A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was thinking of starting a new blog to practice my the languages. Well I’ve finally made up my mind and have created one – Rywsut-rywfodd. I plan to write everything in Welsh and Irish for now, and might write in other languages from time to time.
The title means “somehow or other”, as in “somehow or other I will become fluent in Welsh and Irish, and as many other languages as possible”. The subtitle – meddyliau hap yn y Gymraeg / smaointe fánacha as Gaeilge – means “random thoughts in Welsh / random thoughts in Irish”. I hope to write frequently – this probably won’t be every day though. I might even have a go at audioblogging as well.
When writing a recent post, it struck me how few words Welsh and Irish have in common. The only one that stands out in that particular post is blasus/blasta (tasty). Most of the others are borrowings from English.
I believe this is the world’s first bilingual Welsh/Irish blog. I might be mistaken of course – if there are others out there, I’m sure you’ll let me know. What’s the most unusual combination of languages you’ve come across on a blog or website?
Looks fascinating, if I could read Irish or Welsh, I would have fun.
By the way, Simon, do you think that you could every now and then do a bilingual with English? I don’t know about the others, but I usually am able to pick out words in the language I don’t know from context. I had fun doing that when you did the posts in English/Welsh.
The letters are all Latin, but they don’t make any sense! 🙂
I wish I knew any Irish or Welsh; it’s totally alien to me.
Congratulations on the start of another blog!
Simon,
I hate to disapoint, but I was just recently in Ireland and Wales and heard absolutly no one speak Irish or Welsh. To be Specific I was in County Kerry and Dublin while in Ireland and in Conwy while in Wales. Altough the local governments are trying to revive the languages through street signs and classes in schools, I believe they are utterly failing considering the fact that I did not hear a word of spoken Welsh or Irish while in those countries. I hate to rain on your parade, but I thought you might like to know.
Bobby
hehe The most unusual combination for me would be breton and english ….I’ve seen maybe one website that would introduce these 2 languages together … usually breton pages are accompanied with french.
Bobby – it depends where you go – you’re more likely to hear Welsh in the north west and west of Wales. I certainly heard plenty of Welsh being spoken by people of all ages in Lampeter and Aberystwyth, for example. Quite a lot of people in these areas speak Welsh as their first language and use it in their everyday lives. In other areas, there are fewer Welsh speakers and fewer of them use the language regularly.
To hear Irish you need to go to the Gaeltachtaí in the west of Ireland – parts of Donegal, Connemara, Kerry, the Aran Islands and Mayo. In these places, Irish is the everyday language for most people. There are Irish speakers throughout Ireland, though few of them speak the language very often.
My own personal website is (partly) quadrilingual, written in the four languages I am fluent in – Portuguese (native), English (learned as a child), German (native – having lived in my German grandfather’s house till the age of 5-6) and Esperanto (self-learned). I am also quite fluent in Spanish and French, but that would have been a bit much, maybe… Whether that is an unusual combination remains to be decided by the esteemed co-commentators. 😉
By the way, my personal site is http://www.geocities.com/kyrmse/ and I have a “gateway” page (ronald.info.ms) which redirects you – _inter_alia_ – to Xliponia, where my conlang Xliponian is spoken.
Welsh and Irish might have more words in common than is obvvious, due to the sound differences between Goedelic and Brythonic. “ceann” vs “pen” and so on. Or is it more than that?
John – I haven’t come across many cognates between Welsh and Irish even taking into account the c/p differences.
Generally people in the Gaeltachts will speak English with non-Irish speakers. When people born in the Gaeltachts leave, they speak Irish between themselves, but not when talking to non-Irish speakers.
Hi Simon.
I just checked out your new blog.. It’s really good!
I just wanted to ask some random questions..
Which language out of Irish Gaelic and Welsh to you think is easier?
Which language do you prefer to speak?
Which dialect of Welsh do you speak? North or South?
Hi Matt
I find Welsh easier generally – the spelling is more regular and the grammar is less complicated than Irish. I’ve also been studying Welsh for longer.
I enjoy speaking both languages very much. I kind of prefer singing in Irish though, perhaps because I know more Irish songs.
I speak mainly the Welsh of South Wales, which is where my ancestors came from, with a some northern expressions mixed in.
Hi Simon,
I love your new blog site. I wish you the best of luck with it! I hope someday when my Estonian is good enough I will be able to set up a site where I can practise it.
I don’t know much Welsh, but this is one of the most absurd things I’ve ever seen written by a Welsh speaker:
Dwi’n ddim yn siarad Cymraeg (I don’t speak Welsh)
For really interesting combinations – pob math o gyfuniadau, gan gynnwys rhai yn yr ieithoedd Celtaidd – try http://www.logos.it/
= Multilingual Dictionary, Quotations in many languages etc.
Pob lwc
Rh
Hi,
I find your blog very interesting and am extremely interested in the welsh and gaeilge commonalities – i am a trainee teacher here in cardiff and was only this avo enjoying a pint in y Mochyn Du, a great pub in Sopphia Gardens – anyone with a passing familiarity of Gaeilge would have been able to recognise the gaelic an Muc Dubh or ‘the black pig.’ I wish i was stronger in Gaeilge because i am falling more and more in love with it – a tangent – Anyway, in regard to welsh and gaeilge it is really a matter of ‘reconfiguring your settings’ as it were as there are many words in common – from delgano catering on the north road – i can recognise bwydd as bia = food, pobal both languages as people, caer cathair, avon, abhain as fort and river respectively and so on and on
However perhaps this is an old theme but maybe you would be more interested in the much stronger links between gaeilge and arabic??? Lived in arabic countries for nearly four years – words in common include sicin, sciain (knife) quwat, cumhacht (power) kansa, geansai (jumper) Essa, Iosa (Jesus) Ras, Ross (Headland) if my proficiency in both languages was greater i am sure there are many many more similiarities. i hope i havent bored you, thank you for your time and endeavours.
go mor an t-adh leat!