A Crash Course To Welsh
Created | Updated Aug 16, 2005
"Hi and Hello There!" to everybody who considers reading this...
Here is a small crash course to Welsh:
Rydw'i Yn hoffi... - I like...
Pysgodyn - <fish>
a - and
Sglodion - Chips
Pysgodyn a Sglodion - Fish and Chips
Rydw'i Yn hoffi Pysgodyn a Sglodion - I like Fish And Chips
You get the idea there, so here's another stash of Welsh words:
Araf - Slow
Hwylio - Sailing
Te - Tea
Gee Cefel Bach - Gee up little pony
Penpoeth [or popeth] yn iawn? - Everything alright?
Mae'r BBC yn Anghawyr! - The BBC is wrong!
Rydw i'n... - I am ...
Gwyddoniaeth - Science
Ysbyty - Hospital
Nofio - Swimming
Canolfan - Centre
Diolch - Thankyou
Yachi Da - Cheers (<cheers>)
[ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR MORE WORDS TO ADD HERE, JUST REPLY TO THIS POSTING]
Pronounciation:
Welsh is a mostly phonetic language meaning that it is pronounced how it is spelt. However, there are some differences to the rule:
Dd/dd is usually pronounced as Th/th which makes Caerdydd (Cardiff), sound like Caerdeethe
Ll/ll is pronounced as a sort of chl sound
Ch/ch is pronounced like the ending of church in english
Y's are pronounced (usaully) as U's (though there are exceptions) making Ysbyty (hospital) Usbyty or Usbuty depending on which part of wales you are in.
The Welsh alphabet does not include certain letters:
K/k is not included
Q/q is not included
Z/z is not included
North Wales, mid-Wales and South Wales all have their different pronounciations of Welsh; as do most of the counties in England (with English) and other English speaking countries; making it hard to give a full pronounciation guide, and also making it very difficult for North-Walians (Also Known As Goggs) and South-Walians to speak and understand each other.
WHAT WE HAVE TO REMEMBER ABOUT WELSH, IS...
It's widely used in Wales, and even as far abroad as Patagonia. It's spoken by approximately 500,000 people in Wales, which adds upto an approximate 19% of the population. It has taken words from many other languages such as English, Saxon, Latin and many, many more just the same as English has. However, in one form or another, Welsh is ONE of the OLDEST languages in Europe.
Now hang on! Isn't it wrong that Welsh is THE OLDEST language in Europe??
Yes, BUT:
A Brief history of the Indo-European languages:
Thousands of years ago, a group of people in Eurasia spoke a language scholars now call Proto-Indo-European. As time passed, these people moved off and split up and variously reorganised themselves. Their language also split up and moved off and reorganised itself. The original Indo-European language became the parents and grandparents of the now modern languages.
Here's an incomplete geneology:
Indo-European begat Sanskrit and Latin and Greek and Proto-Germanic and Proto-Celtic. Sanskrit begat Hindi and a whole lot of other languages of the Indian Subcontinent. Latin begat French and Italian and Spanish and Romanian. Proto-Germanic begat Dutch and Norwegian and Icelandic and Swedish and German and English. Proto-Celtic begat Breton and Cornish and Gaelic (Irish, Scottish, and Cape Breton) and Welsh and, probably, Pictish.
It's not, therefore, really accurate to suggest that Welsh is older than English: At the end of the 5th century, when the Romans left the British on their own, the British didn't speak Welsh. Some of the British spoke a language that later became what we now call Welsh. By the same measure, when the so-called Angles, Saxons and Jutes waltzed into Britain at the end of the same century, they didn't speak English. They spoke several closely related languages that eventually became what we now call English. So, who's first? Natural languages do not have birth-dates; a statement of comparative age of living natural languages is arbitrary.
Now, if we talk about artificial languages like Esparanto or dead languages like Sumerian we're standing on firmer ground. English and Welsh are both older than Esparanto and younger than Sumerian. For Instance: Welsh, Breton, and Cumbrian shepherds are recognisably the same at the root. The old Pictish language seems to have been very closely related too. Welsh is, however, older than Breton and Cornish.
One interesting point about the actual word 'Welsh', is that it is an Anglo-Saxon word for 'Stranger', or 'Foreigner'. And, as has been pointed out by many people, Stranger was basically the same word for 'slave', because, as historical records dictate, they took all 'strangers,' or 'Foreigners' as slaves. However, new evidence uncovered by Archaeologists, shows that the Anglo-Saxons only settled on the coast of Britain, and didn't invade, and for some reason, after time, their 'ways' became fashionable, which means that the historical 'facts' of the Anglo-Saxons invading the British, is completely false.
Note: - In the house rules, the BBC said "foreign languages may be removed" - Welsh, correct me if I'm wrong (I'm not), is not a foreign language!! Welsh is actually a British language [WHICH MEANS THAT IT IS NOT, AS THE BBC SEEMS TO THINK, A FOREIGN LANGUAGE]! And it's only because of the English oppression of the Welsh language, and the English wish for non-English persons to be oppressed, that a lot more people do not speak welsh as their first language!
(Any suggestions or additions, please post a msg beneath.)
Here is a small crash course to Welsh:
Rydw'i Yn hoffi... - I like...
Pysgodyn - <fish>
a - and
Sglodion - Chips
Pysgodyn a Sglodion - Fish and Chips
Rydw'i Yn hoffi Pysgodyn a Sglodion - I like Fish And Chips
You get the idea there, so here's another stash of Welsh words:
Araf - Slow
Hwylio - Sailing
Te - Tea
Gee Cefel Bach - Gee up little pony
Penpoeth [or popeth] yn iawn? - Everything alright?
Mae'r BBC yn Anghawyr! - The BBC is wrong!
Rydw i'n... - I am ...
Gwyddoniaeth - Science
Ysbyty - Hospital
Nofio - Swimming
Canolfan - Centre
Diolch - Thankyou
Yachi Da - Cheers (<cheers>)
[ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR MORE WORDS TO ADD HERE, JUST REPLY TO THIS POSTING]
Pronounciation:
Welsh is a mostly phonetic language meaning that it is pronounced how it is spelt. However, there are some differences to the rule:
Dd/dd is usually pronounced as Th/th which makes Caerdydd (Cardiff), sound like Caerdeethe
Ll/ll is pronounced as a sort of chl sound
Ch/ch is pronounced like the ending of church in english
Y's are pronounced (usaully) as U's (though there are exceptions) making Ysbyty (hospital) Usbyty or Usbuty depending on which part of wales you are in.
The Welsh alphabet does not include certain letters:
K/k is not included
Q/q is not included
Z/z is not included
North Wales, mid-Wales and South Wales all have their different pronounciations of Welsh; as do most of the counties in England (with English) and other English speaking countries; making it hard to give a full pronounciation guide, and also making it very difficult for North-Walians (Also Known As Goggs) and South-Walians to speak and understand each other.
WHAT WE HAVE TO REMEMBER ABOUT WELSH, IS...
It's widely used in Wales, and even as far abroad as Patagonia. It's spoken by approximately 500,000 people in Wales, which adds upto an approximate 19% of the population. It has taken words from many other languages such as English, Saxon, Latin and many, many more just the same as English has. However, in one form or another, Welsh is ONE of the OLDEST languages in Europe.
Now hang on! Isn't it wrong that Welsh is THE OLDEST language in Europe??
Yes, BUT:
A Brief history of the Indo-European languages:
Thousands of years ago, a group of people in Eurasia spoke a language scholars now call Proto-Indo-European. As time passed, these people moved off and split up and variously reorganised themselves. Their language also split up and moved off and reorganised itself. The original Indo-European language became the parents and grandparents of the now modern languages.
Here's an incomplete geneology:
Indo-European begat Sanskrit and Latin and Greek and Proto-Germanic and Proto-Celtic. Sanskrit begat Hindi and a whole lot of other languages of the Indian Subcontinent. Latin begat French and Italian and Spanish and Romanian. Proto-Germanic begat Dutch and Norwegian and Icelandic and Swedish and German and English. Proto-Celtic begat Breton and Cornish and Gaelic (Irish, Scottish, and Cape Breton) and Welsh and, probably, Pictish.
It's not, therefore, really accurate to suggest that Welsh is older than English: At the end of the 5th century, when the Romans left the British on their own, the British didn't speak Welsh. Some of the British spoke a language that later became what we now call Welsh. By the same measure, when the so-called Angles, Saxons and Jutes waltzed into Britain at the end of the same century, they didn't speak English. They spoke several closely related languages that eventually became what we now call English. So, who's first? Natural languages do not have birth-dates; a statement of comparative age of living natural languages is arbitrary.
Now, if we talk about artificial languages like Esparanto or dead languages like Sumerian we're standing on firmer ground. English and Welsh are both older than Esparanto and younger than Sumerian. For Instance: Welsh, Breton, and Cumbrian shepherds are recognisably the same at the root. The old Pictish language seems to have been very closely related too. Welsh is, however, older than Breton and Cornish.
One interesting point about the actual word 'Welsh', is that it is an Anglo-Saxon word for 'Stranger', or 'Foreigner'. And, as has been pointed out by many people, Stranger was basically the same word for 'slave', because, as historical records dictate, they took all 'strangers,' or 'Foreigners' as slaves. However, new evidence uncovered by Archaeologists, shows that the Anglo-Saxons only settled on the coast of Britain, and didn't invade, and for some reason, after time, their 'ways' became fashionable, which means that the historical 'facts' of the Anglo-Saxons invading the British, is completely false.
Note: - In the house rules, the BBC said "foreign languages may be removed" - Welsh, correct me if I'm wrong (I'm not), is not a foreign language!! Welsh is actually a British language [WHICH MEANS THAT IT IS NOT, AS THE BBC SEEMS TO THINK, A FOREIGN LANGUAGE]! And it's only because of the English oppression of the Welsh language, and the English wish for non-English persons to be oppressed, that a lot more people do not speak welsh as their first language!
(Any suggestions or additions, please post a msg beneath.)
