Month: June 2007

Brighton

By Simon

I arrived back to a wet and overcast Brighton this evening after a long, long journey from Lampeter (just under 10 hours door to door with a long wait in Swansea). One of the first things I did after getting home was to switch on Radio Cymru to give me a dose of Welsh, which I’m missing already.

Y noswaith hon cyrraeddais i nôl i Frighton, lle mae hi’n gwlyb a chymylog, ar ôl taith hir iawn o Lambed (tipyn bach llai na 10 awr o ddrws i ddrws gyda aros hir yn Abertawe). Ar ôl i mi gyrraedd adre, un o’r pethau cynta a wnes i oedd gwrando ar Radio Cymru – dw i’n methu clywed y Gymraeg yn barod.

There’s no language quiz question today, but I do have a question from an Omniglot visitor: What do you call tongue twisters in your language?

Another question from me: Is the word for tongue twister a tongue twister in any of the languages you know?

Sunshine

By Simon

My Welsh course finished a midday today, after which we had the obligatory group photos on the steps outside the main entrance. We were then presented with certificates for completing the course which mention that we have earned 40 credits for it. Unlike many of my classmates, I’m not doing any of the online courses offered by Lampeter, so these credits aren’t much use to me at the moment.

Mae fy ngwrs Cymraeg wedi gorffen am hanner dydd heddiw. Wedyn mae rhywun wedi tynnu lluniau o’r grwp i gyd ar y grisiau tu allan y priffynedfa. Cawson ni ein tystysgrifau ar ôl hynny.

A number of speeches were made, then two new books were launched – Teach Yourself Welsh Conversation and Teach Yourself Welsh Grammar, the authors of which are members of the Welsh Department at Lampeter. A buffet lunch was also provided, after which most people made their escape, though a few are coming back next week for another Welsh course.

Mae nifer o areithiau wedi’u wneud, ac yna roedd dau llyfrau newydd wedi’u lansio – Teach Yourself Welsh Conversation a Teach Yourself Welsh Grammar – mae’r awduresau ohonyn nhw yn aelodau yr Adran Cymraeg yn Llambed. Roedd cinio bwffe ar gael, ac wedyn dihangodd y mwyafif y myfyfrwyr, ond bydd rhai ohonyn nhw yn dod nôl yr wythnos nesa i wneud cwrs Cymraeg arall.

I have really enjoyed this course and have particularly enjoyed speaking Welsh to other people. I’ll be returning to Brighton tomorrow and will be back at work on Monday.

Dw i’n wedi mwynhau’r cwrs yma yn dda iawn, a dw i’n wedi mwynhau siarad Cymraeg gyda bobl arall yn enwedig. Yfory dw i’n mynd nôl i Frighton, a bydda i’n gweithio un waith eto o ddydd Llun.

Helfa trysor (treasure hunt)

By Simon

We went on a treasure hunt this morning. We were supposed to go yesterday afternoon, but it was raining (surprise, surprise!). Fortunately the sun came out today, at least for a while. I saw bits of Lampeter I hadn’t seen before and learnt a bit about its history. The treasure was some chocolates, which we all shared.

In class this afternoon we played a number of Welsh games, including Gêm yr Eisteddfod and trilingual (Welsh/Breton/Irish) dominoes. The dominoes had pictures of animals on them with their names in the three languages. Some of the names that really caught my eye were gwas y neidr (lit. “snake’s servant”) – dragonfly, glöyn byw (lit. “living coal”) – butterfly, and bilidowcar – cormorant.

Another word for dragonfly is gwachell y neidr (“snake’s knitting-needle”), and there are many words in Welsh for butterfly, including iâr fach yr haf (“little summer hen”), pili-pala and bili-bala. Other words for cormorant are morfran (“sea crow”), mulfran (“sad mule crow”), llanciau Llandudno (“bachelors of Llandudno”) and wil wal waliog.

Word of the day – lol

By Simon

The Welsh word lol means nonsense, and according to the dictionary on the BBC Learn Welsh site, it also means foolery, bosh, bunkum, gammon, moonshine, rigmarole, rot, rubbish, tomfoolery or twaddle. Every time I see it, it reminds me of the abbreviation lol for ‘laugh(ing) out loud’.

Here are some examples of usage:

Dyn ni’n siarad llawer o lol yn y dosbarth weithiau.
We talk a lot of nonsense in class sometimes. (quite true!)

Mae’r newyddiadurwr yn ddymunol iawn ond mae e’n ysgrifennu lol weithiau.
The journalist/reporter is very pleasant, but he writes nonsense sometimes.

Words with a similar meaning to lol include ffiloreg, ffwlbri and dwli.

What words do you use to say that something is nonsense?

Chinese names

By Simon

The Chinese versions of candidates’ names in some Massachusetts ballots apparently have some unfortunately comical or negative meanings, according to an article I came across today. For example, one candidate’s name could be translated as “Sticky Rice” or “Uncooked Rice”, another’s as “High Prominent Noble Educated” or “Stick Mosquito”.

I’m trying to work out what character were used for these names. Any ideas?

Mixing languages

By Simon

According to an article I found today, the government of Malaysia is worried about the way young Malays are mixing Malay with other languages. This is known as “rojak” language and the most common combination of languages is Malay and English. The Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports has called on the authorities to “to implement and monitor the use of proper Malay language”.

The article also talks of the Malay language being “eroded” and “polluted” and of the need to “save the dignity of the Malay language”. The Minister also said:

“We know that language, community and culture are always evolving with the time, […] Conversing in ‘rojak’ language is now regarded by society as modern and advanced without realising that it is tearing apart the very fabric of our values and culture, […].”

This is an example of the age old complaint about language often made by older generations about younger generations. The idea that a particular language is going downhill has been around possibly as long as language has existed.

Aberystwyth

By Simon

As I have no classes this weekend, I decided to go to Aberystwyth today. The bus took about an hour and a half to get there and went through some nice scenery and some pretty villages and towns along the way. I particuarly liked Aberaeron, a small town by the sea with attractive Victorian houses painted in many different colours.

Photo of Aberaeron

Er nad oedd dosbarthiadau heddiw, penderfynais i i fynd i Aberystwyth. Treuliodd y daith ar y bws tua awr a hanner ac aethon ni’n trwy gefngwlad hyfryd ac trwy nifer o drefi a phentrefi pert. Mae Aberaeron yn arbennig o ddeniadol, gyda llawer o dai Fictoraidd lliwgar.

In Aberystwyth I spent quite a bit of time wandering around the town and bought some Welsh CDs, a new Irish course, and another book of tin whistle tunes to add to my collection. There are some good bookshops in Aber, including one with French-Welsh and German-Welsh dictionaries, and courses for learning Breton and Irish through the medium of Welsh. They also had a Cornish course and dictionary.

Photo of Aberystwyth seafront

Treuliais i maith o amser yn grwydro o gwmpas y dre a brynais i gryno ddisgiau gan Siân James, Gwenan Gibbard a Swci Boscawen, Cwrs Gwyddeleg newydd, a llyfr o diwniau ar gyfer y chwiban. Mae nifer o siopau llyfrau da yn Aber, yn gynnwys un sy’n gwerthu geiriaduron Cymraeg-Ffrangeg a Chymraeg-Almaeneg, a chyrsiau Llydaweg a Gwyddeleg trwy gyfryng y Gymraeg. Mae cwrs a geiriadur Cernyweg da nhw hefyd.

After having a look around the castle, I walked along the prom, and then went up Constitution Hill on the cliff railway. The views from the top were amazing – I could see more or less the whole of Cardigan Bay from the Llŷn Peninsula in the north to the Pembrokeshire Peninsula in the south. The sun even came out for a while and the clouds cleared making the view even better.

Photo of Aberystwyth from the Cliff Railway

Ar ôl i mi gael cipolwg ar y castell, cerddais i ar hyd y promenâd ac es i i lân y Graiglais ar y rheilffordd y graig. Oedd y golygon i lawr y bryn yn ardderchog – o’n i’n gallu gweld Bae Ceredigion braidd i gyd o’r Llŷn yn y gogledd i’r penrhyn Sir Benfro yn y de. Disgleiriodd y haul am sbel a gwasgarodd y cymylau hefyd ac felly, oedd y golygon yn well.

On a semi-related matter, I received an email today from Steafan MacRisnidh, a speaker of Scottish Gaelic who is currently working in Japan. He has set up a new blog with some Gaelic lessons in Japanese. He also has a number of other blogs in Gaelic. Just though I’d mention it here.

As we usually have a quiz at the weekend, I don’t want to disappoint you today, so here it is:

Which of the following places is the odd one out?
Caerhirfryn, Caerliwelydd, Caerlŷr, Caernarfon, Caerfaddon, Caergrawnt, Caergaint, Caerwysg, Caerwrangon

This is your captain speaking

By Simon

According to an article I found today, from next March pilots who fly overseas will be required to pass an English language competency test, The Test of English for Aviation. The article suggests that this test will present quite a challange for the many Chinese pilots who speak little or no English.

Some Chinese airlines, China Southern Airlines, are requiring their pilots to take English classes for six days each month.

Apparently there is also a shortage of examiners who speak both English and Mandarin, and who are familiar with civil aviation.

Word of the day – treiglad

By Simon

Today’s word, treiglad (pl. treigladau) is the Welsh word for mutation, the process of changing the initial consonants of words – something we were practising in class today. This is a characteristic of all the Celtic languages and takes quite a bit of getting used to.

The most common mutation in Welsh is the soft mutation or treiglad meddal, which changes t to d, p to b, c to g, and so on. It’s quite hard to keep track of all the occasions when this mutation is needed, but I think I’m getting better at it. I haven’t tried to memorise all the rules because there are so many of them. Instead I notice where mutations are used in the Welsh texts I read and when I hear Welsh spoken. This gives me a good feel for when to use them.

If you practise reading and listening to a language as much as possible, you get a lot of exposure to grammatical patterns like mutations. This helps you to develop instincts for the grammar and seems to me to be the best way to learn it. I think this method works better than trying to memorise all the grammatical rules first. Once you have developed a feel for how a language works, then learning the rules might be helpful and certainly will be easier.

Blogs

By Simon

I’ve been thinking for a while about starting a new blog to practise my languages. What I can’t decide is whether to have one new blog on which I post in various languages, or to have one for each language I want to practise. Another thing I can’t decide is what to call the blogs. Any ideas?

The course is going well, we’re speaking plenty of Welsh and we don’t have so much homework tonight.