8 Sentence Order: y

8.1 If a sentence begins with an adverb, or something that works like an adverb (e.g. an adverbial clause, or a prepositional phrase, or an indirect object) a verb that follows as the next element of the sentence is usually preceded by the preverbal particle y (yd or ydd before a vowel). This is the "indirect relative" ('to which', 'by whom', 'when', where', etc.) as opposed to the direct relative a.

8.2 The reason is much the same as for the direct preverbal. A primitive sentence,

Ys trannoeth y cyfyd.
It is the next day that he rises.
loses the first word, and so becomes the standard

Trannoeth y cyfyd.
The next day he rises.

8.3

Treiglweith ydd oedd yn Arberth, prif lys iddaw.
Ef a fynn hela, i Lynn Cuch.
I Lynn Cuch y mynn hela.
Trannoeth y cyfyd yn ieuenctid y dydd.
Ac ar hynny ar y cwn y cerddant.
"Pa ddelw y prynaf i dy gerennydd?"
"Pa ffurf y prynaf i dy gerennydd?"
"O achaws hwnnw y ceffy ei gerennydd."
"Pa ffurf y gallaf hynny?"
"Llyma fal y gelly."
"Ac wrth fal ydd edrychwch ar ynifer y llys, y gwelwch foes y llys."
Ac yr ystafell y cyrch.
Pawb, fal y gwyl, a gyfeirch well i'r Pwyll.
Llyma y gwyl ef y teulu ac ynifer.
Ac ar hynny y cyrchant wynt y bwrdd.
Ac ar hynny y cyfyd marchawg am berfedd y ryd.
Nid ydd oedd ansyberwyd.
Nid oes ansyberwyd.
"Nid oes frenin ar holl Annwfn namyn ti."
Ac erbyn dydd drannoeth, ydd oedd yn ei feddiant y dwy deyrnas.
Yna y rhydd Arawn ei ffurf a'i ddrych i Bwyll.
Yna y cymeir Arawn ffurf a drych ei hun.
Cyntaf y dyweid geir a'i wreig.
A'i wreig ydd ymddiddanwn.
"Ys glud ydd ymddiddanwn."
Ac yna y dyweid ef wrth ei wreig, "Arglwyddes!"
"I Dduw y dygaf gyffes."
Ar y meddwl hwnnw ydd oedd y brenin.
Ac o achaws hwnnw y diffyg ei enw o'r Pwyll Pendefig Dyfed.
O hynny allan, y rhoddant yr enw Pwyll Penn Annwfn.

Notes and vocabulary:

treiglweith -- 'once upon a time'.
helaf -- 'hunt' (hela is the verbal noun); glynn -- 'glen' (Scots), 'wooded valley'. Nobody is certain where Glynn Cuch is.
trannoeth -- 'next day' (literally, 'across the night').
delw -- 'shape', 'appearance' -- so this expression, just like pa ffurf in 7, has come to mean 'how'; dy is the possessive 'your', and it causes lenition in the following word; cerennydd -- 'friendship' (from car).
llyma -- (a demonstrative that calls attention) -- 'here!', 'lo!', voici!. The phrase might mean 'here's how . . .'.
oes -- 'is'. The preverbal y is not essential with the verb 'to be'.
erbyn dydd -- 'by day' = 'by the time day came'.
cymeraf -- 'take'; hun -- 'self' (which appears in combinations like E myself, yourself, etc.). Do not confuse with the noun hun -- 'sleep'.
cyntaf -- 'first' (our first encounter with a superlative ending, -af).
ymddiddanaf -- 'converse'. The prefix ym- often has a 'mutual' meaning, so that this would originally imply 'amuse each other'.
ys glud a beth -- 'continually' (an idiom with a survival of the word ys; literally 'it is constant as anything'.
arglwydd -- 'lord', arglwyddes -- 'lady' (the same feminine suffix -es that we saw in marchoges, and that is familiar in E shepherdess, poetess).
meddwl -- 'thought'.
allan -- 'out'. So the phrase in analogous to 'from that point out', i.e. 'from then on'.

8.4 Perhaps this is a good place to review some of the verb forms that are produced by the vowel changes dealt with in Chapter 5 and Appendix E:

cyfyd	(cyfodaf)	'rises'
rhydd	(rhoddaf)	'gives'
gosyd	(gosodaf)	'strikes'
hyllt	(holltaf)	'splits'
tyrr	(torraf)	'breaks
cyfeirch	(cyfarchaf)	'asks'
cymeir	(cymeraf)	'takes'
gwyl	(gwelaf)	'sees'
dyweid	(dywedaf)	'says'
dwg	(dygaf)	'leads'

And second person singulars:

	gelly	(gallaf)	'you can'
	ceffy	(caffaf)	'you get'

	Ys trannoeth y cyfyd.
	It is the next day that he rises.