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- Topic: Welsh >
- "Ym mis Ebrill"
12 Comments
Not all the exercises on Duo are complete sentences.
Usually, phrases are distinguished from sentences here by phrases or individual words not having a full stop (period) at the end, whereas sentences do.
Thanks! Also, how do I see you answering questions so often... IN SO MANY DISCUSSIONS??? (By that I mean in different languages in Duo).
I check the forums more or less regularly :)
Currently focussing on three forums (German, Esperanto, Welsh) but there were times when I would go through others as well (e.g. Turkish).
What does ym really mean? Is it a compound of words, like im in German? Why don't you say "Y mis Ebrill"?
Ym, yn, yng mean exactly the same thing: just like a, an in English, their shape depends on the shape of the following word.
The basic word is yn, but it turns into ym before m (whether the word originally had the m or whether it was a b or p that the yn turned into m or mh) and into yng before ng (as the result of a nasal mutation of yn on g, c into ng, ngh - I don't think any word starts with ng in its unmutated base state).
It's for ease of pronunciation -- pretty much the same principle by which in- in Latin words turns into ing- (pronounced, but not spelled that way) in words such as incorrect and into im- (also in spelling) in impolite, imbibe. Except that Welsh doesn't do the irrelevant, illogical thing and turn yn into yr, yl before r-, l- :)
I'm not sure what you mean. The m in mis does count as something that turns yn into ym -- that is why this sentence is ym mis Ebrill and not yn mis Ebrill.
And I am as blind as a bat today! Thank you for your patience with this near-sighted fool. Of course, now I see it quite clearly, but earlier I did a double-take and checked it more than once. So, it is off to the optometrist for me!
No, yn/ym/yng means "in"; the "the" is basically yr which sometimes turns into y or 'r.
I don't think "the" ever takes on the forms yn or ym.
