#Learning Welsh

[official-wales]

Is there an official Welsh word of the year? Like the Oxford word of the year (but better).

only for you anon

[crwbannwen]

Nothing can prepare you for welsh plurals

Apple? Afal. Apples? Afalau. Two Apples? Dau Afal. Many apples? Llawer o afalau.

Ah okay so you add '-au' to the end unless there's a number since obviously 'two' is plural so you don't need to mark it. But 'many'? Nah you have to mark it then... that's learnable.

A school? Ysgol. Schools? Ysgolion.

Ah... okay sometimes the plural ending it '-ion' not '-au'.

A cat? Cath. Cats? Cathod.

Ah so '-od' is also an ending...

A star? Seren. Stars? Sêr.

A carrot? Moronen. Carrots? Moron

Ah so sometimes the plural is shorter and removes an '-en'... (typically with nouns that are more commonly said in plural)

A dog? Ci. Dogs? Cŵn.

A leek? Cenhinen. Leeks: Cennin

What the hell are we doing now guys?

[lauratheghost]

One thing I've noticed about trying to learn Welsh that is different from my past experience in learning french/German- is the lack of media available in the language (at least for me in the US)

Lots of the shows and movies are only on channels that are not available here (or are very expensive to subscribe to)

And Duolingo doesn't have the "stories" option for Welsh, unfortunately.

So I've been feeling very much like yes, I can understand a robot speaking it, but still have no experience listening to real people speak the language...

However! I just found a reddit post with a huge list of Welsh musicians and made a giant playlist to listen to 🥰😊

I'm actually so excited about this, you have no idea 😅

[itchylimpet]

Learners of Welsh*, what's your favourite word so far?

Mine's a tie between:

Esgidiau - I like the way it rolls, and

Morfil - it's exactly the kind of name a dignified middle aged whale would have and I think that's perfect

* I'm specifying learners because I like how my favourites have been changing as I learn new words, but I'm still up for hearing cool favourite words from everyone

[adcar]

Can someone please explain the difference between dw I and dwi'n to me? Like is it the tense or do they work like I am (action) and I'm (feeling)?? That would be weird though cause feeling IS an action

[goferu]

OOH! if you could: One of my favourite butterflies: Plebejus argus

They're pretty rare in Wales now but I know you can find them here so I'm hoping there's a welsh common name

Wrth gwrs, I most certainly can! So the common English name you may know is Silver-Studded Blue. Just gonna make sure I have the right ones now: here are some photographs taken by Iain Leach

(Male on the left and Female on the right)

In Welsh these butterflies are called Glesyn Serennog

'Glesyn' essentially means 'blue' but as a noun so more like 'blue one'. It may be old enough to also mean 'green one' but I'm not certain on that and I'm working on figuring out how old this term is still. 'Glesyn' is also used to refer to plants so it's not butterfly exclusive. Like Borage which in welsh may be called 'glesyn cyffredin' (which is also welsh for the 'common blue' Polyommatus icarus) but Borage has many other colloquial names.

now 'Serennog' means 'starry'. 'Seren' is star and '-nog' is an adjectival ending.

Plebejus argus: Glesyn Serennog (starry blue one)

[m4rmaladet0ast]

so, I'm not really sure how many people this might help, but I just HAD to talk about this because it's amazing. there's this book called "Stories from Welsh History for Standard III" by Owen Morgan Edwards. not sure about apple books??? idk what iphone uses lol, but on google books, it's free (at least in canada). it's a great book in my opinion, with interesting, simple stories with the translation in English on the next page. it has some key vocabulary at the top of each story in case you get stuck. really good resource, hope it helps!

[bunnygirl-titties]

HELLO

I am learning welsh!

I would really really like to immerse myself in like music, tv, movies and stuff like that to help my brain understand the language and nuances of conversation!

So if anyone knows any welsh bands, welsh movies, or even welsh books that might be easy for a newbie to understand please let me know!

I appreciate the help and if there are any native speakers willing to lend a helping hand I would much appreciate that as well!

Ok to reblog

✨cismen•minors DNI✨

(Non colored text cuz this is important)

[karmagotme]

Yet ask me on the spot to say something and I'll draw a blank :( My brain is silly

[skullamity]

Money is suuuper tight this year, and now I'm sad because the one Christmas treat I have allowed myself outside of a Big Toblerone is a copy of Yr Hobyd that will apparently not get here until some time in January.

I have been learning Welsh for nearly four years, and one of the things I've wanted to do is pick up a Welsh version of a simple-ish book that I can then read and annotate and makes notes about new words as I go through it. Uuunfortunately, the go-to book series that was most recommended when I started learning was the translation of Harry Potter. Since my trans ass isn't going to willingly or knowingly give JKR a single cent, that was a non starter. I was SO excited when Yr Hobid came out recently and cannot wait to get my hands on it. Just wish it was going to get here faster so there would actually be something physically under the tree for me. :(

[official-wales]

My parents having been doing Welsh on Duolingo so they’ll understand me better. I really appreciate it and it’s awesome, but…

The ‘ti’/‘chi’ issue. I don’t know how many times I’ve explained the diffference but they can’t seem to grasp that ‘chi’ is plural and/or formal. I didn’t realise it would be so devastating to hear a loving parent end a phone call with ‘Caru chi’ and feeling like they’ve just referred to you as a stranger.

They’ve heard me say ‘Caru ti’ enough that they’ve adjusted it and know that i have an issue when they use ‘chi’. But they seem to think its northern or a mistake on the Duolingo course despite the fact I’ve told them otherwise (so they still get confused or call out my ‘bad’ grammar or ‘hyprocrisy’ when I say ‘Caru chi’ to refer to both of them, despite all my explanations)

It’s the ‘sut dych chi’s driving me mad now. I am not plural. I’m so single that I turned out aro/ace.

Maybe I should pretend we’re northern and introduce them to ‘chdi’… or would that make it worse?

Anyway there’s no question here I just wanted to rant about Duolingo’s Welsh course. Not that’s it’s fully awful, it’s lead to some… interesting Welsh language fanfiction on ao3

(Also congratulations to my mam. She’s English and well past the ideal age for learning a new language but she can almost hold conversations with me from Duolingo alone, and whenever she hears a phrase she thinks she could say in Welsh on TV she’ll repeat it to me and go ‘is that right?’)

This post is for your parents, in which I give full permission as Official-Wales for you to show them:

You've heard of the French tu and vous....

You've heard of the Italian tu and lei....

You've heard of all the Spanish ones that I do not understand yet, I'm sorry, I don't speak Spanish....

Now get ready for the Welsh you......

Ti is singular and informal.

I'm talking to my good friend Dafydd. He is just one man. He is okay with this. I say "Sut wyt ti, Dafydd?" He does not respond, because I just made him up.

Chi is p l u r a l and formal.

I'm talking to my bosses. There are many of them, and I want to show them respect so that I can continue earning minimum wage. I say "Sut ydych chi, pawb?" They do not respond, because they do not care about employee welfare. When I return home, I ask my many cats "Sut ydych chi, pawb?" They do not respond, because they are cats and cannot speak Welsh.

This has been your Welsh pronoun lesson for today.

[crwbannwen]

Gonna do some welsh posting again here on terms of endearments and how they’re used. I also encourage my non-welsh mutuals to tell me which they’d prefer to be called because right now I call all my mutuals fy nghariadau (Cariad).

Let’s start with general ones:

Cariad - means love. Welsh doesn’t have a term for ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend’ so anyone you date is either ‘partner’ or ‘Cariad’ but there’s no reason ‘Cariad’ has to be romantic. A lot of my friends call me Cariad.

Annwyl - means dear. Used the same as dear in English. Even as an address in letters. You also have ‘fy anwylyd’ which is the term I use when translating ‘my beloved’

Enaid - this is one of my favourite terms of endearments. It’s gender neutral (although usually used for women) and a lot more platonic. It literally means ‘soul’ and highlights someone’s humanity as a form of endearment.

Blodyn Tatws - it means potato flower. I hear this one more often for pets but there’s no linguistic reason for that, it just kind of happens a lot I think. You might think this is for girls but it’s actually more common for male pets. That could just be my social circle.

Calon - it means heart and again is a term that uses humanity to create a term of endearment. Unlike Enaid which uses the other persons soul and sense of humanity as endearment, Calon is usually a ‘fy’ (my) type term, meaning it makes the endearment out of feelings and emotions from the speaker’s heart.

Sidan - means silk. Never heard anyone use it but it came up in research with no information on why it’s used or which dialects use it.

Next is terms that differ by age:

Bach - means small. You add it to the end of phrases as a diminutive. Often you’d add it to a kids name, but you could also add it to one of the terms of endearment above (fy nghalon Bach - my little heart).

Corn - this is used only for babies and refers to swaddling-clothes that they’re wrapped in.

Cyw - it means chick. It’s often used to suggest a child is spoiled but it’s still endearing:

Hen ddwylo - it means ‘old hands’ and is a term you might call your elders if you were close with them.

Terms that vary by gender:

Bwlyn - it’s used for plus-sized boys. It means like ‘ball’. I’ve seen someone translate it to ‘door knob’ which I think captures the essence of what it’s meant to convey even if it doesn’t strictly mean that. Whether or not boys like being called it very much depends on the kid I think.

Dynan: is technically used for women too but it means ‘little man’ and ‘little’ is a diminutive ending in this case and it means more like little in significance than in size. I’ve seen it translated as wretch before which I think works.

Geneth - used for young girls. Kinda like lass.

Gwas - used for young boys. Used to mean lad. Over time ‘gwas’ picked up a second meaning of ‘servant’ which it primarily means in the south so you don’t hear it much at all there. Instead of calling boys servants, Fathers often call their sons an abbreviation of ‘my lad’ like ‘washi’ or ‘gwasi’. I hear (and use) ‘n’washi’ the most.

Slightly demeaning:

Sosej- Welshified from ‘sausage’. If someone is being a bit of an idiot you might call them this. You may also get ‘selsig’ which is the actual Welsh word for sausage.

Creadur - it means creature. I like this one. More people should call me this. But it’s also used in pity, not just endearment.

Dwti - wenglish word to describe something small. It’s usually used for insects so it’s a little insulting if someone calls a person dwti. I will however continue to call my short friends dwti.

If you can think of any others you’ve heard please share them. I’m also not sure what regions these come from since my welsh speaking group has kinda just combined all our dialects at this point so I never know if I’m actually speaking southern Welsh these days.

[lauratheghost]

Starting a new thing where I try to quickly journal some notes each day in Welsh. (Trying to make up for the fact that you can't speak into the microphone for the Welsh Duolingo course, like you can for their other courses. I so badly wish they would add this feature 😢)

I'm not going to post stuff like this often, but this is my first quick, journal entry:

"wnes i ddim i'r gweithio heddiw. Dw i'n gartre. Wnes i talu brechdan I cinio. Mae fy nghariad gyda mi. Wnes i tacluso Fi ty."

It's supposed to say: "I did not go to work today. I am home. I bought a sandwich for lunch. My boyfriend is with me. I tidied up my house." 😂

There's probably some mistakes for sure, but this is fun either way. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[itchylimpet]

Dw i'n byw yn Awstralia. O ble dych chi'n dod?

[remuslupinslittleslut]

ok so youve just inspired me to start welsh on duolingo LOL

Hardd 🫣

(Beautiful)

[goferu]

I have slowly been working on something exciting for perhaps me and only me but I'm gonna share a little about it.

I have been compiling the Welsh Common names of as many butterflies as I can. Focusing on common butterflies in Wales and then looking at the meanings and origins of these common names.

So far I have 41 common names for butterfly species. So if you're Welsh or a welsh learner and want to know your favourite common welsh butterfly species in welsh, then feel free to ask me. (it's easiest if you give me Scientific names than English common names but I can work with both)