I knew this was going to hit me in the head sooner or later: one of my roadblocks in trying to pronounce Welsh by listening to audio examples (I do not have access to a face-to-face Welsh-speaking community and understand that my pronunciation is going to be poor, it's just a matter of degree) is the rolled r. The r (not rh) sounds like an ( Read more... )

Hello--So I have been poring over a couple Welsh self-study books and listening to a podcast, and it occurs to me that while the pronunciation of individual consonants and vowels is all right, I'm a little baffled as to where stress falls. There's general agreement that it usually goes on the penultimate syllable, but I could swear there have been ( Read more... )

Hello--I am beginning self-study of Welsh. I am starting out with one of the Teach Yourself books and cassettes simply because it is in the local library system, and this way I get a sense of the language's sounds. I was wondering if it would be an okay idea to teach myself some of the basic pronunciation through "Suo-Gân"--music makes things ( Read more... )

A very quick Celtic question, please.

I need the phrase "Thank God I'm not English!" in Irish and Welsh.

Grateful in advance.

(No offence for the English intended, of course. It's only for fun).

What are the best texts for teaching yourself Welsh? I want something comprehensive, not dumbed-down, and conversation-oriented. CDs or audio recordings are a must. How's the new edition of Colloquial Welsh? Any comments on Teach Yourself Welsh or the Hugo course? An emphasis on North Walian would be nice, since the Gwynedd/Anglesey area is where I ( Read more... )

This error on an English/Welsh road sign amused the hell out of me. According to the (very padded) article, other errors in Welsh signs include:Cyclists between Cardiff and Penarth in 2006 were left confused by a bilingual road sign telling them they had problems with an "inflamed bladder ( Read more... )

I'm a Doctor Who fan, and there's an eppy where "bad wolf" appears in Welsh as Blaidd Drwg. They say it "Blythe droog", but to be honest, I thought rather it would be more like X-SAMPA /blED drI\g/ (IPA /blɛð drƗk/) or /blED drMk/ (IPA /blɛð drɯk/), depending on region. Can anyone help? I am unfamiliar with Welsh phonology... I only know a bit ( Read more... )

I know there are quite a few fans of Welsh here, so I thought people might like this. I was turning some of my vinyl into mp3s before I packed it away to leave the country for a while. Datblygu are one of my favourite bands. They were active in the 80s and sang only in Welsh. Their aim was to make modern, new music in wales, that wasn't full of ( Read more... )

( preface if you don't know the story )

Does anyone know the etymology of Welsh llwy, Cornish lo, and Breton loa? It's pretty neat that all the Brythonic languages share a word for spoon, but now I'm curious what the source is. Latin ligula, perhaps? If so, I guess it's related to the Irish liach, 'ladle'.