In order to investigate the mobility of hydrogen in the ternary compounds LaY 2 Ni 9 and CeY 2 Ni 9 , we have measured the proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra and the proton spin-lattice relaxation rates R 1 for LaY 2 Ni 9 H x (x ΒΌ 0.78 and 10.3) and CeY 2 Ni 9 H x (x ΒΌ 0.79 and 7.2). The measurements have been performed at the resonance frequencies of 14, 23.8 and 90 MHz over the temperature range of 11-404 K. For LaY 2 Ni 9 H x , the behavior of R 1 is consistent with the presence of a considerable contribution due to motionally modulated dipole-dipole interaction between nuclear spins. This contribution can be satisfactorily described in terms of the Bloembergen-Purcell-Pound model with a Gaussian distribution of activation energies for hydrogen diffusion; the value of the average activation energy resulting from such a description for LaY 2 Ni 9 H 10.3 is approximately 0.36 eV. For CeY 2 Ni 9 H x compounds, the measured proton spin-lattice relaxation rates are dominated by the contribution due to the interaction between proton spins and paramagnetic centers over the entire temperature range studied. Only qualitative information on H mobility in these compounds has been obtained from the narrowing of NMR spectra. Possible paths of H diffusion in LaY 2 Ni 9 H x and CeY 2 Ni 9 H x are discussed in terms of the distances between the interstitial sites occupied by hydrogen.