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Thread: Uhtred's Welsh Course

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    Default Uhtred's Welsh Course

    Uhtred's Welsh Course

    Finally, the course I promised to the members who wanted to get in touch with the good and old Celtic Languages. I prepared this course with the intention of making it easy to get the basics of the Welsh language, basics that to some extension apply to all the Celtic languages.

    The dialect taught here will be the Sothern, since my family hails from that area I feel more comfortable using this variation, that is fortunately, the most commonly used in the Welsh media.

    Another important note is that here I’m going to emphasise the Colloquial Welsh rather than the Literary Welsh, that is closer to the form of Welsh standardised by the 1588 translation of the Bible.

    Before we get started I’d like to give my special thanks to Mark Nodine with his A Welsh Course and to My Welsh Learning, without which it wouldn’t be possible for me to prepare this course.
    Last edited by Smaug; 10-25-2013 at 11:38 PM.

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    1. The Language

    Welsh (Cymraeg or y Gymraeg) is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically it has also been known in English as "the British tongue", "Cambrian", "Cambric" and "Cymric".

    The 2011 UK Census counted almost 3 million residents of Wales. Of these, 73% (2.2 million) reported having no Welsh language skills. Of the residents of Wales aged three and over, 19% (562,000) reported being able to speak Welsh, and 77% (431,000) of these (that is, 15% of the total population) were able to speak, read, and write the language. Welsh has about 700.000 worldwide speakers, making of it the most spoken Celtic language.


    Percentage of Welsh speakers by region


    Speaking Welsh

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    2. Alphabet and Pronunciation

    The Welsh language is known for having a very phonetic alphabet, that is listed in the table bellow:

    A/a) as in "father"
    B/b) as in "bat"
    C/c) as in "cat"
    Ch/ch) as in the Scots "loch" or German "reich"
    D/d) as in “dot”
    Dd/dd) as 'th' in "they"
    E/e) as in "let"
    F/f) sounds like a 'v' like in "volcano"
    Ff/ff) sounds like an 'f' like in "fake"
    G/g) as in "great"
    Ng/ng) as the 'ing' in "thing"
    H/h) as in "hat"
    I/i) as in "pit"
    L/l) as in "late"
    Ll/l) *1
    M/m) as in "mine"
    N/n) as in "never"
    O/o) as in "lot"
    P/p) as in "plate"
    Ph/ph) as in "photography"
    R/r) trilled sound like the Spanish 'r' in "rato"
    Rh/rh) trilled 'r' followed by an aspiration (h) like in "pray"
    S/s) *2
    T/t) as in "take"
    Th/th) as in "thing"
    U/u) *3
    W/w) as 'oo' in "good"
    Y/y) *4

    Notes:

    1) The ‘ll’ in Welsh is pronounced by putting your tongue in the position of an ‘L’, followed by a blow. See the video bellow for a better explanation:



    2) The ‘s’ in Welsh usually sounds like the English 'z' in the word “size”, however it also sounds like an 'sh', mainly if the ‘s’ is followed by an ‘i’, the sound shifts to the sound of ‘sh’, like siop, that is pronounced as shop.

    3) The ‘u’ in the Southern dialect sounds simply like an ‘i’, in the Northern (Gog) dialect it sounds like the German ‘ü’.

    4) The ‘y’ can have two different sounds depending on its position within a word. The rule is: if there’s only one ‘y’ in the word, it sounds like the ‘u’ in the English word “up”; if there is more than one ‘y’ in a word, the first sounds like the ‘u’ in “up”, and the others sound like the English ‘ee’ as in “Greek”.

    Diphtongs

    -ae, ai, au: Sound like an ‘i’ as in “bite”
    -ei, eu, ey: Sound like ‘ay’ as in “bay”
    -aw: Sounds like the ‘ow’ in “now”
    -iw, uw: Sound like the ‘ew’ in “Jew”
    -ew: Sounds like the ‘ell’ in “fell”
    -ow: Sounds like the ‘oa’ in “boat”
    -oe, oi, oy: Sounde like the ‘oy” in “boy”

    Accents

    Accents compose a very important part of the Welsh language, since they can change deeply the pronunciation of certain words. The accents are:

    -Circunflex (^): Causes a vowel to be long where it would normally be short
    -Acute (´): Causes stress in the vowel where it wouldn’t exist otherwise
    -Umlaut (¨): Breaks a diphthong and makes the vowels be pronounced separately
    -Grave (`): Causes a vowel to be short where it would normally be long

    Exercise:

    Listen to the famous Welsh folk song bellow and try to get the sounds:



    Dacw 'nghariad i lawr yn y berllan,
    Tw rymdi ro rymdi radl idl al.
    O na bawn i yno fy hunan,
    Tw rymdi ro rymdi radl idl al.
    Dacw'r ty, a dacw'r 'sgubor;
    Dacw ddrws y beudy'n agor.
    Ffaldi radl idl al, ffaldi radl idl al,
    Tw rymdi ro rymdi radl idl al.

    Dacw’r dderwen wych ganghennog,
    Golwg arni sydd far serchog.
    Mi arhosaf yn ei chysgod
    Nes daw ‘nghariad i ‘ngyfarfod.

    Dacw'r delyn, dacw'r tannau;
    Beth wyf gwell, heb neb i'w chwarae?
    Dacw'r feinwen hoenus fanwl;
    Beth wyf nes heb gael ei meddwl?


    Translation:

    There Is My Love

    There is my love down in the orchard,
    Tw rymdi ro rymdi radl idl al.
    Oh how I wish I were there myself,
    Tw rymdi ro rymdi radl idl al.
    There is the house and there is the barn;
    There is the door of the cow house open.
    Ffaldi radl idl al, ffaldi radl idl al,
    Tw rymdi ro rymdi radl idl al.

    There is the gallant, branching oak,
    A vision, lovingly crowned.
    I will wait in her shade
    Until my love comes to meet me.

    There is the harp, there are her strings;
    What better am I, without anyone to play her for?
    There’s the delicate fair one, exquisite and full of life;
    What nearer am I, without having her attention?
    Last edited by Smaug; 10-26-2013 at 12:55 PM.

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    Brilliant thread, simply brilliant!

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    I really like the sound of welsh. Great thread btw.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark View Post
    Brilliant thread, simply brilliant!
    Thank you boyo!!!

    Oh yes everybody, feel free to comment, I can clean the thread each time I update it.

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    I love this song:



    Do you know what they say or at least the main idea of the lyrics?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Incal View Post
    I love this song:



    Do you know what they say or at least the main idea of the lyrics?
    The song is nice is but hard to understand because the music is louder than the guy singing. By what I could get I think he says that he is "lonely" and "spending time minding his own life", then he says "I answer to the phone and it says revenge", whant brings him back "sour and bad memories".

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    3. Verb To Be (Bod)

    English Literary Colloquial Southern Dialect
    I am Yr wyf i Rydw i Rw i/Rwy
    You are Yr wyt ti Rwyt ti Wyt ti
    He is Y mae ef Mae e Mae e
    She is Y mae hi Mae hi Mae hi
    We are Yr ydych ni Rydyn ni Ryn ni
    You are (pl) Yr ydych chwi Rydych chi Rych chi
    They are Y maen thwy Maen nhw Maen nhw

    Important Notes:

    In Welsh, the verb always comes before the subject:

    1) Rw i'n trïo dysgu Cymraeg

    I am trying to learn Welsh

    2) Mae'n goch

    It is red

    The "maen" particle is used only together with the particle "nhw". For other situations in which the plural form is required, the word "mae" is used. It is also important to notice that the "mae" particle can be used as the English "it".

    Another important aspect regards the use of the words "chi" and "ti", despite the plural/singular differences presented, the word "chi" can also be used in the singular when the situation in question is very formal.

    The verb "bod" in Welsh is used just like the verbs "to be" or "to do" in English, what means it is an auxiliary verb, appearing in many different situations. For example, the particle "Mae" can be used as an equivalent of the English expression "there is/are". In the interrogative tense it becomes "oes", check it out:

    Question: Oes banc gerllaw?

    Is there a bank near?

    Answer: Mae banc gerllaw

    There is a bank near.

    Interrogative Form

    English Literary Colloquial Southern Dialect
    Am I? Aydwyf fi? Ydw i? Ydw i?
    Are you? Aydwyf ti? Wyt ti? Wyt ti?
    Is he? Aydyw ef? Ydy e? Ydy e?
    Is she? Aydyw hi? Ydy hi? Ydy hi?
    Are we? Aydyn ni? Ydyn ni? Yn ni?
    Are you? (pl) Aydych chi? Ydych chi? Ydy chi?
    Are they? Aydyn thwi? Yn nhw? Ydy nhw?

    One interesting aspect of the Welsh language is the lack of simple "yes" or "no" answers. Those answers are given by using the verb "bod", like here:

    1) Question: Wyt ti? (Are you?)
    Answer: Ydw (Yes [I am])

    2) Question: Ydych chi? (Are you? [pl])
    Answer: Ydyn (Yes [we are])

    Sentence examples:

    1) Question: Wyt ti'n trïo dysgu Cymraeg?
    Are you trying to learn Welsh?

    Answer: Ydw. Rw i'n trïo dysgu Cymraeg
    Yes. I am trying to learn Welsh

    2) Question: Ych chi'n derbyn cardiau credyd?
    Do you accept credit card?

    Answer: Ydyn.
    Yes

    To give simple negative answers, all you have to do is add the particle "nag" in front of what would be the positive answer:

    Question: Wyt it? (Are you?)
    Answer: Nag ydw (I am not)

    Negative Form

    English Welsh
    I am not Dydw i ddim
    You are not Dwy ti ddim
    He is not Dydy e ddim
    She is not Dydy hi ddim
    We are not Dydyn ni ddim
    You are not (pl) Dydych chi ddim
    They are not Dydyn nhw ddim

    Very easy, just take the Interrogative Form, add a 'D' in front of the verb and a "ddim" in front of the subject.

    Example:

    1) Dydw i ddim twp
    I am not stupid

    2)Dwy ti ddim yn Caerdydd
    You are not in Cardiff

    Exercises:

    1) Translate the sentences bellow to Welsh:

    A) Maen nhw yma
    B) Rydyn ni mewn pryd
    C) Rydw i
    D) Mae hi Aberystwyth
    E) Rydych chi yna
    F) Mae e
    G) Rydych chi gartre

    2) Translate the sentences bellow to Welsh:

    A) Dydw i ddim mewn pryd
    B) Dydy e ddim yma
    C) Dydych chi ddim yn Aberystwyth
    D) Dydyn ni ddim gartre
    E) Dwyt ri ddim yna
    F) Dydy hi ddim mewn pryd
    G) Dydyn nhw ddim yn Aberystwyth

    3) Answer to the questions using giving both negative and positive answers:

    A) Ydy e gartre?
    B) Ydyn nwh yna?
    C) Wyt ti yma?
    D) Ydy hi?
    E) Ydych hi?
    F) Ydw i yn Abertystwyth
    G) Ydyn ni mewn pryd?

    Vocabulary needed:

    chi - you (plural and polite)
    e (fe) - he
    gartre - at home
    hi - she
    i (fi) - I
    mewn pryd - in time
    nhw - they
    ni - we
    ti - you (familiar)
    yma - here
    yna - there
    yn Aberystwyth - in Aberystwyth

    ANSWERS
    Last edited by Smaug; 10-27-2013 at 09:53 PM.

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    4. Articles

    Differently than English, in Welsh we don’t have the indefinite article ("a", "an"), only the definite article ("the"), that comes in three different forms:

    - If the preceding word ends in a vowel = 'r
    - Else if the next word starts with a vowel = yr
    - Otherwise = y

    Note: The letter 'h' is considered a vowel in Welsh, and 'w' in the beginning of a word is considered a consonant.

    Examples:

    - y gwely – the bed
    - yr achog – the cause
    - mae’r gwely – the bed is here

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