Dim llawer o Ayapaneco rhyngddynt

Bu stori yn y Guardian wythnos diwetha am ddau siaradwr olaf iaith Ayapaneco, yn rhanbarth Tabasco, Mecsico, sy ddim yn siarad â’i gilydd:

There are just two people left who can speak it fluently – but they refuse to talk to each other. Manuel Segovia, 75, and Isidro Velazquez, 69, live 500 metres apart in the village of Ayapa in the tropical lowlands of the southern state of Tabasco. It is not clear whether there is a long-buried argument behind their mutual avoidance, but people who know them say they have never really enjoyed each other’s company.

Mae swnio môr annhebyg, ond yw e? Ond y peth wnaeth fy nharo fi yw nid dyma’r tro cyntaf i mi glywed stori fel hyn. Yn ei lyfr The Practice of the Wild, mae Gary Snyder yn sôn am fynd gyda chyfaill i weld Louie, un o siaradwyr olaf iaith y Nisenan yng nghanolbarth Califfornia:

Finally my friend broke his good news: “Louie, I have found another person who speaks Nisenan,” There were perhaps no more than three people alive speaking Nisenan at that time, and Louie was one of them. “Who?” Louie asked. He told her name. “She lives back of Oroville. I can bring her here, and you two can speak.” “I know her from way back,” Louie said. “She wouldn’t want to come over here. I don’t think I should see her. Besides, her family and mine never did along.”

That took my breath away. Here was a man who would not let the mere threat of cultural extinction stand in the way of his (and her) values. To well-meaning sympathetic white people this response is almost incomprehensible. In the world of his people, never over-populated, rich in acorn, deer salmon, and flicker feather, to cleave to such purity, to be perfectionists about matters of family or clan, were affordable luxuries. Louie and his fellow Nisenan had more important business with each other than conversations. I think he saw it as a matter of keeping their dignity, their pride, and their own ways&emdash;regardless of what straits they fallen upon&emdash;until the end.

Rhaid cyfadde mod i wedi bod un o’r bobl gwynion yna mwy nag unwaith, ond mae’r darn yna yn gwneud mwy o synnwyr i fi bob tro dw i’n ei ddarllen. Does dim sut peth â “marwolaeth iaith”: pobl sy’n marw, nid ieithoedd.

Canu Casineb

Mae Lameen Souag wedi olrhain hanes y gair Cabileg šnu, sy wedi newid ei ystyr o “gasineb” i “ganu” mewn dau gam hawdd:

In Classical Arabic, there is a fairly rare verb šani’a شنئ, meaning “to hate” [..] This has barely survived in spoken Arabic, but (according to de Prémare) the causative šənnā is still used in Tangier (Morocco), meaning “to taunt someone by showing him something he wants that you won’t give him.”

Sy’n swnio braidd yn Fonty Python-aidd i fi, ond mae’e Lameen yn nabod ei stwff, dw i’n siwr.

Anodd oedd peidio allosod o fan’na a gweld cysylltiad â’r traddodiad Celtaidd/Cymreig o ganu dychan, a dyna’r sylw cyntaf i’r blogiad yn wneud yn union hynny, ond yng nghydestun Iwerddon:

Early Irish law shows that poets’ use of satire had to be regulated so that it would not drive honest men to despair and suicide, but satire was itself a kind of legal punishment, especially applied to the rich who were above most other kinds.

Sh’mae, Fyd

Ddim yn siwr a fydd hwn yn hedfan, ond wedi deg mlynedd o flogio am bopeth dan haul, dw i am gyfyngu fy hunan gan ddechrau blog newydd ar un pwnc.

Fel y dwedais i droeon, un o’r rhesymau i fi ddechrau blogio oedd i wella fy Nghymraeg ysgrifenedig. Er mor simsan yw honna o hyd, rhaid derbyn na fydd yn gwella rhagor trwy bostio dolenni di-rif i fideos Van der Graaf Generator ar YouTube. Hefyd, mae cadw a chynnal blog gyda dros tair mil a hanner o gofnodion wedi dod yn fwy o faich nag o bleser, rhywbeth oedd wedi dod bach yn rhy amlwg dros y misoedd diwethaf.

Ro’n i’n teimlo, ac yn dechrau edrych, fel y “Junk Lady” yn y ffilm Labyrinth:

Dyma ni, ’te. Blog am Iaith. Nid yr iaith, yr hen iaith, ein hiaith fach annwyl ni, ond Iaith gyda i-dot mawr, ieithoedd y byd, ieithyddiaeth, yn enwedig falle ieithyddiaeth gymdeithasegol. Rhywbeth neis a syml, felly, a rhywbeth dw i ddim wedi astudio mewn unrhyw ffordd ddisgybledig yn fy myw. Fydd dim modd i hwn dyfu ma’s o’m rheolaeth, na fydd?

Mae angen teitl gwell i’r blog, yn amlwg ddigon. Croeso i chi wneud awgrymiadau yn y blwch sylwadau. Roedd bob un o fy syniadau dyfeisgar wedi’u bachu eisioes.