Last Week in Welsh: That is what you are touching, What are you feeling?
Learning Welsh is fraught with peril. Brave knight, you will be confronted with such troubling quandries as whether to say, Mae hi'n pump munud wedi chwaer or Mae hi'n pump munud wedi chwech (The first being "It's five past sister." and the second being, "Its five past six." Its an easy mistake to make, as one of my classmates found out earlier this week.) But, you will overcome them. Oh, yes, you will.
Remember when I went on and on about aspect? Well, today is where we get into why its important. Many languages, like Welsh, make the distinction between single actions that are completed in the past ("done and dusted" to use a bit of Welsh colloquial English) and continuous actions and states. It makes sense to have such a distinction, some things that once occurred but are no longer occurring provide background for other things. But, no need to stress about this. The "Na Na Na" past tense (or the Imperfect) is just like the present tense (dw i, wyt ti, mae e/hi, dych chi, dyn ni, and dyn nhw), only its past!
So, in spoken Welsh we have:
Ro'n i, ro't ti, roedd e/hi, ro'n ni, ro'ch chi, ro'n nhw (I was, you were sing./informal, he/she was, we were, y'all/formal were, they were). Got it? Now, you just construct sentences. For example:
Ro'n i'n mynd adre. I went home. Roedd e'n y dafarn. He was in the pub. Or, rRo'n i'n y dafarn pyrd welais i Bob. I was at the pub when I saw Bob. Simple.
Now, where this is particularly important has to do with this business of "states". You can't use the simple past tense to talk about things like "feelings" and "fears". What further complicates the situation is that in order to talk about things like "fears" and "illness" you have to use a passive construction in which you say that something is "on" you instead of "you are..." something. This is similar to have, as in possession. Unfortunately, this is not where the complications end because the word for "on" declines. We will start with the declension:
I: arno i
you (sing./informal): arnot ti
he: arno fe
she: arni hi
we: arnon ni
you (pl./formal):arnoch chi
they: arnyn nhw
Are you still with me? Good. From there, its really simple because it patterns just like "have, possession". To say "I have a cold" you say Mae annwyd arno i. To say "they are afraid of the dark" you say: Mae tywyllwch arnyn nhw. Not so bad. If you want to say "He had a cough", you simply use the "Na Na Na" past tense: Roedd peswch arno fe. It should be noted that the roedd corresponds with peswch and not with fe. You would still say roedd if you were the one with the cough.
This week is half term in Welsh class, so in order to keep up with the language while I don't have class I am making it a goal to post a bit about Welsh every day this week. So, until tomorrow, Hwyl!
