9 Comments
I was just about to say that I was sure I'd seen "ask" translated as "ofyn" in a different sentence, but then I remembered "ga i" and I'm guessing that the lenition of "g" to nothing applies here?
21
Indeed :)
As I understand it, if an noun object (including a verbal noun) comes right after a subject pronoun, it gets lenited, as in ga (verb) + i (subject) + gofyn (ask) becomes ga i ofyn? due to the g- leniting to nothing.
You're right in practice, but for clarity it's not because it's after the subject, it's just that it's the noun/verb object of a short form verb (a verb with a stem and ending). So in formal language where pronouns are often dropped, the mutation still holds e.g. Ga i ofyn? as A gaf (i) ofyn?.
- 1299
It's cool to see the written Welsh and English for 'question' look very different but sound so similar. If I'm not mistaken is this because they would have influenced each other in the times when few people were literate and communication was oral?
We know Welsh borrowed the word from Middle English "questioun" (which in turn borrowed it from Anglo-Norman from Old French from Latin) but it's impossible to say whether it was borrowed as a written or spoken word first. Over time both Welsh and English spelling systems have been standardised and so they each write the word in their own way.
Interesting that the Middle English spellings "questioun, questiun" seem to indicate that the final vowel was an /u/ kind of sound. This has changed in Modern English but has been kept in Welsh. You often see that.
Chaucer certainly had 'questiouns'! Fascinating how Welsh preserves these middle English pronounciations! I always knew my love of Chaucer would prove useful one day.......=D
