mass circulation like this, the level of formality in the
language and style used is broadly neutral, but with some literary features here and there,
notably certain verb forms – see notes.

Taith S4C – Y Dyfodol

Dros yr wythnosau nesaf bydd Cymdeithas yr Iaith °Gymraeg yn cynnal cyfres o °gyfar-
fodydd cyhoeddus i °drafod dyfodol S4C.
Mae dyfodol ein hunig sianel °deledu °Gymraeg yn y °fantol. Mae’n wynebu toriadau
i’w hchyllid o dros 40% mewn termau real; cael ei hthraflyncu gan y BBC; a bod grymoedd
yn nnwylo Gweinidogion San Steffan i °gael gwared â hi yn llwyr. Mae’r llywodraeth  
yn arbed 94% o’r arian oedden nhw’n arfer talu i’r sianel, toriad sydd yn °gwbl  
annheg.
Rhaid gwarantu annibyniaeth rheolaeth ac annibyniaeth °olygyddol °lwyr i S4C heb
ymyrraeth oddi wrth y BBC na’r Llywodraeth; mae fformiwla °gyllido annibynnol ar gyfer
y sianel °Gymraeg, ar sail chwyddiant ac mewn statud, yn hanfodol er mwyn sicrhau
arian teg i °greu rhaglenni Cymraeg o safon.
Rydym yn cydnabod y gallai S4C °berfformio yn °well – dyna pam rydym yn ymgyrchu
dros S4C newydd, ond ni °fydd hynny’n °bosib o dan °gynlluniau’r Llywodraeth yn  
Llundain.
38  Taith S4C

Credwn yn °gryf mai ar ysgwyddau pobol Cymru y mae’r cyfrifoldeb am °ddyfodol

S4C yn syrthio. Felly, y Cynulliad Cenedlaethol yn hytrach na’r Senedd yn Llundain a’r
Adran °Ddiwylliant dan °ofal Jeremy Hunt °ddylai °ddelio â darlledu yn ein gwlad.
Dros y blynyddoedd bu S4C yn °ben conglfaen i’r diwylliant Cymraeg a gwahoddwn
ni chi yn °daer i °gyfarfodydd cyhoeddus i °drafod ffyrdd o sicrhau dyfodol i’r Sianel.
Penderfynwyd ar y cynlluniau hyn gan °Lywodraeth San Steffan heb ymgynghori â neb
yng nNghymru. Rydym yn erfyn felly ar °bobol i °gyfrannu at y °drafodaeth.
Bethan Williams
Cadeirydd Cymdeithas yr Iaith °Gymraeg

Geirfa

taith – journey, tour chwyddiant – inflation

cyfres – series statud – statute
cyfarfod (-ydd) – meeting hanfodol – essential
dyfodol – future rhaglen (-ni) – programme
wynebu – face (v) safon – quality
toriad – cut (n) cydnabod – acknowledge
cyllid – revenue ysgwydd (-au) – shoulder
traflyncu – devour, swallow up cyfrifoldeb – responsibility
grym (-oedd) – power syrthio – fall
dwylo – hands senedd – parliament
gweinidog (-ion) – minister diwylliant – culture
San Steffan – Westminster gofal – care
cael gwared âh (or ar°) – get rid of delio âh – deal with
llwyr – complete conglfaen – cornerstone
llywodraeth – government gwahodd – invite
arbed – save taer – eager
annheg – unfair ffordd (ffyrdd) – way
gwarantu – guarantee (v) ymgynghori âh – consult with
annibyniaeth – independence erfyn – implore, beg
rheolaeth – control, management cyfrannu – contribute
ymyrraeth – interference trafodaeth – discussion
sail – basis

wythnosau nesaf ‘coming weeks’ – note that in Welsh we can use nesa(f ) ‘next’ also with
plural time words; the final -f, common in more official writing, is frequently dropped in
spoken varieties of Welsh – nesa.

dyfodol S4C ‘the future of S4C’ – genitive construction; see note on yn hanes ein cenedl
in Chapter 8. ⇒ mw 40, ⇒ bw u7
 Taith S4C  39

ein hunig sianel ‘our only channel’ – when unig (it has a prefixed h- here because of ein
– see note on ei hymrwymiad in Chapter 6) comes before the noun it means ‘only’; yr unig
ateb ‘the only answer’, yr unig °rai a °ddaeth ‘the only ones who came’, yr unig °dro ‘the
only time’. Like all adjectives that precede their noun, it causes SM. Unig can also follow
its noun, in which case it means ‘lonely’. ⇒ mw 96, 99

yn y °fantol ‘in the balance’ – learn this phrase as a one-off.

toriadau i’w hchyllid ‘cuts to its finances’ – when the preposition i is followed by the pos-
sessive adjectives ei° ‘his’, eih ‘her’ or eu ‘their’, these all become ’w: note that they retain
their mutation effects (SM, AM and none respectively). This only happens with the third
person possessives; but ein and eich shorten to ’n and ’ch. ⇒ mw 112, 113

San Steffan – the normal term for ‘Westminster’, generally meaning the UK parliament.

yn llwyr – adverb of manner.

oedden nhw’n arfer talu ‘that they used to pay’ – arfer + VN is the normal way of express-
ing ‘used to (do something)’; more formal styles would place a° before oedden for the rela-
tive ‘that’, but this particle is rarely heard in normal speech (though its mutation is), and
its omission here is unremarkable. ⇒ mw 241

Rhaid gwarantu  .  .  . ‘.  .  .  must be guaranteed’ – another rhaid with no subject specified (see
note to bydd rhaid ciwio in Chapter 4), and which is usually best done with a passive in
English; this instance is in the present, and there is an underlying mae (i.e. Mae rhaid
gwarantu  .  .  .  ) which is very frequently omitted, as here. In other tenses, of course, you need
the verb: roedd rhaid  .  .  .  ‘.  .  .  had to’, bydd rhaid  .  .  .  ‘.  .  .  will have to’. ⇒ mw 349, ⇒ bw u34

oddi wrth° or oddiwrth° ‘from’ – a heftier alternative to o°, used particularly when human
agency of some kind is involved (you wouldn’t use it, for example, in cases like dw i’n dod
o °Gymru ‘I come from Wales’); oddi wrth° is the norm with correspondence and written
wishes – Nadolig Llawen oddi wrth °bawb yn y swyddfa ‘Happy Christmas from everyone
in the office’. ⇒ mw 464

na ‘nor’.

o safon ‘of (high) quality’. Sometimes seen in the longer o safon uchel, but this shorter
version is neater and more idiomatic.

Rydym – formal style for CW fn ni or dan ni; first person plurals ending in -m (instead of
-n ni), wherever encountered, are imitations of LW and should certainly not be used in
speech. You also these days see the schizophrenic -m ni (i.e. combining the stand-alone
ending of LW with the pronoun of CW), which is just daft – there’s one in Chapter 12, see
if you can spot it when we get there.

y gallai  .  .  . ‘that  .  .  .  could’ – when y is followed by a verb, it usually means ‘that’ ⇒ mw 490,

495 ⇒ iw u12; gallai is the third person singular unreality form of gallu (the first person
40  Taith S4C

singular is gallwn) – other verbs that can take these endings (there aren’t very many, but they
are common) include medrwn ‘could’ (largely synonymous with gallwn), hoffwn/leiciwn/leicsiwn
‘would like’ and dylwn ‘ought to/should’. All are used with a VN (hoffwn/leiciwn/leicsiwn
can also be used with a noun) directly following the subject; for this reason the VN under-
goes SM, as here – gallai S4C °berfformio. ⇒ mw 329, 341, ⇒ iw u19

ni °fydd hynny’n °bosib – LW for °fydd hynny °ddim yn °bosib ‘that will not be possible’;
negative ni° before a verb instead of °ddim after it is a sure sign of LW style. And to make
matters worse, ni picks and chooses between mutations – before c-, p- and t- it causes AM
instead of SM.

Credwn ‘we believe’ – formal style for Dan/ Y^n ni’n credu. Further similar examples coming
up. This sentence contains a focused clause, signalled by mai – see further comments in
the next note. ⇒ mw 492, ⇒ iw u34

Felly  .  .  .  ein gwlad – this is one massive focused sentence: the main verb is °ddylai, way
down the line. We should probably convey the emphasis by adding a dummy ‘it’ as is often
the case with this type of sentence in Welsh – so ‘it is the National Assembly  .  .  .  which
should  .  .  .’. ⇒ mw 17–18, 21, ⇒ iw u32

dan °ofal – literally ‘under the care of ’, but routinely used for ‘headed by’ in this sort of
context.

yn °daer – adverb of manner; you might like to learn the proverb taer yw’r gwir am y golau
‘eager is the truth for the light’, i.e. truth will out – I have used this proverb myself.

penderfynwyd ‘was/were decided’ – a past impersonal, instantly recognisable by the -wyd;

even though this verb form is not really a part of everyday speech, it is well established in
all levels of the standard written language, not least because of its neatness and usefulness.
It’s certainly one of my personal favourites. ⇒ mw 372–373, ⇒ iw u23

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What is the Welsh Language Society’s view of S4C’s performance?
2 What two areas of independence need to be guaranteed for S4C?
3 What was wrong with the way the plans were decided on?
4 What, according to the WLS, is the worst-case scenario for S4C under direct BBC
administration?
5 What kind of formula is talked about?
6 What two bodies should be kept out of S4C affairs?
7 Whose responsibility is it to ensure S4C’s survival?
8 For what purpose is good S4C funding essential?
9 What area of responsibility should be kept away from Jeremy Hunt?
10 What is the WLS’s view on keeping S4C as it is?
 Taith S4C  41

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Dyfodol y BBC fydd prif bwnc trafod y cyfarfodydd cyhoeddus. C/A

2 Mae Cymdeithas yr Iaith am atal y BBC rhag ymyrryd â rheolaeth S4C. C/A
3 Mae Cymdeithas yr Iaith yn feirniadol o berfformiad S4C yn ddiweddar. C/A
4 Jeremy Hunt ddylai delio â darlledu yng Nghymru. C/A
Chapter 11: Betsan Powys

This short article on the well-known political journalist and presenter Betsan Powys takes
as its starting point her role as presenter of the Welsh-language version of the quiz show
Mastermind, and then goes on to briefly trace her career on both BBC Cymru and BBC
Wales, together with a few biographical details.
The piece is taken from the online pages of BBC Cymru, and is in a fairly neutral
style.

Betsan Powys
Y newyddiadurwraig Betsan Powys a °ddewiswyd i °ddilyn yn ôl troed John Humphrys
a Magnus Magnusson fel cyflwynydd Mastermind Cymru pan lansiwyd y °gyfres am y
tro cyntaf yn y °Gymraeg yn 2006.
“Mae’r ymateb dwi wedi ei °gael gan y gwylwyr wedi bod yn anhygoel. Mae’n °gyfres
sy’n dal y dychymyg ac mae Mastermind Cymru yn dilyn traddodiad sydd wedi hen  
ennill ei °blwyf gan °osod stamp a safon arbennig,” meddai. “Mae wedi bod yn °wych
i °allu cyfarfod cymaint o °gystadleuwyr deallus a gwybodus o °bob cwr o °Gymru ac o
°wahanol °alwedigaethau a hchefndiroedd. Rwyf wedi dysgu llawer wrth holi’r cwestiynau
– ond yr unig °drafferth yw fy nmod yn tueddu i anghofio’r ffeithiau yn °fuan wedyn.
Dyna pam mai y fi yw’r un sy’n holi ac nid yr un sy’n eistedd yn y °gadair °ddu enwog!
Cystadlwch – dyna fy nnghyngor i °bawb,” meddai. “A does dim rhaid i’r pwnc dewisol
°fod yn °bwnc llyfrau trymion – gall °fod yn °bwnc ysgafn dim ond bod digon o swmp
ynddo a’ch bod chi’n gwybod eich stwff,” ychwanegodd.

Dros y byd
Gyda’i hphrofiad helaeth o °ohebu yn °Gymraeg a Saesneg ar °bob math o °bynciau llosg
ac ar °draws y byd, °fyddai Betsan ei hun °ddim yn °brin o °bynciau arbenigol i °ddewis
ohonynt. Dychwelodd i °weithio i BBC Cymru yn 2005 er mwyn gallu magu ei hphlant
drwy °gyfrwng y °Gymraeg wedi cyfnod yn byw yn Llundain yn gohebu i °raglen Pano-
rama. Ymunodd ag adran newyddion y BBC dan hyfforddiant yn 1989 cyn dechrau
gweithio fel gohebydd. Ers hynny mae wedi gohebu o dros 20 o °wledydd i’r BBC.
 Betsan Powys  43

Blogio
Mae wedi ennill gwobrau Darlledwr Cymreig y °Flwyddyn a Newyddiadurwr Cymreig y
°Flwyddyn BT. Mae hi °bellach yn °olygydd gwleidyddol BBC Cymru ac wedi ymgartrefu
yn ei hthref °enedigol, Caerdydd, gyda’i hphartner, Dylan, a’u dau °blentyn bach. Mae’n
blogio’n °gyson am hynt a helynt gwleidyddiaeth Bae Caerdydd ar °wefan y BBC.
Meddai am ei rôl fel cyflwynydd Mastermind Cymru: “Dwi’n siAr °fod merch yn  
cyflwyno yn gwneud gwahaniaeth i naws y rhaglen. Dwi’n bownd o °fod °fymryn yn
°wahanol i °gyflwynwyr fel Magnus Magnusson a John Humphrys. Ond dydy dyletswydd
y cyflwynydd byth yn newid – sef, canolbwyntio ar y cystadleuwyr a’u helpu nhw i °wneud
eu gorau. Gobeithio, gyda merch yn cyflwyno, y gwnawn ni annog mwy o °ferched i
eistedd yn y °gadair,” meddai.
(BBC Cymru)

Geirfa

newyddiadurwraig – (female) journalist ysgafn – light

dewis – choose, select helaeth – extensive
ôl troed – footstep gohebu – report (news, etc.)
cyflwynydd – presenter pwnc (pynciau) – subject
gwyliwr (gwylwyr) – viewer prin – scarce, short
anhygoel – incredible arbenigol – specialist (adj)
dal – hold, catch dychwelyd (dychwel-) – return
dychymyg – imagination magu – raise, bring up
gosod – set ymuno âh – join
gwych – great, fantastic adran – department
cystadleuwr (-leuwyr) – competitor gwlad (gwledydd) – country
deallus – intelligent gwobr (-au) – prize
gwybodus – knowledgeable ymgartrefu ynn – settle in
galwedigaeth (-au) – occupation genedigol – native
cefndir (-oedd) – background cyson – regular
trafferth – trouble, problem naws – feel, atmosphere
tueddu – tend dyletswydd – duty
ffaith (ffeithiau) – fact canolbwyntio – concentrate
cyngor – advice annog – encourage

wedi hen ennill ei °blwyf ‘has long since earned its place’ – placing hen between wedi and
the VN adds the idea of the event having happened long ago. ⇒ mw 268, ⇒ bw u37

o °bob cwr o °Gymru ‘from every corner of Wales’ – learn this common phrase.

yw fy nmod  .  .  . ‘.  .  .  is that I  .  .  .’ – fy nmod slightly more formal than nmod i. ⇒ mw 487,
⇒ iw u11
44  Betsan Powys

pam mai y fi yw’r un sy  .  .  . ‘why (it is) I (who) am the one who  .  .  .’ – a ‘that’-clause after
pam, as is normal; but in this case it is a focused clause (highlighting the ‘I’), so we have
a special word for ‘that’ – mai – and a special focused form for ‘I’ – y fi instead of just fi;
the other pronouns all do the same thing – y fo, y ni, y nhw, etc. In rapid speech, however,
the y in these extended forms is often lost anyway. ⇒ mw 492, 130, ⇒ iw u34

llyfrau trymion ‘heavy books’ – a set phrase with a metaphorical sense; note the plural
adjective (singular trwm), unusual in modern Welsh except in set phrases such as this, and
with a very few common adjectives, notably arall ‘other’, plural eraill. ‘Heavy books’ would
normally be llyfrau trwm, of course. ⇒ mw 101

dim bod digon o swmp ynddo ‘only that there (should) be enough substance to (in) it’;
ynddo = ynddo fe/fo – third person singular pronoun form of yn ‘in’; note also the more
common related adjective swmpus ‘hefty’ or ‘bulky’. ⇒ mw 471–472, ⇒ bw u22

ar °bob math o °bynciau llosg ‘on all kinds of burning issues’ – learn pwnc llosg as an idiom;
while English uses the plural ‘all kinds’, Welsh uses the singular.

Betsan ei hun ‘Betsan herself ’. ⇒ mw 132, ⇒ iw u27

drwy °gyfrwng y °Gymraeg ‘through the medium of Welsh’ – a ubiquitous phrase that
obviously should be learnt.

wedi cyfnod o °fyw ‘after a period (of ) living’ – wedi = ar ôl, but with a slightly more formal
feel to it; in informal style wedi is generally restricted to use with a following VN (maen
nhw wedi diflannu ‘they have disappeared’), and in telling the time (hanner awr wedi tri
‘half past three’). ⇒ mw 503 (a)

dan hyfforddiant ‘as a trainee’ – literally ‘under training’; this phrase can also be used as
an adjective qualifying a noun, e.g. mecanydd dan hyfforddiant ‘trainee mechanic’.

mae hi bellach ‘she is now’ – bellach used instead of nawr/rwan when there is a sense of
change from an earlier situation; here because it contrasts what Betsan is doing now with
things she did previously. ⇒ mw 407

hynt a helynt – a set phrase that corresponds roughly to ‘comings and goings’ or ‘trials and
tribulations’; learn it and use it wherever possible, thereby impressing your friends.

Dwi’n bownd o °fod  .  .  . ‘I’m bound to be  .  .  .’ – the loanword bownd resists SM after yn°;
some speakers, however, do mutate this word.

°fymryn yn °wahanol ‘a little bit different’ – the SM on mymryn ‘bit’, ‘particle’ in this com-
mon idiomatic construction is fixed; an alternative would be ychydig yn °wahanol, but
°fymryn is more slight.

i °wneud eu gorau ‘to do their best’ – this construction is exactly paralleled in English;
similarly i wneud ei °orau ‘to do his best’, mi °wna i nngorau ‘I’ll do my best’, gwnewch eich
gorau ‘do your best’, etc.
 Betsan Powys  45

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What was Betsan’s job while she was living in London?
2 What does she see as her main responsibilities as Mastermind presenter?
3 When did she return to Wales, and why?
4 What is the significance of Cardiff to Betsan?
5 What happened in 2006?
6 Who is Dylan?
7 What is her job title at the BBC now?
8 What has been the viewer response to the Welsh Mastermind?
9 What does she do on the BBC website, and how often?
10 How many children has Betsan got?
11 Why does she think she wouldn’t be any good as a contestant?
12 What is her advice to everyone?
13 What two prizes has she won?
14 How many countries has she reported from?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Un o Gaerdydd yw Betsan. C/A

2 Un dda am gofio ffeithiau yw Betsan. C/A
3 Fel gohebydd y dechreuodd Betsan ei hamser gyda’r BBC. C/A
4 John Humphrys oedd yn holi’r cwestiynau pan lansiwyd C/A
Mastermind Cymru yn 2006.
5 Mae Betsan yn mwynhau cwrdd â phobol gwybodus. C/A
6 Tydi Betsan erioed wedi bod tramor. C/A
Chapter 12: Mynnu Etholiad Buan

The Welsh-language press regularly takes a look over the Irish Sea at political events and
developments in the Irish Republic. This short news article from Golwg deals with a politi-
cal crisis in Dublin, and is a typical example of a relatively undemanding short factual report.
Note the use of the ‘default’ verbnoun form of the verb mynnu ‘demand’ where no person
is specified – this is best translated into English by a slight paraphrase: ‘Early election de-
manded in Ireland’, or ‘Demands for an early election in Ireland’.
This article unsurprisingly contains a number of reported speech constructions
(‘that  .  .  .’-clauses in English) – Welsh has several ways of doing these, and some will be
commented on in the notes.

Mynnu etholiad buan yn Iwerddon

Mae partner Fianna Fáil yn y °glymblaid yng nNgweriniaeth Iwerddon wedi dweud  
heddiw y bydd rhaid cynnal Etholiad Cyffredinol cyn diwedd mis Mawrth. Ar ôl trafoda-
ethau â’r Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, dywedodd John Gormley ei °fod eisiau i’r °wlad
°bleidleisio cyn °gynted a bo modd. “Mae angen etholiad arnom ni ym mis Mawrth,
does dim dewis arall, ac fe °fyddai gadael iddo °lithro y tu hwnt i °fis Ebrill yn annerbyniol,”
meddai.
Mae 25 Mawrth yn °ddyddiad posib, yn ôl adroddiadau yn y °wasg °Wyddelig. Roedd
y °ddau arweinydd wedi cyfarfod am °fwy nag awr a hanner heddiw er mwyn trafod
amserlen ar °gyfer yr etholiad a deddfwriaeth hanfodol. Dywedodd John Gormley y
byddai’r Mesur Cyllidol, a °fydd yn rhoi grym i °gyllideb dadleuol y llywodraeth, yn °ddeddf
erbyn diwedd mis Chwefror.
Yn °gynharach cadarnhaodd Brian Cowen y byddai’n cymryd rheolaeth o’r adran
Materion Tramor ar ôl i’r gweinidog Micheal Martin, oedd wedi herio ei arweinyddiaeth,
ymddiswyddo. Dywedodd un o aelodau’r °Blaid °Werdd, Dan Boyle, nad oedd y °blaid
yn ofni y byddai’r etholwyr yn eu cosbi nhw pan °ddaw’r etholiad. “Beth sy’n °bwysig
ydi gwneud y peth cywir, nid gwneud beth sy’n °boblogaidd,” meddai wrth radio RTE.
 Mynnu Etholiad Buan  47

Geirfa

clymblaid – coalition hanfodol – essential

gweriniaeth – republic cyllidol – budgetary
cynnal (cynhali-) – hold (election, event, etc.) grym – power
etholiad – election cyllideb – budget
cyffredinol – general dadleuol – controversial
trafodaeth (-au) – discussion llywodraeth – government
pleidleisio – vote deddf – law
cyn °gynted a(g y) bo modd – as soon as yn gynharach – earlier
possible cadarnhau (cadarnha-) – confirm
arnom ni = arnon ni rheolaeth – control
dewis – choose; choice materion tramor – foreign affairs
gadael – let, allow gweinidog – minister
llithro – slip, slide herio – challenge
tu hwnt i° – past, beyond arweinyddiaeth – leadership
annerbyniol – unacceptable ymddiswyddo – resign
dyddiad – date aelod (-au) – member
yn ôl – according to plaid – (political) party
adroddiad (-au) – report gwyrdd, fem. gwerdd – green
gwasg – press ofni – fear
arweinydd – leader cosbi – punish
cyfarfod – meet pwysig – important
amserlen – timetable cywir – right, correct
deddfwriaeth – legislation poblogaidd – population

y bydd rhaid cynnal ‘that  .  .  .  will have to be held’ – the particle y is used here for reported speech
(‘that  .  .  .’) before a verb-with-ending, in this case the future of bod. ⇒ mw 490, ⇒ iw u12

ar ôl trafodaethau ‘after discussions’ – here ar ôl is an ordinary preposition, followed by

a noun; but further down in this article it is used as a conjunction, i.e. with a VN and a
linking i, see note below. ⇒ mw 481

ei °fod eisiau ‘that he wants/wanted  .  .  .’ – ei °fod is a slightly more formal variant of °fod e,
used to convert mae e or roedd e into reported speech. ⇒ mw 487

eisiau i’r °wlad °bleidleisio ‘wants/wanted the country to vote’ – note the position of the i:
‘want (somebody) to (do something)’ is eisiau + i + [person] + °VN, with the VN taking SM
because it follows the notional subject. The SM on °wlad, incidentally, is simply because
gwlad is a feminine singular noun here preceded by the definite article.

ac fe °fyddai gadael iddo °lithro  .  .  .  yn annerbyniol ‘and letting it slip  .  .  .  would be unaccep­

table’, or ‘and it would be unacceptable to let it slip  .  .  .’ – because there is no linking yn
48  Mynnu Etholiad Buan

between °fyddai and gadael, these cannot be taken together, and gadael itself must be the
subject of the sentence – this therefore must mean ‘letting  .  .  .  would be  .  .  .’; fe °fyddai’n
gadael, on the other hand, would mean ‘would let’ or ‘would be letting’ – the normal con-
ditional tense of gadael.

Roedd  .  .  .  wedi cyfarfod ‘.  .  .  had met’ – the normal form of the pluperfect in all but the
most formal styles of Welsh, using the past tense of bod with the particle wedi + VN;
the VN cyfarfod is also a noun (pl. -ydd) meaning ‘meeting’. ⇒ mw 273, ⇒ bw u38

a °fydd yn rhoi grym ‘which will give power’, in this context ‘which will enable’ – the rela-
tive particle a° is used before verbs with endings (including the future tense of bod as here,
and the imperfect of bod as well – a oedd ‘which/who was’), but not before the present of
bod, for which a special relative form sy or sydd exists:  .  .  .  sy’n mynd ‘.  .  .  who/which is
going’,  .  .  .  sy wedi dod ‘.  .  .  who/which has come’. ⇒ mw 481, ⇒ iw u14

.  .  .  y byddai’n cymryd ‘.  .  .  that he would take’ – the subordinating particle y (no mutation)/yr
(before vowels) is used with the sense of ‘that’ before verbs with endings (but not present
or imperfect of bod); so similarly, for example,  .  .  .  y byddan nhw’n derbyn ‘.  .  .  that they will
accept’,  .  .  .  y gallwn ni ‘.  .  .  that we can’,  .  .  .  y gwnewch chi’ch gorau ‘.  .  .  that you will do
your best’; also in some types of relative clause:  .  .  .  y sonies i amdano ‘.  .  .  that I mentioned’.
⇒ mw 490, ⇒ iw u12

ar ôl i’r gweinidog  .  .  .  ymddiswyddo ‘after the minister resigns’ – here the preposition ar

ôl ‘after’ is turned into a time conjunction by addition of a linking i° and a following VN.
Other prepositions using this pattern include cyn i° ‘before’, nes i° ‘until’ and wrth i° ‘as/
while’. Many spoken varieties of Welsh substitute a bod- construction, at least after cyn and
nes: cyn bod nhw’n mynd, nes bod y lleill yn cyrraedd – though this is regarded by some
as non-standard. See also note to ers i °ddaeargryn °daro’r °wlad in Chapter 3. ⇒ mw 503,
⇒ iw u30

oedd wedi herio (= a oedd wedi herio) ‘who had challenged’ – here we see the optional
omission of the relative particle a°, a common enough occurrence in spoken Welsh, not
only in speech but also, as here, in standard styles of writing. ⇒ mw 481

pan °ddaw’r etholiad ‘when the election comes’ (lit. ‘will come’) – the conjunction pan°
‘when’ causes SM of a following verb (but not mae, which is not subject to mutation – pan
mae’r llanw allan ‘when the tide is out’). With past and future events, this conjunction
prefers the short-form tenses, so pan °ddaw ‘when  .  .  .  will come’, pan °ddaeth ‘when  .  .  .  came’.
Note carefully, incidentally, the difference between pan° ‘when’ and pryd? ‘when?’: pan
°ddaw hi ‘when she comes’ vs pryd daw hi? ‘when will she come?’, although some spoken
varieties use pryd for both. ⇒ mw 310, 503

Beth sy’n °bwysig ydi  .  .  . ‘What is important is  .  .  .’ – the sy is required for the first ‘is’
because beth ‘what’ is the subject of the sentence, while the second ‘is’ must be ydi (also
spelt ydy) because it introduces an identification of what the beth is. Sometimes in this type
of phrasing, where ‘what’ starts the sentence and means ‘the thing’, we find yr hyn instead
 Mynnu Etholiad Buan  49

of beth – yr hyn sy’n °bwysig ydi  .  .  .  ‘what’s important is  .  .  .’; yr hyn dw i °ddim eisiau ei
°weld  .  .  .  ‘the thing/what I don’t want to see  .  .  .’ ⇒ mw 144

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 When will the General Election be held?
2 How long did the two leaders meet for?
3 What two issues did they discuss?
4 What change had there been in the government before the meeting?
5 What was the Green Party representative confident about?
6 What did the Foreign Minister do that the Taoiseach didn’t like?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):
1 Roedd Micheal Martin am fod yn arweinydd. C/A
2 Mi barodd y cyfarfod rhwng y ddau arweinydd am o leia awr a hanner. C/A
3 Mae Brian Cowen yn bwriadu ymddiswyddo ar unwaith. C/A
4 Mae’r Blaid Werdd am gosbi’r etholwyr am eu ffolineb. C/A
Chapter 13: Pencampwyr!

A Welsh Reader with no reference to rugby, the gem genedlaethol? The very thought is un­
thinkable, and furthermore Wrong. We turn therefore to a sporting theme with another
extract from the pages of Ckbran, the papur bro for the Preseli region - this time a front­
page treatment of the exploits of Crymych RFC, who it seems have been doing rather well
lately down in their homeland of North Pembrokeshire.

Adran Iau Clwb Rygbi Crymych yn dathlu llwyddiannau’r tymor

Am dym or! Wedi ennill y gynghrairyn y Mwmbwls Mawr fu’r dathlu ar ddiwrnod y gem olaf yn erbyn
aeth tTm cyntaf Clwb Rygbi Crymych ymlaen i guro Gorseinon gyda’r timau iau yn gorymdeithio o amgylch
Penclawdd a Gorseinon i sicrhau record cant y Parc Lloyd Thomas aryrhanneramser.
cant. Dim ond pedwar clwb drwy Gymru gyfan sydd Mae llwyddiant y Clwb - ar bob lefel yn destun
wedi chyflawni’r gamp honno eleni. Hufen ar y llawenydd i’r holl fro ac yn dyst i waith diflino caredigion y
gacen oedd ennill Cwpan Her Sir Benfro yn erbyn clwb yn swyddogion, pwyllgorwyra gwirfoddolwyr.
Aberystwyth (gweleradroddiad ary dudalen ol).
Pwy fuasai wedi meddwl ychydig dros chwarter canrif
Mae CLEBRANyn llongyfarch yr holl dim gan gynnwys nol yn ystod y tymor cyntaf hwnnw, a’r clwb yn chwarae
eu capten Simon James, yr hyfforddwyr Lyn Williams ac gemau cyfeillgar yn unig y byddai llwyddiant ar y raddfa
Elgan Vittle a’i rheolwr Adrian Howells. Mae’r cyfuniad o hon yn digwydd mewn cyn lleied o amser. Rygbi o’r
gryfder a phrofiad bechgyn fel John (Cilrhue) Davies ac safon uchaf ar y pare o’r tTm cyntaf i’r tTm ifancaf,
Elgan Vittle ynghyd a tho ifanc o chwaraewyr dawnus cyfleusterau heb eu hail oddi arno ac adran iau hynod
wedi gwneud Crymych yn anorchfygol eleni. O ystyried gryfi sicrhau llwyddiant i’r dyfodol.
fod pump o’r garfan - Dyfan Dafydd, Rhodri Davies,
lanto Griffiths, Tom Powell a Gruffydd Howells - yn le, llongyfarchiadau yn wir a phob hwyl
gymwys i chwarae i’r tTm ieuenctid, mae pethau yn yn Adran 2 tymor nesaf.
argoeli’n dda argyfery dyfodol yn ogystal.
 Pencampwyr!  51

Geirfa

pencampwr (pencampwyr) – champion dawnus – gifted

adran – division anorchfygol – invincible
iau – younger, junior ystyried – consider
dathlu – celebrate carfan – group, squad
llwyddiant (llwyddiannau) – success cymwys – eligible, fit
cynghrair – league ieuenctid – youth
curo – beat argoeli – augur
sicrhau – secure (v) gorymdeithio – march in procession
cyflawni – accomplish testun – subject
camp – feat llawenydd – joy, rejoicing
hufen – cream bro – region
her – challenge diflino – tireless
llongyfarch – congratulate caredigion – friends (supporters)
hyfforddwr (hyfforddwyr) – trainer swyddog (-ion) – official
rheolwr – manager pwyllgorwr (pwyllgorwyr) – committee
cyfuniad – combination member
cryfder – strength gwirfoddolwr (gwirfoddolwyr) – volunteer
profiad – experience (n) cyfeillgar – friendly
ynghyd âh – together with graddfa – scale
to – generation cyfleusterau – amenities

iau ‘younger’ – ifanc has irregular comparative (iau) and superlative (ieua) forms in the
standard language; in practice there are many variants – ‘younger’ is also encountered as
ifancach and fengach, similarly ‘youngest’ as ifanca and fenga. ⇒ mw 106 (b), ⇒ iw u7

Am °dymor! ‘What a season!’ – note this idiomatic use of am° with exclamations.

drwy °Gymru °gyfan ‘throughout the whole of Wales’ – cyfan is an adjective that follows its
noun as normal; similarly am °flwyddyn °gyfan ‘for a whole year’; it also exists as a noun
with the definite article – y cyfan – meaning ‘all’ or ‘the whole thing’ or ‘the lot’: anghofies
i’r cyfan ‘I forgot the lot’, mae’r cyfan wedi mynd ‘it’s all gone’, rho’r cyfan mewn fan hyn
‘put it all in here’; in this sense it means the same as, and is interchangeable with, y cwb(w)l.
Note also the phrase wedi’r cyfan ‘after all’ (= wedi’r cwb(w)l) and the adverb yn °gyfangwb(w)l
‘completely’, ‘totally’.

sydd wedi chyflawni ‘which have accomplished’ – the AM of cyflawni is a mistake here, as
wedi does not itself cause any kind of mutation. This instance may be explained by subcon-
scious confusion with a differently structured passive sentence mae’r °gamp wedi’i hchyflawni
‘the feat has been achieved’. ⇒ mw 364, ⇒ iw u22

gan °gynnwys ‘including’ – learn this phrase as a one-off; and while you’re at it, learn the
opposite as well: ac eithrio ‘apart from’, ‘not including’.
52  Pencampwyr!

o ystyried °fod ‘considering that’, ‘when (you) consider that’ – note the o° before the VN
– literally ‘from considering that  .  .  .’.

yn ogystal ‘as well’ (= ‘also’) – learn this phrase; if you want to say ‘as well as’ with a fol-
lowing noun, in the sense of ‘also’, you need to add âh (ag before vowels): selsig yn ogystal
â hchreision ‘sausages as well as crisps’; bu canu yn ogystal ag yfed ‘there was singing as
well as drinking’.

Mawr °fu’r dathlu ‘Great was the celebrating’, ‘there were great celebrations’ – mawr placed
at the start of the sentence here for emphasis and effect. As often in Welsh, the VN (dathlu)
is used here as a noun (it has the definite article in front of it), with various translation
possibilities. ⇒ mw 198

olaf ‘last’ – remember the difference between the two Welsh words for ‘last’: ola ‘last in a
sequence’ and diwetha ‘most recent’. The final -f here is of course frequently dropped in
many varieties of spoken Welsh, but is not unusual in writing. ⇒ mw 172

o amgylch ‘around’ – a compound preposition; another compound preposition o °gwmpas

also means ‘around’; there is not much difference between the two, particularly in purely
spatial meanings. ⇒ mw 475, ⇒ iw u25

Pwy °fuasai wedi meddwl ‘Who would have thought’ – buasai is a literary spelling for
basai (conditional of bod; = byddai), the -u- not pronounced in speech. You could revise the
conditional and conditional perfect tenses of verbs at this point, if you like. Go on – you
know you want to. ⇒ mw 277–280, 288, ⇒ iw u16

ychydig dros ‘a little over’.

yn ystod ‘during’ – another compound preposition; learn as a unit.

gemau cyfeillgar yn unig ‘friendly games only’ – the adverb yn unig ‘only’ follows the noun
it refers to; dalwyr tocynnau tymor yn unig ‘season ticket holders only’ ⇒ mw 435, 511; but
the related adjective unig ‘only’ precedes: yr unig gemau ‘the only games’. ⇒ mw 99

cyn lleied = cynlleied ‘so little’, ‘so few’. ⇒ mw 197

ifancaf – see note to iau above.

heb eu hail ‘second to none’ – literally ‘without its second’; varies according to person: heb
ei ail (singular masc.), heb ei hail (singular fem.).

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 Who were Crymych’s last opponents this season?
2 What group of players are pictured?
 Pencampwyr!  53

3 What did they win by defeating Aberystwyth?

4 What result percentage has Crymych RFC’s first team achieved?
5 When was there a procession round the ground?
6 What in general terms is the club’s success put down to?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Fe gollodd Aberystwyth yn erbyn Crymych. C/A

2 Mae dyfodol y clwb yn edrych yn ddisglair. C/A
3 Fe enillodd Gorseinon yn erbyn Penclawdd. C/A
4 O flwyddyn nesa ymlaen fe fydd y tîm ieuenctid C/A
yn chwarae pêldroed yn lle rygbi.
Chapter 14: Mudiad Meithrin

Since its founding in 1971 as Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin (Welsh Nursery Schools Movement),
Mudiad Meithrin has played an important role in promoting and consolidating the Welsh
language through early-years nursery education throughout Wales. By the end of the last
century there were over 650 cylchoedd meithrin (nursery groups) with over 14,000 children
between the ages of 3 and 5 attending regularly, with numbers continuing to rise since.
Enrolment is open to all children of eligible age in an area, and an important element in
the ethos of these ysgolion meithrin is to encourage the participation of children from non-
Welsh-speaking homes, so that they can get an early immersion on a regular basis in a
Welsh-speaking environ­ment. The organisation also runs cylchoedd Ti a Fi (You and Me
groups) to enable parents and carers of the children to socialise in Welsh with each other
and with the children.
No surprise, then, that the ysgolion meithrin are regarded by those wishing to further the
language as a vital component of the education system, and one which needs to be sup-
ported and protected. These two pieces – one an article from Golwg, and the other a letter
to Y Cymro from a local reader – voice concerns about the future of a particular cylch meithrin
in the Fishguard and Goodwick area of North Pembrokeshire (Cylch Meithrin Abergwaun,
Wdig a’r Fro), which is facing difficulties.
 Mudiad Meithrin 55

Cylch Meithrin
Abergwaun heb gartre'
Mae dyfodol Cylch Meithrin yn ardal y plant pan maen nhw'n cyrraedd y
Abergwaun yn y fantol wrth i ysgol Cyleh, maen nhw'n rhugl eu Cymraeg
gynradd newydd agor yno fis Medi. 0 fewn dim 0 dro, yn ol y Cadeirydd.
Ar hyn 0 bryd mae 18 0 blant yn “Mae llawer o'r plant 0 gefndir
ewrdd bedwar bore yr wythnos mewn Saesneg, ond maen nhw'n cael crap
eaban ar safle Ysgol Glannau Gwaun, ar y Gymraeg yn gyflym iawn. Maen
yn Abergwaun. nhw'n medru canu'n Gymraeg ac enwi
Mi fydd yr ysgol honno yn eau a lliwiau yn Gymraeg hefyd. Mae’n
ehael ei dymchwel dros yr haf, wrth syndod faint maen nhw'n medru ei
i'r disgyblion symud i ysgol newydd ddysgu i feddwl eu bod nhw mor
sbon. ifanc."
Ond fydd dim lie i Gyleh Meithrin Yn ol Cyngor Sir Benfro nid oes
Abergwaun Wdig a'r Fro ar y safle modd cynnig lie i Gylch Meithrin
newydd. Abergwaun Wdig a'r Fro ar safle'r
Er bod ystafell dros dro wedi'i ysgol newydd oherwydd fod gan yr
threfnu yn Wdig, does dim lie i ysgol honno feithrinfa rhan amser
ehwarae yn yr adeilad hwnnw - sy'n eisoes.
golygu na fyddan nhw'n gallu dysgu'r "Rydan ni wedi bod yn chwilio am
Cyfnod Sylfaenol yn unol a rheolau'r lefydd eraill i gynnal y Cylch ac wedi
Cynulliad, ac yn gorfod eau. gwneud sawl awgrym... a rydan ni
"Mae'r eyngor sir wedi cynnig hefyd yn edrych ar y posibilrwydd 0
y eaban presennol i ni, ond mi symud y eaban presennol i safle arall,"
fyddai'n rhaid i ni ddod 0 hyd i dir, a meddai llefarydd y cyngor.
ehael caniatad eynllunio a symud y Ond yn ol Stuart Lloyd fe allai'r
eaban... ac mae angen llawer 0 waith awdurdodau fod wedi gwneud mwy i
atgyweirio ar y eaban - yn y bon mi ganfod cartre' newydd i'r Cylch.
fyddai'n rhy ddrud," meddai Stuart "Mae ganddon ni record dda,
Lloyd, Cadeirydd y Cyleh. newydd basio arolwg gan Estyn gyda
Trwy symud dros dro 0 Abergwaun chanlyniadau rhagorol, a rydan ni am
i Wdig, mae Stuart Lloyd yn ofni na gael mynd i swyddfeydd y cyngor i
fydd pawb o'r rhieni yn gallu eludo eu gael gwobr.
plant y filltir a hanner ychwanegol. "Rydan ni'n cael clod, ond fawr
"Mi fyddwn ni'n eolli rhai o'r plant ddim help."
sy'n eael eu eludo i'r ysgol ar droed
gan rieni," meddai.
Er mai Saesneg yw iaith mwyafrif ■ Barry Thomas
56 Mudiad Meithrin

Annwyl Olygydd,
“Mudiad gwirfoddol yw Mudiad Meithrin. Ei nod yw rhoi cyfle i bob
plentyn ifanc yng Nghymru fanteisio ar wasanaethau a phrofiadau bly-
nyddoedd cynnar trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg.” Dyma’r broliant ar wefan
Mudiad Meithrin, Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin gynt. Ond dim yn Abergwaun
‘falle. Cyn bo hir agorith ysgol gynradd nevvydd sbon yn Abergwaun sy’ wedi
costio miliynau o bunnau, ond sdim lie i’r Mudiad Meithrin ac o achos hyn mae
hi’n bosib fydd dim Cylch Meithrin yn Abergwaun o fis Medi ymlaen.
Pam nad yw pob Cyngor Sir yn gorfod, o dan y gyfraith, greu lie i bob Cylch
Meithrin sy’ eise? A pham mae Mudiad Meithrin yn dal i ddibynnu ar wirfod-
dolwyr?
Yn fy marn i mae Mudiad Meithrin yn cael ei drin fel Sinderela’r byd addysg ac
mae’r drefn bresennol yn creu sefyllfa ble gall y mudiad ddioddef o safbwyntiau
mympwyol neu faleisus pobol sy’ ddim yn wir werthfawrogi ei bwysigrwydd ac
sy’ ddim yn gweithredu i roi nod Mudiad Meithrin yn gynta’.
Dewi Rhys-Jones,
Wdig, Sir Benfro

Geirfa

cylch - group cadeirydd - chairman/woman

ardal - region cyflym - fast
Abergwaun - Fishguard enwi - name (v)
cynradd - primary lliw ( iau) - colour
caban - hut, cabin syndod - surprise
safle - site modd - way, means
dymchwel - demolish meithrinfa - nursery
disgybl (-ion) - pupil rhan amser - part-time
Wdig - Goodwick lie (llefydd) - place
trefnu - organise awgrym - suggestion
adeilad - building llefarydd - spokesman/woman
golygu - mean awdurdod (-au) - authority
sylfaenol - basic canfod - find
rheol (-au) - rule (n) arolwg - inspection
gorfod - have to, must canlyniad ( au) - result
tir - land rhagorol - excellent
caniatad - permission clod - praise
cynllunio - plan (v) cyfle - chance, opportunity
atgyweirio - repair, refit manteisio ar° - take advantage of
drud - expensive gwasanaeth ( au) - service
cludo - carry, take profiad ( au) - experience
ychwanegol - extra, additional cynnar - early
troed - foot broliant - blurb
mwyafrif - majority gynt - formerly, as was
 Mudiad Meithrin  57

punt (punnau or punnoedd) – pound (£) dioddef – suffer

cyfraith – law safbwynt (-iau) – viewpoint, attitude
creu – create mympwyol – arbitrary
dibynnu – depend maleisus – malicious
barn – opinion gwerthfawrogi – appreciate
trin – treat pwysigrwydd – importance
addysg – education gweithredu – act
trefn – arrangement, system nod – aim (n)
sefyllfa – situation

dros °dro ‘temporarily’ – this set phrase is more often used as an adjective; the opposite is
parhaol ‘permanent’ – swyddi dros °dro a swyddi parhaol ‘temporary jobs and permanent jobs’.

yn unol âh ‘in accordance with’.

dod o hyd i° ‘find’ – learn this common idiom; Lle °ddaethoch chi o hyd iddyn nhw? ‘Where
did you find them?’

yn y bôn ‘basically’ – by far the best way to translate this phrase, which is as practically
meaningless in Welsh as it is in English.

maen nhw’n rhugl eu Cymraeg ‘they are fluent in Welsh’ – literally ‘they are fluent (as to)
their Welsh’; obviously with a possessive, this will change according to who’s being referred
to, so for example Mae hi’n rhugl ei hChymraeg ‘She’s fluent in Welsh’, Mae e’n rhugl ei
°Gymraeg ‘He’s fluent in Welsh’, etc.

o °fewn dim o °dro ‘in no time’ – learn this useful idiom. Note o °fewn ‘within’, used mainly
with non-spatial meanings, mostly time; for spatial meanings, use tu °fewn i° – compare o
°fewn wythnos ‘within a week’, but tu °fewn i’r tf ‘within the house’. ⇒ mw 422

maen nhw’n cael crap ar y °Gymraeg ‘they get a grasp of Welsh’.

i °feddwl eu bod nhw  .  .  . ‘when you think that they  .  .  .’ – an alternative (along with o
°feddwl bod nhw  .  .  .) for o ystyried bod nhw ‘considering that they  .  .  .’.

sawl awgrym ‘various suggestions’, ‘a number of suggestions’ – note that sawl takes a
singular noun. ⇒ mw 187

Estyn – the name of the government-funded school inspection agency in Wales.

o achos hyn ‘because of this’ – achos means ‘because’ and is followed (generally) by a ‘that’-
clause: achos °fod e wedi cael damwain ‘because he had an accident’; but ‘because of ’ fol-
lowed by a noun requires o achos: o achos y °ddamwain ‘because of the accident’; the slightly
more formal alternative for ‘because’ – oherwydd – can be used for both: oherwydd °fod e
wedi cael damwain and oherwydd y °ddamwain. ⇒ mw 504
58  Mudiad Meithrin

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
[on the article]
1 What has the council offered, and what will the cylch meithrin have to organise for
themselves?
2 What was the result of the inspection?
3 And what is going to happen as a result of the inspection?
4 What is planned for the school where the cylch meithrin has been meeting up till
now?
5 What needs to be done to the cabin?
6 What is wrong with the temporary accommodation in Goodwick?
7 How does Stuart Lloyd sum up the authority’s attitude?
8 How far away is the temporary accommodation from the original site?
[on the letter]
9 What will soon be arriving in Fishguard?
10 How much are the cylch meithrin teachers paid each month?
11 What legislation does the writer want to see?
12 When might this cylch meithrin close?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Efallai na fydd Cylch Meithrin yn Abergwaun o Fedi ymlaen. C/A

2 Cymraeg yw iaith mwyafrif y plant yn y Cylch ar hyn o bryd. C/A
3 Mae Cyngor Sir Benfro’n bwriadu cael gwared ar Ysgol Glannau Gwaun. C/A
4 Mae’r Mudiad Meithrin yn cael ei redeg gan wirfoddolwyr. C/A
Chapter 15: Meinir Gwilym

Meinir Gwilym is a singer/songwriter of renown in Wales, with a string of successful albums

to her name and a loyal and steadily growing fanbase both within the borders of the coun­
try and beyond. She has also become a familiar face on S4C, for reasons which will hopefully
become apparent when you have read the piece we are going to look at.
This biographical article is from her own gwefan swyddogol (official website: www.meinirg­
wilym.com), and is written in a neutral idiom punctuated here and there with certain
verb forms of a more literary or formal style: there are quite a few -wyd forms, and some
present tenses done without any assistance from the verb bod ‘to be’ at all – I may comment
on these latter in the notes.
Meinir Gwilym’s melodic and insightful songs, delivered in a clear and captivating voice,
are an excellent and enjoyable way to improve your listening comprehension skills – why
don’t you get hold of one of her albums? Don’t delay, buy one today!

Meinir Gwilym
Yn enedigol o blwyf Llangristiolus yng nghalon Ynys Môn oddi ar arfordir Gogledd
Cymru, mae’r gantores/gyfansoddwraig Meinir Gwilym wedi sicrhau lle iddi ei hun fel
un o’r artistiaid cyfrwng Cymraeg mwyaf poblogaidd erioed.
Ysgogodd rhyddhau ei CD gyntaf Smôcs, Coffi a Fodca Rhad (2002) ymateb ysgubol.
Gyda’r llais unigryw a’r geiriau gonest, y gwead o sain celtaidd/acwstig/roc-gwerin/pop,
cafodd ei chofleidio yn un o’r casgliadau mwyaf gwreiddiol ac ysbrydoledig i ddod allan
o Gymru ers blynyddoedd.
Gwerthwyd miloedd o gopiau o’r albym ddilynol Dim ond Clwydda o fewn ychydig
fisoedd i’w rhyddhau yn Nhachwedd 2003. Mae Meinir Gwilym wedi ymddangos ar
lwyfannau pob un o brif wyliau Cymru. Perfformia gyda’i band aml-ddiwylliannol mewn
lleoliadau mawrion neu ar ei phen ei hun, yn acwstig mewn digwyddiadau llai.
Golygodd cwblhau ei gradd mewn Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg ac Athroniaeth yn Haf 2004
y gallai Meinir ganolbwyntio’n gyfangwbl ar ei cherddoriaeth. Gyda’i chanu gonest, ddi-
lol, mae’n cael ei hysbrydoli gan fywyd bob dydd, yn lleol ac yn fyd-eang, gan gyfansoddi
ei holl ganeuon ei hun. Yn y blynyddoedd diweddar, mae hi wedi bod yn torri cwys yn
y farchnad Ewropeaidd, gyda gigs llwyddianus mewn sawl prifddinas Ewropeaidd.
Darlledwyd rhaglen arbennig ar S4C yn dilyn bywyd Meinir am flwyddyn ar Fawrth y
3ydd 2005, a oedd yn cynnwys ymweliad â Yamaha, y cwmni sy’n cefnogi Meinir yn
swyddogol. Disgrifia Meinir y gefnogaeth a ddatganodd y cwmni rhyngwladol hwn iddi,
a’r cydweithio agos fu rhyngddynt wedyn yn un o uchafbwyntiau ei gyrfa hyd yn hyn.
60  Meinir Gwilym

Rhyddhawyd trydedd CD Meinir, yr albym Sgandal Fain ar Dachwedd 28ain 2005.

Roedd yr albym yn gasgliad o’r llon a’r lleddf mewn dau hanner. Yn ystod 2006 a 2007,
bu Meinir yn canolbwyntio ar gyfansoddi rhwng perfformiadau, ymddangosiadau, teith-
iau ysgolion, cyflwyno rhaglenni radio ar Radio Cymru a Heart FM a chyflwyno cyfres
‘Noson Chis a Meinir’ ar y teledu.
Rhyddhawyd yr albym nesa, Tombola, ym mis Rhagfyr 2008. Dyma’r cynnyrch newydd
cyntaf ganddi ers tair blynedd, ac fe’i gwnaed hyd yn oed yn fwy arbennig gan ymdd­
angosiad Bryn Terfel ar ddwy o’r caneuon.
Ers mis Ionawr 2009 mae Meinir yn gweithio fel gohebydd teithiol i raglenni cylch-
grawn Wedi 3 a Wedi 7 ar S4C. Disgrifia Meinir y swydd fel “.  .  .  bara menyn blasus! Mae
cael crwydro’r wlad yn cyfarfod gwahanol bobol a chlywed eu straeon bob dydd o’r
wythnos yn bleser, ac mae cyflwyno eitemau ‘byw’ yn her hefyd.” Ond, parhau mae’r
canu. Mae albym newydd Meinir ar y gweill ar hyn o bryd  .  .  .  gem o Bingo rhywun?  .  .  .

Geirfa

genedigol – native, born in gradd – degree

plwyf – parish llenyddiaeth – literature
calon – heart athroniaeth – philosophy
arfordir – coast cerddoriaeth – music
cantores – (female) singer di-lol – no-nonsense
cyfansoddwraig – (female) composer ysbrydoli – inspire
poblogaidd – popular byd-eang – worldwide
ysgogi – stir, provoke marchnad – market
rhyddhau – release llwyddiannus – successful
ymateb – response prifddinas – capital city
ysgubol – sweeping ymweliad – visit (n)
unigryw – unique cefnogi – support
gonest – honest, sincere swyddogol – official
gwead – weaving together disgrifio – describe
sain – sound datgan – render
gwerin – folk rhyngwladol – international
cofleidio – embrace cydweithio – collaborate
casgliad (-au) – collection uchafbwynt (-iau) – high point
gwreiddiol – original gyrfa – career
ysbrydoledig – inspired ymddangosiad (-au) – appearance
dilynol – following, subsequent taith (teithiau) – tour
clwydda (= celwyddau) – lies cylchgrawn – magazine
llwyfan (-nau) – stage blasus – tasty
geyl (gwyliau) – festival crwydro – wander, roam
aml-ddiwylliannol – multicultural stori (straeon) – story
lleoliad (-au) – location, venue pleser – pleasure
digwyddiad (-au) – event parhau – continue
cwblhau – complete (v)
 Meinir Gwilym  61

iddi ei hun ‘for herself ’. ⇒ mw 132, ⇒ iw u27

Ysgogodd rhyddhau  .  .  .  ymateb ysgubol ‘The release of  .  .  .  provoked a massive response’

– the whole section rhyddhau  .  .  .  Rhad (2002) is the subject of the verb ysgogodd, with
ymateb ysgubol then the object. Ysgubol literally means ‘sweeping’ (ysgubo ‘sweep’), but
something like ‘massive’ is probably a better translation in the context of a ‘response’
(ymateb).

ers blynyddoedd ‘for years’ (looking back) – learn this phrase; when looking to the future, use
am °flynyddoedd instead: Byddan nhw fan hyn am °flynyddoedd ‘They’ll be here for years’.

Gwerthwyd miloedd o  .  .  . ‘Thousands of  .  .  .  were sold’ – past tense impersonal form. ⇒
mw 367, 372, ⇒ iw u23

Dim ond Clwydda ‘Just Lies’ or ‘Nothing but Lies’ – celwydd is ‘lie’, and the plural celwyddau
is routinely pronounced (and often spelt) clwydda in N dialects.

pob un o °brif °wyliau Cymru ‘every one of the main festivals in (of ) Wales’ – prif ‘main’
precedes the noun and, furthermore, like its English counterpart, cannot stand in isolation;
it causes SM of the following noun. ⇒ mw 96 (a)

Perfformia ‘He/She performs’ – an example of the LW present tense with endings – in

spoken Welsh this would always be Mae hi’n (or Mae’n) perfformio.

lleoliadau mawrion ‘big locations/venues’ – an unusual use of a plural adjective (mawr);

normally in the spoken language we would expect lleoliadau mawr – only a very few adjec­
tives obligatorily change form for use with plural nouns (notably arall/eraill), otherwise the
phenomenon is mostly encountered in set phrases. ⇒ mw 101

digwyddiadau llai ‘smaller events’ – as well as meaning ‘less’, llai is also the irregular com­
parative of bach ‘small’; in the same way, mwy means both ‘more’ and ‘bigger’ – stafell
°fwy ‘a bigger room’. ⇒ mw 106, ⇒ iw u7

Golygodd cwblhau  .  .  .  y gallai Meinir  .  .  . ‘Finishing  .  .  .  meant that Meinir could  .  .  .’ –

another example (like Ysgogodd rhyddhau  .  .  .  above) of a VN + following clause (i.e. cwblhau
ei gradd mewn Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg ac Athroniaeth yn Haf 2004) acting as subject of the
verb – all this must come before the verb in the English translation, of course; gallai ‘could’
in both senses: ‘was able’ (as here), and ‘would be able’.

mae hi wedi bod yn torri cwys ‘she has been making her mark’ – literally ‘cutting a furrow’.

Disgrifia – see note to Perfformia above.

a’r cydweithio agos °fu rhyngddynt ‘and the close collaboration (which has been) between
them’ – the VN cydweithio used as a noun: very common in Welsh, and it is, after all,
grammatically a noun ⇒ mw 198; °fu is mutated by a hidden a° ‘which’ – an omission that
62  Meinir Gwilym

reflects normal speech ⇒ mw 481, ⇒ iw u14; rhyngddynt (LW) = rhyngddyn nhw ‘between
them’.

hyd yn hyn ‘so far’, ‘up till now’ – learn this useful idiom.

y llon a’r lleddf ‘of the happy and the sad’ – an idiom with nice alliteration.

cynnyrch ‘produce’ – this is the usual translation of this noun (the related verb is cynhyrchu),
but here I think we would say ‘material’ in English: cynnyrch newydd ‘new material’.

fe’i gwnaed ‘it was made’ – gwnaed is the irregular past impersonal form of gwneud; an
alternative gwnaethpwyd meaning exactly the same thing is equally common. As for the
other three irregular verbs, mynd has both aed and aethpwyd, and so mirrors gwneud, while
dod generally has only daethpwyd, and cael only cafwyd. ⇒ mw 373. The fe’i is a LW con­
struction – the literary language sometimes places pronouns before their verbs, and needs
an ‘empty’ or ‘dummy’ particle fe to attach them to; the ’i is third person singular. Similarly,
for example, fe’u collwyd for collwyd nhw ‘they were lost’; fe’ch telir for telir chi ‘you will
be paid’; fe’i penodwyd for penodwyd e ‘he was appointed’. You don’t desperately need to
know any of this – let’s hurry on.

Mae cael crwydro’r °wlad  .  .  .  yn °bleser ‘Getting to roam the country  .  .  .  is a pleasure’ – cael
in one of its common uses: ‘be allowed to’.

parhau mae’r canu ‘the singing continues’ – focused word order (instead of neutral mae’r
canu’n parhau) for emphasis and effect; and another example of a VN used as a noun.

ar y gweill ‘in the pipeline’, ‘planned’ – this common idiom should be learnt; it literally means
‘on the knitting needles’, and I like using this in English as well. I’m hoping it may catch on.

ar hyn o °bryd ‘at the moment’ – another useful idiom to be learnt as a one-off.

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What exactly was the subject of the S4C programme about Meinir in 2005?
2 Who plays with her at smaller venues?
3 And who collaborates with her on song-writing?
4 What is Meinir’s main broad inspiration for her songs?
5 Apart from performance venues, what other type of place did Meinir visit between
2006 and 2007?
6 What do you think might be Meinir’s two favourite drinks?
7 What was Bryn Terfel’s contribution to the Tombola album?
8 What part of North Wales does Meinir come from?
9 What is Yamaha’s connection with her?
10 What job has Meinir being doing for S4C recently?
 Meinir Gwilym  63

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Mi welodd y drydedd CD olau dydd ddechrau 2005. C/A

2 Yn aml iawn mae Meinir yn canu caneuon pobol eraill. C/A
3 Mae Meinir hefyd yn ohebydd ar raglen gylchgrawn ar S4C. C/A
4 Mae fodca’n rhad iawn ar Ynys Môn. C/A
5 Er mwyn ymlacio mae Meinir yn reidio ei beic modur Yamaha i C/A
fyny ac i lawr mynyddoedd uchel Ynys Môn.
6 Mae cynulleidfaoedd yn Ewrop wedi ymateb yn gadarnhaol i’w C/A
cherddoriaeth.
Chapter 16: Rhagolygon

This is a transcript of a weather forecast broadcast on S4C at the end of the evening news
bulletin. Unsurprisingly for what is actually a spoken piece, the language is a standard
spoken style, devoid of the specifically LW features that tend to appear in official and media
writing, and may be taken as an accurate reflection of natural everyday Welsh. There are a
number of comparatives in -ach in this piece; also a number of instances of dropped aux-
iliaries (e.g. ond hynny ddim yn para ‘but that not lasting’), a ‘shorthand’ style common in
this type of report as much in Welsh as in English. You will need the points of the compass:
N gogledd, S de, E dwyrain and W gorllewin.

Rhagolygon
Mae pethau’n newid yn °raddol ar hyn o °bryd – troi’n °fwynach dros y deuddydd nesa.
Ond heno’n °gynta: fel y nosweithiau diwetha, yn rhewi’n °o °galed ymhellach o’r ar-
fordiroedd. Gwasgedd uchel yn y dwyrain felly’n cadw’r awyr yn °glir a’r awel yn °gymharol
ysgafn inni heno. Ond fory dylanwad y gwasgedd uchel ’ma’n llacio a hyn yn rhoi cyfle
i ffryntiau symud i mewn o’r gorllewin. Ffrynt dros Iwerddon yn cynhyrchu mwy o °gy-
mylau inni yn ystod y dydd yfory, ac mae ambell °gawod yn °bosib wrth arfordiroedd y
gorllewin pella. Ond am y tro yn aros yn sych, yn oer iawn i’r mwyafrif. Mi °fydd ’na
°bocedi o niwl tua’r dwyrain a’r de, a’r awel ’na eto yn ysgafn ond yn troi i chwythu o
°gyfeiriad mwy deheuol yn °raddol. Felly bore fory digon oer peth cynta, cyfnodau bra-
fiach yn °gynnar yn y dwyrain, ond cymylu yn °gyflym o °gyfeiriad y gorllewin – ambell
°gawod °ddigon ysgafn wrth yr arfordiroedd erbyn y pnawn. Ac er bod ’na °rywfaint o
amheuaeth ynglBn â’r amseriad, mae’n °debygol y bydd hi’n troi °fymryn yn °wlypach
inni hefyd yn hwyrach gyda’r nos. °Dipyn mwynach inni wedyn nos fory a dydd Mercher,
er y bydd ’na °gawodydd a gwynt cryfach dan °ddylanwad y gwasgedd isel. Mi °fydd y
tymheredd yn y ffigurau dwbwl i °rai. Ond hynny °ddim yn para chwaith, fel gwelwch
chi – erbyn diwedd yr wythnos gwyntoedd gogleddol inni unwaith eto. Mi °fydd ’na °rai
cawodydd °ddydd Iau, ond sawl gradd yn oerach.
 Rhagolygon  65

Geirfa

graddol – gradual niwl – fog

mwyn – mild chwythu – blow
noswaith (nosweithiau) – evening cyfeiriad – direction
rhewi – freeze deheuol – southerly
gwasgedd – pressure cyfnod (-au) – period
awyr – air; sky cymylu – cloud over
awel – breeze rhywfaint – a certain amount
cymharol – comparative amheuaeth – doubt
ysgafn – light amseriad – timing
llacio – ease off, diminish tebygol – likely
ffrynt (-iau) – (weather) front gwlyb – wet
cynhyrchu – produce (v) hwyr – late
cwmwl (cymylau) – cloud tymheredd – temperature
cawod (-ydd) – shower para (= parhau) – continue
sych – dry chwaith – either

deuddydd ‘two days’, ‘two-day period’ – Welsh has special words for this and for ‘three days’:
tridiau; buon ni yno am °dridiau ‘we were there for three days’. Note also deufis ‘two months’
– am y deufis nesa ‘for the next two months’, trwydded am °ddeufis ‘a licence for two
months’.

yn °o °galed ‘pretty hard’ – o° is the SM form (after yn°) of go° ‘pretty, fairly’, which itself
mutates caled to °galed.

fory ‘tomorrow’ – a very common pronunciation of yfory, and frequently so spelt; in the
phrase bore fory ‘tomorrow morning’ it is the standard form.

am y tro ‘for now’, ‘for the time being’ – learn this useful idiom. Other phrases with tro
‘time’ include: °bob tro ‘every time’, °dro ar ôl tro ‘time and again’, °droeon ‘many times’;
and of course y tro nesa ‘next time’, y tro diwetha ‘last time’, y tro ’ma ‘this time’. ⇒ mw
406, ⇒ iw u8

mi °fydd ’na° (= mi °fydd) ‘there will be’ – technically there is no need for the ’na° in this
and related expressions, but it is the norm in the spoken language nonetheless; similarly,
for example, roedd ’na °ormod o °bobol ‘there were too many people’ (= roedd gormod o
°bobol); mae ’na °lythyr i ti ar y bwrdd ‘there’s a letter for you on the table’ (= mae llythyr
i ti). You’ll sound very authentic if you use it, but don’t forget to add the SM after ’na° if
you do. ⇒ mw 256, ⇒ bw u20

ambell °gawod ‘the occasional shower’, ‘a shower or two’ – also found with an intervening
i°: ambell i °gawod.
66  Rhagolygon

pnawn ‘afternoon’ – the normal pronunciation of prynhawn, and often so spelt.

°dipyn mwynach ‘a bit milder’.

para – a more common spoken alternative for the official parhau.

chwaith ‘either’ – used in negative sentences only; tydyn nhw °ddim yn mynd, a dan ni
°ddim yn mynd chwaith ‘they’re not going, and we’re not going either’ ⇒ mw 430;
‘either  .  .  .  or  .  .  .’, on the other hand, is naill ai  .  .  .  neu°  .  .  .  ⇒ mw 512

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What will the winds be doing on Wednesday?
2 What will be the result of the front over Ireland?
3 When is rain expected?
4 What will temperatures be doing by Thursday?
5 What is the general outlook over the next two days?
6 What will temperatures be like on Wednesday?
7 When will winds turn northerly?
8 What will be the effects of the high pressure tonight?
9 How have the evenings been lately?
10 What will the weather be like in the east tomorrow morning?

Exercise 2

Match the halves of each sentence:

1 Bydd y gwyntoedd yn
2 Dan ni’n disgwyl
3 Mi fydd ’na
4 Mae’n debyg y
5 Bydd hi
6 Mi fydd y
a gawodydd yma ac acw trwy’r dydd.
b gweld rhagor o law yfory.
c tymheredd yn codi erbyn y pnawn.
d tawelu erbyn y bore.
e bydd tywydd gwlyb yn dod i mewn o’r gorllewin.
f ’n rhewi yn ystod y nos.
Chapter 17: Ras Yn Erbyn Amser

This article from the S4C viewers’ magazine Sgrin is about the latest exploits of the presenter
Lowri Morgan who, not content with being one of the few people to have dived down to check
out the wreck of the Titanic, is preparing to take part in the 6633 Ultra race to the Arctic.
Another piece whose linguistic style stays faithful to the natural speech of the subject
throughout, with not a single LW verb form in sight.

20

Dydi Lowri Morgan ddim yn berson "Fi yw'r cynta i gyfadde nad ydw i'n "Roedd yn brofiad!" meddai Lowri
sy'n gallu aros yn yr un lie am mynd i dorri unrhyw record - ond gan chwerthin. "Rwy'n casau cysgu
gyfnodau hir. Mae hi’n cael llond bol. rwy'n berson sydd eisiau trio pethau mas yn yr eira ac mae elfen o
Mae hi wastad yn chwilio am sialens newydd a gweld pa mor bell alia i glawstroffobia yn perthyn i gysgu yn
newydd. Mae cystadlu yn erbyn ei hun wthio fy hun. Nid ras gystadleuol ydi y sach a chloi'r cyfan am dy ben di.
a gwthio ei hun yn rhan o'i natur hi. hon ond ras bersonol. Dydw i ddim yn Yn seicolegol, roedd yr eira a'r
gneud hyn i gystadlu a neb arall. Yr am odau afiach o help imi. Ond fydd
Er ei bod hi'n mwynhau gorwedd ar y unig fwriad sydd gen i ydi gwthio fy tymheredd Cymru yn ystod y gaeaf yn
soffa yn ymlacio ac yn gwylio'r teledu ffiniau corfforol a meddyliol i." ddim byd o'i gymharu a'r tymheredd
o bryd i'w gilydd, mae hi'n berson sy'n fy nisgwyl yn yr Arctig!
cystadleuol iawn. Yn yr Arctig mae'r tymheredd
0 gwm pas -30°C i -40°C. Yn y Gyda'r ras yn agosau, beth yw neges
Ar hyn o bryd, her eithafol Ras 6633 gorffennol, mae'r tymheredd yn Lowri am yr hyn sy'n ei hwynebu?
Ultra yr Arctig sydd ar ei meddwl hi. ystod y ras wedi gostwng i -98°C.
Er mwyn ceisio dygymod a'r fath "Rwy'n poeni na fydd y corff yn gallu
Mae'r ras yn un o'r a nod da yn y byd. amgylchiadau, mae Lowri wedi dygymod a'r pellter. Poeni na fydd y
Chwech o bobol sydd wedi llwyddo i'w bod yn hyfforddi'n galed yn ystod y meddwl yn dygymod a'r am odau a'r
chwblhau ers dechrau'r ras yn 2007. flwyddyn. Mae hi wedi bod yn rhedeg boen. Poeni nad ydw i wedi paratoi'n
pellteroedd o 120 milltir yr wythnos, ddigon trylwyr a bod un camgymeriad
"Y ddau gwestiwn mae pawb yn ei arbrofi tymheredd oer Sweden a dod bach yn gallu troi'n gamgymeriad
ofyn ydi, 'Pam ydw i'n gwneud yr holl 1arfer a'r holl kit fydd angen ami. mawr. Mae cystadleuwyr wedi colli
bethau eithafol 'm a?' a 'Be sy'n mynd bysedd a thraed yn y gorffennol. Fe
drwy mhen i ? ' Sai'n credu fod pobol Roedd yr eira mawr gaw son ni yng all hyd yn oed gollwng maneg yn yr
yn gallu deall pam. Nghymru ym mis Rhagfyr yn help i eira arwain at ganlyniadau erchyll
Lowri. Roedd yn gyfle euraidd iddi i rywun. Ond drwy'r holl bethau
"Fe ges i fy magu i gymryd bywyd yn ymarfer yn yr oerfel a'r eira. Treuliodd drwg, rwy wir yn edrych ymlaen at
y ddwy law a mwynhau. Fe ges i fy hi fwy nag un noson yn cysgu yn yr ddechrau. Mae wedi bod yn rhan
annog i ddysgu am y byd, i weithio'n eira, fel y bydd yn rhaid iddi wneud fawr o mywyd i am flwyddyn ac felly
galed a chymryd risg i weld be allwn i yn yr Arctig gan lusgo'r pulk (sled rwy'n ysu am gael clywed y chwiban
gyflawni. Mae Mam yn fy atgoffa i bob llawn offer) wrth iddi redeg. gyntaf."
tro am stori'r crwban ac am weithio'n
galed a dyfalbarhau. Does dim o'i le
ar fethu ar ol paratoi'n drylwyr a rhoi
ymdrech gant y cant i'r her.

RAS YN ERBYN AM SER

20/25
Bob nos Iau
Cofiwch bod modd gwylio holl 0 Gymru gan P.O.P. 1
baratoadau Lowri eto ar Clic am 35 s4c.co.uk/chwaraeon
diwrnod - s4c.co.uk/clic
68  Ras Yn Erbyn Amser

Geirfa

llond bol – bellyful arbrofi – experience

wastad – always euraidd – golden
yn erbyn – against ymarfer – practise
gwthio – push oerfel – cold (n)
gorwedd – lie treulio – spend (time)
ymlacio – relax llusgo – drag
cystadleuol – competitive offer – equipment
eithafol – extreme chwerthin – laugh
meddwl – mind (n) casáu – hate
llwyddo – succeed, manage elfen – element
cyflawni – achieve perthyn – belong
atgoffa – remind cloi – close
crwban – tortoise amod (-au) – condition
dyfalbarhau – persevere afiach – unhealthy
paratoi – prepare agosáu – approach, get near
trylwyr – thorough neges – message
ymdrech – effort poen – pain
her – challenge (n) camgymeriad – mistake
cyfadde – admit bys (-edd) – finger; toe
bwriad – intention troed (traed) – foot
ffin (-iau) – boundary gorffennol – past
corfforol – physical gollwng – drop
meddyliol – mental maneg – glove
gostwng – go down, lower arwain – lead
dygymod âh – put up with, cope with erchyll – horrible
amgylchiad (-au) – circumstance ysu am° – yearn for
hyfforddi – train (v) chwiban – whistle (n)
pellter (-oedd) – distance

yn yr un lle ‘in the same place’ – there is no separate word in Welsh for ‘same’; yr un is
used in all instances, whether singular or plural: yr un pwnc ‘the same subject’, yr un pyn-
ciau ‘the same subjects’. With singulars, of course, the un will mutate a following feminine:
yr un °gath ‘the same cat’. ⇒ mw 143

Mae hi’n cael llond bol ‘she gets fed up’ – llond bol is a much commoner expression in
Welsh than the literal English translation ‘bellyful’, and this is the normal way of saying
‘fed up’; similarly dw i wedi cael llond bol ar hyn ‘I’m fed up with this’.

cystadlu yn erbyn ei hun a gwthio ei hun – this whole phrase is the subject of the sentence,
with the rest of the sentence (once the mae is dealt with) signalled by the yn: yn rhan o’i
natur hi. A tricky sentence to analyse, as there is a misleading yn further forward – but this
is part of the compound preposition yn erbyn ‘against’, and not the free-standing yn that
 Ras Yn Erbyn Amser  69

signals the end of the subject in sentences beginning with the verb ‘to be’. Learning to
distinguish between the various types of yn is key to fluent reading ability in Welsh. ⇒ mw
473, ⇒ bw u36

o °bryd i’w gilydd ‘from time to time’.

anodda ‘most difficult’, ‘hardest’ – the superlative form of anodd, spelt here without the
final -f in accordance with usual pronunciation.

sa i’n credu ‘I don’t think’ – remember that many S dialects have special present tense
negative forms of bod, based on sa: sa i = dw i ddim, so ti = dwyt ti ddim, etc. Note that
there is no ddim in these forms, which are very common in the S; a south-western variant
is smo, used for all persons – smo fi’n mynd ‘I’m not going’, smo nhw’n siarad Cymraeg
‘they don’t speak Welsh’. ⇒ mw 227 (a), ⇒ iw u28

Fe °ges i fy magu ‘I was brought up’ – cael-passive. ⇒ mw 362, ⇒ iw u21

be °allwn i °gyflawni ‘what I could achieve’.

Does dim o’i °le ar °fethu ‘there’s nothing wrong with failing’.

nad ydw i’n mynd i° ‘that I’m not going to’ – nad ‘that  .  .  .  not’. ⇒ mw 488

Nid  .  .  .  ydi hon ‘This is not  .  .  .’ – a negative identification sentence, the only instance in
the modern language where the negative particle nid (as opposed to °ddim) is routinely
encountered, always at the start of the phrase.

gneud = gwneud – a pronunciation spelling.

Yr unig °fwriad sydd gen i ydi  .  .  . ‘The only intention (which – sydd) I have is (ydi)  .  .  .’.

Er mwyn ‘in order to’ – learn as a one-off; followed by a VN (as here) or, if a person is
specified, by i + person + °VN – er mwyn i mi °weld ‘in order for me to see’, ‘so that I can/
could see’. ⇒ mw 507

mae Lowri wedi bod yn  .  .  .  ‘Lowri has been  .  .  .  -ing’.

120 milltir yr wythnos ‘120 miles a (the) week’.

yr eira mawr °gawson ni ‘the heavy snow we got’.

wrth iddi °redeg ‘as she runs’. ⇒ mw 503, ⇒ iw u30

mas = allan ‘out’ – a typically S word.

am dy °ben di ‘around your head’ – a secondary meaning of am. ⇒ mw 448 (d)

70  Ras Yn Erbyn Amser

o’i °gymharu âh ‘compared with’ – this expression, which you should learn, varies its second
element (the possessive adjective) depending on what it refers to: o’i hchymharu âh (feminine
third person singular), o’u cymharu âh (third person plural), o’n cymharu âh (first person
plural) – so, for example, mae’r canlyniadau’n °dda o’u cymharu â llynedd ‘the results are
good compared with last year’, o’n cymharu â’r Almaen, fn ni’n gwneud yn °wael iawn
‘compared with Germany, we are doing very badly’.

sy’n fy nnisgwyl ‘which awaits me’. ⇒ mw 114

am yr hyn sy’n ei hwynebu ‘about what faces her’.

na °fydd ‘that  .  .  .  will not’. ⇒ mw 490, ⇒ iw u13

hyd yn oed gollwng maneg yn yr eira – this whole phrase is the subject of the preceding
Fe °all – ‘Even  .  .  .  can  .  .  .’.

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What two questions do people keep asking Lowri?
2 How long has she been preparing for this challenge?
3 It’s OK to fail, says Lowri, as long as you’ve done what two things?
4 What did she do during the snowy weather in Wales?
5 What are Lowri’s favourite pastimes in the home?
6 Who will she be trying to compete against?
7 What kinds of things have competitors lost in previous races?
8 What is Lowri’s main aim?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Mae Lowri’n poeni am y posibilrwydd o fethu. C/A

2 Mae hi’n hoff iawn o gystadlu. C/A
3 Prif bwrpas Lowri wrth wneud hyn ydy gosod record newydd. C/A
4 Mae Lowri wedi bod yn hyfforddi yn yr Arctig. C/A
5 Mae menig yn bwysig yn yr oerfel. C/A
6 Tydi’r rhan fwya o gystadleuwyr ddim yn gorffen y ras. C/A
Chapter 18: Bygwth Buddugoliaeth
Gofiadwy

Rugby again – this article from Y Cymro not only reports on latest news from the League
but also covers an organisational issue. It is written in the slightly more formal style typical
of this newspaper, with certain traditional spellings maintained (for example the -af ending
on adjectives – diwethaf = diwetha; and at least one example of an -nt ending: iddynt =
iddyn nhw) and various instances of impersonal verb forms (e.g. cynhelir). This piece is
intended to be more of a challenge in two ways: not only are the mutations not marked,
but also the Geirfa gives, in most cases, not the exact words in the article but (where relevant)
the more basic words from which they derive – for example, I have given not buddugoliaeth
as in the headline, but buddugol, the word it is built on. I have done this not out of cruelty
but as a way of encouraging you to do a bit of educated guesswork – an invaluable skill in
the process of acquiring and (more importantly perhaps) remembering new vocabulary.
72 Bygwth Buddugoliaeth Gofiadwy

Crusaders
Bygwth buddugoliaeth gofiadwy
gan Sian Couch llumanwr mewn gemau proffesiy-
nol yn cynnwys gemau rhyngw-
ladol. Cynhelir cyrsiau yn flynyd-
ROEDD y Crusaders yn hynod o dol ac fe gynhaliwyd y cwrs cyntaf
agos i drechu Leeds Rhinos ddydd erioed ar gyfer dyfarnwyr yng ngo-
Gwener diwethaf wrth i’r ymwel- gledd Cymru yn ddiweddar.
wyr ennill o 12-7 ar y Cae Ras yn Gobeithio y bydd y gem yn
Wrecsam. Roedd ymdrechion y ffynnu yng Nghymru dros y deng
ddau dim yn gyfartal gyda chais mlynedd nesaf, gyda mwy a mwy
Lauititi yn gwneud y gwahaniaeth. 0 dimau yn cyrraedd uchelfannau
Mae’r Crusaders wedi bod yn an- cynghrair Super League.
lwcus dros yr wythnosau diwethaf Bydd gem nesaf y Crusaders yn
ond mae yna arwyddion fod erbyn Salford City Reds heno ar
bechgyn Iestyn Harris yn dod yn y Cae Ras (cic gyntaf 8pm) gyda
agosach i sicrhau buddugoliaeth gem yn dilyn yr wythnos ganly-
haeddiannol yn erbyn tim o frig y nol yn stadiwm y Shay yn Halifax
gynghrair. dydd Sul, Gorffennaf 3 (cic gyntaf
Y mae Cymru fel gwlad wedi 3pm). Bydd y Crusaders ynedrych
cymryd camau mawr i fynd a rygbi 1 wneud y dwbl dros Huddersfield
xiii o gwmpas y wlad, gyda nifer Giants ar ol iddynt drechu’r Ce-
o dimau newydd yn ffynnu mewn wri gartref yn Wrecsam ychydig o
gwahanol ardaloedd megis Sir wythnosau yn ol.
Fynwy, Castell Nedd a Chaerffili; Yn y cyfamser, nid oedd gan
heb anghofio Crusaders Gogledd South Wales Scorpions gem yr
Cymru, y tim o dan 18 oed sydd yn wythnos hon ond fe fyddent yn
cystadlu am y tro cyntaf yn y gyn­ wynebu Keighley Cougars ddydd
ghrair ieuenctid eleni. Sul yn Virginia Park, Caerffili (cic
Mae hyfforddi dyfarnwyr a sw- gyntaf 3pm). Bydd yr ornest yn
yddogion eraill yng Nghymru yn uchafbwynt i benwythnos llawn
datblygu’n gyflym hefyd. o rygbi xiii yn cynnwys dwy gem
Sefydlwyd Cymdeithas y Dy­ gyda Valley Cougars yn erbyn Car­
farnwyr yng Nghymru tua chwe diff Demons a Coventry Bears.
blynedd yn ol ac mae’n hyfforddi a Bydd gemau Valley Cougars
datblygu swyddogion newydd bob yn dechrau yng Nghaerffili fory
blwyddyn; mae rhai wedi mynd am 1 o’r gloch, gyda’r ail gem yn
ymlaen i ddyfamu neu i fod yn dechrau am 3yp.
 Bygwth Buddugoliaeth Gofiadwy  73

Geirfa

bygwth – threaten cam – step

buddugol – victorious ffynnu – thrive
cofio – remember megis – like, such as
trechu – defeat dyfarnu – adjudge
ymweld âh – visit sefydlu – establish
cyfartal – equal lluman – banner, flag
cais – try (n) uchel – high
lwcus – lucky man (-nau) – place
arwydd – sign (n) cawr (cewri) – giant
haeddu – deserve gornest – match, contest
brig – top pwynt – point
cynghrair – league

hynod o agos ‘awfully close’.

Y mae (LW) = Mae – remember that in the literary language and other formal styles the
present and imperfect tenses of bod have a preceding affirmative particle y/yr; so similarly,
for example, yr ydych = dych chi ‘you are’, yr oeddem = (r)oedden ni ‘we were’, and so on.

i fynd âh ‘to take’.

Sir °Fynwy, Castell Nedd a hChaerffili ‘Monmouth(shire), Neath and Caerphilly’.

Mae hyfforddi  .  .  .  hefyd – the entire phrase hyfforddi  .  .  .  yng Nghymru is the subject of the
verb mae, with yn datblygu then following on: ‘Training  .  .  .  is developing’.

Cynhelir  .  .  .  fe °gynhaliwyd ‘will be held  .  .  .  was held’ – present/future and past impersonal

forms respectively of cynnal (stem cynhali-). ⇒ mw 367–373 Note that the writer chooses
to add affirmative marker fe° to the second of these, but not the first – this is perfectly
OK, since they are always optional anyway; it is purely a matter of style. ⇒ mw 213, ⇒
iw u23

ar ôl iddynt °drechu = ar ôl iddyn nhw °drechu ‘after they beat’. ⇒ mw 503, ⇒ iw u30

nid oedd gan y South Wales Scorpions gêm = doedd gan y South Wales Scorpions °ddim
gêm ‘the SWS didn’t have a game’ – nid oedd is LW for doedd dim; similarly in the present:
nid oes gennyf gar (LW) – does gen i °ddim car ‘I haven’t got a car’. Don’t ever use ni or
nid for ordinary negatives in speech of any kind. Please. For me.

dwy gêm – note the loanword gêm resisting SM after dwy°, as mentioned in Chapter 6; it
does the same after ail° a bit further on: yr ail gêm ‘the second game’. ⇒ mw 12 (e)
74  Bygwth Buddugoliaeth Gofiadwy

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What type of team are the North Wales Crusaders described as?
2 When was the Welsh Referees’ Association founded?
3 And how often do they run their training course?
4 How has the Crusaders’ luck been lately?
5 What is it that links Monmouth, Neath and Caerphilly?
6 What is the difference between the Crusaders’ upcoming games against Salford and
Halifax?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Cafodd Leeds Rhinos eu trechu gan y Crusaders. C/A

2 Cafodd y Cewri eu trechu gan y Crusaders. C/A
3 Doedd y Scorpions ddim yn chwarae’r wythnos ’ma. C/A
4 Bydd yn bosib gwylio dwy gêm yng Nghaerffili yfory. C/A
5 Mae Cymdeithas y Dyfarnwyr yng Nghymru newydd ei sefydlu. C/A
6 Cae Ras yw cartre’r Crusaders. C/A
Chapter 19: Leanne Wood

This piece from the online pages of Y Cymro reports on the 2012 contest for the leadership
of Plaid Cymru, a broadly socialist party whose ultimate goal is an independent Wales; in
addition to this political aim, PC has, right from its foundation in the nineteenth century,
also campaigned strongly in support of the Welsh language, although in recent years it has
made a point of emphasising to the electorate of Wales that it is a party that aims to have
equal appeal to the non-Welsh-speaking majority. Because of this, while the party has tradi­
tionally found its strongest support in the Welsh-speaking heartlands of North and West
Wales, it has long had an ambition to break through into the more populous areas of the
South, notably the Valleys, aiming to displace Labour in the process, and in recent years
determined efforts have been made to bring this about, particularly since the establishment
of the Welsh Assembly after the 1997 referendum on devolution. In March 2012 Leanne
Wood, who hails from the Rhondda in the South Wales valleys and represents the left wing
of the party, was elected the new leader – the first woman to hold the position, and also the
first non-native speaker of the Welsh language. This report is from the later stages of the
campaign that led to Leanne’s victory.
76  Leanne Wood

Leanne Wood yn cael cefnogaeth un o’r prif enwau

ym mudiad yr undebau llafur
Mae Leanne Wood, Plaid Cymru, wedi cael cefnogaeth un o’r prif enwau ym mudiad yr
undebau llafur.
Cyhoeddodd Mark Serwotka, Ysgrifennydd Cyffredinol Undeb y Gwasanaethau Cy-
hoeddus a Masnachol, ei fod yn cefnogi gwaith Ms Wood, gan ddweud ei bod hi’n “un
o’r gwleidyddion amlycaf yng Nghymru.” Bu’r AC dros Ganol De Cymru yn danbaid ei
hamddiffyniad o hawliau gweithwyr a bu’n gyson ei chefnogaeth i’r llinell biced a ralïau’r
undebau dros y blynyddoedd wrth amddiffyn cyflogau ac amodau gweithwyr y sector
cyhoeddus. Leanne hefyd yw cadeirydd presennol y GrAp PCS trawsbleidiol yn y Cynul-
liad Cenedlaethol.
Meddai Mr Serwotka, sy’n hanu o Aberdâr: “Bu Leanne yn gyfaill cyson i PCS ac yn
ymgyrchydd brwd dros fuddiannau ein haelodau. Pan aethom ati i sefydlu grAp traws-
bleidiol yn y Cynulliad Cenedlaethol yn 2005, etholwyd Leanne yn gadeirydd, ac mae’n
parhau i gyflawni’r swyddogaeth honno heddiw. Bu’n mynd i’r afael â’n pryderon yn
egnïol bob gafael – gan bwyso ar weinidogion ac uwch reolwyr am sicrwydd ynghylch
swyddi, cyflogau ac amodau. Pryd bynnag y byddem mewn anghydfod, byddai Leanne
yn siarad dros gyfiawnder ein hachos. Byddai’n cydsefyll â ni ar y llinell biced ac mewn
ralïau streicio.
“Mae PCS yn ddiolchgar am y gefnogaeth ddi-baid y mae Leanne wedi’i rhoi inni
dros y blynyddoedd – nid oes un gwleidydd yng Nghymru wedi bod yn gyfaill mor
ddibynadwy i’n haelodau.
Meddai hefyd: “Does dim amheuaeth gen i mai hi yw un o’r gwleidyddion amlycaf
yng Nghymru ac rydym yn falch o’i chefnogi ym mha ffordd bynnag y gallwn.”
Meddai Ms Wood: “Mae Mark yn rhywun rwy’n ei edmygu’n fawr iawn felly mae ei
gefnogaeth yn golygu llawer i mi. Bu’n ddraenen barhaus yn ystlys Llywodraethau olynol
yn San Steffan pryd bynnag y byddent yn ceisio diddymu hawliau ei aelodau y bu’n rhaid
ymladd yn galed i’w hennill.
“Nid oes arno ofn sefyll dros yr hyn sy’n iawn ac mae’n barod i ochri â gweithwyr y
sector cyhoeddus yn wyneb ymosodiadau parhaus ac anghyfiawn Llywodraeth y Con/
Demiaid.
“Tra bod pleidiau gwleidyddol eraill bellach yn celu rhag cefnogi hawliau gweithwyr
y sector cyhoeddus, credaf y gall Plaid Cymru arwain y ffordd wrth ddangos i weithwyr
mai ni yw’r blaid a fydd yn cynrychioli eu buddiannau ac yn ymladd dros eu hawliau i
dderbyn cyflog byw ac i ymddeol heb fod mewn tlodi.
“Credaf yn gadarn y bydd Cymru’n well ei byd fel gwlad annibynnol, ond tan i hynny
ddigwydd, mae’n hollbwysig ein bod yn ymladd i gadw’r gwasanaethau a’r swyddi sydd
gennym. Dim ond arweinyddiaeth wleidyddol gref a diffuant o Gymru wrth sefyll yn
erbyn San Steffan all wneud hynny.
“Dyma’r hyn y gall Plaid Cymru ei gynnig i etholwyr Cymru.”
 Leanne Wood  77

Geirfa

cefnogaeth – support (n) anghydfod – dispute

mudiad – movement cyfiawnder – justice
undeb (-au) – union achos – cause
cyhoeddi – announce cydsefyll âh – stand alongside
cyffredinol – general di-°baid – ceaseless
masnachol – commercial dibynadwy – dependable
AC (Aelod Cynulliad) – AM (Assembly edmygu – admire
Member) draenen – thorn
tanbaid – fervent, fiery parhaus – constant
amddiffyniad – defence ystlys – side, flank
hawl (-iau) – right (n) olynol – successive
cyflog (-au) – wages, salary diddymu – wipe out, get rid of
trawsbleidiol – cross-party ymladd – fight
hanu – come from, hail from ochri âh – side with
cyfaill – friend ymosodiad (-au) – attack (n)
ymgyrchydd – campaigner anghyfiawn – unjust, unfair
brwd – enthusiastic celu – hide, shy away
buddiant (buddiannau) – interest cynrychioli – represent
aelod (-au) – member ymddeol – retire
ethol – elect tlodi – poverty
swyddogaeth – function, office cadarn – firm
pryder (-on) – concern annibynnol – independent
egnïol – energetic hollbwysig – vital
pwyso – lean, put pressure arweinyddiaeth – leadership
gweinidog (-ion) – minister diffuant – genuine, sincere

gan °ddweud ei bod hi ‘saying that she is’.

amlycaf ‘foremost’, ‘most prominent’ – the superlative of amlwg, which has the stem amlyc-.
⇒ mw 104 (b), ⇒ iw u5

Bu’r AC ‘the AM has been’. ⇒ mw 245

yn °danbaid ei hamddiffyniad ‘fervent (in) her defence’.

wrth amddiffyn ‘in defending’.

mynd i’r °afael âh ‘get to grips with’.

uwch °reolwyr ‘senior managers’ – literally ‘higher managers’; uwch is the irregular com-
parative of uchel ‘high’. ⇒ mw 106, ⇒ iw u7

sicrwydd ynghylch swyddi ‘job security’ – literally ‘security concerning jobs’.

78  Leanne Wood

byddem (LW) = bydden ni ‘we would be’ or ‘we used to be’.

dros °gyfiawnder ein hachos ‘in support of the justice of our cause’ – a common use of
dros° ⇒ mw 453; remember that ein ‘our’ (along with ei ‘her’ and eu ‘their’) prefixes h- to
a following vowel. ⇒ mw 109

ym nmha ffordd bynnag y gallwn ‘in whatever way we can’; bynnag can be added to various
other words in the same way, e.g. pryd bynnag ‘whenever’, pwy bynnag ‘whoever’, lle byn-
nag or ble bynnag ‘wherever’, beth bynnag ‘whatever’; but notice that ‘whatever/whichever
(noun)’ is done not with beth but pa°, with the noun coming before bynnag – further ex-
amples: pa ysgol bynnag sy °well ’da chi ‘whichever school you prefer’, pa °fath bynnag o
swydd dych chi’n chwilio amdani ‘whatever kind of job you’re looking for’. Note also the
useful phrase fodd bynnag ‘however’. ⇒ mw 149

pryd bynnag y byddent yn ceisio ‘whenever they would/used to try’ – byddent (LW) = bydden nhw.

Nid oes arno ofn (LW) = Does arno °ddim ofn ‘He is not afraid’.

Tra bod pleidiau eraill bellach yn celu rhag  .  .  .  ‘While other parties are now shying away
from  .  .  .’ – bellach ‘now’ to imply that the other parties have changed their position from
previously. ⇒ mw 503, 506; 407

credaf ‘I believe’ – formal/LW for dw i’n credu.

mai ni yw’r °blaid a °fydd ‘that we are the party who will  .  .  .’ – focused clause emphasising
ni. ⇒ mw 492, ⇒ iw u34

heb °fod ‘without being’, ‘and not be’.

y bydd Cymru’n °well ei byd ‘that things will be better for Wales’ – literally ‘that Wales will
be better its world’. ⇒ mw 490, ⇒ iw u12

tan i hynny °ddigwydd ‘until that happens’ – tan° is more usually a preposition (tan Nadolig
‘until Christmas’ as opposed to the conjunction nes: nes i’r Nadolig °ddod ‘until Christmas
comes’); so here we would more often see nes i hynny °ddigwydd. ⇒ mw 467

ein bod yn = bod ni’n ‘that we’.

sydd gennym (LW) = sy gynnon ni ‘which we have’.

Dim ond  .  .  .  °all °wneud hynny ‘Only  .  .  .  can do that’ – another focused sentence with a
long clause (arweinyddiaeth °wleidyddol °gref a diffuant o °Gymru wrth sefyll yn erbyn San
Steffan) for its subject; °gref is the mutated feminine form of cryf ‘strong’. ⇒ mw 100

Dyma’r hyn y gall Plaid Cymru  .  .  .  ‘This is what Plaid Cymru can  .  .  .’ – note yr hyn mean-
ing ‘what’ in the sense of ‘the thing that’. ⇒ mw 144
 Leanne Wood  79

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 In what way does the PCS regard Leanne Wood as standing out from other
politicians?
2 What does Leanne see as Plaid Cymru’s priority in the immediate future before any
independence?
3 What does she say is needed to do this?
4 What is the name of the constituency Leanne represents in the Welsh Assembly?
5 What position was she elected to in 2005?
6 When did she give up this position?
7 What two specific areas of workers’ rights does Leanne identify as needing to be
fought for by the party?
8 How does she characterise Mark Serwotka’s dealings with Westminster?
9 What has been Leanne’s position with regard to picket lines?
10 How does she describe the Con–LibDem government’s dealings with public sector
workers?
11 What country does Mark Serwotka come from?
12 What reference is made to his standing in the Labour movement?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Mae Mark Serwotka’n byw yn Aberdâr. C/A

2 Mae Leanne am weld Cymru annibynnol. C/A
3 Mae Leanne yn meddwl fod gan weithwyr Cymru ormod o hawliau. C/A
4 Yn Ne Cymru mae etholaeth Leanne Wood. C/A
5 Fe drefnodd Leanne linell biced tu allan i San Steffan. C/A
6 Does gan Leanne ddim byd yn erbyn cydweithio gyda phleidiau C/A
eraill lle bo angen.
Chapter 20: Refferendwm

Sticking with politics for our next piece, we go almost exactly a year back to March 2011,
when the Welsh electorate voted in a referendum (Refferendwm ar bwerau Cynulliad Cened-
laethol Cymru 2011) to decide whether the Cynulliad (Welsh Assembly), which had been
brought into being by an earlier referendum of 1997, should have wider legislative powers
devolved from London; specifically, that powers should be extended from some to all mat-
ters in the twenty subject areas under Assembly jurisdiction. The campaigning was intense
– this letter to Y Cymro newspaper from a ‘Yes’ campaigner in the weeks before the vote
summarises the political arguments advanced by supporters of the change and takes to task
in no uncertain terms the writer of a previous letter who had urged a ‘No’ vote. In the end,
the ‘Yes’ side had an easy victory, winning in 22 out of 23 unitary authorities – the excep-
tion was Sir Fynwy (Monmouthshire), where they lost by a few hundred votes. The unitary
authority with the highest percentage of ‘yes’ votes (76 per cent) was, perhaps unsurpris-
ingly, Gwynedd in the north-west Welsh-speaking heartland, but it is interesting that the
campaign also scored some noteworthy successes in areas of the far south, for example 73
per cent in Castell Nedd Port Talbot (Neath Port Talbot).
There are a number of fairly complicated sentences in this piece – some involving rela-
tive clauses and some with long phrases as subjects to be dealt with before the verb. I have
tried to help you with some of these in the notes.

Digon aeddfed i lunio ein dyfodol ni ein hunain

Annwyl Olygydd,
Gyda chryn ddiflastod yr agorais dudalennau’r Cymro (Ionawr 14) a chanfod colofn
gan Len Gibbs ar ran y rheini sy’n galw eu hunain (yn ddigywilydd) yn ‘True Wales’.
Yr hyn sydd ganddo wrth gwrs yw’r Refferendwm sydd ar y gorwel. Sut yn y byd y
gall y dyn ddadlau dros gadw’r drefn bresennol?
Ar hyn o bryd mae gan y Cynulliad hawl i ddeddfu mewn 20 maes pwnc – ond mae’n
rhaid iddynt gael cydweithrediad a chaniatâd Senedd San Steffan cyn y gellir deddfu.
Mae’r broses hon wrth gwrs yn hir, yn llafurus ac yn ddrud i’w gweithredu.
Mae hefyd yn cyfleu nad oes gan y Cynulliad y gallu i ffurfio deddfwriaethau ac yn
ein gwneud ni Gymry yn israddol.
 Refferendwm  81

Ymellach, mae’r drefn hon yn sicrhau na all y Cynulliad greu deddfau fyddai’n rhoi
blaenoriaethau Cymru yn uwch na rhai Lloegr. Mae achosion wedi codi lle na allai’r
Cynulliad greu deddfwriaethau blaengar er ein lles ni yn ein gwlad ein hunain am nad
yw’r farn yn San Steffan am ganiatáu hynny.
Ar hyn o bryd dan y drefn bresennol, mae unrhyw ddeddfwriaeth, gaiff ei gynnig yng
Nghaerdydd, allai fod o fygythiad o unrhyw fath i fuddiannau Lloegr, a de-ddwyrain
Lloegr yn arbennig, yn sicr o gael ei mygu.
Ai cadw at y drefn hon, mewn difri, mae ‘True Wales’ am weld yn digwydd?
Fe hoffwn i gyfleu i Len Gibbs ac i bob un arall sy’n meddwl yr un fath ag o ein bod
ni fel cenedl bellach wedi aeddfedu digon a’n bod ni â digon o hyder i fynnu ein bod
ni am fod yn gyfrifol am lunio ein dyfodol ni ein hunain ac yn ymfalchïo fel cenedl mewn
gwneud hynny.
Pan ddaw’r Refferendwm – pleidleisiwch ‘Ie’.
Celt Roberts
Talsarnau
Gwynedd

Geirfa

aeddfed – grown up, mature deddfwriaeth (-au) – (piece of ) legislation

llunio – shape, form (v) israddol – inferior
dyfodol – future blaenoriaeth (-au) – priority
diflastod – disgust achos (-ion) – case
canfod – find, perceive blaengar – progressive
colofn – column cynnig – put forward, propose
digywilydd – shameless bygythiad – threat
gorwel – horizon buddiant (buddiannau) – interest
dadlau – argue mygu – stifle
trefn – system, arrangement cenedl – nation
deddfu – legislate aeddfedu – mature, grow up
maes pwnc – subject area hyder – confidence
cydweithrediad – cooperation mynnu – insist, demand
llafurus – laborious cyfrifol – responsible
gweithredu – put into action ymfalchïo – pride oneself
cyfleu – imply; convey pleidleisio – vote (v)

digon aeddfed ‘grown up enough’ – the dictionary definition of aeddfed is ‘mature’, but in
this context I think we would use ‘grown up’.

cryn °ddiflastod ‘quite some disgust’ – the useful word cryn° can be used before nouns and
VNs to express ‘quite (a/some)’ in the sense of a large amount or extent; further examples:
82  Refferendwm

bu cryn °ddadlau ‘there has been quite a bit of arguing’, cryn syndod ‘quite a surprise’, mae
cryn ymateb wedi bod ‘there has been quite a response’. ⇒ mw 96 (d)

y rheini sy’n ‘those who’ – y rheini is a less common spelling for the plural pronoun y
rheiny (from y rhai hynny ‘those ones’); another variant is y rheina; ‘these (ones)’ is y rhain
– Beth am y rhain? ‘What about these?’ ⇒ mw 136

Yr hyn sydd ganddo  .  .  .  yw  .  .  .  ‘What he’s on about  .  .  .  is  .  .  .’.

Sut yn y byd  .  .  .  ? ‘How on earth  .  .  .  ?’; there is also a variant modelled on English: Sut ar
y °ddaear  .  .  .  ?, and if your astonishment is really jaw-dropping you can say Sut ar wyneb y
°ddaear  .  .  .  ?: Sut ar wyneb y °ddaear y cafodd Ceri swydd fel tiwtor iaith? ‘How on earth
did Ceri get a job as a language tutor?’.

iddynt (LW) = iddyn nhw.

cyn y gellir deddfu – ‘before legislation can be brought in’ – literally ‘before one can legis-
late’, with the present/future impersonal of gallu. ⇒ mw 334

nad oes gan  .  .  .  ‘that  .  .  .  does not have’ – na (nad before original vowels – i.e. before a, e,
etc., but not before °a, °e, etc.) means ‘that  .  .  .  not’; there are several other instances in this
letter: na °all  .  .  .  ‘that  .  .  .  cannot’; further examples: na °ellir ‘that one cannot’, na °fyddwch
chi ‘that you will not be’, nad agorodd hi ‘that she didn’t open’. ⇒ mw 495

y gallu ‘the ability’ – the VN used as a noun, as is common and normal in Welsh.

deddfau °fyddai’n rhoi ‘laws which would give’ – the SM (from a°) on fyddai is enough to
supply the ‘which’; see note to a °fydd in Chapter 5. ⇒ mw 481, ⇒ iw u14

lle na °allai’r Cynulliad ‘where the Assembly was not able’ – this is the same na as discussed
above, but here used in its other function to introduce a negative subordinate clause –
in these instances there is no ‘that’ in the English translation: we have encountered it in
earlier pieces, for example after pam and os: pam na °ddewch chi draw? ‘why don’t you
come round?’, os nad ydyn nhw’n °barod ‘if they are not ready’. Note lle ‘where’, a very
common (in some areas far more common) alternative to ble.

er ein lles ni ‘for our benefit’ – from er lles ‘for the benefit of ’.

am nad yw ‘since  .  .  .  is not’ – yet another example of na(d) introducing a negative sub­
ordinate clause, this time after am ‘since’, ‘because’.

am °ganiatáu ‘want to allow’ – remember that am °VN is a common way of expressing

intention. ⇒ mw 448 (e)

mae unrhyw  .  .  .  yn sicr ‘any  .  .  .  is certain’ – the entire long phrase from unrhyw to arben-
nig, occupying about three lines, is the subject of mae, with yn sicr then following.
 Refferendwm  83

°gaiff ei °gynnig ‘which is/gets proposed’ – ‘which’ from the SM on caiff ‘gets’; see note to
deddfau °fyddai’n rhoi above.

°allai °fod ‘which could be’ – see note above.

o unrhyw °fath ‘of any kind’.

°gael ei mygu – cael-passive. ⇒ mw 362–363, ⇒ iw u21

Ai cadw – the particle ai is used as a question marker in focused sentences, and is placed
at the start of the sentence before the word or phrase being focused on; compare: (state-
ment) Gwyddeleg maen nhw’n siarad ‘It’s Irish that they are speaking’ (i.e. not any other
language), (negative) Nid Gwyddeleg maen nhw’n siarad ‘It’s not Irish that they are speak-
ing’, (question) Ai Gwyddeleg maen nhw’n siarad ‘Is it Irish that they are speaking?’.

mewn difri ‘in (all) seriousness’ – learn also the useful phrase o °ddifri ‘serious’, for example
dych chi o °ddifri? ‘are you serious?’.

am °weld – see note to am °ganiatáu above.

sy’n meddwl yr un °fath ag o ‘who thinks the same as him’ – o is of course the N word for
S e ‘he/him’.

ein bod ni ‘that we are’.

a’n bod ni â ‘and that we have’ – literally ‘and that we are with’; âh is sometimes used for
possession (rather than gan° or gydah) when talking of abstract or otherwise inalienable
possessions.

am °lunio – this example of am °VN, unlike previous ones in this piece, is not about
wanting or intention; the am° goes with the preceding word, because cyfrifol am° means
‘responsible for’.

gwneud – VN as noun: use the English ‘-ing’ form to translate this.

Pan °ddaw – short future after pan° ‘when’. ⇒ mw 310

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What area of the UK does the writer single out for criticism?
2 Apart from being long and laborious, what other drawback about the process of
passing legislation in the Assembly does the writer identify?
3 And what is the reason for this unsatisfactory situation?
4 Apart from maturity, what two other abstract qualities does the writer attribute to the
Welsh nation?
84  Refferendwm

5 And how does he describe the Welsh people as being treated under the present
system?
6 Does the writer think Welsh priorities should be placed on an equal footing with
those of England?

Exercise 2

Match the two halves of each sentence:

1 Mae’n amlwg nad
2 Fe hoffen ni
3 Siomedig iawn oedd yr ymateb a
4 Mae’r canlyniad ’ma’n
5 Dw i ddim yn cytuno â
6 Dim ond annibyniaeth
a. weld mwy o annibyniaeth i Gymru.
b. rhoi gobaith inni i gyd.
c. all datrys holl broblemau Cymru.
d. ’r hyn sy ganddo.
e. oes gobaith am newid yn y dyfodol agos.
f. gafwyd neithiwr.
Chapter 21: Ergyd Ariannol

Welsh can be studied at university level not only in Wales but also at some institutions in
England. Oxford University has the only Chair of Celtic in any English university, and the
professorship is associated with Jesus College, well known for its Welsh connections. This
report from the online pages of BBC Cymru concerns a change in circumstances for the
Chair of Celtic that poses a threat to its continued existence.
Note the difference between the general adjective Celtaidd ‘Celtic’ – for example diwy­
lliant Celtaidd ‘Celtic culture’ – and the noun Celteg, which more specifically refers to Celtic
languages: yr Athro Celteg ‘the Professor of Celtic’.
In this piece there are a number of examples of the cael-passive – perhaps this would be
a good time to review this important grammatical structure if you feel uncertain about it.

Ergyd ariannol i °Gadair °Geltaidd

Mae Coleg Iesu, Rhydychen yn chwilio am ffynonellau newydd o arian er mwyn sicrhau
parhad y °Gadair °Geltaidd, mae’r coleg wedi cadarnhau wrth Newyddion Arlein. Mae’r
°Gadair °Geltaidd wedi cael ei hchyllido’n rhannol gan °Goleg Iesu, ac yn rhannol gan
°Brifysgol Rhydychen, ond ni °fydd y °brifysgol yn ei hchyllido’n °barhaol o °fis Medi ymlaen.
Mae Coleg Iesu nawr yn bwriadu gwneud apêl i °godi arian ac mae trafodaethau ar y gweill
gyda sefydliadau eraill, ond mae’r Coleg yn ffyddiog bod dyfodol y °Gadair yn °ddiogel.
Mae cenedlaethau o °Gymry wedi gwneud gwaith ymchwil ôl-°raddedig ar y °Gymraeg
a’i llenyddiaeth yn Rhydychen o dan °gyfarwyddyd yr Athro Celteg.
Bydd deiliad presennol y swydd, yr Athro Thomas Charles-Edwards, yn ymddeol yn
swyddogol ym mis Medi, ond fe °fydd yn parhau i °gyfarwyddo gwaith myfyrwyr tan y
bydd olynydd yn cael ei °benodi.

‘Argyfwng’
Dywedodd llefarydd ar °ran Coleg Iesu: “Mae’r toriad yn y cyllido yn °ganlyniad i’r argy-
fwng yn y Dyniaethau yn Rhydychen. “Mae Cadair °Geltaidd Prifysgol Rhydychen yn cael
ei hchyllido’n rhannol gan °waddolion sy’n cael eu dal gan °Goleg Iesu, ac yn rhannol
gan y °brifysgol. “Ond mae angen ffynonellau newydd o arian i sicrhau bod astudiaethau
Celtaidd yn parhau yn Rhydychen. “Mae cynlluniau ar y gweill i °geisio llenwi rhan o’r
bwlch yn y cyllid, a byddwn yn gwneud apêl yn 2012”.
86  Ergyd Ariannol

‘Ehangu gorwelion’
Dywedodd un o’r cyn-°fyfyrwyr, Yr Athro John Rowlands, a astudiodd yno dan °gyfar-
wyddyd yr Athro Idris Foster: “Dwi’n meddwl ei °fod yn °bwysig °fod y °Gadair yn parhau.
“Cefais i °lawer o °fudd o °fod yno, roedd yn awyrgylch hollol °wahanol ac roedd yn
ffordd o ehangu gorwelion. “Ro’n i’n astudio llenyddiaeth °Gymraeg °ganoloesol, gan
°wneud ymchwil ar °ddwy °lawysgrif °Gymraeg oedd yng nNgholeg Christ Church yno.
“Mae llawer o °bobl yn synnu bod modd astudio’r °Gymraeg yn Rhydychen, ac mae’n
braf bod y pwnc yn un rhyngwladol. “Ond mae’n anodd cael person cymwys i °lenwi’r
°Gadair, gan °fod angen cymwysterau mewn mwy nag un o’r ieithoedd Celtaidd”.

Geirfa

ergyd – blow (n) toriad – cut (n)

Rhydychen – Oxford dyniaeth (-au) – humanity
ffynhonell (ffynonellau) – source gwaddol (-ion) – endowment
parhad – continuation, continuance astudiaeth (-au) – study (n)
cadarnhau – confirm cynllun (-iau) – plan (n)
cyllido – fund (v) llenwi – fill
yn rhannol – partly bwlch – gap
sefydliad (-au) – institution ehangu – broaden
ffyddiog – confident gorwel (-ion) – horizon
diogel – safe budd – advantage, benefit
cenhedlaeth (cenedlaethau) – generation awyrgylch – atmosphere
ymchwil – research (n) canoloesol – medieval
ôl-°raddedig – postgraduate llawysgrif – manuscript
cyfarwyddyd – direction synnu – be surprised
deiliad (deiliaid) – holder rhyngwladol – international
olynydd – successor cymwys – eligible, suitable
penodi – appoint cymhwyster (cymwysterau) – qualification
argyfwng – crisis iaith (ieithoedd) – language

er mwyn sicrhau ‘in order to ensure’.

wedi cael ei hchyllido ‘has been funded’ – cael-passive. ⇒ mw 362–363, ⇒ iw u21

ni °fydd (LW) = °fydd .  .  .   °ddim.

ei hchyllido ‘fund it’ – possessive ei used for the pronoun object of a VN. ⇒ mw 114
 Ergyd Ariannol  87

yn ymddeol yn swyddogol ‘officially retire’ – the first yn is the type that links a VN (ymd­
deol) to the preceding auxiliary (bydd), while the second yn (actually yn°, but you can’t tell
here) is the type that turns an adjective (swyddogol) into an adverb. ⇒ mw 473

fe °fydd yn parhau ‘he will continue’ – notice the omission of the pronoun e, perfectly
normal in Welsh where we already know who is being talked about; in this case, the deiliad
presennol mentioned earlier in the sentence.

Bydd  .  .  .  yn cael ei °benodi – another cael-passive.

Mae’r  .  .  .  yn °ganlyniad i  .  .  . ‘The  .  .  .  is a result of  .  .  .’.

mae angen ‘is/are needed’ – literally ‘there is need of  .  .  .’. ⇒ mw 397

byddwn = byddwn ni.

cyn-°fyfyrwyr ‘ex-students’ – cyn can be prefixed to nouns in this sense, usually with a
hyphen, and always with SM.

a astudiodd ‘who studied’ – relative particle a° ‘who/which’, used before all verbs with end-
ings except present tense of bod, which has its own relative form sy or sydd; so ‘who will
study’ is a °fydd yn astudio, ‘who was studying’ a oedd yn astudio, but ‘who studies’ would
be sy’n astudio, and ‘who has studied’ would be sy wedi astudio, because these last two
used the present tense (one with yn and the other with wedi); the a is often dropped in
speech, and in informal writing – see also note to oedd below. ⇒ mw 481, ⇒ iw u14

yno ‘there’ – used for places out of sight of the speaker. ⇒ mw 419

cefais i = ces i ‘I got’.

oedd = a oedd ‘which were’.

Mae llawer o °bobl yn synnu ‘Many people are surprised’ – synnu is an active verb in Welsh
corresponding to a sort of passive in English; so ‘I’m surprised’ is simply dw i’n synnu; ‘I
was surprised’ is either o’n i’n synnu or (fe/mi) °ges i ’n synnu.

bod modd ‘that it is possible’ – literally ‘that there is (bod) a way (modd)’.

gan °fod angen ‘since one needs’ – when gan is used to mean ‘since/because’ it is followed
by a ‘that’-clause (just like other words for ‘because’, e.g. achos, oherwydd, am), so this
literally means ‘since that there is a need’. ⇒ mw 504
88  Ergyd Ariannol

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 Why is it hard to find someone suitable for the Chair?
2 What was the subject of John Rowlands’ research at Oxford?
3 How is Jesus College planning to raise money?
4 Apart from Jesus College, where else has the Chair in Celtic got its funding from up
till now?
5 How has Jesus College financed its share of the funding?
6 What two benefits of his time in Oxford does John Rowlands mention?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Fe drefnir apêl gan Brifysgol Rhydychen. C/A

2 Mae’r Athro Thomas Charles-Edwards yn bwriadu ymddeol yn C/A
gyfangwbl ym mis Medi.
3 Mae’r Athro Idris Foster yn cyfarwyddo’r apêl am arian. C/A
4 Mae’r Dyniaethau’n mynd i dderbyn llai o arian o hyn ymlaen. C/A
5 Coleg Iesu a fydd yn darparu’r holl arian ar gyfer y Gadair C/A
Geltaidd o hyn ymlaen.
6 Mae swyddogion y Coleg yn optimistaidd am ddyfodol y Gadair. C/A
Chapter 22: Y Gweithdy

Golwg magazine has a regular feature (Y Gweithdy – The Workshop) where celebs, creative types
and other people in the public eye talk about the room in their house where they do their work.
This one is about the journalist and radio presenter Kate Crockett, or rather her shed, which
is located in the garden of her home in Llandeilo Ferwallt. No, I have never heard of this
place either, and I have no idea where it is. Somewhere near Swansea (Abertawe), I bet.
90 Y Cweithdy

Y Gweithdy

Kate Crockett

Sied yng ngardd ei chartref yn Llandeilo Ferwallt ym Mhenrhyn Gwyr

sydd gan y beirniad llenyddol a’r darlledydd Kate Crockett...
ae cym udo i waelod y r ardd o bobol w irioneddol greadigol yng w neud y tro i fi...
M gefn yn ffenomenon fodern
mae’n debyg. Sied neu gaban pren
N ghymru ac mae cael siarad a nhw
yn ysbrydoliaeth.
Llyfrau Cymraeg sydd ar y
silffoedd yn bennaf. Wn i ddim pryd
yw fy swyddfa i; fe gyrhaeddodd Ers dros ugain mlynedd nawr agorais i’r llyfrau coleg ddiw ethaf
fel cit dwy flynedd yn ol, a’r gwr rydw i wedi cadw tocynnau gigs a - Canu Taliesin, D rych y P rif
w naeth y gw aith adeiladu a chodi’r dram au, ac mae casgliad ohonyn Oesoedd, Y sgrifeniadau B yrion
holl silffoedd ar y tu fewn. Cyn nhw ’n addurno’r wal. Fy ngw r piau’r M organ Llwyd - ond mae’n b raf
hynny roeddwn i’n gweithio w rth offerynnau cerdd a’r lluniau lu o’r gw ybod eu bod nhw yma. Mae’r
y bwrdd bwyd neu ar y gwely, ac Beatles ond fi sydd ar fai am y r holl llyfrau’n lluosogi’n w ythnosol,
roedd y llyfrau’n gorlifo allan o’r A mericana. Dydw i erioed wedi bod w rth i fi baratoi ar gyfer Stiwdio,
ty. Erbyn hyn mae’r anialw ch i yn rhan o Dixie Stompede Dolly ysgrifennu adolygiadau, a darllen at
gyd w edi’i symud i’r caban ac mae Parton - cefais y baneri hynny bleser.
ychydig y n fw y o drefn ar y ty! yn anrheg - ond byddwn w rth fy Ac ar y silff u chaf mae’r hanner
Does faw r o olygfa allan drw y’r modd yn ymweld a Dollywood rhyw can llyfr oedd yn gymwys ar gyfer
ffenest - dim ond y ffens sy’n ddydd! cystadleuaeth Llyfr y Flwyddyn
rhannu ein gardd ni a gardd drws Fy llysfab beintiodd y streipiau eleni - a’r tri sydd ar y rhestr fer ar
nesaf - ond mae’n goediog iawn trw chus ar y gynfas ddu, a phrynais fin cael eu darllen eto cyn byddwn
yma felly mae digon o adar yn y ddau brint lliw gar o adeiladau ni fel beirniaid yn penderfynu ar y r
galw heibio. Yn y r h af mae’r drws Efrog Newydd a cherddorion yn New enillydd ar O rffennaf 7.
a’r ffenest ar agor led y pen, ac yn Orleans oddi ar Ebay. Mae lluniau V irg in ia W oolf y sg rifen n o d d am
hytrach na chau’r drws ar y byd, o ddau lenor ar y wal hefyd - Kate bw ysigrw ydd cael ystafell i ch i’ch
rydw i’n hoffi gadael ychydig ohono Roberts yn ifanc - pam ei bod hi hun, ac m ae’r ystafell hon y n
i mewn. w astad yn cael ei phortreadu fel hen cy n ry ch io li’r p ethau s y ’n bw ysig i
Fan hyn y bydda’ i’n paratoi berson?- a Dylan Thomas. fi: llu n iau o’r teu lu a ffrin d iau , y
ar gyfer cyfw eliadau’r rhaglen Y llynedd fe gyhoeddais i ly fry n lly frau a luniodd fy nghym eriad,
Stiwdio ar Radio Cymru, yn darllen am y bardd o A bertaw e, fu ’n byw a’r g erddoriaeth a’r gelf sydd
am gefndir awduron, artistiaid a am g yfnodau yn y p e n tref hwn. w edi fy n g h y ffro i i ar hyd y
cherddorion, ac mae cryn dipyn o B yddai’n ym w eld a’r d afarn leol blynyddoedd. Nid lie i ddianc iddo
gardiau post ac ati ar y wal yn waith am y sbrydoliaeth, ond m ae’n yw hw n, ond lie i ddiolch am y
gan westeion y rhaglen. Mae cynifer rhaid i baned o goffi c ry f o’r gegin p eth au hynny.
 Y Gweithdy  91

Geirfa

beirniad (beirniaid) – critic addurno – decorate

darlledydd – broadcaster offeryn (-nau) – instrument
cymudo – commute baner (-i) – flag, banner
gwaelod – bottom llysfab – stepson
pren – wood trwchus – thick
silff (-oedd) – shelf lliwgar – colourful
gorlifo – overflow llenor – literary figure
anialwch – chaos portreadu – portray
trefn – order llyfryn – booklet
golygfa – view lluosogi – multiply
coediog – wooded adolygiad (-au) – review
aderyn (adar) – bird pleser – pleasure
yn hytrach nah – rather than cystadleuaeth – competition
gadael – let rhestr °fer – shortlist
cyfweliad (-au) – interview enillydd – winner
cefndir – background cynrychioli – represent
cerddor (-ion) – musician cymeriad – character
gwestai (gwesteion) – guest cerddoriaeth – music
gwirioneddol – real celf – art
ysbrydoliaeth – inspiration cyffroi – excite
tocyn (-nau) – ticket dianc – escape
casgliad – collection

mae’n °debyg ‘probably’ – this phrase is used either at the start of a sentence (with a ‘that’-
clause) or, as here, tagged on at the end.

a’r ger °wnaeth y gwaith adeiladu focused sentence: ‘and (it was) (my) husband (who) did
the building’.

anialwch – this word normally means ‘desert’ or ‘wilderness’, but the sense here is clearly
more like ‘chaos’; llanast is also very common for something similar: mae’r lle ’ma’n llanast
‘this place is a tip’ – I hear this phrase quite often at home.

wedi’i symud ‘has been moved’ – with cael (optionally but perfectly properly) omitted; when
a corresponding past participle in English is used strictly as an adjective, however, the
removal of cael is obligatory – compare: mae’r ffenest wedi (cael) ei hchau ‘the window
has been closed’ vs ffenest wedi’i hchau ‘a closed window’. ⇒ mw 364

does °fawr o °olygfa ‘there’s not much of a view’ – learn does °fawr o°, it’s handy.

galw heibio ‘call by’.

92  Y Gweithdy

ar agor led y pen ‘wide open’.

cryn °dipyn ‘quite a bit’, quite a lot’; cryn is also used with nifer ‘number’: cryn nifer o
°bethau ‘quite a few things’; and you can use it in front of nouns generally, in the sense of
‘quite a bit of ’ or ‘quite some’ – see the example gyda hchryn °ddiflastod at the start of the
letter in Chapter 20.

ac ati ‘and so on’ – learn this very useful phrase; a similar one is ac yn y blaen, abbreviated ayb.

cynifer ‘so many’ – the counterpart to cymaint ‘so much’; like nearly all quantity words, it
uses o° to link it to a following noun, as here: cynifer o °bobol ‘so many people’.

°wirioneddol °greadigol ‘really creative’ – gwirioneddol as an intensifier (‘really’ = ‘very’)

precedes its adjective, and causes SM; the SM on °wirioneddol itself is because the preced-
ing noun pobol is feminine; the SM on °bobol is because the preceding o° causes SM. You
could go on all day like this, couldn’t you?

mae cael siarad â nhw yn ysbrydoliaeth – ‘getting/being allowed to talk to them is an

inspiration’ – the entire phrase cael siarad â nhw is the subject of mae.

ugain nmlynedd – notice that, despite official promotion of ‘simpler’ decimalised forms for
the numbers (e.g. dauddeg ‘20’), this is still how you say ‘20 years’; same goes for ugain
munud ‘20 minutes’ when you’re telling the time, and ugain punt ‘£20’; and the other
original numbers are still alive and kicking as well, for example deunaw ‘18’, deuddeg ‘12’,
pymtheg ‘15’, and whatever you’re having yourself; all the bureaucrats have managed to do
is give learners of the language two sets of numbers to learn where before there was only
one. Brilliant. ⇒ mw 164, ⇒ bw u31

fy nnger piau ‘my husband owns’ or ‘.  .  .  is/are my husband’s’; an alternative way of saying
fy nnger °biau or fy nnger sy °biau; note that piau/°biau is not a true VN, and does not use
linking yn after sy, which you would of course normally expect. ⇒ mw 393

lluniau °lu ‘loads of pictures’ – llu means ‘host’ in the sense of ‘large number’, and the SM
form can be added to plural nouns to mean the same as llawer iawn o°; you will also see
on posters for forthcoming events the expression Dewch yn llu ‘Come in droves’ – yn here,
incidentally, meaning not ‘in’ but ‘as’.

fi sydd ar °fai ‘I am to blame’ – this is always done as a focused sentence in Welsh, starting
with the guilty party; ar °fai ‘to blame’ or ‘at fault’ is one of a large set of expressions of
temporary states using ar°; other common ones are ar agor ‘open’, ar °gau ‘closed’, ar °goll
‘lost’, ar °ddihun ‘awake’. ⇒ mw 426

yn anrheg ‘as a present’.

wrth fy nmodd ‘delighted’ (referring to ‘me’); the root word is bodd, with different posses-
sives for reference to different persons, for example wrth ei °fodd (i.e. ‘him’), wrth ei bodd
(‘her’), etc.
 Y Gweithdy  93

fy llysfab °beintiodd ‘it was my stepson who painted’ – focused sentence.

byddai’n ymweld â’r °dafarn °leol ‘he used to visit the local pub’ – the byddwn i (etc.) tense
of bod, more often a conditional (‘would be’), is also used as a past habitual; actually we do
the same in English: ‘every day he would walk along the beach’. ⇒ mw 319

mae’n rhaid i °baned o °goffi  .  .  .  °wneud y tro i fi ‘a cup of coffee has to do the trick for
me’ – learn gwneud y tro ‘do the trick’.

yn °bennaf ‘mainly’.

°wn i °ddim ‘I don’t know’ – this is an alternative for dw i °ddim yn gwybod, as are also
dwn i °ddim, dwn ’im, sa i’n gwybod and smo fi’n gwybod; use the one you hear around
you. ⇒ mw 322

°ddiwethaf – adverb ‘last’; in other words, this word does not belong with the preceding
coleg, but has its own sense of ‘the last time’: so pryd agorais i’r llyfrau coleg °ddiwethaf
means ‘when I last opened the college books’.

wrth i fi °baratoi ‘as I prepare’ – see note to ers i °ddaeargryn °daro’r °wlad in Chapter 3.

ar °fin cael eu darllen ‘about to be read’ – ar °fin ‘about to’ or ‘on the point of ’ (min is
‘edge’) is used with a following VN, in this case cael because this is a cael-passive.

i chi’ch hun ‘for yourself ’. ⇒ mw 132

a °luniodd ‘which formed’ – the relative particle a°: see note to a °fydd yn rhoi grym in
Chapter 12. ⇒ mw 481, ⇒ iw u14

sydd wedi fy nnghyffroi ‘which have excited me’ – possessive fy used for the pronoun object
of a VN. ⇒ mw 114

ar hyd y blynyddoedd ‘over the years’ – blynyddoedd (blynyddau in some areas) is the plu-
ral of blwyddyn when there are no numbers involved. ⇒ mw 176

nid lle i °ddianc iddo yw hwn ‘this is not a place to escape to’ – a negative identification
sentence, the only general use of nid in the living language; further examples: nid tedi bach
cyffredin mohono bellach ‘he’s not an ordinary little teddy any more’, nid Elwyn enillodd
‘it wasn’t Elwyn who won’, nid fi sy ar °fai ‘it’s not me who is to blame’, ‘it’s not my fault’
– these are nearly always exactly like affirmative focused sentences, but with nid attached
to the front. Simple!
94  Y Gweithdy

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What remark did Virginia Woolf make about the profession of writing?
2 What objects did Kate pick up in New York?
3 When did she visit Dollywood?
4 How long is the shortlist for Book of the Year?
5 When did Kate publish her book on Dylan Thomas?
6 What kinds of things are on her walls apart from pictures?
7 What is the main feature of the view out of her window?
8 What is Kate’s observation about Kate Roberts?
9 What noise is heard in her garden?
10 What is going to happen on 7 July?
11 When did Kate’s luxury shed arrive?
12 And where did she use to do her work before getting her luxury shed? Don’t just say
‘In the house’ – make an effort.

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Mae’r mwyafrif o’r llyfrau ar silffoedd Kate wedi’u hysgrifennu C/A

yn Gymraeg.
2 Mae Kate yn mwynhau golygfeydd anhygoel o’i ffenest. C/A
3 Virginia Woolf oedd yn berchen ar y sied flynyddoedd yn ôl C/A
cyn i Kate gael ei geni hyd yn oed.
4 Am ryw reswm mae Kate yn hoffi rhoi tocynnau o bob math C/A
ar y wal.
5 Gas gan Kate orfod siarad â phobol greadigol. C/A
6 Gar Kate sy’n gyfrifol am yr Americana. C/A
7 Buodd Kate yn Dollywood am ddiwrnod. C/A
8 Tydi hi ddim yn agor ei llyfrau coleg yn aml iawn. C/A
Chapter 23: Harddwch yn y Llymder

This reader’s letter that appeared in the pages of the weekly Y Cymro recently addresses a
subject that is a constant talking point in Wales: Ble mae’r lle hyllaf yng Nghymru? ‘Where
is the ugliest place in Wales?’ Indeed, never a day goes by that I don’t find myself asking
this question, and nobody ever seems to have the answer. Certainly I have quite lost count
of the sleepless nights I have had thinking about it, and I know I am not alone in this.
This correspondent at least, however, is certain in his views on one particular (and
famous) locality in the Welsh heartlands, and he doesn’t pull any punches.

Harddwch yn y llymder
Annwyl Olygydd,
Yn ddiweddar clywais gyda diddordeb grAp o ymwelwyr mewn tafarn lleol yn cymharu
eu profiadau yng Nghymru. Yn sydyn, gofynnodd un ohonynt gwestiwn annisgwyl – Ble
mae’r lle hyllaf yng Nghymru?
Cafwyd sawl cynnig ond, yn y diwedd, penderfynodd y mwyafrif mai Blaenau Ffestiniog
oedd yn haeddu’r teitl. Roedd yr esboniadau yn ddisgwyliedig, sef – yn y dref mae popeth
yn edrych yn llwyd, diflas, digalon, a thrist, medden nhw. Popeth – y tomenni llechi, y
chwareli eu hunain, y tai, y stryd fawr, hyd yn oed y trigolion. Mae’r diwydiant wedi taflu
cysgod dros yr holl le.
Er hynny, yn fy marn i, dim ond rhan o’r llun yw hyn, ond y rhan hawsaf i weld. Yn
ogystal â’r llymder mae harddwch, gwerth ac urddas. Mae’r llechi wedi rhoi i’r byd  
etifeddiaeth ddifesur.
Mae gweddillion y diwydiant hwn – bythynnod gweithwyr, adeiladau gwag, peiriannau
rhydlyd – yn arddangos harddwch eu hun a gwerth. Mae hyd yn oed y mynyddoedd
sbwriel o lechi yn tystiolaethu i bennod hanfodol yn ein hanes diwydiannol. Ar ben
hynny, mae llawer o’r safleoedd yma yn cael eu llyncu gan natur, a’u trawsnewid yn
lleoedd o harddwch a hamdden.
Yn ddiymwad roedd bywydau’r gweithwyr ym Mlaenau Ffestiniog yn galed iawn. Ond,
er gwaethaf yr amgylchiadau cynhyrchodd y gweithwyr bethau o harddwch – brawdolia-
eth, balchder yn y gwaith a medrau trawiadol.
Efallai y gellir disgrifio Blaenau fel lle caled iawn ond mae disgrifio’r fath leoedd yn
hyll gydag agwedd ddiystyriol yn iselbrisio bywydau, medrau a chyfraniad ein hynafiaid.
Roger Kite
Llanandras
96  Harddwch yn y Llymder

Geirfa

harddwch – beauty etifeddiaeth – heritage

llymder – bleakness difesur – immeasurable
diweddar – recent gweddill (-ion) – remainder
diddordeb – interest bwthyn (bythynnod) – cottage
cymharu – compare rhydlyd – rusty
annisgwyl – unexpected arddangos – display
hyll – ugly mynydd (-oedd) – mountain
cynnig – offer, suggestion tystiolaethu – bear witness to
mwyafrif – majority pennod – chapter
haeddu – deserve hanfodol – essential
esboniad (-au) – explanation llyncu – swallow
disgwyliedig – expected trawsnewid – transform
llwyd – grey hamdden – leisure
diflas – boring diymwad – undeniable
digalon – dismal, depressing amgylchiad (-au) – circumstance
tomen (-ni) – heap brawdoliaeth – fraternity
llechen (llechi) – slate balchder – pride
chwarel (-i) – quarry medr (-au) – skill, ability
trigolion – inhabitants trawiadol – impressive
diwydiant – industry agwedd – attitude
taflu – throw diystyriol – deprecating
cysgod – shadow iselbrisio – undervalue
yn ogystal âh – as well as cyfraniad – contribution
gwerth – value hynafiad (hynafiaid) – ancestor
urddas – dignity

clywais ‘I heard’ – a rather formal style with the pronoun omitted.

ohonynt (LW) = ohonyn nhw.

Cafwyd sawl cynnig ‘there were several suggestions’ – literally ‘were had’, past impersonal of
cael (stem caf-); similarly, for example, cafwyd ymateb da ‘there was a good response’, etc.

mai – introducing focused clause. ⇒ mw 492

sef ‘namely’ – learn this useful little word.

medden nhw ‘they said’ – the quotative verb; see note to meddai in Chapter 5. ⇒ mw 392

er hynny ‘despite this’ or ‘nonetheless’ – learn as a set phrase; ‘despite’ is usually er gwa-
etha, however: er gwaetha’r tywydd gwael ‘despite the bad weather’; there is an example of
this (spelt er gwaethaf ) further on.
 Harddwch yn y Llymder  97

hawsaf ‘easiest’ – hawdd ‘easy’ has irregular comparative forms haws ‘easier’ and hawsa(f )
‘easiest’, although regular forms hawddach and hawdda are also encountered. ⇒ mw 106

harddwch eu hun ‘their own beauty’ – remember that hun (or hunan/hunain) can mean
‘self ’ or ‘own’ according to context. ⇒ mw 134, ⇒ iw u27

ar °ben hynny ‘furthermore’ – another useful expression you should learn.

yn cael eu llyncu – cael-passive; the following ’u trawsnewid is also a cael-passive, but with
the cael simply carried over.

Efallai y gellir disgrifio  .  .  .  ‘Perhaps  .  .  .  can be described’ – present/future impersonal of

gallu; literally this means something like ‘perhaps that one can  .  .  .’ ⇒ mw 334; note the
‘that’ (y) clause which is normal after all words for ‘perhaps’. ⇒ mw 436

Mae  .  .  .  yn iselbrisio – the entire clause disgrifio’r °fath °leoedd yn hyll gydag agwedd
°ddiystyriol is the subject of the verb mae, with yn iselbrisio then following.

’r °fath °leoedd ‘such places’ – for y °fath° see note to ’r °fath ffwlbri in Chapter 8. ⇒ mw 116

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 How does the writer characterise the lives of workers in Blaenau Ffestiniog?
2 What five aspects of Blaenau Ffestiniog are reported as being singled out for
criticism?
3 Apart from workers’ cottages and houses, what kinds of buildings are mentioned?
4 What positive interpretation does the writer put on the mountains of slate?
5 What description is made of the industrial machinery?
6 What kind of people were discussing this in the pub?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Caled iawn oedd bywydau gweithwyr Blaenau Ffestiniog. C/A

2 Mae natur i’w gweld ymhlith y tomenni a’r chwareli. C/A
3 Gellir gweld peiriannau rhydlyd yn hardd. C/A
4 Mae’r adeiladau ym Mlaenau Ffestiniog i gyd yn wag erbyn hyn. C/A
5 Llechi oedd prif ddiwydiant Blaenau Ffestiniog. C/A
6 Mae llefydd fel hyn wedi cyfrannu at hanes ein gwlad. C/A
Chapter 24: Fy Hoff Le I

Another article from Sgrîn, the viewers’ magazine for S4C – this one is a regular feature
(Fy Hoff Le I – My Favourite Place) where a well-known personality describes some of their
favourite places and why they like them. Anni Llbn is a children’s TV presenter and per-
former – she starts off with localities round Cardiff, and then goes further afield, finishing
with her favourite of all – as different from the capital as it’s possible to get and still be
in Wales.
This piece is written in colloquial Northern Welsh, as you can see from spellings like
cyfadda (= cyfadde), cloddia (= cloddiau) and ora (= orau). The very natural and colloquial
style of this piece makes it quite a tricky one, with a number of words that are either dialect
or for some other reason not to be found in most dictionaries (the gigantic Geiriadur Pri-
fysgol Cymru will have them, though) – for example giami and dow-dow. But it is excellent
practice for you as an example of Welsh written as spoken, with not a hint of any LW from
beginning to end – and, as you will see, the language certainly doesn’t lose anything for it.
Quite the contrary, to my mind: what we have here is a demonstration of the vitality of the
language at its most authentic.
There are a lot of exciting North Welsh place names in this piece, many of them mutated
– enjoy!! And revise your mutations beforehand if necessary.
 Fy H o f f Le I 99

36
ENNILL DY DEULU B ellach, dwi'n byw yng N ghaerd yd d. Ond m ae fy hoff lefydd i yn y byd yr
16/00 Yma m ae ngw aith i, felly d y n a lie holl ffordd i fyny'r A470. Mi fy d d a i
Llun i G w ener dros dwi'n byw. M ae hi'n an o d d c y fa d d a wrth fy modd yn dod rownd y gornel
w y lia u 'r Pasg hynny, achos hogan 0 Ben Llyn ydw uw chben Cricieth a gw eld y mor yn
0 Gymru g a n Boom erang. i a dydw i mond yn y dd in as dros iaw n am y tro cynta a Phen Llyn yn y
s4c.co.uk/stwnsh dro. D yna dwi'n deud w rth a i fy hun, pellter. Yna, gyrru drw y Bwllheli. Arafu
beth b y nnag. Ond m ae C a erdydd yn w edyn a r ben M ynytho i g a e l edrych
a gos iaw n a t fy n ghalon. Dwi wrth fy i law r a r fyd bach A bersoch a draw
m odd yn loetran i g a n o l y d dinas, yn am Drwyn Cilan cyn gyrru 'm laen i
enw edig yr a rd a l 0 fla e n y Llyfrgell go ed N anhoron. Yna. wrth g y rra e d d
G anolog. Dym a i chi a rd a l ddifyr wrth B otw nnog. cipolwg a r draw s y c a e a u
i'r darllenw yr, y bw ytaw yr, y siopw yr tu a g a t Ysgol Botw nnog i weld os
stryd fa w r a siopw yr unigryw 'r Arceds, 'di Nain a d ra yn Nhir Du. Wedi i mi
gym ysgu yn un lobsgow s 0 en e id ia u g y rra e d d a d ra , yr iard yn ein ty ni ydi
prysur. un o fy hoff lefydd i, yn enw edig os
oes 'n a og la d efaid ac wyn yn
Lie a ra ll yng N ghaerd yd d sy w a s ta d llenwi'r aer.
yn rhoi rhyw bleser bach i mi ydi
gorsaf d re n a u G rangetow n. Dydi hi Ond lie ydi fy hoff le i? Pan o'n i'n
'm ond yn blatfform uchel, dwy fainc fach, a r bnaw n dydd Sul mi fyd d ai'n
a tho bach giam i, a'r negesfw rdd rhaid i ba w b yn ein ty ni neidio mewn
e le ctro n eg 'na. Yn fanno, rhwng dau i'r fan a mynd 'a m -d ro -d ro s -b e n -
dren, mi fedrw ch chi symud swn y Rhiw'. Dringo w edyn, d o w -d o w i fyny'r
ddinas i'r cefndir ac edrych a lla n lonydd bach i ben mynydd Y Rhiw,
tu a g a t gyrion y ddinas. g an fynd yn ddigon a ra f i T a d a g a e l
nelu dros ben cloddia! Cyn cyrra e d d
pw ynt ucha'r Ion, ac os byddai'r
tyw ydd yn c a n ia ta u , neidio a lla n a
sefyll a r y claw dd i w eld yr olygfa ora
yn y byd...w el yn fy myd i beth bynnag.
Mi fedrw ch chi weld tonnau Porth
Neigwl ac a r draw s y Penrhyn a c h a e l
cipolwg a r Garn Fadryn, ty ni, coed
Cefn Amlwch, tu a g a t Dudweiliog, nes
gw eld y mor yr ochr arall. Ar ol cym ryd
yr holl beth i mewn a sylw eddoli p a
mor Iwcus o e d d a n ni i gyd, gyrru
m laen w edyn drw y bentre Y Rhiw
law r i A berd aron ac yn ol am a d ra . Mi
fy d d a i d al i fynd 'a m -d ro -d ro s -b e n -
Rhiw' pan fy d d a i'n mynd a d ra . Mi a f
i a r fy mhen fy hun, dim ond er mwyn
a tg o ffa fy hun o'r hyn sy'n bwysig
mewn byw yd. Felly fanno, a r ben
mynydd Y Rhiw yn edrych lawr dros
fy ng h a rtre f ac a r draws Pen Llyn,
ydi fy hoff le i.
100  Fy Hoff Le I

Geirfa

loetran – loiter, wander cae (-au) – field

llyfrgell – library nain – grandmother
canolog – central adra (= adre) – home
difyr – entertaining, fun yn enwedig – especially
cymysgu – mix ogla (= aroglau) – smell
lobsgows – hotchpotch dafad (defaid) – sheep
enaid (eneidiau) – soul oen (eyn) – lamb
prysur – busy llenwi – fill
mainc – bench neidio – jump
to – roof dringo – climb
giami – wonky dow-dow – in a leisurely fashion
negesfwrdd – message board lôn (lonydd) – lane
cwr (cyrion) – edge nelu (= anelu) – aim
uwchben – above clawdd (cloddiau) – hedge
pellter – distance ton (-nau) – wave
arafu – slow down sylweddoli – realise
byd – world atgoffa – remind
cipolwg – glimpse

Bellach dwi’n byw yng nNghaerdydd ‘I live in Cardiff now’ – remember that bellach (fixed
SM) is used rather than nawr/rwan when there is an implication of change of circumstance
from previously; in this case, that she lives in Cardiff having moved there from somewhere
else ⇒ mw 407; dwi, incidentally, is very common in informal writing for dw i.

cyfadda = cyfadde ‘admit’ – a characterising feature of Northern Welsh dialects is that -e- in
the syllable after the stressed syllable turns into -a-; so similarly, adra ‘home’, oeddan ni ‘we
were’, etc. This also goes for the plural ending -au, which sounds like -e in the S, but -a in
the N – often, especially in writing that aims to reflect natural pronunciation, you will see
the a- sound so spelt (though interestingly it is not consistently done in this piece).

hogan (= hogen) ‘girl’ – a very common N term, plural gennod (= hogennod); ‘boy’ is hogyn,
plural hogia (= hogiau).

Pen Llfn (or Penrhyn Llfn) – the northern peninsula of Wales.

mond ‘only’ – a contraction of dim ond or °ddim ond, and the usual way of saying ‘only’
or ‘just’ in the spoken language. ⇒ mw 435

dros °dro ‘temporary’ or ‘temporarily’.

wrth fy nmodd ‘happy as can be’ – see note in Chapter 22.

 Fy Hoff Le I  101

o °flaen ‘in front of ’ – one of the commonest compound prepositions. ⇒ mw 475

wrth i’r darllenwyr  .  .  .  °gymysgu ‘as the readers  .  .  .  mix’ – wrth (+ i°) as a time conjunction;
see note to ers i °ddaeargryn °daro’r °wlad in Chapter 3.

wastad ‘always’ – fixed SM.

rhyw °bleser ‘a certain pleasure’.

giami ‘wonky’ – I expect this is the English word ‘gammy’ (as in ‘gammy leg’).

yn fanno (or simply fanno, as further on in the piece) ‘there’ – in spoken Welsh the expres-
sions for ‘here’ and ‘there’ are most often done with °fan ‘place’ + contracted forms of yma
‘here’, yna ‘there’, acw ‘yonder’ and yno ‘there’ (places not actually in sight of the speaker)
– so, for example, fanma or famma ‘here’, fanna, fancw, fanno ‘there’; fan hyn is also very
common for ‘here’; and all of these can have a prefixed yn ‘in’. You should get used to
hearing these, and use them yourself.

mi °fedrwch chi ‘you can’ – in N areas medru is a common alternative to gallu in most
uses. ⇒ mw 327–331, ⇒ iw u3

tuag at° ‘towards’.

°lefydd ‘places’ – the plural of lle is lleoedd in the S and (generally) in the written standard,
but llefydd in the N.

i fyny ‘up’ – for which the usual S word is lan; further on in the piece is lawr (= i lawr)
‘down’, which is both N and S.

uwchben ‘above’ – the opposite is islaw ‘below, beneath’; these two useful location preposi-
tions should be learnt.

i °gael edrych ‘to be able to look’.

a draw am ‘and over towards’.

ar °draws ‘across’ – a compound preposition. ⇒ mw 475, ⇒ iw u25

’di = ydi – a very common contraction in speech (wedi, incidentally, is also frequently
shortened to ’di, so watch out); spelling ydy as ydi is itself not unusual, particularly in N
varieties.

i °weld os ’di Nain adra ‘to see if Granny is home’ – technically, Welsh has two words for
‘home’: adre (‘to home’) and gartre (‘at home’); but in the real world N dialects generally
use adra (= adre, of course) for both, and S dialects tend to use gartre for both. I suggest
you carefully identify whether you are living in a N or S area, and follow suit.
102  Fy Hoff Le I

ogla = oglau or aroglau ‘smell’.

Tada ‘Dad, Daddy’; note that this counts as a name, and therefore resists SM here (after i°).

nelu = anelu ‘aim’, but here clearly meaning something like ‘see the way’.

dros °ben cloddia – ‘over the top(s) of the hedges’.

ucha ‘highest’ – irregular superlative of uchel ‘high’; note the dropping of the (official) final
-f, reflecting normal pronunciation. ⇒ mw 106, ⇒ iw u7

os byddai’r tywydd yn caniatáu ‘if the weather allowed (it)’.

tf ni (= ein tf ni) ‘our house’ – in this phrase the ein is commonly dropped in speech,
though it still underlies and so blocks any mutation: dewch i tf ni ‘come to our house’.

nes gweld ‘until (you) saw/see’ – the VN in Welsh does not specify time or tense, and the
translation in English is according to context.

am adra ‘for (in the direction of ) home’.

dal i °fynd ‘still go’ – dal i °VN is the usual way of saying ‘still (do/doing something)’.

Mi af i ar fy nmhen fy hun ‘I will go on my own’ – very N: look at that affirmative particle

mi°, and then hun instead of hunan. A dead giveaway.

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What place does Anni like in Grangetown?
2 When did the family used to go for a drive?
3 Where does she get her first good view of the sea?
4 What part of her own house does Anni single out?
5 What kind of place is Y Rhiw?
6 How does Anni describe the shoppers in the Arcades?
7 What two areas of woodland are mentioned in the piece?
8 And which of them is closer to Anni’s house?
9 What is Anni’s favourite part of Cardiff city centre?
10 What tactic does Anni remember using to get the best view in the world?
 Fy Hoff Le I  103

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Tir Du ydy enw tb nain Anni. C/A

2 Mae cartref Anni i’w weld o’i hoff le. C/A
3 Mae Anni’n gweithio yn Llyfrgell Ganolog Caerdydd bellach. C/A
4 Mae tb Anni’n llawn dop o ddefaid ac ayn. C/A
5 Ym marn Anni, mae llawer gormod o bobol yng nghanol Caerdydd. C/A
6 Cefn Amlwch ydy enw tb Anni. C/A
Chapter 25: Materion Meddygol

Merched y Wawr (Mudiad Cenedlaethol i Ferched Cymru ‘the National Welsh Women’s Move-
ment’) is an organisation similar (in some ways) to the Women’s Institute (WI) in England.
It has over 250 branches throughout Wales, and publishes a quarterly magazine Y Wawr
containing a wide range of material including amongst other things (as listed on their
website: www.merchedywawr.co.uk) materion cyfoes, adolygiadau, lluniau deniadol, cystad-
laethau a gwobrau gwych, dyddiaduron personol, llenyddiaeth, ryseitiau blasus, ffasiwn a
ffitrwydd (‘current affairs, reviews, eye-catching pictures, competitions with great prizes,
personal diaries, literature, tasty recipes, fashion and fitness’). One of its regular features is
Materion Meddygol (‘Medical Matters’) in which Dr Llinos Roberts – a GP well known across
Wales for her appearances on the media – discusses health issues of one kind or another.
This particular article deals with a common ailment of our modern lives and details typical
symptoms and remedies.
 Materion Meddygol 105

materion medaygol DR L L I N O S R O B E R T S

Iselder Ysbryd arfer yn rhoi mwynhad Pa driniaeth?

Mae'n hen bryd chwalu'r stigma sydd - teimlo'n anarferol o drist neu'n Yn gyffredinol mae'r driniaeth yn
ynghlwm wrth gyflyrau iechyd meddwl, ac ddagreuol amrywio, gan ddibynnu ar ddifrifoldeb y
iselder ysbryd yn benodol. Mae meddygon - teimladau 0 euogrwydd, teimlo'n symptomau. Os nad yw'r symptomau'n
teulu yn hynod gyfarwydd a'r cyflwr; ddiwerth neu'n Hawn anobaith ddifrifol, gallai'r meddyg teulu awgrymu
hon yn wir yw un o'r problemau mwyaf - diffyg brwdfrydedd: tasgau rhwydd triniaeth seicolegol ar ffurf cwnsela. Mae
cyffredin yr ydym yn eu trin yn y syrjeri. yn teimlo'n fwrn ymchwil hefyd yn dangos bod ymarfer
Ond eto, mae nifer o bobl yn gyndyn i - anhawster canolbwyntio corff yn gallu bod yn fuddiol ar gyfer trin
gyfaddef eu bod yn byw gydag iselder, - anawsterau cysgu: methu syrthio i iselder, a gall mynd am dro bob diwrnod
ac felly yn osgoi gweld meddyg nes bod gysgu, codi'n gynnar a methu mynd liniaru'r symptomau. Mae nifer o opsiynau
y symptomau’n rhai difrifol, neu nes bod nol i gysgu, neu weithiau'n gorgysgu hunan-ddisgyblu ar gael hefyd, ar ffurf
cyfaill neu berthynas yn dwyn perswad - diffyg egni a theimlo'n gysglyd llyfrau, tapiau neu raglenni ar y we, sydd
arnynt bod angen cymorth. - anhawster bod yn gariadus tuag at yn annog pobl i helpu eu hunain.
Mae iselder yn hynod gyffredin gyda eich cymar Os yw symptomau'r iselder yn fwy
rhyw 2 o bob 3 oedolyn yn cael eu - dim chwant bwyd a cholli pwysau (er difrifol, gallai'r meddyg hefyd drafod
heffeithio i ryw raddau ar ryw gyfnod yn bod y gwrthwyneb hefyd yn bosib) dechrau meddyginiaethau penodol ar
eu bywydau. Gall y symptomau amrywio, - colli tymer yn hawdd gyfer iselder. Dros y blynyddoedd mae'r
ond mae 1 o bob 4 menyw, ac 1 o bob 10 - symptomau yn dueddol o fod yn meddyginiaethau hyn wedi amrywio,
dyn, yn dioddef symptomau digon difrifol waeth y peth cyntaf yn y bore ac mae'r tabledi sydd fel arfer yn cael
i gyfiawnhau triniaeth. - symptomau corfforol fel cur pen neu eu defnyddio erbyn hyn yn achosi llai 0
Mae'r term 'iselder' yn gallu cael ei boenau yn y frest sgil effeithiau na'r math a ddefnyddid
ddefnyddio'n rhy rwydd. Byddwn yn - meddyliau cyson am farwolaeth, neu flynyddoedd yn ol. Os yw'r tabledi yn
cwyno'n ami ein bod yn teimlo'n 'isel' deimlo nad yw bywyd gwerth ei fyw. achosi sgil effeithiau, efallai y bydd angen
neu'n 'ddi-hwyl', ac mae cael cyfnodau eu newid. Mae'r symptomau fel arfer yn
byr fel hyn yn rhan annatod o fywyd ac yn Os ydych yn amau eich bod yn dioddef dechrau cilio ar ol 2-4 wythnos o gymryd
gwbl normal. Ar y pegwn arall, mae gwir o iselder yna dylid gweld meddyg teulu. y tabledi. Mae cwrs fel arfer yn para o
iselder ysbryd yn peri i berson deimlo'n isel Mae'n bwysig derbyn bod angen trin leiaf chwe mis ond, os yw'r tabledi'n cael
ei ysbryd ac i ddioddef symptomau eraill iselder fel unrhyw gyflwr meddygol arall, eu stopio'n rhy gynnar, gall y symptomau
am o leiaf bythefnos. er mai'r tueddiad cyffredinol ydy bod ailddechrau.
nifer yn ceisio anwybyddu'r symptomau, Yn ogystal a defnyddio meddyginiaethau
Beth yw symptomau iselder? gan obeithio y byddant yn diflannu. Y gall y meddyg drafod triniaeth seicolegol
Gall fod yn anodd adnabod symptomau gofid ydy y gall y symptomau waethygu, arall, sef Therapi Ymddygiad Gwybyddol
iselder, er bod rhywun efallai yn gan arwain at gyflwr mwy difrifol sy'n (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), sydd
synhwyro bod rhywbeth o'i le ond yn anoddach ei drin. ar gael mewn rhai ardaloedd, ac sydd
methu diffinio'r teimladau'n glir. Mae'r Os ydych yn amau bod iselder ar yn debyg i driniaeth cwnsela ond yn fwy
symptomau a ganlyn yn cael eu cysylltu rywun rydych yn ei adnabod, ceisiwch arbenigol.
ag iselder, ac mae'r rhan fwyaf o bobl ag drafod y mater yn agored yn hytrach na'i Mae cymorth ar gael i drin iselder.
iselder ysbryd yn dioddef cyfuniad o rai o'r anwybyddu. Awgrymwch y dylai fynd i Peidiwch a dioddef mewn distawrwydd.
symptomau hyn: weld ei feddyg teulu, gan ei sicrhau bod
- teimlo'n isel bron bob dydd cymorth ar gael i helpu'r symptomau
- colli diddordeb mewn bywyd, hyd yn - does dim angen dioddef mewn
oed mewn gweithgareddau sydd fel distaw rwydd.
106  Materion Meddygol

Geirfa

chwalu – get rid of diffyg – lack

ynghlwm wrth° – bound up with brwdfrydedd – enthusiasm
cyflwr (cyflyrau) – condition bwrn – burden
penodol – particular anhawster (anawsterau) – difficulty
meddyg (-on) – doctor canolbwyntio – concentrate
cyfarwydd âh – familiar with cariadus – affectionate
cyndyn – obstinate cymar – partner
osgoi – avoid chwant bwyd – appetite
difrifol – serious gwrthwyneb – opposite, contrary
cyfaill – friend tymer – temper
perthynas – relation corfforol – physical
oedolyn – adult cur pen – headache
effeithio – affect poen (-au) – pain
amrywio – vary cyson – regular
menyw – woman marwolaeth – death
cyfiawnhau – justify, warrant anwybyddu – ignore
triniaeth – treatment diflannu – disappear
rhwydd – easy gofid – trouble
annatod – intrinsic gwaethygu – worsen
pegwn – pole distawrwydd – silence
peri – cause cwnsela – counsel (v)
adnabod – recognise buddiol – beneficial
synhwyro – sense opsiwn (opsiynau) – option
diffinio – define, describe hunan-ddisgyblu – self-discipline
cyfuniad – combination meddyginiaeth (-au) – medication
gweithgaredd (-au) – activity sgil effeithiau – side-effects
mwynhad – enjoyment math – type
anarferol – unusual achosi – cause (v)
dagreuol – tearful cilio – recede
euogrwydd – guilt ailddechrau – start again
anobaith – hopelessness arbenigol – specialised

iselder ysbryd ‘depression’ – literally ‘lowness (of ) spirit’; ‘depressed’ is done with the
relevant possessive adjective, so for example mae e’n isel ei ysbryd ‘he’s depressed’, literally
‘he is low (as to) his spirit’; similarly mae hi’n isel ei hysbryd ‘she’s depressed’, o’n i’n
teimlo braidd yn isel ’n ysbryd ‘I was feeling a bit down’; there’s an example coming up in
the third paragraph.

syrjeri – a commonly used loanword; it corresponds to the Welsh term meddygfa.

nes bod  .  .  .  yn dwyn perswâd arnynt ‘until  .  .  .  persuades them’ – literally ‘bring persuasion on
them’; there is a word perswadio ‘persuade’ as well, but I like dwyn perswâd ar° better: it’s
 Materion Meddygol  107

a bit more Welsh, isn’t it?; there is a Welsh verb darbwyllo ‘persuade’, and argyhoeddi ‘convince’
is also sometimes used in this sense; the primary meaning of dwyn in everyday contexts
nowadays is ‘steal’, and it is the normal word for this; also, it has an unexpected stem: dyg- –
so, for example, fe °ddygodd e °gar ‘he stole a car’; the arnynt is LW for arnyn nhw, of course.

yn hynod °gyffredin ‘awfully common’.

i °ryw °raddau ‘to some degree/extent’ – learn this phrase, and also i °raddau helaeth ‘to a
great extent’; and note the plural in Welsh in both cases (gradd ‘degree’).

fel hyn ‘like this’.

gwir iselder ysbryd ‘real depression’ – in this sense gwir° comes before the noun and causes
SM (not visible in this instance, of course).

Gall °fod yn anodd ‘It can be difficult’ – no need for a pronoun ‘it’ here in Welsh; remem-
ber that – unlike English – third person singular pronouns can be routinely omitted if the
sense is obvious without them; and in LW this principle is extended much further.

bod rhywbeth o’i °le ‘that something is wrong’ – ‘literally ‘from its place’; a stronger expres-
sion than beth sy’n bod? ‘what’s wrong?’ – o’i °le definitely has an implication that something
has actually gone wrong.

’r symptomau a °ganlyn ‘the following symptoms’ – you can use the phrase a °ganlyn (actu-
ally verbal – ‘which follow(s)’) practically as an adjective after a noun; similarly, for example,
y neges a °ganlyn ‘the following message’, yr opsiynau a °ganlyn ‘the following options’; the
true adjective canlynol is an alternative: y symptomau canlynol, y neges °ganlynol, etc.

’r rhan °fwyaf o °bobl ‘most people’ – y rhan °fwya o° (‘the greater part of ’) is the usual way
to say ‘most’ + noun.

yn °dueddol o °fod yn °waeth ‘tend to be worse’ – there is a verb tueddu ‘tend’, but the
adjective tueddol ‘tending’ is probably more common in this kind of sentence; note that it
is followed by o + °VN.

amau – the more frequent meaning is ‘doubt’, but here it means ‘suspect’.

dylid ‘one should’ – a useful impersonal, and you might also like to learn gellid ‘one could’;
other than these examples, however, the -id ending is strictly for writing – see note to a
°ddefnyddid further on. ⇒ mw 338

er mai’r tueddiad cyffredinol ydy bod  .  .  . ‘although the general tendency is that  .  .  .’. ⇒ mw
506, 509

gan °obeithio y byddant yn diflannu ‘in the hope that they will disappear’ – byddant (LW)
= byddan nhw; y here is the word for subordinate clause ‘that’. ⇒ mw 490, ⇒ iw u12
108  Materion Meddygol

ceisiwch °drafod y mater yn agored ‘try and discuss the matter openly’.

gan ei sicrhau ‘while assuring him/her’. ⇒ mw 114

Os nad yw’r symptomau  .  .  .  ‘If the symptoms are not’; without the os ‘if ’, we would use
°ddim in the normal way for a negative: dyw’r symptomau °ddim ‘the symptoms are not’;
but simply sticking os on the front of this (i.e. os dyw’r symptomau °ddim) doesn’t sound
all that wonderful, and a much better formulation is with nad and no °ddim (some speakers
have the °ddim as well – os nad yw’r symptomau °ddim – though it’s not needed since the
negative is in the nad); ydy is of course possible in place of yw, depending on region – e.g.
os nad ydy’r symptomau  .  .  .

ar ffurf cwnsela ‘in the form of counselling’ – the VN cwnsela here used as a noun.

ymarfer corff ‘physical exercise’ – learn this common idiom.

gall mynd am °dro °bob diwrnod °liniaru  .  .  .  ‘going for a walk every day can ease  .  .  .’ – the
whole phrase mynd am °dro °bob diwrnod is the subject of the verb gall, with SM on
°liniaru (lliniaru) marking the end of the subject phrase.

erbyn hyn ‘these days’ – learn this useful idiom.

a °ddefnyddid ‘that were used’, ‘that used to be used’ – this is an imperfect impersonal,
absent from the spoken language and not that common in writing, except perhaps in his-
torical narrative where it has obvious uses and relevance – we will encounter more of these
in Chapters 29 and 33 towards the end of the book; the ordinary past tense impersonal
ending in -wyd (so defnyddiwyd), however, is, as we have already seen, very common in
writing and the media, and is not unknown even in spoken varieties in at least some parts
of Wales. ⇒ iw u40

yn °debyg i °driniaeth cwnsela ‘similar to counselling treatment’ – VN used as an adjective,

which is perfectly fine in Welsh of course.

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What is the first course of action suggested if you suspect you’re suffering from
depression?
2 What is the suggestion if the tablets cause side-effects?
3 What can happen to your weight if you’re depressed?
4 What effects on sleep are identified?
5 In what way are today’s tablets an improvement on those available to previous
generations?
6 What self-help resources are recommended?
7 With what general piece of advice does Dr Roberts sum up this article?
 Materion Meddygol  109

8 When do symptoms tend to be worse?

9 What is the problem with the term iselder?
10 At least how long does a course of tablets usually last?
11 What two physical symptoms are mentioned as typical?
12 What percentage of people are affected by depression at some point in their lives?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Fel arfer mae cwrs tabledi yn erbyn iselder yn para am hanner blwyddyn. C/A
2 Gall colli pwysau fod yn arwydd o iselder. C/A
3 Mae rhai pobol ag iselder ysbryd yn teimlo’n ddiwerth. C/A
4 Tydi triniaeth ar ffurf cwnsela ddim yn helpu o gwbl. C/A
5 Gall cymar rhy gariadus achosi iselder ysbryd. C/A
6 Mae’n holl-bwysig dioddef mewn distawrwydd os oes modd. C/A

Here we pause, reader, having walked together the road from little kiddie adverts, past
letters to editors, newspaper articles and reports, the Welsh blogosphere and much else,
admiring the grammatical scenery in all its finery along the way. We now approach the
more forbidding country of Welsh literature. If you would walk no further with me on this
journey, I could not blame you – it is no easy road that lies ahead.
Chapter 26: Aros a Myned

Our first piece of literature is a fairly gentle one, and a well known one as well – John
Ceiriog Hughes (1832–1877), bardic name Ceiriog, enjoyed considerable acclaim as one of
the most popular and accessible Welsh-language poets of the latter half of the nineteenth
century. His poems are simple in structure and designed with a view to musical accom­
paniment, and are not without a certain sentimentality that was perhaps a bit more to the
taste of his contemporary audiences than those of today.
This poem is part of a sequence of over twenty comprising the pastoral work Alun Mabon,
which won Ceiriog a prize at the 1861 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol – the eponymous hero is a
Welsh agricultural worker, representing the ordinary people of Wales, and this very famous
and (even today) very popular poem harks back to an idealised Wales of the past.
One of the main difficulties in this piece is non-standard word order – for example Ar
arferion Cymru gynt newid ddaeth, which really means Daeth newid ar arferion Cymru
gynt – but this is a common enough characteristic of poetry and songs in many languages
besides Welsh, and should present few problems once we have got used to it. Note also
several instances of focused constructions – a feature of Welsh syntax that is as natural in
the living spoken language as in literature, and one which we have had many occasions to
identify in earlier pieces.

Aros a Myned
Aros mae’r mynyddau mawr, Ar arferion Cymru gynt
Rhuo trostynt mae y gwynt; Newid ddaeth o rod i rod;
Clywir eto gyda’r wawr Mae cenhedlaeth wedi mynd
Gân bugeiliaid megis cynt. A chenhedlaeth wedi dod.
Eto tyf y llygad dydd Wedi oes dymhestlog hir
O gylch traed y graig a’r bryn, Alun Mabon mwy nid yw,
Ond bugeiliaid newydd sydd Ond mae’r heniaith yn y tir
Ar yr hen fynyddoedd hyn. A’r alawon hen yn fyw.
 Aros a Myned  111

Geirfa

mynydd (-oedd, -au) – mountain craig – rock

rhuo – roar bryn – hill
gwawr – dawn arfer (-ion) – custom
cân – song cenhedlaeth – generation
bugail (bugeiliaid) – shepherd oes – age
megis – like tymhestlog – stormy
cynt – earlier, formerly alaw (-on) – tune, melody
tyfu – grow, increase

Aros mae  .  .  .  Focused sentence with the VN aros placed at the start for emphasis – the
neutral version would be Mae’r mynyddau’n aros; notice that the yn linking the VN and
bod in the normal sentence is dropped when the VN moves to the front (i.e. we don’t say
*Yn aros mae  .  .  .). ⇒ mw 18, ⇒ iw u32

mynyddau – the standard plural of this word these days is mynyddoedd, but many regions
use the -au plural as here. Get over it.

trostynt ‘over them’ – in the modern language, except in very formal styles, the preposition
tros° is almost always encountered in its mutated form dros° – this is now, to all intents
and purposes, a fixed mutation; the -nt ending is of course LW, so trostynt = drostyn nhw.

mae y for mae’r, to add a syllable for reasons of scansion.

°gân – the SM here is because of sangiad (see note to °gysylltu in Chapter 8), i.e. the phrase
clywir cân has been split by the insertion of the words eto gyda’r °wawr. ⇒ mw 11 (e)

tyf ‘grows’ – the LW present third person singular of tyfu; in the spoken language this would
always be mae’n tyfu, because the present tense is of course formed by using present tense
of bod + yn + VN.

y llygad dydd ‘the daisy’ – more usually these days the name of this flower is llygad y dydd,
perhaps this slight difference is for poetic reasons; llygad is ‘eye’, so the genitive phrase
llygad y dydd is ‘day’s eye’, which is exactly what the English name means as well! ‘Dais-y’,
see? Neat!

o °gylch ‘around’ – a compound preposition, more usually o amgylch these days. ⇒ mw 475

bugeiliaid newydd sydd ar  .  .  . – focused version (for emphasis) of mae bugeiliaid newydd
ar  .  .  .  ⇒ mw 19, ⇒ iw u33

newid °ddaeth – focused version (for emphasis) of daeth newid; the VN newid here is used
as a noun in its own right, as all VNs can be, so: ‘change has come’.
112  Aros a Myned

o °rod i °rod ‘from day to day’ or ‘from age to age’ – rhod is an old word for ‘wheel’ (the
modern term is olwyn, plural olwynion), now used mainly in more figurative senses such
as ‘orbit’ or, as in this idiom, ‘turn’ or ‘cycle’ of the earth or seasons.

wedi ‘after’ = ar ôl, which is more common in this sense these days.

mwy nid yw ‘is no more’.

yn °fyw ‘alive’ – the SM after yn shows that this is the adjective ‘alive’ rather than the VN
‘live’.

Exercise 1

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh about the content of the piece are true (cywir
– C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Llefydd gwyntog iawn ydy’r mynyddoedd. C/A

2 Mae’r iaith Gymraeg bellach wedi marw. C/A
3 Mae’r mynyddoedd yn hbn na’r bugeiliaid. C/A
4 Aros yn ei wely bob bore tan yn hwyr bydd y bugail fel arfer. C/A
5 Does neb yn cofio’r hen alawon bellach. C/A
6 Mae llygad y dydd yn tyfu ar ben y mynydd. C/A

Exercise 2

Cyfieithwch i’r Saesneg:

1 Roedd y gwyntoedd yn rhuo dros y mynyddoedd.
2 Mae’r heniaith yn dal i fyw.
3 Mi ddaeth newid i fywyd y bugail.
4 Mae cenhedlaeth ar ôl cenhedlaeth wedi gweithio ar dir Cymru.
5 Mae llawer o bobol erbyn hyn wedi anghofio hen arferion y wlad.
6 Blodyn bychan iawn yw llygad y dydd.
Chapter 27: Un Nos Ola Leuad

Caradog Prichard’s novel Un Nos Ola Leuad (One Moonlit Night), was quickly recognised as
a landmark in modern Welsh literature when it was published in 1961, and it remains one
of the most famous and widely read Welsh-language novels – it has been a set text in schools
and universities in Wales for years, and has been translated into many languages. It was
turned into a Welsh-language film in 1991. Its dark themes (the effect on a young boy of
his mother’s mental illness, and the gradual descent into chaos that this entails), its weirdly
mythological moments and its semi-‘stream of consciousness’ narrative style give the novel
a unique character – a strangely dislocated autobiographical picture of village life in a slate-
quarrying community in North Wales during the First World War. Prichard was born in
Bethesda in 1904 and died in 1980, having spent much of his life in London, working
primarily as a journalist. His early work as a poet won him the Crown at the National Ei-
steddfod three years running (1927 to 1929), and he won the Chair in 1962.
There are a number of linguistic features to be aware of in this lively and engaging style
of writing. First and foremost, the writer aims throughout the novel to convey a colloquial
and conversational style, as befits a child narrator. The Welsh in this piece therefore is a close
representation of spoken N Welsh – with various spelling conventions that are not part of
the standard written language, but instead reflect pronunciation. Chief among these are:

-a- instead of -e- in post-stress syllables – examples here are cerddad, gwynab, adra,
rhywla, dynas, eistadd, gorffan, llechan, roeddan.

-a- instead of the post-stress endings -au and -ai – examples are dechra, bocha, hitha,
finna, ffrindia, fflamia, basa.

distinctively N words, for example o (= e ‘he/him’), fo (= fe ‘he/him’), rwan (= nawr

‘now’), hogyn (= bachgen ‘boy’), dynes (= menyw ‘woman’), dwad (= dod ‘come’), ddaru
(past tense auxiliary).

individual spellings reflecting normal pronunciation – for example gneud (= gwneud

‘do, make’), i (= ei ‘his/her’) – though this latter is inconsistently applied here, with the
standard spelling also putting in an appearance.

Another prominent stylistic feature is the frequent use of the formula dyma + subject + yn
VN as a sort of historic present instead of a narrative past tense, to convey immediacy; so
114  Un Nos Ola Leuad

for example Dyma fi’n gneud = Nes i ‘I made’; dyma finna’n agor y giat = agorais i’r giat
‘I opened the gate’.
Note also the frequent use of the extended variants of the personal pronouns finnau
(< fi), innau (< i), hithau (< hi) – common enough still in speech, though mainly confined
to certain constructions, of which the type explained under a hitha’n siarad below is prob-
ably the most usual.
The circumflex accents are sometimes omitted, notably on â, where there is no effect on
pronunciation – though this also is rather inconsistently applied.
Quotation marks are absent from the novel, and dialogue and narrative are distinguished
by context alone, or by medda hi ‘she said’ and meddwn i ‘I said’.
In this extract, the young boy narrator has taken the wrong way home and comes across
a farm, where he is invited in and makes a friend.

Un Nos Ola Leuad

Dyna pam y sefais i wrth y giat am yn hir iawn, ofn mynd at y drws, am fod yna gi’n
cyfarth yn y cefn yn rhywla. Roeddwn i ar fentro agor y giat pan ddaeth dynas i’r drws
a gwynab clên ganddi hi a llygaid glas a gwallt gwyn a bocha cochion, a dyma finna’n
dechrau agor y giat.
Be wyt ti eisio, machgan i? medda hi.
Eisio diod dest a thagu, meddwn inna.
Rargian fawr, mae golwg wedi blino arnat ti, tyrd yma iti gael glasiad o laeth enwyn.
Gymi di frechdan efo fo?
Cymera, os gwelwch chi’n dda, meddwn i, a mynd trwy’r giat i sefyll wrth y drws a
hitha’n siarad efo fi o’r gegin.
Wedi bod yn hel llus ar Ben Foel a cholli mhisar a tun bwyd a colli’r ffordd a dwad
i lawr i fanma, meddwn i.
Y peth bach, medda rhywun arall yn y gegin.
Dyma chdi, yfa di hwn a bwyta di’r frechdan yma. Mi fyddi di’n iawn wedyn. Eistadd
yn fan yma. O lle’r wyt ti’n dwad?
O Pentra.
Mae gen ti lot o ffordd i fynd i lawr Lôn Bost.
Diolch yn fowr iawn ichi, meddwn i, a chymryd y frechdan fawr o’i llaw hi a glasiad
mawr o laeth a mynd i eistadd ar y sêt lechan o dan y ffenast. Mi fydda i’n iawn i ger-
ddad am filltiroedd ar ôl hwn.
Pan oeddwn i wrthi’n yfad pwy ddaeth rownd talcan y tB fel fflamia ond y ci oeddwn
i wedi glywad yn cyfarth yn y cefn. Gad ti lonydd i’r hogyn bach, Toss, medda rhywun
o’r gegin, a dyma Toss yn stopio’n stond pan welodd o fi’n eistadd ar y sêt lechan.
Ci defaid mawr oedd o, a llygaid yr un lliw â llygaid tseini ganddo fo. Mi ddaru chwrnu
dipyn bach i ddechra a finna ofn basa fo’n brathu. Dyma fi’n gneud sAn run fath a siws
efo ngheg.
 Un Nos Ola Leuad  115

Tyrd yma, Toss bach, meddwn i, a phan glywodd o fi’n deud i enw fo, dyma fo’n ysgwyd
i gwnffon ac yn agor i geg a’i dafod allan run fath â fydd cwn pan fyddan nhw’n chwerthin.
Tyrd yma, Toss bach, meddwn i wedyn, a thorri tamaid o mrechdan a’i roid o ar ymyl
y sêt lechan. Wedyn dyma fo’n dwad yn slo bach ac ysgwyd ei gwnffon a chymryd y
tamaid yn ei geg oddiar y sêt. Pan dorrais i damaid arall iddo fo, mi gymerodd hwnnw
yn fy llaw i, ac wedyn rhoid ei draed blaen ar fy mhennaglinia i a dechra llyfu ngwynab
i. Roeddan ni’n ffrindia mawr mewn dau funud, ac ar ôl iddo fo a finna orffan bwyta’r
frechdan, dyma ni’n chwara taflyd cerrig yn y cae am dipyn bach. Ac wedyn dyma fi’n
mynd a’r glas gwag yn ôl a cnocio’n drws, a Toss yn rhedag i mewn i’r gegin.
Dyna chdi rwan, medda’r ddynas bocha cochion wrth gymryd y glas. Mae golwg dipyn
gwell arnat ti rwan, machgan i. Dos di adra ar dy union rwan, neu mi fydd dy Fam yn
dechra poeni amdanat ti.
Mi a i. Diolch yn fowr ichi. Faint ydi oed Toss?
Pedairarddeg.
Esgob, mae o’n hynach na fi. Pnawn da.
Cau’r giat ar dy ôl, medda hitha.

Geirfa

sefyll – stand talcan (= talcen) – end (of building)

giat – gate ci defaid – sheepdog
cyfarth – bark lliw – colour
yn rhywle – somewhere chwrnu (= chwyrnu) – snarl
mentro – dare, risk brathu – bite
clên – kind siws (= sws) – kiss
boch (-au) – cheek ysgwyd – shake, wag
tagu – choke cwnffon (= cynffon) – tail
golwg – look (n) tafod – tongue
glasiad (= glasiaid) – glass(ful) tamaid – piece
llaeth enwyn – buttermilk ymyl – edge, side
llusen (llus) – bilberry oddiar – (from) off
pisar (= piser) – jug, pitcher llyfu – lick
tun – tin carreg (cerrig) – stone
fanma – here cae – field
lôn – lane gwag – empty
sêt – seat poeni – worry
llechan (= llechen) – slate oed – age
milltir (-oedd) – mile
116  Un Nos Ola Leuad

am yn hir iawn ‘for a very long time’.

ofn ‘fear’ – normally a noun, with a corresponding verb ofni; but in this piece the writer
uses the noun almost as a pseudo-verb (i.e. like angen ‘need’, with no linking yn; so dw i
angen ‘I need’ and similarly dw i ofn ‘I fear’) – see further down a finna ofn basa fo’n
brathu ‘and me fearing he would bite’.

am °fod yna ‘because there was’.

yn rhywla (= yn rhywle) ‘somewhere’ – although rhywle on its own is quite normal for this,
many speakers add yn ‘in’ to the phrase, perhaps by analogy with related phrases like
ymhobman ‘everywhere’ and yn unlle or nunlle ‘nowhere’.

ar °fentro ‘about to risk/try’. ⇒ mw 449 (b)

dynas (= dynes) – the normal N word for ‘woman’.

n
machgan i ‘my boy’, ‘my lad’ – this NM of bachgen is a fixed phrase, while the usual word
for ‘boy’ in the N is hogyn, as further down.

dest a hthagu ‘almost choking’ – dest (or perhaps more commonly these days jest) is the
English loanword ‘just’; i.e. ‘just (about to) choke’.

Rargian °fawr ‘Good gracious!’ or ‘Good lord!’ – also available without the °fawr: Rargian!
Learn both and use judiciously.

mae golwg wedi blino arnat ti ‘you look tired’ – take golwg wedi blino together as the sub-
ject: literally, ‘there is a tired (wedi blino) look (golwg) on you’.

tyrd ‘come’ – the N singular command form of dod (which itself is dwad in most of the N,
by the way), and almost invariably pronounced tyd in normal speech; the S counterpart is
dere. ⇒ mw 381, ⇒ bw u24

°Gymi di = °Gymeri di ‘Will you take/have?’

°frechdan – these days brechdan (or bechdan) is the usual word for ‘sandwich’, but its
original meaning was, as here, a slice of bread and butter, and it is still so used in the N.

Cymera ‘I will (take)’ – affirmative response (and therefore no need for the pronoun i) to
°Gymi di  .  .  .  ? further up.

a hitha’n siarad ‘while she spoke’ or ‘with her speaking’ – literally ‘and she speaking’; hithau
(the standard spelling) is the extended (or contrastive, or emphatic) variant of hi; a + extended
pronoun + yn VN is perhaps the most common construction in colloquial Welsh requiring
the extended pronouns – a frequent example on radio and television news bulletins is A
hithau’n tynnu at hanner awr wedi saith, dyma’r penawdau ‘With it approaching half past
seven, here are the headlines’. ⇒ mw 131, ⇒ iw u27
 Un Nos Ola Leuad  117

Wedi bod  .  .  .  fanma – a succession of VNs with the initial auxiliary verb and subject (dw i
in all cases) omitted but understood; we would have to add it in English, which, unlike
Welsh, has a rule forbidding the omission of the subject in complete sentences.

dwad = dod – both words derive from dyfod, and dwad (two syllables, stress on the w) is
the norm all over the N.

Y peth bach ‘Poor little thing’.

Dyma chdi ‘Here you are’ – chdi = ti in many N areas, particularly on its own (i.e. not
as part of an ending) – so similarly efo chdi = S gyda ti; further down, though, we have
amdanat ti, where ti is really part of the ending -at ti.

yfa di ‘you drink’ – yfa is simply the singular imperative of yfed (stem yf-); the di (occasion-
ally ti – see note on Gad ti °lonydd i’r hogyn bach below) is added to this, in the same way
as the English equivalent, to soften the command, or draw a contrast; similarly, for example,
aros di fan hyn ‘you wait here’, gofala di am y plant ‘you look after the kids’ (i.e. while I do
something else). ⇒ mw 377–379, ⇒ bw u24

O lle’r wyt ti’n dwad – note fixed non-mutation of lle when it means ‘where’ (we would
normally expect SM after o° – and indeed some dialects do say o °le  .  .  .  for this); if you use
the widely promoted ble (which comes from pa °le ‘what place’), then that’s already got a
fixed SM, so you don’t change it to *fle.

O Pentra ‘from (the) Village’ – another example of fixed non-mutation, this time probably
because Pentra (i.e. pentre) is almost like a proper name (he’s talking about a particular
locality that both he and the woman are familiar with), and these are resistant to mutation
for many speakers.

Mae gen ti lot ‘You’ve got a lot’ – while llawer is promoted in official circles for ‘a lot’,
‘much’, the well-established loanword lot is more common in ordinary speech with native
speakers and learners alike. I’d be perfectly happy for you to use it. Though I like llawer
as well.

°fowr = °fawr – a very common pronunciation all over Wales.

meddwn i ‘I said’.

Pan oeddwn i wrthi’n yfad ‘while I was drinking’ – wrthi (‘at it’) + yn + VN is a useful way
of expressing action in progress. ⇒ mw 470

fel fflamia ‘like a rocket’ – literally ‘like flames’.

y ci oeddwn i wedi °glywad ‘the dog I had heard’.

Gad ti °lonydd i’r hogyn bach ‘You leave the little lad in peace’, ‘You leave the little lad alone’.
118  Un Nos Ola Leuad

stopio’n stond ‘stop dead in his tracks’.

llygaid tseini ‘glass eyes’ – literally ‘china eyes’, which is what they were made of.

Mi ddaru chwrnu °dipyn bach ‘He snarled a little bit’, ‘He gave a little snarl’; the past tense
formed with the invariable auxiliary ddaru is an archetypal N feature. ⇒ mw 301, ⇒ iw u10

run °fath a ‘like’ – literally ‘the same kind as’.

deud = dweud – pronounced this way all over the N; note also the imperative dudwch.

i enw fo ‘his name’ – i = official spelling ei; you should always pronounce it i in any case
– they only added an e because somebody decided it came from the Latin word for ‘his/
her’ eius (which it doesn’t, of course).

a’i °roid o ‘and put it’ – rhoid (VN) is an alternative for rhoi ‘put, give’.

yn slo bach ‘very slowly’ – slo is obviously an English loanword for araf.

mi °gymerodd hwnnw ‘he took that (one)’.

ar fy nmhennaglinia ‘on my knees’ – the writer treats pen-glin ‘knee’ as a double noun and
puts a plural ending on both parts, so pennau gliniau; the more usual plural these days is
pen-gliniau.
n
ngwynab ‘my face’ – the standard word for ‘face’ doesn’t begin with g-: wyneb; but many
areas use a variant gwyneb/gwynab, here with NM.

ar ôl iddo fo a finna °orffan ‘after he and I had finished’; orffan is °orffen from gorffen.

taflyd ‘throw’ = taflu – both variants have the same stem tafl-.

wrth °gymryd ‘as (she) took’.

Dos di ‘You go’ – just as tyrd! ‘come!’ is the N equivalent of S dere!, so dos ‘go!’ is the N
equivalent of S cer! ⇒ mw 381, ⇒ bw u24

ar dy union ‘straight away’ – the possessive dy changes, depending on who is being talked
about; for example, ‘he went straight away’ would be mi aeth o ar ei union, ‘we went straight
away’ mi aethon ni ar ein hunion.

Mi a i ‘I will (go)’ – short future of mynd. ⇒ mw 305, ⇒ iw u2

Esgob – this means ‘bishop’, but it is widely used as a mild expletive  .  .  .  draw your own
conclusions. But how do we translate it? ‘Blimey’? ‘Crikey’? ‘Gosh’? ‘Well I never’? ‘Goodness
gracious’? The list is as endless as it is futile.
 Un Nos Ola Leuad  119

hynach ‘older’ – hen ‘old’ has various competing comparatives, including also henach and
hfn. I say pick the one you like the most.

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 Including the narrator, how many people are mentioned in this extract?
2 What did the boy lose while he was out?
3 What game does the boy play with the dog?
4 What would be the English name of the road the boy will have to take home?
5 What reason does the woman give for him to go straight home?
6 What is the boy’s response to the dog’s snarl?
7 What final instruction does the boy receive?
8 What does the boy say about the beneficial effects of the food and drink?
9 What two things does the dog do after taking the second piece of bread?
10 Where is the location in the house of the seat the boy sits on?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following dog-related statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (ang-
hywir – A):

1 Toss ydy enw’r ci. C/A

2 Mae can yng Nghymru’n medru chwerthin. C/A
3 Tydi’r ci ’ma ddim yn gyfeillgar i ddechrau. C/A
4 Does gan Toss ddim cynffon, druan ohono. C/A
5 Mae Toss yn mwynhau gêmau taflu cerrig. C/A
6 Tydi’r ci ’ma ddim yn cael rhannu bwyd pobol. C/A
Chapter 28: Meic Stephens

This is the opening section of a book review by the broadcaster and journalist Rhun ap
Iorwerth that appeared in the literary and cultural magazine Taliesin in Spring 2011. The
book under review is A Bard for Highgrove: A Likely Story (Cambria Books 2010) by Meic
Stephens – a prominent and prolific commentator on Welsh literary culture in both lan-
guages, and a champion of the literary arts in Wales for over forty years. After a brief but
telling excursion to somewhere a world away from Wales, the reviewer brings us back home
with some pertinent observations on the nation’s schizophrenic attitude to one of the main
targets of this political satire: the monarchy.
The Geirfa for this piece sometimes gives the root of a word rather than the word itself,
to give you an extra challenge and some useful thinking practice.

Meic Stephens
Yn yr Aifft ddwy flynedd yn ôl, carcharwyd gwas sifil am ysgrifennu cerdd ddychanol am
yr Arlywydd Hosni Mubarak. Fe wyddom bellach, yn sgil y protestiadau diweddar yn y
wlad honno, bod Mubarak yn ddyn sydd braidd yn ddiamynedd gyda’i feirniaid. Pwy a
ayr faint o fardd oedd y gwas sifil Moneer Said Hanna mewn gwirionedd. Does dim
modd darllen ei waith – penderfynodd y papur newydd a gyhoeddodd apêl am ei ryddhau
beidio ag argraffu’r gerdd a bechodd. Bardd amatur oedd Moneer yn sicr, ond roedd ei
gyfeillion a’i gydweithwyr wedi mwynhau ei ymdrechion cynnar, ac roedd hynny’n ddigon
o anogaeth iddo. Cafodd amser i gyfansoddi ymhellach y tu ôl i farrau cell. Ar destun
gwahanol, yn amlwg.
Gellir dychmygu Meic Stephens hefyd yn mynd i drybini mewn sawl gwlad yn y byd.
Nid llenor amatur mo hwn, ond awdur toreithiog sy’n fwy na pharod i hogi arfau yn
erbyn y ‘drefn’. Yn ei nofel ddiweddaraf, does brin ’run sefydliad, ac ychydig iawn o
ffigyrau cenedlaethol yng Nghymru yn dianc rhag min diwahân ei gyllell ddychanol.
Mae’r achos yn ei erbyn, o deyrnfradwriaeth lenyddol eithafol, yn un rhyfeddol o gryf.
Fel yr awgrymir yn y teitl, y sefydliad brenhinol yw prif destun y dychan, ac yn beno-
dol, y Tywysog Charles – sydd ‘just like you or me, really, but not as bright’ – a’i dîm o  
gynghorwyr a thaeogion. Ond yn ogystal â bod yn gocyn hitio’r nofel, mae’r Tywysog
 Meic Stephens  121

yn chwarae un o ddwy rôl, gan ddibynnu ar safbwynt gwleidyddol y darllenydd. I’r

Cenedlaetholwr Cymreig fo yw’r arwr (coeliwch neu beidio!): dyma’r Owain Glyndar
newydd sy’n meiddio ysgwyd y drefn er mwyn ‘codi’r hen wlad yn ei hôl’, sy’n gwneud
iawn am ladd Llywelyn ein Llyw Olaf, ac yn mynnu dyfodol llewyrchus i hen iaith Ynys
y Cedyrn. Penodi Bardd Llys yn unol â hen draddodiadau’r uchelwyr yw’r cam cyntaf.
Bydd darllenwyr eraill yn gweld Charles fel bradwr sy’n iro llethr llithrig datganoli, yn
ymyrryd yn gwbl anghyfansoddiadol mewn materion gwleidyddol nad oes a wnelon nhw
ddim â fo ac yn mentro arwain Cymru ar siwrnai chwithig tuag at annibyniaeth.
(published in Taliesin 142, Spring 2011)

Geirfa

yr Aifft – Egypt llenyddiaeth – literature

carcharu – imprison eithaf – extremity
gwas – servant penodol – particular
dychan – satire cynghori – advise
arlywydd – president taeog (-ion) – underling
yn sgil – in the wake of cocyn hitio – target (metaphorical)
amynedd – patience safbwynt – viewpoint
beirniad (-niaid) – critic gwleidyddiaeth – politics
modd – way, method cenedlaethol – national
cyfaill (cyfeillion) – friend meiddio – dare
ymdrech (-ion) – effort ysgwyd – shake
annog – urge, encourage lladd – kill
cyfansoddi – compose mynnu – demand
testun – text, subject dyfodol – future
dychymyg – imagination llewyrch – brightness, shine
trybini – trouble, misfortune penodi – appoint
llên – literature traddodiad (-au) – tradition
toreithiog – prolific uchel – high
hogi – sharpen iro – grease, oil (v)
arf (-au) – weapon datganoli – devolve
sefydliad – institution, establishment ymyrryd – interfere
min – edge cyfansoddiad – constitution
diwahân – indiscriminate siwrnai – journey
teyrn – sovereign chwithig – awkward, difficult
bradu – betray dibynnol – dependent
122  Meic Stephens

°ddwy °flynedd yn ôl ‘two years ago’ – remember SM is used at the start of time expressions
to indicate ‘time when’ something happened; similarly, for example, °bythefnos i heddiw ‘a
fortnight today’, °ganol yr wythdegau ‘in the mid-80s’. ⇒ mw 403

carcharwyd ‘was/were imprisoned’ – the past impersonal form, by far the commonest type
in most forms of written Welsh, and very prevalent in the news media. ⇒ mw 367, 372–373,
⇒ iw u23

Fe °wyddom bellach ‘we now know’ – gwyddom is LW for dan ni’n gwybod.

Pwy a °eyr ‘Who knows’ – a rhetorical phrase that should be learnt; the less formal Pwy
sy’n gwybod?, on the other hand, is not rhetorical and is used when you really want to find
out who knows. ⇒ mw 322, ⇒ iw u28

mewn gwirionedd ‘actually’, ‘really’ – learn this useful phrase.

Penderfynodd  .  .  .  °beidio – the entire phrase y papur newydd a °gyhoeddodd apêl am ei

°ryddhau is the subject, then comes the verb penderfynodd, and then °beidio and the rest
of the sentence.

argraffu’r °gerdd a °bechodd ‘print the offending poem’ – pechu is ‘sin’, so literally ‘.  .  .  the
poem that sinned’.

Gellir ‘One can/may’ – a useful present/future impersonal (of gallu) that is quite frequent
in writing, followed of course by a VN. ⇒ mw 334

Nid llenor amatur mo hwn ‘This is no amateur writer’.

sy’n °fwy na hpharod ‘who is more than ready’.

does °brin ’run  .  .  .  ‘there is scarcely a single  .  .  .’ – yr un with negative verbs means ‘not
one’, ‘not a single’, and frequently displaces the ddim, so similarly, for example, °weles i’r
un °foronen ‘I didn’t see a single carrot’.

yn ei erbyn ‘against him’ – the compound preposition yn erbyn.

rhyfeddol o °gryf ‘extraordinarily strong’ – rhyfeddol usually means ‘wonderful’, but as an

adjective qualifier, as here, I think ‘extraordinarily’ is the word.

yn ogystal â bod ‘as well as being’ – you should learn yn ogystal (â) ‘as well (as)’ = ‘also’;
don’t confuse it with the related adjective/adverb cystal ‘as good/well’; compare: Maen nhw’n
siarad Cymraeg yn ogystal ‘They speak Welsh as well’, and Maen nhw’n siarad Cymraeg
cystal â chi ‘They speak Welsh as well as you (do)’.

gan °ddibynnu ar ‘depending on’.

fo yw’r arwr ‘he is the hero’ – focused sentence, emphasising fo ‘he’ (as opposed to anyone else).
 Meic Stephens  123

coeliwch neu °beidio ‘believe it or not’ – learn this phrase; some speakers say instead
credwch neu °beidio, which is OK I suppose. You might also like to learn hChoeliwch chi
°ddim! ‘You’ll never believe it!’.

sy’n gwneud iawn am° ‘which makes up for’.

am °ladd Llywelyn – careful  .  .  .  not ‘for killing Llywelyn’ but ‘for the killing of Llywelyn’.

ein Llyw Olaf ‘our last steersman/leader’ – among Welsh speakers a universally recognised
epithet for Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (c. 1225–1282), Prince of Wales and Gwynedd before the
country was conquered by Edward I of England.

Ynys y Cedyrn ‘Island of the Strong/Steadfast’ – another well-known epithet, this one
referring to the Island of Britain; this name is particularly associated with the Welsh
legends, notably the Mabinogi (Pedair Cainc y Mabinogi); cedyrn (used here as a noun) is
the plural of the adjective cadarn, though you won’t hear it much except in set phrases
like this.

yn unol âh ‘in accordance with’ – learn this phrase.

llethr llithrig ‘slippery slope’ – a nicely alliterating phrase that nicely alliterates in English
as well!

datganoli – you will need to take this VN as a noun rather than a verb, and you will need
an ‘of ’ in front of it.

nad oes a °wnelon nhw °ddim â fo ‘that have nothing to do with him’ – learn the basic
construction does a °wnelo x ddim âh y ‘x has nothing to do with y’; grammar fans will
again be pleased to know that gwnelo is a subjunctive form of gwneud. ⇒ mw 390, ⇒
iw u39

tuag at° ‘towards’ – not to be confused with tuah on its own, which also means ‘towards’,
but usually these days in the metaphorical sense of ‘approximately’ or ‘round about’: tua
chwech o’r °gloch ‘towards/at about six o’clock’, tua’r Nadolig ‘round about Christmas’.

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What is said to determine readers’ attitudes to Prince Charles?
2 What was Moneer Said Hanna’s offence?
3 And what did he do in his cell?
4 Apart from the monarchy, what targets does Meic Stephens set in his sights in this
novel?
5 What comment is made about Mubarak’s temperament?
6 What charge is made against Charles’s involvement with politics?
124  Meic Stephens

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh about the content of the piece are true (cywir
– C) or false (anghywir – A):
1 Mae llawer iawn o sefydliadau Cymreig yn cael eu dychanu yn y nofel. C/A
2 Buodd Meic Stephens mewn sawl gwlad. C/A
3 Mae Moneer Said Hanna’n fardd enwog. C/A
4 Mae gan y Tywysog Charles dîm o daeogion. C/A
5 Bydd rhai darllenwyr yn gweld y Tywysog fel arwr. C/A
6 Roedd Hanna’n dal i sgrifennu am Mubarak yn ei gell. C/A

Exercise 3:

Cyfieithwch i’r Saesneg:

1 Rhaid inni fod yn barod i hogi’n harfau.
2 Roedd protestiadau’n ddiweddar yn erbyn yr awdurdodau.
3 Mae Cymru wedi dechrau ar y siwrnai tuag at annibyniaeth.
4 Penodi tywysog newydd fydd ein cam cyntaf ar ôl dod i rym.
5 Awgrymwyd i’r bardd y dylai cyfansoddi cerdd ar destun gwahanol.
6 Fe gyhoeddodd y papurau newydd lythyrau’n protestio yn erbyn carcharu’r llenor.
Chapter 29: Llechi

In 1989 the mass-market publishers Penguin marked a milestone in their long history
by publishing Hanes Cymru by John Davies – the first Welsh-language title in their list.
A second edition followed in 2006, and an English translation The History of Wales (which
you won’t be needing) had already appeared in 1994. It is widely regarded as the best
single-volume treatment of the subject, not least for the sweep of its vision and the liveli-
ness of its narrative.
This short extract (a longer one awaits us in Chapter 33) concerns the varying fortunes
of one of the most important industries in Wales in the nineteenth century. The language
combines a certain formality of tone with a brisk narrative pace; some specifically literary
features are to be seen – mostly verb forms as usual – but on the whole, with assistance
from the notes, this piece should not present too many difficulties. It might encourage you
to secure yourself a copy of Hanes Cymru. I would be in favour of such a decision.

Llechi
Erbyn y 1830au, dim ond gan un o °ddiwydiannau’r gogledd yr oedd rhagolygon disglair.
Y diwydiant llechi oedd hwnnw. °Ddechrau’r °ganrif, yr oedd ffrwyth ymdrechion Richard
Pennant yn amlwg. Pan fu ef farw yn 1808, deuai incwm o £7,000 y °flwyddyn o’i chwareli
ym nmhlwyf Llandygai. Ceisiodd Assheton Smith o’r °Faenol ei efelychu yn Llanberis, ac
erbyn degawd cynta’r °ganrif yr oedd ffyniant y diwydiant llechi’n °ddigon i °ddenu cyfalaf
o’r tu allan i °Wynedd, yn arbennig i °fro Ffestiniog, yr unig ardal chwarelyddol lle bu
buddsoddiad o °Loegr yn allweddol i’w datblygiad. Bu dyfodiad heddwch yn 1815 yn hwb
i’r diwydiant, canys yr oedd angen gwneud iawn am esgeuluso buddsoddi mewn adeiladu
adeg y rhyfel. Mewn gwrthgyferbyniad â gweddill diwydiannau’r gogledd, nid oedd gan
chwareli Gwynedd unrhyw °gystadleuwyr o °bwys.
Datrysid rhai o’r problemau trafnidiaeth trwy adeiladu tramffyrdd rhwng y chwareli
a’r môr a hthrwy °ddatblygu porthladdoedd; yn 1821 crëwyd Porthmadog yn °benodol i
°wasanaethu’r °fasnach °lechi.
126  Llechi

Geirfa

diwydiant – industry allweddol – key (adj), crucial

rhagolwg (rhagolygon) – prospect datblygiad – development
disglair – bright dyfodiad – coming, advent
llechen (llechi) – slate heddwch – peace
ymdrech (-ion) – effort hwb – boost
chwarel (-i) – quarry esgeuluso – neglect
plwyf – parish gwrthgyferbyniad – contrast
efelychu – imitate gweddill – rest, remainder
degawd – decade cystadleuydd (-leuwyr) – competitor
ffyniant – prosperity, thriving datrys – solve
denu – attract trafnidiaeth – transport
cyfalaf – capital (n) porthladd (-oedd) – harbour
ardal – region gwasanaethu – serve
buddsoddiad – investment masnach – trade

dim ond gan  .  .  .  yr oedd ‘only  .  .  .  had’ – literally ‘only with  .  .  .  was there’.

Pan °fu ef °farw ‘When he died’ – bu °farw is the normal way of saying ‘died’ even in non-
literary style; there is also buon nhw °farw ‘they died’; and in some areas of Wales you will
hear marwodd. ⇒ mw 395

deuai ‘was coming’ – the LW imperfect of dod, equivalent to roedd yn dod. ⇒ iw u39

o’r tu allan i °Wynedd ‘from outside Gwynedd’.

yr unig ardal ‘the only region’.

i’w ‘to its’ – i + ei becomes i’w in all styles of Welsh. ⇒ mw 112

canys yr oedd angen ‘since there was a need’ – canys ‘since’ (in the sense of ‘because’) is
a word very largely restricted to formal styles of Welsh: the spoken equivalent is usually gan
°fod, so here gan °fod angen; am °fod is also encountered.

gwneud iawn am° ‘make up for’ – learn this idiom.

adeg y rhyfel ‘at the time of the war’, ‘during the war’ – the noun adeg ‘time’, ‘period’ can
be used on its own almost as a preposition, particularly with specific events; similarly, for
example, adeg y Streic °Gyffredinol ‘at the time of the General Strike’; note also adeg hynny
‘at that time’, for which one also hears °bryd hynny. ⇒ mw 406

o °bwys ‘important’ – literally ‘of weight’; note the expression pobol o °bwys ‘important
people’, often used (it seems to me) with heavy irony.

Datrysid ‘was/were solved’ – LW imperfect impersonal of datrys. ⇒ iw u40

 Llechi  127

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What two pieces of infrastructure solved transport problems?
2 What was special about investment in the industry at Ffestiniog?
3 In what way did quarries in Gwynedd differ from other industries in the north?
4 When did capital investment begin to come into the slate industry from outside
Gwynedd?
5 Did the industry’s fortunes change for better or for worse in 1815, and why?
6 What event took place in 1808?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):
1 Roedd Porthmadog wedi bod yn borthladd ers canrifoedd. C/A
2 Fe gafodd Assheton Smith ei efelychu gan Richard Pennant. C/A
3 Doedd dim llawer o adeiladu wedi bod yn ystod y rhyfel. C/A
4 Mi ddaeth heddwch i ben ym 1815. C/A
5 Gadawodd Pennant £7,000 i’w deulu ar ôl ei farwolaeth. C/A
6 Roedd chwareli Gwynedd i gyd wedi’u lleoli ar lan y môr. C/A
Chapter 30: Y Trydydd Peth

Siân Melangell Dafydd is an author and art historian from Llwyneinion in Gwynedd. She is
co-editor of the highly regarded literary and cultural review Taliesin. This piece is from her
novel Y Trydydd Peth (The Third Thing), which won her the Prose Medal (Y Fedal Ryddiaith)
at the 2009 National Eisteddfod. It is the life reminiscence of George Owens, marked above
all by his lifelong affinity to water and, in particular, to the River Dee (Dyfrdwy) that winds
through the region of North Wales where he grew up. A lifelong swimmer, he comes to
feel that he has been born to the guardianship of the river, and by way of legitimising, for
himself at least, this position of responsibility, he decides to swim the river from its source
near Llanuwchllyn (close to the author’s own birthplace) to the sea, where its estuary forms
the southern boundary of the Wirral. In this extract, however, George takes us back to his
early days when he first properly took up the swimming that is to become a central aspect
of his later life, and one which will bind him ever closer to the element that rules him.
There are many examples of focused sentences in this piece, starting with the first one.
Although Welsh is a verb-first language, at least where normal sentences are concerned,
this narrative in natural and colloquial style demonstrates how common the technique of
displacing the verb with some other element for emphasis is in Welsh – much more so than
in English, which has a much less flexible attitude to word order than Welsh and therefore
tends to rely more on intonation as the main way of conveying emphasis. Being aware of
this, and putting it into practice where fitting, will enhance your spoken (and written) Welsh
and make it sound (and look) more authentic.

Y Trydydd Peth
Gwyllt maen nhw’n fy ngalw i.
Gwylliaid cochion.
George Wyllt.
A nofio gwyllt mae pobl yn ei ddweud. Y tro cynta i mi gofio nofio o ddifrif oedd yn
fachgen a gorfod deffro’r Richard ’na drwy daflu cerrig mân at ei ffenest yn y bore. Fi
oedd ei gloc larwm a fo oedd pencampwr nofio gogledd Cymru.
Ar wyliau, hefo Mam ac Elsi oeddwn i. Dwi’m yn meddwl fod Marged o gwmpas,
eto. Heb Dad hefyd, ond heb Dad oedd petha fel’na, fel arfer. Aros hefo Anti Esther
Emily roedden ni: yr un oedd yn casglu porslen, felly doedd fiw i ni chware pêl. Roedd
hi’n hen hefyd, ddim yn siarad Cymraeg ac yn gwisgo pocedi dyfnion o hyd. Rois i lygod
bach, un ym mhob un, rhyw fore, a’i chlywed hi’n sgrechian allan yn y stryd.
 Y Trydydd Peth  129

Pwll nofio sgwâr, hallt oedd yno. Hanner yn y môr, hanner ddim. Rhywbeth o frics.
Cregyn gleision wedi’u glynu wrtho, hefo’r rhai eraill yna sydd fel pebyll bach caled,
pigog. Miniog, y cwbl lot ohonyn nhw, hyd yn oed ar y sodlau caleta. Ac roedd o wedi’i
greu er pleser plant, fel eu bod nhw’n medru nofio yn y môr heb orfod nofio yn y môr
go iawn. Dim llanw, dim crancod, dim dagrau.
Yn y tB drws nesa yr oedd Richard yn byw, hefo’i fam a’i dad a’i Jack Russell. Lot o
blorod arno, dwi’n cofio, Richard. Roeddwn i wedi clywed hen ddigon am ei gampau, ei
gystadlu, a’r ffaith ei fod o’n medru nofio i mewn i’r môr nes nad oedd neb yn ei weld o,
ac yna’n ôl yn un darn. Ro’n i’n meddwl bod nofio efo fo’n fraint. Felly mi fyddai o’n disgwyl
i mi fod yn gloc larwm iddo fo bob bore er mwyn cyrraedd y pwll cyn pawb arall. Cyn yr
oedolion, oedd y tric. Doeddwn i ddim am ei guro fo, ond doeddwn i ddim am fod yn rhy
bell y tu ôl iddo fo chwaith, felly cadw i fyny efo pob strôc oeddwn i’n trio’i wneud, a nofio
’nôl a blaen ffwl pelt rhwng hanner awr wedi chwech a hanner awr wedi saith. ‘Cael y lle i
gyd i ni’n dau – anhygoel,’ fyddai o’n ei ddweud bob bore wrth gerdded yn ôl adre tra
byddwn i’n chwythu’r halen o ’nhrwyn ac i mewn i’r gwrychoedd wrth basio, yn sychu
’mhen hefo gwlanen a gobeithio na fyddai neb yn clywed oglau halen arna i wrth i mi gamu
o ’ngwely’n damp, agor y ’ngheg a dweud, ‘Bore da.’ A’r peth penna: gobeithio fod Elsi,
yn y gwely arall, heb ddeffro eto. Ond da oedd mynd ben bore fel’na. Torri’r rheolau. Peidio
gorfod talu. Dyna roddodd y blas i mi ar nofio answyddogol, siAr o fod. Waeth befo’r
halen. Waeth befo’r cregyn miniog. Doedd neb yn gwybod ’mod i yno. A dyna oedd y peth.
(from Y Trydydd Peth by Siân Melangell Dafydd, published by Gwasg Gomer, 2009)

Geirfa

gwyllt – wild cranc (-od) – crab

gorfod – have to, must deigryn (dagrau) – tear
cerrig mân – pebbles ploryn (plorod) – spot, pimple
cloc larwm – alarm clock camp (-au) – feat
pencampwr – champion darn – piece
gwyliau – holiday(s) braint – privilege
casglu – collect oedolyn (oedolion) – adult
dwfn – deep curo – beat
llygoden (llygod) – mouse anhygoel – incredible
sgrechian – yell, screech chwythu – blow
bricsen (brics) – brick trwyn – nose
cregyn gleision – mussels gwrych (-oedd) – hedge
glynu – stick, adhere sychu – dry, dry off
pabell (pebyll) – tent gwlanen – flannel
pigog – sharp, spiky camu – step (v)
miniog – sharp deffro – wake up
sawdl (sodlau) – heel rheol (-au) – rule
creu – create answyddogol – unofficial, illicit
llanw – tide
130  Y Trydydd Peth

Gwylliaid cochion ‘Red bandits’ – a reference (suggested by the similar word gwyllt in the
previous line) to the Gwylliaid Cochion Mawddwy, a band of robbers active in Meirionnydd
in the sixteenth century, whose exploits passed into folklore.

mae pobl yn ei °ddweud ‘people say’.

o °ddifrif ‘serious’ – learn this useful phrase (usually o °ddifri in speech), and note the
difference between this and the word difrifol, which tends to mean ‘serious’ in a bad sense
– mae’r sefyllfa’n °ddifrifol ‘the situation is serious’.

eto ‘yet’ – remember that eto can mean either ‘again’ or ‘yet’; you can tell them apart – when
eto means ‘yet’, there is usually some negative sense to the context, as here.

fel arfer ‘usually’ – another phrase that has two meanings: ‘usually’ or ‘as usual’; again,
context will nearly always allow you to pick the right translation.

doedd fiw i ni chware ‘we didn’t dare play’ – also doedd wiw i° with the same meaning; the
present tense is does fiw/wiw i° – does fiw i mi °wrthod ‘I daren’t refuse’. ⇒ mw 359

yn gwisgo  .  .  .  o hyd ‘always wearing’ – there is an adverb wastad meaning ‘always’, but the
phrase o hyd is a common alternative when there is a particular sense of ‘constantly’ or
‘repeatedly’: mae’n siarad o hyd am ei °blentyndod ‘he’s always going on about his child-
hood’; o hyd also means ‘still’ in some contexts: dan ni yma o hyd ‘we’re still here’.

°Rois i ‘I put’ – rhoi has a choice of stem: rhodd- or rhoi-, so ‘I put’ can be rhoddais i or
rhoiais i; this is a shortened version of the second one, with the SM that is customary on
verbs with endings generally in speech; the other stem rhodd- is used further down (Dyna
°roddodd y blas i mi).

hallt this word usually means ‘severe’ these days (beirniadu’n hallt ‘severely criticise’), but it
actually means ‘salty’, and it is this literal meaning that we have here: pwll sgwâr, hallt ‘a
square salt-water pool’.

y cwbl lot ohonyn nhw ‘the whole lot of them’.

y môr go iawn ‘the real sea’ – go iawn acts like an adjective (it comes after the noun), and
is the normal way of saying ‘real’ in the sense of ‘genuine’.

hen °ddigon ‘quite enough’ or ‘enough and more’ – learn this common idiom.

nes nad oedd neb yn ei °weld o ‘until nobody could see him’.

disgwyl i mi °fod ‘expect me to be’.

Doeddwn i °ddim am° ‘I didn’t want to/wasn’t going to’ – remember that verb ‘to be’ + am°
+ VN signifies intention. ⇒ mw 448 (e)
 Y Trydydd Peth  131

rhy °bell y tu ôl iddo fo ‘too far behind him’ – y tu ôl, or just tu ôl, is one of a set of loca-
tion words with tu (an old word for ‘side’); others include tu allan ‘outside’, tu cefn ‘behind’,
tu hwnt ‘beyond’; they are followed by i°, as here. ⇒ mw 422

chwaith ‘either’ – used with negative sentences; dw i °ddim eisiau mynd chwaith ‘I don’t
want to go either’, °welon ni °ddim byd chwaith ‘we didn’t see anything either’. ⇒ mw 430, 513

y lle i gyd i ni’n dau ‘the whole place to ourselves’ – note ni’n dau ‘us two’; similarly chi’ch
dau ‘you two’; ‘the two of them’ is ill dau; dwy instead of dau in all cases if it’s two females.
⇒ mw 169

o nnhrwyn ‘from my nose’.

na °fyddai neb yn clywed oglau halen ‘that nobody would smell the salt’ – while clywed
generally corresponds to ‘hear’, the Welsh term has a broader range of meaning, as shown
by its use with oglau ‘(a) smell’; obviously to translate this as ‘hear a smell’ would be the
action of an idiot, so clearly the wider meaning of this word is something like ‘sense’ or
‘perceive’.

’r peth penna ‘the main thing’.

Ond da oedd mynd °ben bore ‘But it was good to be out and about first thing in the morning’.

Peidio gorfod talu ‘Not having to pay’.

Dyna °roddodd y blas i mi ar° ‘That’s what gave me the taste for’ – note that ‘a taste of ’ and
‘a taste for’ are both blas ar° in Welsh.

answyddogol this usually means ‘unofficial’, but in nofio answyddogol here the sense is
‘illicit’, as the preceding two short phrases make clear.

°Waeth befo’r halen ‘Never mind the salt’ – the useful phrase °waeth befo (+ noun) should be
learnt; similarly, for example, °waeth befo’r canlyniadau ‘never mind the consequences’; you
should also know and use hitiwch befo (often pronounced hitsiwch befo), which is used for
‘Never mind’ on its own: hitiwch befo, awn ni yfory ‘never mind, we’ll go tomorrow’; or
hitiwch befo am° + noun: hitiwch befo am y tywydd ‘never mind about the weather’.

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What was the pool constructed of ?
2 What kind of people was it important to beat to the pool?
3 Who did Aunty Esther Emily speak Welsh to?
4 And what made her scream?
5 What are the two main advantages of the pool?
6 How did George carry out the job he had to do for Richard?
132  Y Trydydd Peth

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh about the content of the piece are true (cywir
– C) or false (anghywir – A):
1 Roedd Richard yn nofiwr cryfach na George. C/A
2 Roedd Anti Esther Emily yn eitha ifanc. C/A
3 Doedd oedolion ddim yn cael nofio yn y pwll môr. C/A
4 Roedd George yn falch o gael nofio efo Richard. C/A
5 Roedd gan Richard gi bach annwyl. C/A
6 Roedd Richard yn byw efo’i rieni. C/A
7 Roedd gan George ddwy chwaer ar y pryd. C/A
8 Roedd George yn gorfod taflu cregyn gleision at ffenest ei ffrind. C/A
Chapter 31: Y Caeau Cochion

The nineteenth-century novelist Daniel Owen (1836–1895) is considered one of the pre-
eminent literary figures in the Welsh language, and perhaps its greatest novelist. Certainly
his second work Rhys Lewis (published 1885 – full title Hunangofiant Rhys Lewis, Gweinidog
Bethel ‘Reminiscences of Rhys Lewis, Minister of Bethel’), is widely regarded as the first
true novel in Welsh; it was followed by two further novels, Enoc Huws (1891) and Gwen
Tomos (1894), and a collection of short stories Straeon y Pentan published in the year of
his death.
A miner’s son born in Mold in north-east Wales, he received no formal education other
than attendance at Sunday School. At the age of 12 he became a tailor’s apprentice, and it
was during this early period in his life that he started writing poems. Indeed, it seems that
his time here and his association with his co-workers provided him with a stimulating
philosophical and literary environment. Politics and religion were common talking points,
and there were readings from the works of both English and Welsh authors of the day.
Owen’s ambitions to become ordained were thwarted by his brother’s marriage, by which
event the responsibility for caring for his sisters and mother was passed down to Daniel,
forcing him to abandon his studies. He returned to the tailor’s shop, where he worked for
the rest of his life, in the end as owner.
The religious side of his life continued in the form of lay-preaching, but fragile health
forced him to eventually give this up, and he turned instead to the novel-writing for which
he would later be famous.
Owen’s language is a very formal literary style, and you will naturally see numerous LW
verb forms in this kind of writing – look out particularly for the third person -ai ending of
the imperfect (naturally common in narrative) and the various impersonal forms, for example
the imperfect impersonal -id ‘was/were  .  .  .  -ed’, which makes a number of appearances in
this piece.
134  Y Caeau Cochion

Y Caeau Cochion
Yr oedd y Caeau Cochion yn un o °brif °weithfeydd y °gymdogaeth y magwyd fi ynddi;
ac yr oedd yn cyflogi – a hchyfrif y bechgyn – °rai cannoedd o °bobl. Saeson, os wyf yn
cofio’n °dda, oedd yr holl °berchenogion. Ar un adeg goruchwylid holl “°danddaearolion
°bethau” y gwaith gan °Gymro syml ac onest o’r enw Abraham Jones, diacon gyda’r
Annibynwyr. Yr oedd ef yn °Ar pwyllog ac yn meddu synnwyr cryf a dylanwad mawr ar
y gweithwyr a oedd dan ei °ofal. Pa anghydwelediad bynnag a °godai ymhlith y dynion, nid
oedd eisiau ond i Abraham Jones °gyflafareddu, a hthawelai popeth yn union. Dirgelwch
ei °ddylanwad ydoedd ei °graffter neilltuol i °ganfod trigle’r bai, a’r ymddiried llwyr a
oedd gan °bawb yn ei °onestrwydd a’i °grefydd. Profasai ei hun bob amser yn °gyfaill
calon i’r gweithwyr, am y gwyddai’n °dda beth oedd bod yn °weithiwr ei hun.
Perthynai iddo un anfantais °fawr yn ei °gysylltiad â’i uchelwyr; amherffaith iawn oedd
ei Saesneg; ac yn eu cyngoriaethau parai hyn iddo ymddangos ar adegau heb °fod mor
°gwbl syth yn ei stori ag y dymunasai; ac ymboenai yntau yn °fawr o’r herwydd. Dywedwyd
wrtho un diwrnod yng nnghyfarfod y cyfarwyddwyr mai gwell oedd iddo ymadael, gan
°fod ganddynt °Ar o Sais tebycach o °wneud ei °orchwyl yn °well, a hefyd o °allu rhoddi
adroddiad cyflawnach o sefyllfa’r gwaith. Gyda’r gair, teimlodd Abraham Jones °faich
mawr yn syrthio oddi ar ei ysgwyddau; cymerodd ei het, moesymgrymodd iddynt, ac
aeth allan. Pan aeth yn ôl i’r gwaith, a hysbysu’r dynion am y newydd, yr oedd yno °alar
a gofid nid ychydig. Awgrymid, a dywedid yn lled °groyw gan y gweithwyr nad unrhyw
anfedrusrwydd nac anffyddlondeb ar °ran Abraham Jones a °barodd i’r cyfarwyddwyr ei
annog i ymadael, ond mai eisiau oedd ar °rai ohonynt °wneud lle i °gyfaill iddynt a oedd
mewn angen am °fara. Pa un ai cam ai cymwys, parodd y °grediniaeth hon i’r gweithwyr
°gasáu Mr Strangle, eu goruchwyliwr newydd, cyn iddynt erioed °weled ei wyneb.

Geirfa

gweithfa (-feydd) – works, workplace dirgelwch – secret

cymdogaeth – neighbourhood craffter – capacity, ability
cyflogi – employ neilltuol – particular, special
cant (cannoedd) – hundred canfod – perceive
goruchwylio – supervise trigle’r bai – the root of the problem
diacon – deacon ymddiried – trust
Annibynwyr – Independents perthyn – belong
pwyllog – wise, sensible anfantais – disadvantage
meddu – possess uchelwyr – superiors
gofal – care cynghoriaeth (cyngoriaethau) –
anghydwelediad – dispute consultation, discussion
cyflafareddu – arbitrate ymboeni – be troubled, worry
tawelu – calm down, go silent cyfarwyddwr (-ddwyr) – director
 Y Caeau Cochion 135

ymadael - leave, depart gofid - grief

tebyg - likely croyw - plain, clear
rhoddi = rhoi anfedrusrwydd - lack of skill
adroddiad - report anffyddlondeb - lack of faith
cyflawn - complete (adj) annog - urge
baich - burden cyfaill - friend
ysgwydd - shoulder crediniaeth - belief
moesymgrymu - bow (v) casau - hate
hysbysu - inform gweled = gweld
galar - mourning, grief

y Caeau Cochion ‘the Red Fields' - note plural form of the adjective coch.

y °gymdogaeth y magwyd fi ynddi ‘the neighbourhood I was brought up in’ - unlike in

English, in Welsh you really can't end a sentence with a preposition; instead, in examples
like this, you have to use the pronoun form (but generally without the pronoun itself) refer­
ring back to the thing being talked about - in this case that is y °gymdogaeth which is
feminine, so we say y °gymdogaeth y magwyd fi ynddi because ynddi hi means ‘in it (fem.)7;
similarly for a masculine: y ty y magwyd nhw ynddo ‘the house they were brought up in’.
=> m w 483

yr oedd yn cyflogi ‘it employed' - pronoun omitted as is normal in LW where the subject
(y Caeau Cochion) is clear through having been previously mentioned.

a hchyfrif ‘including’ - literally ‘and counting7.

°rai cannoedd - this SM of rhai is because of sangiad (namely a hchyfrif y bechgyn between
the dashes); see note to °gysylltu in Chapter 8.

os wyf yn cofio ‘if I remember7 - wyf (LW) ‘am 7.

goruchwylid ‘was/were supervised7- imperfect impersonal form of goruchwylio. => iw U40

holl °danddaearolion °bethau ‘all underground matters7 - normally we would expect the
adjective tanddaearol ‘undergound7to follow the noun pethau, of course; and we would not
expect it to appear with a plural ending either.

a oedd dan ei °ofal ‘who were under his care7.

Pa . . . bynnag a °godai ‘Whatever . . . arose7.

nid oedd eisiau ond i Abraham Jones . . . ‘Abraham Jones had only to . . .7 - lit. ‘there was
not need but for . . .7.
136  Y Caeau Cochion

ydoedd = oedd.

Profasai ‘He had proved’ – the -as- infix is an indicator of the LW pluperfect (equivalent
of oedd wedi  .  .  .), though it also appears in the plural forms of the LW preterite as well.
⇒ mw 216, ⇒ iw u37

am y gwyddai ‘since/because he knew’. ⇒ mw 323, ⇒ iw u28

beth oedd bod yn °weithiwr ‘what it was to be a worker’.

parai hyn iddo ymddangos ‘this caused him to appear’ – hyn is the subject, referring back
to amherffaith iawn oedd ei Saesneg.

heb °fod mor °gwbl syth ‘not as entirely straight’ – lit. ‘without being  .  .  .’.

ag y dymunasai ‘as he had wished’ – â (ag before vowels) corresponds to ‘as’ in comparative
sentences, as here, where it follows on from mor °gwbl syth. ⇒ mw 105

ac ymboenai yntau ‘and he, for his part, worried’ – the extended pronoun yntau ‘he/him’
is used here to draw a parallel – best done in English (which does not have the luxury of
extended pronouns) as a paraphrase.

Dywedwyd wrtho ‘He was told’ – lit. ‘It was told to him’.

gan °fod ganddynt °er o Sais ‘since they had an Englishman’.

am y newydd ‘about the (piece of ) news’.

nid ychydig ‘not a little’ – i.e. ‘quite a bit’.

yn lled °groyw ‘pretty plainly’ – lled° causes SM of the following adjective.

nad unrhyw  .  .  .  a °barodd ‘that it was not any  .  .  .  that caused’ – remember that focused
‘that’-clauses have nad in the negative, in other words nad ‘that  .  .  .  not’ is the negative
counterpart of mai ‘that’. ⇒ mw 492

ond mai eisiau oedd ar °rai ohonynt ‘but that some of them wanted’.

Pa un ai cam ai cymwys ‘Whether rightly or wrongly’ – though the terms are reversed in
the Welsh idiom; the adjective cam (not to be confused with the noun cam ‘step’ – a dif-
ferent word) has a general negative meaning of ‘wrong’ or ‘false’; learn the phrase ar °gam
‘in error’; and as a prefix it is the usual counterpart of English ‘mis-’, for example camarwain
‘mislead’, camddealltwriaeth ‘misunderstanding’, camgymeriad ‘mistake’.
 Y Caeau Cochion  137

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What one disadvantage did Abraham Jones have at work?
2 What reason was given for asking him to leave?
3 And what was Abraham’s immediate reaction to this?
4 What did the owners all have in common?
5 How many people were employed at Caeau Cochion?
6 What two abilities made Abraham a good mediator?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh about the content of the piece are true (cywir – C)
or false (anghywir – A):
1 Roedd ei gydweithwyr yn drist pan ymadawodd Abraham. C/A
2 Goruchwylio’r gwaith tanddaearol oedd ei brif gyfrifoldeb. C/A
3 Doedd plant ddim yn cael gweithio yn y Caeau Cochion. C/A
4 Doedd Abraham ddim yn ddyn cyfeillgar iawn. C/A
5 Roedd y gweithwyr yn casáu’r goruchwyliwr newydd am ei fod yn C/A
rhy grefyddol.
6 Roedd gan rai o gyfarwyddwyr y Caeau Cochion resymau hunanol C/A
dros ddiswyddo Abraham.

Exercise 3

Cyfieithwch i’r Saesneg:

1 Fe gyflogwyd cannoedd o weithwyr yn y ffatri newydd.
2 Penderfynwyd mewn cyfarfod cyhoeddus neithiwr y dylid gofyn am i’r cyfarwyddwyr i
gyd ymddiswyddo.
3 Mae plant bach yn debycach o fedru glanhau simneiau tai a ffatrïoedd yn effeithiol.
4 Gwyddai’r gweithwyr yn dda fod rhywbeth o’i le.
5 O’n i’n casáu’r dyn ’na ymhell cyn iddo ddod yn wleidydd.
6 Rhaid hysbysu’r goruchwyliwr ar unwaith am yr hyn sy wedi digwydd.
Chapter 32: Tolkien a’r Gymraeg

It is said that J.R.R. Tolkien’s interest in Welsh was inspired by seeing railway coal trucks
passing by his childhood home in the West Midlands emblazoned with the (to his young
eyes) exotic names of Welsh collieries. Another demonstration, then, of the beneficial effects
of a good railway network.
This extract is from a review in Welsh by Barry Lewis for the literary magazine Taliesin
of a new English-language book by Carl Phelpstead, Tolkien and Wales, which documents
the world-famous author’s connections and dealings with Wales and particularly its language.
The style is relatively formal, as signalled at the outset by the verb dengys, the LW form of
mae  .  .  .  yn dangos, and by the many examples of impersonal verb forms in various tenses
throughout the piece. Mutations are not marked for this text – instead I have made the
following Geirfa fairly comprehensive. As noted in a previous chapter, Welsh has an excellent
capacity for forming technical terms, and there are a number of examples here.

Tolkien a’r Gymraeg

Dengys Phelpstead fod gafael Tolkien ar Gymraeg Canol yn dda, ei fod yn hyddysg yn
y rhyddiaith ganoloesol yn enwedig, ac y gallai ddeall peth Cymraeg ar lafar. Daw’n eglur
o’r drafodaeth fod gan y Gymraeg rôl allweddol yng ngeni ‘Middle Earth’ ei nofelau.
Mynnai Tolkien ei hun mai gwir fan cychwyn ei waith creadigol oedd yr awydd i greu
ieithoedd, ieithoedd a fyddai’n hardd yn ei dyb ef; ymgais i’w cynysgaeddu â bywyd dynol
oedd dyfeisio chwedlau am fyd arall lle siaredid yr ieithoedd hynny. Y Gymraeg oedd y
brif ysbrydoliaeth y tu ôl i’r iaith Sindarin, iaith yr ‘elves’ sy’n trigo yn Middle Earth.
Mewn gwirionedd, mae hynny’n amlwg i unrhyw Gymro Cymraeg sy’n bwrw golwg ar
y map o Middle Earth lle ceir enwau fel Minas Tirith, Hithaeglir, Mordor, Enedwaith,
Rhovanion. Camp Tolkien oedd nid dwyn geiriau Cymraeg – peth digon hawdd i unrhyw
un all agor geiriadur – ond gweld trwy eiriau’r Gymraeg, synhwyro’u teithi cynhenid a
chreu geiriau newydd ar batrwm cyffelyb. Carai Tolkien dreigladau’r Gymraeg ac fe
ymgorfforodd rai o’i ddyfais ei hun yn Sindarin. Efelychodd hefyd y llafariaid cyfnewidiol:
emyn yw lluosog amon ‘mynydd’, cf. Cymraeg agor, egyr. Carai hefyd hanes yr iaith, peth
mwy dieithr, efallai, i Gymry heddiw. Felly, sicrhaodd y byddai Quenya, iaith hynafol a
gwreiddiol yr ‘elves’ a batrymwyd i raddau helaeth ar y Ffinneg, yn profi rhai o’r newidiadau
seinegol a effeithiodd ar iaith Geltaidd Prydain yn y cyfnod ar ôl y Rhufeiniaid. Bu i
Quenya droi’n Sindarin mewn modd tebyg iawn i drawsffurfiad y Frythoneg yn Gymraeg.
 Tolkien a’r Gymraeg  139

Rhan fwyaf diddorol Tolkien and Wales yw’r penodau sy’n trafod agwedd Tolkien tuag at
yr iaith Gymraeg a’i dylanwad ar iaith yr ‘elves’. Lle ymdrinnir â dylanwadau llenyddol, fodd
bynnag, fe geir y teimlad fod iaith Cymru wedi tanio dychymyg Tolkien yn fwy na’i llenydd­
iaeth. Er bod rhyw ran i chwedlau’r Mabinogion yn porthi’i syniadau (The Silmarillion,  
wedi’r cwbl, yw teitl y llyfr gwefreiddiol y gweithiodd arno gydol ei fywyd), pwysicach o dipyn
oedd ei ddyled i destunau Saesneg a Norseg. Yn ôl Phelpstead, amwys oedd agwedd
Tolkien tuag at y rhamantau Arthuraidd megis y gerdd Saesneg Sir Gawain and the Green
Knight: dylanwadodd y rhain yn drwm ar ei waith, ond eto roedd eu hagwedd echblyg
Gristnogol yn faen tramgwydd. Cwestiwn arall, fodd bynnag, yw i ba raddau y dylid trafod
y deunydd Arthuraidd dan y teitl Tolkien and Wales: Llenyddiaeth Ffrainc a Lloegr, wedi’r
cwbl, yw’r rhamantau Arthuraidd yn y bôn. At ei gilydd mae’n demtasiwn meddwl y byddai’r
teitl Tolkien and Welsh yn agosach ati o ran cyfleu union ddyled Tolkien i Gymru.
(published in Taliesin 142, Spring 2011)

Geirfa
gafael – grip, grasp dieithr – strange, unfamiliar, arcane
hyddysg – well-versed, learned sicrhau – ensure
rhyddiaith – prose hynafol – ancient
canoloesol – medieval gwreiddiol – original
eglur – clear seinegol – phonetic
trafodaeth – discussion cyfnod – period
allweddol – crucial, key trawsffurfiad – transformation
mynnu – insist Brythoneg – Brythonic
man cychwyn – starting point pennod (penodau) – chapter
awydd – desire agwedd – attitude
tyb – estimation, opinion dylanwad – influence
ymgais – attempt ymdrin âh – treat, deal with
cynysgaeddu – endow llenyddol – literary
chwedl (-au) – legend, fable dychymyg – imagination
ysbrydoliaeth – inspiration porthi – feed
trigo – live, inhabit gwefreiddiol – thrilling
camp – feat, achievement dyled – debt
dwyn – steal testun – text
synhwyro – sense amwys – ambiguous
teithi – characteristics, traits rhamant – romance
cynhenid – inherent megis – like, such as
patrwm – model, pattern cerdd – poem
cyffelyb – similar echblyg – explicit
treiglad (-au) – (consonant) mutation maen tramgwydd – stumbling block
ymgorffori – incorporate deunydd – material
efelychu – imitate yn y bôn – basically
llafariad (-iaid) – vowel at ei gilydd – on the whole
cyfnewidiol – changeable, changing cyfleu – convey
140  Tolkien a’r Gymraeg

Dengys ‘shows’ – LW present tense = Mae  .  .  .  yn dangos. ⇒ mw 216, ⇒ iw u37

gafael Tolkien ‘Tolkien’s grasp’ – the VN gafael used as a true noun.

ac y gallai ‘and that he could’.

peth Cymraeg ‘a certain amount of Welsh’ – peth when used as a quantity word is unusual
in not using o° before the noun: ychydig o °laeth, llawer o °laeth, digon o °laeth but peth
llaeth. ⇒ mw 193

Daw’n eglur ‘It becomes clear’ – in the spoken language daw ‘will come’ is the third person
singular short future of dod, but in the literary style these short futures are also used as
presents.

yng nngeni ‘Middle Earth’ ei nofelau – two genitive constructions one after the other: we
need to supply several more small words in English: ‘in the birth of the “Middle Earth” of
his novels’.

Mynnai ‘insisted’ – LW imperfect of mynnu = Roedd  .  .  .  yn mynnu.

yn ei °dyb ef ‘in his estimation’ – ef (LW) = e, of course.

lle siaredid ‘where  .  .  .  was/were spoken’ – the -id ending is characteristic of the imperfect
impersonal, a useful verb form which is, however, restricted to written styles; note that, like
the present impersonal -ir, it causes an -a- in the preceding syllable to change to -e- (siarad
> siaredid); so similarly siaredir ‘is/are spoken’; but the past impersonal ending -wyd does
not do this: siaradwyd. ⇒ iw u40

lle ceir ‘where there are’ or ‘where we find’, or some similar way of translating this common
and useful impersonal form of cael. ⇒ mw 371, ⇒ iw u23

unrhyw un °all agor ‘anyone who can open’ – the SM on gall indicates the relative: the
relative particle a° ‘who/which’ is frequently dropped not only in speech but in writing, as
here, leaving only the SM to show where it was. But we had this way back in Chapter 10
(note to oedden nhw’n arfer talu) – surely you don’t need telling again? Of course you don’t!

Carai – imperfect third person singular; remember that caru can mean ‘like’ as well as
‘love’, and I think the former is probably what is meant here, though you could make a case
for the latter as well – Tolkien certainly did love languages. As do we all.

o’i °ddyfais ei hun ‘of his own devising’.

llafariaid cyfnewidiol ‘alternating/changing vowels’ – ‘vowel’ is llafariad (plural llafariaid),

and ‘consonant’ is cytsain (cytseiniaid) – useful words for when things in class get technical.

i °raddau helaeth ‘to a great extent’ – learn this common and useful phrase.

Bu i Quenya °droi’n Sindarin ‘Quenya was to turn to Sindarin’.

 Tolkien a’r Gymraeg  141

Lle ymdrinnir âh – this neat (though formal) phrase (ymdrin âh ‘treat/deal with (a subject)’)
is hard to find a close English equivalent for, but it amounts to ‘As regards’ or ‘As far
as  .  .  .  is/are concerned’; the more literal meaning is something like ‘Where there is treating
of  .  .  .’, which falls some distance short of being English.

°fodd bynnag ‘however’ – learn this phrase, and also serch hynny, which means the same
thing.

fe °geir y teimlad ‘one gets the feeling’ – a rare instance where ‘one’ actually is the best way
to translate the Welsh impersonal.

°gydol ei °fywyd ‘all his life’, also °gydol ei oes which means the same thing – °gydol is a
common shortening of the phrase drwy °gydol ‘throughout’, which you should learn; simi-
larly, for example, drwy °gydol y °flwyddyn ‘throughout the year’, drwy °gydol y °drafodaeth
‘throughout the discussion’.

pwysicach o °dipyn ‘quite a bit more important’ – remember that some adjectives change
slightly when they add the comparative ending -ach, notably a final -b, -d and -g change to
their voiceless equivalents; so gwlyb > gwlypach ‘wetter’, rhad > rhatach ‘cheaper’, tebyg >
tebycach ‘more likely’. ⇒ mw 104, ⇒ iw u5

amwys oedd agwedd Tolkien – a focused sentence, emphasising amwys.

ond eto ‘but then again’ or ‘but all the same’ – used, as here, to negatively qualify a preced-
ing statement.

echblyg °Gristnogol ‘explicitly Christian’ – the SM shows that echblyg is functioning as an

adverb to be taken with what follows.

i °ba °raddau ‘to what extent’ – another phrase using °raddau that would be worth learning.

yn y bôn ‘basically’ – overused (though not here) in Welsh as much as in English; learn it
anyway, and throw it into the conversation to give yourself thinking time.

union °ddyled Tolkien ‘Tolkien’s exact debt’ or perhaps better ‘the precise extent of Tolkien’s
debt’; SM after an adjective preceding its noun.

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 Which came first – Middle Earth or its languages?
2 What were Tolkien’s main inspirations for his story lines?
3 Which made-up language of his was based on Welsh?
4 What countries do the Arthurian romances originate from?
5 What language does Welsh immediately derive from?
6 What was Tolkien’s main concern in creating his languages?
142  Tolkien a’r Gymraeg

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh about the content of the piece are true (cywir
– C) or false (anghywir – A):
1 Ffinneg oedd patrwm yr iaith Quenya. C/A
2 Mae treigladau yn yr iaith Quenya, fel yn y Gymraeg. C/A
3 Roedd Tolkien yn hoff iawn o ramantau Arthuraidd Saesneg. C/A
4 Roedd Tolkien yn siarad Cymraeg yn dda. C/A
5 Mae’r iaith Sindarin yn llawn dop o eiriau wedi’u dwyn o’r Gymraeg. C/A
6 Roedd llenyddiaeth Cymru yn llai diddorol i Tolkien na’i hiaith. C/A

Exercise 3

Cyfieithwch i’r Saesneg:

1 Fe geir llawer o lyfrau ar y pwnc yn y llyfrgell.
2 Mhrif ddiddordeb i ydy llenyddiaeth ganoloesol.
3 Tydy ei gafael hi ar Ffrangeg ddim yn dda.
4 Mi weithiodd ei wraig ar y prosiect hwn gydol ei hoes.
5 Dylid sicrhau dyfodol i’r iaith Gymraeg.
6 Siaredid Norseg yn Norwy a Gwlad yr Iâ ganrifoedd yn ôl.
Chapter 33: Y Rhyfel Fawr

This second piece from John Davies’s magisterial and compelling history of Wales Hanes
Cymru deals with the beginning of the First World War.
Features to note in this stylishly written narrative include the many ways in Welsh of
forming abstract nouns from verbs and adjectives – often done with one of a wide range
of suffixes. Unfortunately there are few discernible patterns in the use of these suffixes, and
it is usually best to simply learn the words individually. On the other hand, it is useful
to be able to spot them – and easy as well, since they mostly have only this function  .  .  .  
mostly. In the Geirfa that follows, therefore, I will list not the abstract nouns but the basic
words they derive from – then you can use your initiative, and also build up a satisfying
little list of these suffixes for future reference and enjoyment. If you can find eight different
ones in this piece, award yourself a small prize. Sometimes, however, the abstract noun is
the base form – there are two examples here, see if you can spot them. Remember also,
however, that simple verbnouns can function as abstract nouns – for example, ymladd in
the fifth sentence means ‘fight’ but here is used with the definite article, and means ‘the
fighting’.
You will also encounter, as in all relatively formal styles of narrative Welsh, various verb
forms which, while not very at home in the everyday spoken language, seem as happy
as clams in the literary environment. Prominent among these are the various impersonal
(or autonomous) forms, characterised by endings such as -ir, -wyd and -id (the first two
not unusual in the media, the last very definitely more confined to writing) – these forms
usually correspond to passives (generally done with cael + possessive adjective + VN in less
formal registers), and are both elegant and handy because of their conciseness; don’t go
using them in speech, though. Other unfamiliar verb forms include the imperfect done
with endings (rather than with roedd + yn + VN as is the case in ordinary styles). In third
person narratives of the type we are going to read here, its usual hallmark ending is -ai –
see how many you can spot.
144  Y Rhyfel Fawr

Y Rhyfel Fawr
Llofruddiwyd Franz Ferdinand, nai Ymerawdwr Awstria-Hwngari, yn Sarajevo ar 28  
Mehefin 1914. Dair wythnos yn ddiweddarach, mynegodd Lloyd George ei hyder y byddai
synnwyr cyffredin ac ewyllys da yn datrys y problemau a wynebai Ewrop. Nid felly y bu.
Erbyn 3 Awst 1914, yr oedd yr Almaen ac Awstria-Hwngari mewn rhyfel yn erbyn Ffrainc
a Rwsia. Ymunodd Prydain ar ochr Ffrainc ar 4 Awst. Pan ddaeth yr ymladd i ben ar 11
Tachwedd 1918, gorweddai dros ddeng miliwn o ddynion mewn mynwentydd milwrol,
40,000 o Gymry yn eu plith. Yn sgil y brwydro, dilëwyd ‘tirnodau a ffiniau ein gwareiddiad’,
chwedl Churchill; tanseiliwyd y gyfundrefn economaidd ryngwladol, a dinistriwyd, mewn
calonnau lu, y ffydd yn naioni cynhenid Duw a dyn.
Credai’r llywodraeth Brydeinig mai’r llynges fyddai ei phrif gyfraniad at fuddugoliaeth.
Serch hynny, profodd llwyddiannau cyflym yr Almaenwyr fod angen byddin enfawr i
wrthsefyll anferthedd eu peiriant rhyfel. Yn wahanol i weddill gwladwriaethau Ewrop,
nid oedd ym Mhrydain orfodaeth filwrol. Er mwyn cymell gwirfoddolwyr, rhaid oedd
meithrin y gred mai lladd Almaenwyr a marw dros yr ymerodraeth oedd pennaf dyletswydd
a rhinwedd dyn. Dyma gred a oedd yn wrthun i’r gwerthoedd yr honnai trwch y Cymry
eu bod yn eu proffesu. Ymhlith yr Anghydffurfwyr, yr oedd amheuaeth fawr o’r fyddin.
Cymry o’r dosbarth tiriog oedd swyddogion catrodau megis y Ffiwsilwyr Brenhinol Cymreig,
ond o Loegr y deuai o leiaf naw o bob deg o’r milwyr cyffredin. Ymhlith yr Anghydffurfwyr
yr oedd balchder mawr yn nhraddodiad heddychgar Henry Richard, ac yn 1913 datganodd
Undeb yr Annibynwyr fod ‘pob rhyfel yn groes i ysbryd Crist’. Ystyriai’r mudiad llafur
fod arfogi’n gynllwyn i ganiatáu i gyfalafwyr fudrelwa. Yr oedd yr undebau a’r Blaid Lafur
wedi ymrwymo wrth y penderfyniad a basiwyd gan y Gynhadledd Sosialaidd Ryngwladol
yn 1907. Yn hwnnw datganwyd mai dyletswydd aelodau’r dosbarth gweithiol oedd  
rhwystro rhyfel; pe na lwyddent, dylent wneud pob ymdrech i drawsffurfio’r rhyfel rhwng
gwladwriaethau yn rhyfel rhwng dosbarthiadau. Yr oedd parch mawr at yr Almaen  
ymhlith carfanau dylanwadol yng Nghymru. Edmygai Llafurwyr ei phlaid sosialaidd –  
y fwyaf yn y byd; clodforid y wlad fel tarddle’r Diwygiad Protestannaidd; anrhydeddid  
ei diwinyddion a’i hysgolheigion ieithyddol; ymserchid yn Heine ac eraill o’i beirdd
rhamantaidd; gwyddai pob côr yng Nghymru am weithiau Handel, Bach a Mendelssohn.
Doedd fawr o frwdfrydedd ynglBn â Ffrainc – gwlad anlladrwydd ac anffyddiaeth – nac
ynglBn â Rwsia – gwlad gormes ac ofergoel.
 Y Rhyfel Fawr  145

Geirfa

llofruddio – murder cydffurfio – conform

nai – nephew amau (amheu-) – doubt; suspect
ymerawdwr – emperor byddin – army
synnwyr – sense swyddog (-ion) – officer
ewyllys – will (n) catrawd (catrodau) – regiment
wynebu – face (v) balch – proud
rhyfel – war traddodiad (-au) – tradition
ymuno – join (oneself ) heddwch – peace
ymladd – fight datgan – announce
gorwedd – lie ystyried – consider
mynwent (-ydd) – cemetery arfogi – arm (v)
milwr (milwyr) – soldier cynllwyn – plan; plot
ymhlith – among cyfalaf – capital (i.e. money)
dileu – rub out, erase budr – dirty
tirnod (-au) – landmark elw – profit
gwareiddiad – civilisation ymrwymo – commit (oneself )
tanseilio – undermine cynhadledd – conference
cyfundrefn – system dosbarth (-iadau) – class
rhyngwladol – international rhwystro – prevent
dinistrio – destroy ymdrech – effort
llu – host; very many trawsffurfio – transform
ffydd – faith gwladwriaeth (-au) – nation, state
cynhenid – innate parch – respect
llynges – navy; fleet carfan – sector
cyfrannu – contribute dylanwad – influence
buddugol – victorious edmygu – admire
llwyddo – succeed clodforio – praise
enfawr – huge, enormous tarddu – derive, originate
gwrthsefyll – resist anrhydedd – honour
anferth – huge, enormous diwinydd (-ion) – theologian
peiriant – machine ysgolhaig (-heigion) – scholar
gorfodi – compel, force ymserchu – cherish, dote on
cymell – induce rhamant – romance
gwirfoddol – voluntary gwaith (gweithiau) – work
meithrin – nurture brwdfrydedd – enthusiasm
credu – believe anlladrwydd – lewdness
gwrthun – odious gormesu – oppress
gwerth (-oedd) – value ofergoel – superstition
146  Y Rhyfel Fawr

a wynebai ‘which faced’ – the characteristic third person singular -ai ending of the LW
imperfect. ⇒ iw u37

Nid felly y bu ‘But it was not to be’ or ‘But this was not how it turned out’.

Pan °ddaeth yr ymladd i °ben ‘When the fighting came to an end’ – the VN ymladd ‘fight’
is used here as a noun: you can always do this in Welsh; dod i °ben is the usual way of
saying ‘come to an end’, and should be learnt.

gorweddai ‘were lying’ – another LW imperfect, singular despite the English, of course,
because third person plural subjects (other than nhw itself ) take a singular verb in Welsh.

yn eu plith ‘among them’ – ymhlith is ‘among’, but it is really a compound preposition (i.e.
yn + plith) and behaves as such when used with pronouns; so ymhlith y myfyrwyr ‘among
the students’ but yn ein plith (ni) ‘among us’, yn eich plith (chi) ‘among you’, yn eu plith
(nhw) ‘among them’; the echoing pronoun is optional, leave it out if you feel you really can’t
face the effort. ⇒ mw 475–476

Yn sgil y brwydro ‘In the wake of the fighting’ – yn sgil is another compound preposition,
so for example yn eu sgil (nhw) ‘in their wake’; brwydro (= ymladd) here is another VN
used as a noun.

chwedl Churchill ‘in Churchill’s words’ or ‘as Churchill put it’ – chwedl these days is ‘legend’,
but this neat idiomatic use is common enough and should be learnt; in N areas, in this use
only, it is often pronounced chadal – chadal nhwtha ‘so they say’. ⇒ mw 392

mewn calonnau °lu ‘in very many hearts’ – for °lu as a quantity word, see Chapter 22 note
to lluniau °lu.

yn nnaioni cynhenid ‘in the innate good(ness) of ’ – daioni < da.

mai’r llynges °fyddai  .  .  .  ‘that the navy/fleet would’ – a focused sentence emphasising llynges;
this word is the same as Lingus in the Irish airline Aer Lingus, which therefore means ‘Air
Fleet’ in Irish! Now I bet you didn’t know that!

Serch hynny ‘However’ – learn this useful phrase.

rhaid oedd = roedd rhaid.

Dyma °gred a oedd  .  .  .  ‘This was a belief that was  .  .  .’ – words like dyma° and dyna° are
neutral as to tense because they are not verbal – we simply need to supply the correct Eng-
lish form of the verb ‘to be’ according to context; sometimes they do appear with bod
themselves: dyna oedd yr ymateb °gawson ni ‘that was the response we got’, dyna °fydd
uchafbwynt y digwyddiad ‘that will be the climax of the event’; and sometimes they are used
almost as the subject of the verb: dyna °fydd yn digwydd or dyna °ddigwyddith ‘that’s what
will happen’, dyna °ddigwyddodd ‘that’s what happened’.
 Y Rhyfel Fawr  147

yr honnai trwch y Cymry ‘that the vast majority of Welsh people claimed’ – trwch means
‘thickness’ or ‘density’, but is far more commonly used in this metaphorical sense of ‘over-
whelming number’; but you might also like to learn the phrase o °fewn trwch blewyn i°
‘within a hair’s breadth of ’ – fe °ddaethon ni o °fewn trwch blewyn i °golli’r gêm ‘we came
within a hair’s breadth of losing the game’.

amheuaeth – not ‘doubt’ here, but ‘suspicion’.

dosbarth tiriog ‘landed classes’ – singular in Welsh, usually plural in English.

o °Loegr y deuai ‘it was from England that  .  .  .  came’ – a focused sentence, emphasising o
°Loegr (in contrast to, for example, o °Gymru which the reader might have been expecting
in this context); deuai is the LW imperfect of dod – irregular of course. ⇒ iw u39

yn °groes i° ‘contrary to’ – learn this useful phrase.

°fod arfogi’n °gynllwyn ‘that armament/arming was a conspiracy’ – the VN arfogi (‘arm’,
from arf ‘weapon’) used as a noun.

wedi ymrwymo wrth y penderfyniad a °basiwyd ‘committed (itself ) to the resolution passed’
– literally ‘.  .  .  which was passed’.

hwnnw – i.e. the resolution.

pe na °lwyddent, dylent °wneud ‘if they did not succeed (in this), (then) they ought to make’
– pe na °lwyddent is a LW imperfect subjunctive, = os na °fydden nhw’n llwyddo.

i °drawsffurfio’r rhyfel rhwng gwladwriaethau yn rhyfel rhwng dosbarthiadau ‘to transform

the war between states into a war between classes’.

Yr oedd parch mawr ‘There was great respect’.

ei hphlaid sosialiadd ‘its socialist party’ – eih for ‘its’ because yr Almaen is feminine.

clodforid ‘was praised’ – the LW imperfect impersonal, with two more coming up. ⇒ iw u40

anrhydeddid ‘was honoured’.

ymserchid yn Heine ‘Heine was cherished’.

gwyddai pob côr yng nNghymru am° ‘every choir in Wales knew about’ – another LW
imperfect, though actually gwybod is one of the few verbs where the imperfect with endings
is still used in speech; for example, you will hear both roedd e’n gwybod and fe °wyddai fe
for ‘he knew’; the same is true for the (usually LW) present with endings, although these
are irregular by anyone’s standards, e.g. fe °eyr hi = mae hi’n gwybod – this is where pwy
a °eyr? comes from, that we saw way back in Chapter 7, and also in Chapter 28. I’m not
telling you again. ⇒ mw 322, 323, ⇒ iw u28
148  Y Rhyfel Fawr

Doedd °fawr o °frwdfrydedd ‘there wasn’t much enthusiasm’ – learn does °fawr o°  .  .  .  ‘there
isn’t much  .  .  .’ and doedd °fawr o°  .  .  .  ‘there wasn’t much  .  .  .’, and note that, unusually for
negatives, these phrases don’t require a °ddim.

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 What was the attitude of the Independents to war?
2 What two things convinced the British of the need for a large army?
3 What did Lloyd George hope would avert war?
4 Apart from Britain, which of the major nations did not have conscription at this
time?
5 What did the Labour Party identify as the primary duty of its members?
6 How many soldiers died in the war?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):
1 Roedd y Llafurwyr yn edmygu Ffrainc. C/A
2 Saeson oedd y rhan fwya o’r milwyr cyffredin yn y catrodau Cymreig. C/A
3 Roedd Ffrainc yn ymladd wrth ochor Rwsia. C/A
4 Fe lofruddiwyd Ymerawdwr Awstria-Hwngari ym Mehefin 1914. C/A
5 Roedd y fyddin Almeinig yn eitha bychan, ond yn gyflym iawn. C/A
6 Bardd rhamantaidd oedd Heine. C/A
Chapter 34: Efrog Newydd Eto

In stark contrast to the nineteenth-century poem (more of a song, really) that we saw in
Chapter 26, this modern poem Efrog Newydd Eto (‘New York Again’) by Gerwyn Wiliams,
from his recent collection Rhwng Gwibdaith a Coldplay, is an example of the language in its
most lively and modern poetic idiom – a work composed in Welsh but on a theme that is
likely to sound a chord with a wider audience beyond the borders of Wales.
Gerwyn Wiliams is a writer and academic, and began winning prizes for his poetry while
still young enough to compete in the Urdd National Eisteddfod (the Urdd is a national youth
organisation for 16–25-year-olds), where two works – Tynnu Gwaed (‘Drawing Blood’) and Colli
Cyswllt (‘Losing Touch’) – won medals in 1983 and 1984. He has produced a number of volumes
of poetry since, and a series of poems under the title Dolenni (‘Links’), exploring the links
between literature and war, won him the Crown at the National Eisteddfod in 1994. He has
also written critical works on Welsh literature of the twentieth century, notably Tir Neb:
Rhyddiaith Gymraeg a’r Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf (‘No Man’s Land: Welsh Prose and the First World War’).
Efrog Newydd Eto, however, is a more personal and immediate piece – the poet’s impressions
of a return visit to a globally renowned city, far distanced from Wales in both geography
and cultural resonance, a snapshot in vivid words and phrasings and, to my mind, a telling
demonstration of the capacity of this ancient linguistic tradition to find its voice in the wider
modern world. Poetry is not always easy, particularly in another language, and I have tried
to assist understanding and appreciation with quite a bit of help in the notes. But perhaps
you will prefer at the outset to make do with the Geirfa alone and see how you do.

Efrog Newydd Eto

Rhesi di-ildio’r tacsis melyn
yn dal i refio ger y mannau croesi
a herio’r cerddwyr am oruchafiaeth ar y ffordd.
Ac am ganol dydd yn sA Central Park
y creaduriaid call yn dal i gysgodi dan y coed,
heblaw’r pengwin sy’n gwatwar ein gwiriondeb
a’r arth wen sy’n nofio’n ddefodol
yn ôl ac ymlaen, yn ôl ac ymlaen
er mwyn cynnal ei ffitrwydd
ar gyfer dydd ei goruchufiaeth hithau.
150  Efrog Newydd Eto

Ond er bod y sgrin sy’n dal ein llun

yn adloniant yn Times Square,
ni allwn ddianc rhag y camerâu sy’n ein canlyn
a dychymyg du y dynion diogelwch
sy’n troi chwistrellwr hufen haul yn arf terfysgol.

Ac mae jig-so Manhattan ddau damaid yn brin.

Bymtheng mlynedd yn ôl,

mewn canrif arall,
Washington hirben oedd pencampwr y cofebau,
ond nid dinas i ymbwyllo mo hon
ac yn sglyfaeth i gystadleuaeth
hawliodd hyd yn oed y teitl hwnnw iddi hi ei hun.

A ger cofeb anorffen Ground Zero

mae gwerthwyr y strydoedd
am ein disychedu â thaflenni trasiedi
am yn ail â photeli dAr
tra tu ôl i’r ffensys gwarcheidiol
ym mhair y peirianwyr,
yng nghrochan yr adeiladwyr,
maen nhw wrthi’n ailgynllunio
cerfluniau rhyddid, colofnau rhyfyg.

A phob hyn a hyn,

uwch clawstroffobia’r cerbydau,
tu hwnt i’r toeau a’r tyrau,
cawn gip o’r haul wrth iddo daro
ar fetel yr awyrennau sy’n dynesu
gan roi winc slei bach wrth fynd heibio.

(from Rhwng Gwibdaith a Coldplay by

Gerwyn Wiliams, published by
Gwasg y Bwthyn, 2011)

Geirfa

rhes (-i) – row se – zoo

ildio – yield, give way creadur (-iaid) – creature
refio – rev call – wise
man (-nau) croesi – crossing cysgodi – shelter, take shade
herio – challenge heblaw – apart from
goruchafiaeth – supremacy gwatwar – mock
 Efrog Newydd Eto  151

gwiriondeb – foolishness ger – near, beside

arth (eirth) – bear anorffen – endless, unending
defodol – ritualistic disychedu – quench thirst
adloniant – entertainment taflen (-ni) – leaflet
dianc – escape gwarcheidiol – guardian, guarding
canlyn – follow pair – cauldron, melting pot
dychymyg – imagination crochan – pot
diogelwch – security ailgynllunio – redesign
chwistrellwr – spray cerflun (-iau) – statue
hufen haul – sun cream rhyddid – freedom
arf – weapon colofn (-au) – column
terfysgol – terrorist (adj) rhyfyg – arrogance, pushiness
tamaid – piece cerbyd (-au) – vehicle
canrif – century to (-eau) – roof
hirben – wise ter (tyrau) – tower
cofeb (-au) – memorial cip – glimpse
ymbwyllo – hold (oneself ) back taro – strike
sglyfaeth – prey dynesu – approach
cystadleuaeth – competition slei – sly
hawlio – claim

Rhesi di-ildio ‘unyielding rows’ – the VN ildio ‘yield’ used as an adjective here (describing
rhesi), and prefixed with di-, which usually corresponds to ‘un-’.

yn dal i refio ‘still revving’ – i.e. since the last time.

er mwyn cynnal ei ffitrwydd ‘in order to maintain/keep up her fitness’.

ar °gyfer dydd ei goruchafiaeth hithau ‘for the day when she herself will reign supreme’ –
literally ‘for the day of her supremacy’, but the additional element of the contrastive hithau
in Welsh (linking back to the goruchafiaeth of the pedestrians and taxis in line 3) really
demands a longer rephrasing to convey the sense more fully.

er bod y sgrin  .  .  .  yn adloniant ‘although the screen  .  .  .  is a (piece of ) entertainment’ – with

the relative clause sy’n dal ein llun describing sgrin.

ni °allwn °ddianc rhag ‘we cannot escape from’.

a dychymyg du y dynion diogelwch ‘and the dark imaginings of the security men’ – this
heavily alliterated phrase also depends on rhag in the preceding line.

sy’n troi chwistrellwr  .  .  .  yn arf ‘which turn a spray-can/tube  .  .  .  into a weapon’.

°ddau °damaid yn °brin ‘two pieces short’ – an adverbial phrase (hence the SM on the first
word) and therefore not needing a linking yn to the verb mae.
152  Efrog Newydd Eto

°Bymtheng nmlynedd yn ôl ‘fifteen years ago’ – SM on time expressions to indicate ‘time

when’. ⇒ mw 403

nid dinas i ymbwyllo mo hon ‘this is no city to hold itself back’ or ‘this is no city for hold-
ing itself back’ – or even, in more idiomatic English, ‘this is not a city (that is) backward in
coming forward’.

ac yn sglyfaeth i °gystadleuaeth ‘and (as) prey to competition’ or, perhaps better in English,
‘as a slave to competition’ – i.e. the city cannot resist competing for status.

iddi hi ei hun ‘for itself ’.

am ein disychedu ‘want to quench our thirst’ – possessive adjective (ein ‘our’) used as object
pronoun of a VN (disychedu). ⇒ mw 448 (e), 114

am yn ail âh ‘alternately with’, ‘in alternation with’.

maen nhw wrthi’n  .  .  .  ‘they are busy  .  .  .  ing’. ⇒ mw 470

A hphob hyn a hyn ‘And every now and then’ – a useful idiom which you should learn.

cerfluniau rhyddid, colofnau rhyfyg – note the many alliteration patterns within this phrase.

uwch ‘above’ – more usually uwchben in speech.

tu hwnt i° ‘beyond’. ⇒ mw 422

cawn °gip ‘we get a glimpse’ – cawn is cawn ni = dan ni’n cael; cip ‘glimpse’ is also very
frequently cipolwg in speech.

wrth iddo °daro ‘as it strikes’ – remember the construction wrth + i + subject + °VN to
indicate simultaneous action (the iddo is of course for iddo fe); I know what you’re thinking:
‘Didn’t we meet this way back in Chapter 3?’ Yes we did – see note there to ers i °ddaeargryn
°daro’r °wlad.

ar °fetel yr awyrennau sy’n dynesu ‘on the metal of the aeroplanes as they approach’ or ‘on
the metal of the approaching aeroplanes’.

wrth °fynd heibio ‘as (they) go by’. ⇒ mw 470

 Efrog Newydd Eto  153

Exercise 1

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh about the content of the poem are true (cywir
– C) or false (anghywir – A):

1 Mae heddlu Efrog Newydd yn darparu poteli dar i gerddwyr. C/A

2 Du ydy lliw gwisg y gwasanaethau diogelwch yn Efrog Newydd. C/A
3 Mae pwll yn y sa at ddefnydd yr eirth gwynion. C/A
4 Mae tacsis Efrog Newydd yn felyn. C/A
5 Mae cofeb Ground Zero yn agored i bawb. C/A
6 Mae prifddinas yr Unol Daleithiau’n enwog am ei chofebau. C/A

Exercise 2

Match the correct halves of each sentence:

1 Fe ddaethon ni fan hyn i Efrog Newydd
2 Oes modd inni ddianc
3 Mae’n bwysig cynnal ffitrwydd er
4 Yn yr Unol Daleithiau cawsoch
5 Beth am inni fynd
6 Mae Times Square’n llawn
a mwyn cadw’n iach.
b chi’ch geni a’ch magu, ’te?
c i weld anifeiliaid sa Central Park pnawn ’ma?
d bymtheng mlynedd yn ôl.
e ceir, goleuadau a sgriniau anferth.
f rhag y bobol ofnadwy ’ma?
Chapter 35: Hen Niclas

This second extract from Daniel Owen’s Rhys Lewis shows his skill at developing atmosphere
and drawing his readers into a compelling narrative – a skill noted by the poet and critic
T. Gwynn Jones when he observed of Owen that ‘ysgrifennwr ystraeon ydoedd, a bod ei straeon
yn rhai na fedr dyn ddim peidio â’u darllen, unwaith y bydd wedi dechrau’ – ‘he was a writer
of stories, and that his stories are the kind that, once started, one cannot stop reading’.
Note various LW verb forms and constructions – for example ni and nid used to negate
verbs, irregular preterites like deuthum and euthum, and the first person singular imperfect
ending -wn, which is all over the place in this piece; pronouns are frequently omitted after
verb endings, as is normal for LW.

Hen Niclas
Un noswaith tua diwedd mis Mai, yr wyf yn cofio’n °burion ar ôl cau’r siop i mi yn °ddigymell
°gymryd tro hirfaith i’r °wlad. Gan ei bod yn noswaith neilltuol o °glir a hyfryd, cymerais y llwybr
igam-ogam gydag ochr afon Alun, ac euthum heibio i amryw °glercod a oedd yn eu mwynhau
eu hunain wrth °bysgota. Pan °dybiais imi °fyned yn °ddigon pell, meddyliais y gallwn °ddych-
welyd mewn llai o amser wrth °gymryd llwybr arall. Croesais °ddau o °gaeau; a hchan °gofio,
yr oeddwn yn tresbasu wrth °wneud hynny, a deuthum i’r °briffordd a oedd yn arwain heibio’r
Plas. Pan °gyrhaeddais y °fan lle yr oedd y coed yn °fwyaf trwchus a hchysgodfawr, a lle yr oedd
goleuni’r hwyrnos yn cael ei °gau allan ymron yn °gwbl, gwelwn °ddyn mawr yn dyfod i’m
cyfarfod, gan °gerdded yn araf, â’i °ben yn gwyro tua’r llawr. Wedi dyfod °dipyn yn nes at ein
gilydd, canfûm mai’r Hen Niclas ydoedd; a rhaid imi °gyfaddef i °gryndod °gerdded dros fy
holl °gnawd. Gyda llaw °grynedig botymais fy nnghôb, a °orchuddiai °galon °fwy crynedig, a
h
cherddais yn °gyflym. “Nos dawch, Mr Niclas,” ebe fi mor °wrol ag y gallwn. Ond nid atebodd
Niclas °air, ac ni hchododd ei °ben. Wedi imi °gerdded ychydig °lathenni, edrychais yn ôl a
gwelwn Niclas yn myned yn ei °flaen yn araf. Meddyliwn mor ynfyd oeddwn yn brawychu;
oblegid yr oedd yn amlwg i mi erbyn hyn mai dyn diniwed oedd yr hen Niclas °druan.
Gadewais y °briffordd a hchymerais y llwybr a oedd yn arwain heibio ei °db, a hchyrhaeddais
ato ymhen ychydig °funudau. Ni °allwn °beidio â sefyll i edrych ar yr hen adeilad. Teimlwn
chwilfrydedd mawr ynghylch y tb, yn enwedig gan °fod ei °berchennog oddi cartref. Hoffaswn
°gael gweled yr °ardd, yr oedd cymaint o sôn amdani. Nid oedd gwal yr °ardd yn rhy uchel imi
°ddringo i’w hphen. Penderfynais °wneud y cais. Yr oeddwn wedi dechrau ar y gorchwyl, pan
°deimlais °law °gref yn cydio yn fy nngholer, ac yn rhoi imi y °fath shegfa, na °allaf ei °gymharu
i °ddim gwell na gwaith terrier yn cydio mewn llygoden Ffrengig. Llaw yr hen Niclas ydoedd.
 Hen Niclas  155

Geirfa

noswaith – evening gwyro – bend

purion – very well cyfaddef – admit
yn °ddigymell – spontaneously, on a cnawd – flesh
whim crynedig – shaking
tro – walk (n), stroll botymu – button (up)
hirfaith – extended, long côb – coat, cloak
myned = mynd llathen -(ni) – yard
llwybr – path brawychu – take fright, be afraid
igam-ogam – winding, zigzag diniwed – harmless
pysgota – fish (v) chwilfrydedd – curiosity
dychwelyd – return ynghylch – about, concerning
cae (-au) – field perchennog – owner
priffordd – main road gweled = gweld
arwain – lead gwal – wall
trwchus – dense, thick dringo – climb
cysgodfawr – shady cais – attempt
goleuni – light (n) gorchwyl – task, undertaking
hwyrnos – evening cydio (ynn) – grab
dyfod = dod llygoden Ffrengig – rat

neilltuol o °glir a hyfryd ‘particularly clear and fine’.

euthum (LW) = es i ‘I went’. ⇒ mw 216, ⇒ iw u39

amryw °glercod ‘a number of/various clerks’.

Pan °dybiais imi °fyned ‘When I reckoned (that) I had gone’ – i + subject + °VN is often
used instead of a past-tense ‘that’-clause; for another example, see i °gryndod °gerdded
further down; tybio ‘think’, ‘suppose’, ‘consider’ is also found in the very common tybed
‘I wonder’ (tybed ydyn nhw fan hyn yn °barod? ‘I wonder if they’re here already?’), and in
the response phrase °Dybiwn i ‘I suppose so’ or ‘I imagine so’ (Ydyn nhw wedi mynd? –
°Dybiwn i. ‘Have they gone?’ ‘I suppose so’).

a hchan °gofio ‘and remembering’, ‘and bearing in mind’ – the hchan is really gan (+ °VN,
⇒ mw 455 (c)); this common preposition is in origin a fixed SM variant of an earlier word
can – when used after ah ‘and’, it can revert to this unmutated form and then take the AM.

deuthum (LW) = des i ‘I came’. ⇒ iw u39

y °fan lle ‘the place where’.

ymron yn °gwbl ‘almost completely’ – a rather literary turn of phrase, more commonly bron
yn °gyfangwbl in speech.
156  Hen Niclas

gwelwn (LW) = o’n i’n gweld ‘I saw’ or ‘I could see’ – the LW imperfect tense, still heard
in speech in certain circumstances, but very restricted. ⇒ iw u37

i’m cyfarfod ‘to meet me’ – ’m is an infixed pronoun corresponding to mi/fi and meaning
‘my’ or ‘me’ depending on context; the spoken language prefers the possessive adjective fy
(often appearing simply as NM), and instead of, for example, i’m gweld ‘to see me’ would
say i nngweld (i).

°dipyn yn nes at ein gilydd ‘a bit closer to each other’.

canfûm ‘I saw’ – LW preterite of canfod ‘see, perceive’, itself a verb rarely heard in speech.

i °gryndod °gerdded dros ‘that a shiver walked/went across’ – see note to Pan °dybiais imi
°fyned above.

a °orchuddai ‘which covered’ – imperfect.

Nos dawch ‘Good night to you’ – in the older language i + chi gave iwch, and this survives
in this expression, still very common all over the N.

ebe fi = meddwn i ‘I said’. ⇒ mw 392

mor  .  .  .  ag y gallwn ‘as  .  .  .  as I could’.

yn ei °flaen ‘forward’, ‘on(ward)’.

Meddyliwn mor ynfyd oeddwn ‘I thought how foolish I was’, ‘I thought how foolish it was
of me’; meddyliwn = o’n i’n meddwl.

oblegid yr oedd yn amlwg ‘because it was obvious’ – oherywdd and achos are more common
in speech for ‘because’ than the rather more formal oblegid. ⇒ mw 504

yr hen Niclas °druan ‘poor old Niclas’ – °druan rather than truan here, despite Niclas being
masculine, because of a general (though not consistently applied rule) that adjectives undergo
SM after proper names regardless of gender.

a hchyrhaeddais ato ‘and I reached it’ – you can tell this a means ‘and’ and not ‘which’ (as,
for example, in a °orchuddai further above) because it is followed by AM and not SM.

Ni °allwn °beidio â sefyll ‘I couldn’t help standing/stopping’ – note again the ni negative
particle, and no °ddim; in speech this would definitely be °allwn i °ddim peidio â sefyll.

Hoffaswn (LW) ‘I had wanted’ or ‘I would have liked’ – the first option seems the better fit
here, given the context.

yr oedd cymaint o sôn amdani ‘that there was so much talk about’ – amdani because it
refers back to yr °ardd, which is feminine.
 Hen Niclas  157

°law °gref ‘a strong hand’ – cref is the feminine form of cryf. ⇒ mw 100

y °fath shegfa, na °allaf ei °gymharu i °ddim ‘such a shaking as I cannot compare to any-
thing’ – shegfa (or siegfa) is a loanword from ‘shake’ + the -fa suffix that, amongst other
things, indicates an action: so ‘action of shaking’; na° ‘that  .  .  .  not’; ei° refers back to shegfa,
although we might have expected eih (and so: ei hchymharu), since shegfa is normally
feminine – perhaps for Daniel Owen it was a masculine.

Exercise 1

Answer in English:
1 Why did Rhys the narrator take a different route back from his walk?
2 What was his first reaction on seeing Niclas?
3 What did Niclas say to him?
4 What was on the other side of the two fields?
5 How far from the main road was Niclas’s house?
6 What had the narrator just done before setting off on his walk?

Exercise 2

Decide whether the following statements in Welsh are true (cywir – C) or false (anghywir – A):
1 Roedd gwal yr ardd yn uchel iawn. C/A
2 Ddywedodd Niclas yr un gair wrth fynd heibio i Rhys. C/A
3 Roedd y Plas wedi’i leoli wrth ymyl y briffordd. C/A
4 Roedd gan Niclas gi bach annwyl. C/A
5 Roedd Rhys yn teimlo’n nerfus braidd pan welodd e mai Niclas oedd C/A
yn dod tuag ato.
6 Roedd Rhys yn ysu am gael cipolwg ar yr ardd. C/A
Key to exercises

Chapter 1

Exercise 1

1 two to five years old 2 stories, puzzles, competitions 3 the farm 4 presents 5 regularly
6 local shops, order by post, order by email

Exercise 2

AACC

Chapter 2

Exercise 1

1 three months 2 satellite 3 no, if you work in Wales you can apply as well 4 yes, you have
to be eligible 5 Cardiff 6 dependability

Exercise 2

ACCA

Chapter 3

Exercise 1

1 rebuild their lives after the earthquake 2 before the end of the year 3 money problems
4 an album and special T-shirts 5 March 6 three times 7 appearing on TV programmes
8 first of July

Exercise 2

ACCC
 Key to exercises 159

Chapter 4

Exercise 1

1 Bono had hurt his back 2 what songs they will perform 3 all of it 4 available free 5 mixed
wet and dry 6 Wednesday

Exercise 2

AAAAAA

Chapter 5

Exercise 1

1 eight 2 one hour 3 learn Welsh (obviously!!) 4 evenings 5 ecofriendly campsite 6 three
– two tutors and a presenter 7 a week 8 celebs will be arriving at the camp 9 special pro-
gramme to launch the series 10 prize-giving ceremony 11 Learning Welsh Week 12 she’s
looking forward to it greatly

Exercise 2

CCAACA

Chapter 6

Exercise 1

1 children 2 healthy eating 3 the university’s commitment to the Welsh language 4 former
chair of the Welsh Language Society (Cymdeithas yr Iaith), research student 5 Psychology
6 international status 7 English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Polish 8 Cymdeithas
yr Iaith 9 the Welsh government 10 local Assembly Member 11 as soon as possible 12 with-
holding of government grants

Exercise 2

CACA
160 Key to exercises

Chapter 7

Exercise 1

1 that it’s an odd game 2 the expenses scandal 3 retaining the seats 4 raise the Plaid vote
5 some people think they have to vote with numbers rather than a cross 6 help to remind
people to get out and vote 7 she feels optimistic 8 she’s a list candidate 9 two (one local,
one list) 10 good in almost every house 11 that it’s not fair holding the election and the AV
referendum on the same day 12 she thinks it’s too late to do anything about it

Exercise 2

ACACCC

Chapter 8

Exercise 1

1 promote the interests of the royal establishment 2 that it’s going to comfort and enrich
us spiritually 3 to keep his feelings to himself, and not to stir things up (‘disturb the waters’)
in public 4 that he’s narrow-minded 5 that she deserves respect, and that she works hard
for someone of her age 6 shake the Queen’s hand 7 that it may not arrive 8 at New Year

Exercise 2

ACCAAC

Chapter 9

Exercise 1

1 he’s the Archdruid 2 he’s going to be reading out the poem ‘Preseli’ 3 Kimbolton His-
torical Society 4 school reunion 5 he is the current English teacher at Kimbolton school
6 local poets 7 he was the Latin teacher 8 end of the 1940s 9 he moved to Lyneham 10 an
international poet, with influence far beyond the borders of Wales

Exercise 2

CAAACC
 Key to exercises 161

Chapter 10

Exercise 1

1 could do better 2 management and editorial 3 nobody in Wales was consulted 4 it could
be got rid of completely 5 independent funding formula 6 the BBC and the government
7 the people of Wales 8 to create high-quality programmes 9 broadcasting in Wales 10 they
think it should change

Exercise 2

ACCA

Chapter 11

Exercise 1

1 reporter on Panorama 2 concentrate on the contestants and help them to do their best
3 in 2005, to be able to bring up her children in Welsh 4 she was born there 5 Mastermind-
Cymru was launched 6 her partner 7 BBC Cymru political editor 8 incredible 9 she blogs
regularly on politics 10 two 11 she tends to forget facts rather quickly 12 compete! 13 Welsh
Broadcaster of the Year and BT Welsh Journalist of the Year 14 over twenty

Exercise 2

CAAACA

Chapter 12

Exercise 1

1 before the end of March 2 over an hour and a half 3 timetable for the election and
essential legislation 4 the Taoiseach took control of the Foreign Affairs department 5 that
they wouldn’t be punished by the electorate 6 he challenged him for the leadership

Exercise 2

CCAA
162 Key to exercises

Chapter 13

Exercise 1

1 Penclawdd and Gorseinon 2 the Juniors 3 Pembrokeshire Challenge Cup 4 100 per cent
5 during half-time 6 tireless work of friends of the club

Exercise 2

CCAA

Chapter 14

Exercise 1

1 they’ve offered the cabin, but the cylch meithrin will have to organise a permanent location
for it 2 excellent results 3 they will receive a prize 4 it’s going to be demolished 5 it needs
a lot of repair work 6 there is no space for playing 7 ‘we’re getting praise, but not much
help’ 8 one-and-a-half miles 9 a new primary school 10 nothing – they are all volunteers
11 a law requiring every county council to provide a place for every cylch meithrin that wants
one 12 September

Exercise 2

CACC

Chapter 15

Exercise 1

1 following Meinir’s life for a year 2 no one 3 no one 4 everyday life 5 schools, radio and
TV studios 6 coffee and vodka 7 he sang on two of her songs 8 Ynys Môn/Anglesey 9 they
are Meinir’s official sponsor 10 roving reporter for Wedi 3 and Wedi 7

Exercise 2

AACAAC
 Key to exercises 163

Chapter 16

Exercise 1

1 strengthening 2 more clouds 3 by tomorrow afternoon 4 going down 5 turning milder

6 mild 7 at the end of the week 8 clear skies and a light breeze 9 freezing 10 foggy

Exercise 2

1d 2b 3a 4e 5f 6c

Chapter 17

Exercise 1

1 ‘Why do I do all these extreme things?’ ‘What’s going through my head?’ 2 a year 3 pre-
pared thoroughly, and given one hundred per cent effort 4 slept out in the snow 5 lying on
the sofa and watching telly 6 no one – it’s not about competing against anyone else 7 fingers
or toes 8 pushing her physical and mental limits

Exercise 2

ACAACC

Chapter 18

Exercise 1

1 an under-18 team 2 six years ago 3 annually 4 they’ve been unlucky 5 they’ve all got new
teams 6 one is an evening game, the other an afternoon game

Exercise 2

ACCCAC

Chapter 19

Exercise 1

1 she has been a dependable friend to their members 2 to fight to keep jobs and services
3 strong political leadership from Wales to stand against Westminster 4 South Wales
Central/Canol De Cymru 5 chair of the PCS cross-party group in the Welsh Assembly
164 Key to exercises

6 she didn’t – she’s still doing it 7 wages and retirement conditions 8 a constant thorn in
the side of successive Westminster governments 9 she has supported them 10 constant and
unjust attacks 11 Wales 12 one of the principal names in the movement

Exercise 2

ACACAC

Chapter 20

Exercise 1

1 south-east England 2 it’s expensive to administer 3 everything has to go through West-

minster 4 confidence and pride 5 as inferiors 6 no, he thinks Welsh priorities should be
put above English ones

Exercise 2

1e 2a 3f 4b 5d 6c

Chapter 21

Exercise 1

1 because they need someone with qualifications in more than one Celtic language 2 medi-
eval Welsh literature 3 they’re going to launch an appeal 4 Oxford University 5 endowments
6 a different atmosphere, and a way of broadening horizons

Exercise 2

AAACAC

Chapter 22

Exercise 1

1 that it’s important to have a room to yourself 2 none – she’s just got pictures of New York
on her wall, but she got them off eBay 3 never 4 three titles 5 last year 6 tickets, instru-
ments, flags, postcards 7 garden and fence 8 that she is too often portrayed as an old person
9 birdsong 10 the Book of the Year winner will be decided 11 two years ago 12 at the kitchen
table or on the bed
 Key to exercises 165

Exercise 2

CAACAAAC

Chapter 23

Exercise 1

1 very hard 2 the piles of slate, the quarries, the houses, the main street and the inhabitants
3 empty buildings 4 that they are a testament to an important chapter in our industrial
history 5 rusty 6 visitors

Exercise 2

CCCACC

Chapter 24

Exercise 1

1 the railway station 2 Sunday afternoons 3 near the top of Y Rhiw 4 the yard 5 it’s a moun-
tain 6 unique 7 Nanhoron and Cefn Amlwch 8 Cefn Amlwch 9 in front of the Central
Library 10 standing on the hedge

Exercise 2

CCAAAA

Chapter 25

Exercise 1

1 see the doctor 2 perhaps they should be changed 3 it can go up or down 4 failing to get
to sleep, waking up early and not getting back to sleep, oversleeping 5 fewer side-effects
6 books, tapes and programmes on the Web 7 not to suffer in silence 8 first thing in
the morning 9 it can be used too loosely 10 six months 11 headache and chest pain
12 66 per cent

Exercise 2

CCCAAA
166 Key to exercises

Chapter 26
Exercise 1

CACAAA

Exercise 2

1 The winds were roaring across the mountains. 2 The old language is still alive. 3 Change
came/has come to the life of the shepherd. 4 Generation after generation has worked on
the land of Wales. 5 Many people these days have forgotten the old customs of the country.
6 The daisy is a very small flower.

Chapter 27
Exercise 1

1 four: two people in the house, the narrator and the narrrator’s mother 2 his jug and his
food tin 3 throwing stones 4 Post Lane 5 his mum will begin to worry 6 he is afraid 7 to
close the gate behind him 8 that he’ll be able to walk for miles 9 put its front paws on the
boy’s knees and licked his face 10 under the window

Exercise 2

CACACA

Chapter 28
Exercise 1

1 their politics 2 writing a satirical poem about Mubarak 3 he did some more writing
4 national figures and institutions in Wales 5 impatient with critics 6 that he interferes in
an unconstitutional manner

Exercise 2

CAACCA

Exercise 3

1 We must be ready to sharpen our weapons. 2 There were protests recently against the
authorities. 3 Wales has started on the journey towards independence. 4 Appointing a new
prince will be our first step after coming to power. 5 It was suggested to the poet that he
ought to compose a poem on a different subject. 6 The newspapers published letters pro-
testing against the imprisonment of the writer.
 Key to exercises 167

Chapter 29

Exercise 1

1 tramways and ports 2 it came from England 3 they had no serious competition 4 first
decade of the nineteenth century 5 for better, because of a resurgence of building after the
neglect during the war 6 Richard Pennant died

Exercise 2

AACAAA

Chapter 30

Exercise 1

1 bricks 2 the adults 3 nobody – she couldn’t speak Welsh 4 mice in her pockets 5 no tide
and no crabs 6 by throwing pebbles at his window

Exercise 2

CAACCCAA

Chapter 31

Exercise 1

1 he didn’t speak very good English 2 that there was an Englishman who would probably
do the job better, and be able to give better reports 3 he felt a burden had been lifted from
him 4 they were all English 5 several hundred people 6 his ability to identify the root of a
problem, and the trust in which the workers held him

Exercise 2

CCAAAC

Exercise 3

1 Hundreds of workers were employed in the new factory. 2 It was decided in a public
meeting that the directors should all be asked to resign. 3 Small children are more likely to
be able to clean the chimneys of houses and factories effectively. 4 The workers knew well
that something was wrong. 5 I hated that man long before he became a politician. 6 The
supervisor must be informed at once about what has happened.
168 Key to exercises

Chapter 32

Exercise 1

1 the languages came first 2 English and Norse literature 3 Sindarin 4 England and France
5 Brythonic 6 that they should be (in his estimation) beautiful

Exercise 2

CAAAAC

Exercise 3

1 There are lots of books on this subject in the library. 2 My main interest is medieval
literature. 3 Her grasp of French is not good. 4 His wife worked on this project all her life.
5 A future for the Welsh language must be assured. 6 Norse was spoken in Norway and
Iceland centuries ago.

Chapter 33

Exercise 1

1 that every war was contrary to the spirit of Christ 2 the size of the German army, and the
speed of its success 3 common sense and good will 4 none 5 to prevent war 6 over ten
million

Exercise 2

ACCAAC

Chapter 34

Exercise 1

AACCAC

Exercise 2

1d 2f 3a 4b 5c 6e
 Key to exercises 169

Chapter 35

Exercise 1

1 he thought he’d save time 2 he shivered 3 nothing 4 the main road 5 a few minutes’ walk
6 he had closed the shop

Exercise 2

ACAACC
Index

a ‘who, which’ 9, 16, 35, 36, 48, 61, 82, 83, 87, cymaint 24, 156
93, 140 cyn i + VN 9
a ganlyn ‘following’ 107 cynlleied 24, 52
ac 16
achos ‘because’ 57, 156 dal i +VN ‘still’ 102
adeg ‘time’ 126 ddaru-preterite 9, 118
adjectives, comparative 5, 16 definite article 8
affirmative particles (fe, mi) 9, 30 ‘despite’ 96
ag 16 does a wnelo  .  .  . 20, 123
ai 83, 136 does fawr ‘not much’ 91, 148
‘all’ 2, 20 dylid 107
‘although’ 107, 151 dylwn i 40
‘always’ 130 dyma, dyna 146
ambell 65
angen ‘need’ 26, 87 efallai ‘perhaps’ 20, 24
ar gyfer 8 ei ‘her’ 9
ar ôl i + VN 9, 48, 73, 118 eisiau ‘want’ 26
ar, expressions with 3, 92 ‘either’, ‘either  .  .  .  or  .  .  .’ 66, 131
arfer + VN 39 er ‘although’, ‘despite’ 96, 107, 151
er mwyn i + VN 9, 69, 86
‘because’ 9, 57, 116, 156 erbyn ‘by (a time)’ 24
bellach ‘now’ 44, 78, 100 ers i + VN 9
biau ‘own’ 92 ers ‘since, for’ 61
bod/fod/mod ‘that  .  .  .’ 9, 17, 43, 47
bron ‘almost’ 25 fan, expressions of place with 101
bu – preterite of bod 34, 126, 140, 146 fe – affirmative particle 9, 30
bu farw ‘died’ 126 focused clauses 35, 44
bynnag 78, 135 focused sentences 8, 29, 40, 62, 78, 111
‘for’ (time) 61
cael-passive 6, 9, 12, 34, 69, 83, 93, 97 future, short 20, 25, 118
chwaith ‘either’ 66, 131 fyth ‘even’ with comparatives 16
command form 3
comparative of adjectives 16, 141 gallu ‘can’ 17, 107, 140, 151, 156
comparatives, irregular 24, 51, 61, 97, 102, 119 gan + VN 77, 107, 108, 122, 155
compound prepositions 3, 8, 9, 24, 52, 100, 101, gan ‘because’, ‘since’ 9, 87, 136
111, 122, 146 gellir 82, 97, 122
conditional (baswn i, byddwn i, etc.) 26, 52, 93 genitive construction 30, 38, 140
conjugated prepositions 17, 29, 34 go iawn ‘real’ 130
cryn 82, 92 gwaith ‘time’ 25
 Index  171

gwir ‘real’ 107 -nt LW ending (= -n nhw) 16, 111

gwneud-preterite 9 numbers, large with o 5
gwybod ‘know’ 93, 122, 136, 147 numbers, traditional forms 92
gydol 141
o with numbers 5
h-, prefixed to vowels after ei ‘her’, ein ‘our’, oherwydd ‘because of ’, ‘because’ 9, 57, 156
eu ‘their’ 9, 19, 39 on’d question tag 25
‘have/has been  .  .  .  ing’ 9 ‘only’ 3, 69, 100, 126
heb + VN ‘have/has not’ 9 ‘only’ (adjective) 39
hoffwn i 40 os na  .  .  . 3, 13, 108
holl ‘all’ 20 ‘other’ 2
hon, honno, honna 9, 24
hun, hunan ‘self ’; ‘own’ 30, 97, 102, 140, 152 pa mor + adjective ‘how’ 19
hwn, hwnnw, hwnna 9, 24 pam na  .  .  . 5, 19
hwyrach ‘perhaps’ 20 pan ‘when’ 48, 83, 146, 155
hyn, hynny 9, 24, 107 passive with cael 6, 9, 12, 34, 69, 83, 93, 97
hynod + adjective 26, 107 ‘perhaps’ 20
peth ‘a certain amount’ 140
-id imperfect impersonal 108, 126, 135, 140, 147 ‘please’ 25
imperative 3, 116, 117, 118 pluperfect 48, 117, 136
impersonal, past (-wyd) 20, 40, 61, 62, 73, 96, plurals 2, 16, 101
122, 135, 136, 147 pob ‘every’ 25
impersonal, present/future (-ir) 16, 34, 36, 73, possessive, as object of VN 86, 152, 156
140, 141 prepositions, conjugated 17, 29
‘inside’, etc. 2, 126, 131, 152 prif ‘main’ 61
-ir present/future impersonal 16, 34, 36, 73, 140, 141 ‘probably’ 91
i'w 39, 126 pronoun, omission of third person singular in
prepositions 29, 34
‘last’ 52 pronouns, extended 116, 151
leiciwn i 40 pronouns, omission of 3
lled 136 pryd, time expressions with 9
llu ‘large number’ 92, 146 pryd? ‘when?’ 48

mae’n debyg ‘probably’ 91 reported speech (‘that  .  .  .’) 9, 17, 39, 43, 47, 48,
mai ‘that’ 35, 44, 78, 96, 136, 146 78, 107
meddai ‘says, said’ 17, 96, 117, 156 rhagor ‘more’ 5
medru ‘can’ 24, 26, 101 rhaid 5, 6, 13, 39, 47
mewn ‘in’ 9
mewn vs yn 9 sa i (etc.) – present negative of bod 69
mi – affirmative particle 9, 30 sangiad 31, 111, 135
‘must’ 5 sawl 9, 57
‘must not’ 5 ‘self ’ 30, 152
mwy with comparisons 5, 16 SM after adjectives preceding nouns 29
SM after feminine singular definite article 8
na ‘than’ 24 SM after feminine singular noun 8
na, nad ‘that  .  .  .  not’ 29, 69, 70, 82, 131 SM after imperative/command form 6, 9, 12
‘needn’t’, ‘no need’ 5 SM after sangiad 31
nes i + VN ‘until’ 9 SM on adverbs of time 9, 122, 152
ni (LW negative) 9, 40, 86, 151, 156 smo fi (etc.) – present negative of bod 69
nid – negative identification 69, 93, 122, 152 ‘still’ 102
‘not much’ 91 subjunctive 29–30, 147
noun plurals 2, 16, 101, 111 ‘such’ 31, 97, 157
172  Index

sy, sydd ‘who, which’ 9, 16 ‘when’ 48, 83, 146, 155

synnu ‘be surprised’ 87 ‘where’ 117
wrth i + VN ‘as’ 9, 16, 69, 93, 101, 152
‘that  .  .  .’ (reported speech) 9, 17, 39, 43, 47, 48, wrthi'n + VN 117, 152
78, 107 wyd past impersonal 20, 40, 61, 62, 73, 96, 122,
‘that  .  .  .  not’ 29, 69, 70, 82, 131 135, 136, 147
‘this’, ‘that’ 2, 12
time clauses with i 9 y fath ‘such’ 31, 97, 157
time expressions 9 y rheiny 82
time when (something happens) – SM 9 y ‘that’ (reported speech) 39, 47, 48, 78, 107
tro ‘time’ 25, 65 years 2, 93, 122, 152
tu fewn, tu allan, etc. 2, 126, 131, 152 yn – adverbs of manner (from adjectives) 9, 30,
40, 87
unig ‘only’ 39, 69, 126 yn hytrach na ‘rather than’ 25
unreality verbs 39 yn ‘in’ 9
yn ogystal ‘as well’ 52, 122
wedi + possessive 19, 91, 93 yna 2, 5
wedi ‘after’ 44, 112 yno 87
wedi bod yn + VN 9, 61, 69 yr hyn 78, 82