#welsh:general

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Solomon a Gaenor (1999)

1h40m | Welsh, Yiddish, & English

Y wythnos diwetha', nes i weld y ffilm 'ma. Mae hi'n am Solomon Levinsky, sy'n dod i'r Cymoedd De Cymru o Rwsia efo'i deulu, a Gaenor Rees, sy wedi byw yna ei holl fywyd. Mae Solomon a'i deulu'n Iddewon Uniongred, a mae Gaenor yn dod o deulu Anghydffurfiol, ond mae'r dau'n disgyn mewn cariad. Mae'r stori'n dipyn bach fel Romeo a Juliet, ond mae hi'n wahanol hefyd—mae'r cymeriadau'n mwy cymhleth, yn fy marn i, ac yn y diwedd o'n i ddim yn siwr beth i feddwl amdanyn nhw. Er hynny, mae'r hanes yn ddiddorol iawn, a mae'r ffilm yn sôn am y streiciau yn y Cymoedd ac am hanes Iddewig yng Nghmyru. Mae'r sinematograffi'n wych, ac o'n i'n licio'r trac sain hefyd, ond dwi'n dal i drio penderfynu am y plot. Rhaid i chi'w gweld a deud beth ydach chi'n meddwl!

Last week, I watched this film. It's about Solomon Levinsky, who comes to the South Wales Valleys from Russia with his family, and Gaenor Rees, who's lived there all her life. Solomon and his family are Orthodox Jews, and Gaenor is from a Noncomformist family, but the two fall in love. The story is a bit like Romeo and Juliet, but it's different too—the characters are more complex, in my opinion, and at the end I wasn't sure what to think about them. The history was really interesting, though, and the film talks about the strikes in the Valleys and about Jewish history in Wales. The cinematography is great, and I liked the soundtrack as well, but I'm still trying to decide about the plot. You have to watch it and tell me what you think!

Geirfa - Vocabulary

(Note: The movie is set in South Wales, so some of these are Southern Welsh variants)

swllt - shilling cefn gwlad - countryside cenhadwr - missionary perthyn i - belong to, be related to pai' bod yn ddwl - don’t be silly rhywpryd eto - another time tost - sick moddion - medicine damwain - accident twymo - to heat up darn - passage tlawd - poor cwlwm - knot siort - type pobi - to back carthu - to clean bod mas o gyrraedd - out of reach of, past main - fine cyhuddiad - charge, accusation dieithryn - outsider cosb - punishment disgwyl babi/plentyn - to be expecting a child, to be with child cywilydd - shame bradychu - to betray gwlân - wool sodli - heel gweddi - prayer rheol - rule haearn - iron lliain - towel pyped - puppet dere ymlaen - come on, let’s go carchar - prison cyfeiriad - address gwau - to knit

Os ti isio gweld y ffilm, mae hi ar Youtube // If you want to watch the movie, it's on Youtube:

Fersiwn Gymraeg (heb isdeitlau/isdeitlau i'r Iddew-Almaeneg yn Gymraeg) / Version in Welsh (no subtitles/subtitles for the Yiddish in Welsh)

Fersiwn Saesneg (y rhan amla' yn Saesneg efo rhannau yn Gymraeg a Iddew-Almaeneg/isdeitlau i'r holl ffilm) / Version in English (mostly English with parts in Welsh and Yiddish/subtitles for the whole film)

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Hello, do you know of any good resources for learning Welsh? I know about SSiW and Duolingo and have used them in the past, but I was wondering if you knew about any more good ones. Thank you so much, and Happy New Years to you!!

Okay, I will say that SSiW is by far my top recommendation, at least for getting started. Yes it's annoying to have to do those drills, no it's probably not perfect, but it does exactly what's on the label: teaches you to be able to say things in Welsh. That being said, it shouldn't be the only thing you use, and if you can't handle it then I totally understand. Here are some other resources I quite like:

Language Resources:

The Welsh government has a website for Welsh learners, it might take some digging but there's a lot of things there, even if you're not located in Wales

BBC Wales' Welsh at Home is deprecated but is still available in an archive version, and has lots of vocab and grammar (plus it's divided North/South, which is always good)

Clwb Malu Cachu is also very old but has lots and lots of good stuff

You can look at the BBC's WJEC Welsh as a Second Language review page if you need more materials to study from, although this isn't really a good way to learn the language

Reference Resources:

Geiriadur Bangor is the best online dictionary, it's very helpful and can unconjugate verbs and unmutate words to figure out what the dictionary root is if you're stuck. Also, if you look at the bottom left of the homepage there's a list of links to other dictionaries and resources, in case you want them.

Modern Welsh: A Comprehensive Grammar & Modern Welsh Dictionary by Gareth King are both excellent resources if you can get your hands on them (by any means necessary, I Do Not See). The dictionary is the cheaper of the two and I would highly recommend it because it has phrases in it as well, which is pretty much the only thing it has that the Geiriadur Bangor doesn't.

Listening/Reading Practice:

It has gone by many names but I think S4C Dysgu Cymraeg is the current one, you can also look at Hwb and there's a couple more in between as well, but this is basically Welsh television's learners program, and has media in Welsh that's been designed for learners.

Pigion: Highlights for Welsh Learners is a podcast with a similar purpose, it takes clips from Radio Cymru for learners and they also have vocab and little summaries for each clip on their website. This one is really a good way to get in your listening practice.

If you live in Wales (or the UK in general??) you can watch S4C. If you don't you can't, which is where I am suffering rn ahaha.

You can read the news on Golwg360 or BBC Cymru, Welsh followers let me know if you have other recommendations.

You can listen to BBC Radio Cymru live online, and you can also browse their listing of podcasts (fingers crossed that's the right link).

Hansh makes a ton of pop-culture-y internet content for teens/young adults, if you want something not too serious to watch.

General Websites:

Readlang actually has very good Welsh support, if you're serious and can afford it then getting pro might be worth it, but the free version also works perfectly well! You can also add it as a browser extension which is very useful for reading news sites.

Memrise courses: I like the 150 Welsh Verbs, 150 Welsh Adjectives, and All Around Confidence for a longer course if you'd like

I will say that Duolingo is one of my least favorite Welsh resources, if it's what you like then go for it but I'd recommend SSiW much more.

Aaaaaaand I think that's going to be it for now, if anyone wants me to add things just let me know but I hope this is a good starting point for you anon :)

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Day 2 - Music Theory (CYM)

Quizlet set is here!

cerddoriaeth (f.) - music

nodyn (m.) - note

rhythm (m.) - rhythm

curiad (m.) - beat

bar (m.), mesur (m.) - measure

mwyaf - major

lleiaf - minor

graddfa (f.) - scale

wythfed (m.) - octave

llonnod (m.) - sharp

meddalnod (m.) - flat

cord (m.) - chord

alaw (f.), melodi (f.) - melody

harmoni (f.) - harmony

sgôr (m.) - score

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Day 1 - Musical Instruments (CYM)

offeryn cerdd - musical instrument

feiolin (m.), ffidl (f.) - violin

siello (m.) - cello

telyn (f.) - harp

gitâr (f.) - guitar

drwm (m.) - drum

bas (m.) - bass

trymped (m.) - trumpet

trombôn (m.) - trombone

ffliwt (m.) - flute

llais (m.) - voice

cerddorfa (f.) - orchestra

côr (m.) - choir

band (m.) - band

canu - to play (an instrument), to sing

cyngerdd (m./f.) - concert

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LGBT Terminology/Dictionaries in Minoritized Languages

I was asked by @portugue for some dictionaries/terminology lists in different languages, but I realized when I checked that I actually only have them for 2 of the languages I study. If people have more minoritized language resources for LGBTQIA+ terminology, please add them on here! Let’s try to get as many as we can.

TERMCAT - Diccionari LGBT (Catalan): https://www.termcat.cat/ca/diccionaris-en-linia/256

Stonewall Cymru - Geirfa (Welsh): https://www.stonewallcymru.org.uk/cy/cymorth-chyngor/geirfa -UPDATE: This Google doc has corrections/improvements on the Stonewall Cymru list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bE8oVmZEhl6Wxqk6EEiEkv8z5xxq-cyQYjjigQPYKO0/edit

An Foclóir Aiteach (Irish): https://usi.ie/focloir-aiteach/

Celtic Students Blog - LGBTQ Terminology in the Celtic Languages (Welsh, Cornish, Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Manx, Breton): https://celticstudents.blogspot.com/2021/02/lgbtq-terminology-in-celtic-languages.html?m=1

Geidh.uk - Briathrachas LGDTCE+ (Scottish Gaelic): https://geidh.uk/briathrachas-lcdt/

(Last edited: 6/8/21)

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GUILLEMELGAT’S CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD | Cymru (Wales)

A Mari Lwyd with her retinue at St Fagans in Cardiff (source). The Mari Lwyd is one of the most famous Welsh traditions. A ribbon-bedecked horse skull on a pole which is covered by a bedsheet, she comes knocking on doors and challenges anyone who answers them to pwnco, a rhyming battle (or sings them carols if it’s a gentler version).

A Plygain service at Capel Jewin, a Welsh church in London (source). Plygain is another very well-known Welsh Christmas tradition. The Plygain service was held early in the morning on Christmas day (the word plygain is said to come from the Latin for the cock’s crow, since it began before dawn). Because it was dark in the church, the people in the village would all bring candles to light up the space.

Two people singing Plygain carols at the church in Llansilin (source). Plygain services traditionally centered on the singing of carols, which would be performed a capella by one or two people. The services typically lasted until breakfast time. Many of the older carols were highly religious and almost a substitute for a sermon; modern Plygain is generally less intense. The tradition nearly died out, but several communities around Wales have maintained it for the unique singing rather than for its religious character.

A woman making Welsh treacle toffee (source). The night before Christmas, it was common to gather together and make Christmas taffy, typically during the hours before the Plygain service. The taffy was made over the stove and stretched by hand, usually while talking with family and neighbors. Another tradition in some areas was to cool off the taffy by dropping bits of it into cold water and to try to figure out who someone’s future spouse would be by seeing what letters the taffy looked like it had formed.

A greeting card with a song about Siôn Corn (source). The Welsh version of Santa Claus is Siôn Corn (‘[Chimney] Stack John’). The song on this card was written by J. Glyn Davies and is still commonly sung by children during Christmas concerts.

A box from Pembrokeshire which would be used to hold the captured wren, decorated on the outside with ribbons (source). The tradition on Twelfth Night in Pembrokeshire—or other days during Christmastide in other parts of the British Isles—was to capture the wren, a tiny bird. The wren was considered to be bad luck, and capturing it was a way to ensure a prosperous new year.

A modern group parading around the wren (source). Once captured, the wren would be brought from house to house, and people would pay to look at it within the box.

A sprig of holly, like that used for older St Stephen’s Day traditions (source). Up until several centuries ago, there was a tradition on the day after Christmas (Gwyl San Steffan) of groups of young men going around and beating the arms of girls with holly branches—or, in some cases, family members beating the last person up in the morning. This tradition, needless to say, has died out.

Two boys in Llangynwyd with their decorated apples, out to ask for Calennig (source). While not a Christmas tradition, the New Year’s tradition of Calennig is just as important of an occasion. Children would decorate an apple with three sticks and adorn it with hazelnut and boxwood leaves. They would then go from door to door, singing a song to wish the family good luck in the new year and asking for a gift (usually food or money).

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January Goals

(posting this today because I didn’t start yesterday I didn’t want to spam your dashes)

The two languages I’m going to be working on in January are Welsh and Amharic. I’m going to be making the very interesting choice of attempting to study for 2 hours a day, which will probably last less than a day, but I’m going to try it all the same.

Welsh

Main goal: Have finished SSiW Level 2 and be able to comfortably have a conversation about any A1-A2 level topic with my friend

Daily goals:

Do one SSiW lesson

Practice vocabulary for 15min on Memrise or Duolingo

Weekly goals:

Talk with my friend

Listen to or watch something in Welsh

Try to read an article or a page of a book and look up unknown words

Content I will try to post:

Vocab lists from SSiW lessons

Grammar from SSiW lessons

Vocab dumps from reading practice

Amharic

Main goal: Have finished Colloquial Amharic and be able to tell my friend about what I’ve been doing in Amharic (and understand his replies)

Daily goals:

Take notes on chapter of Colloquial Amharic or do chapter exercises

Practice chapter vocabulary on Memrise

Weekly goals:

Message my friend

Write a page

Content I will try to post:

Vocab/grammar notes

Vocab dumps from conversations

Paragraph that I wrote

I can’t actually promise that I’ll post stuff, but I’m going to try, just because people seem to like Welsh content and there’s not much Amharic content on here at all. We’ll see how this goes, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to pull it off but hopefully I’ll at least learn something.

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Welsh Vocab Dump #1

(Words which I didn't know from the first page of Harri Potter a Maen yr Athronydd)

brolio - boast

anesbionadwy - inexplicable

oherwydd - since, because

rwdlmi-lol - nonsense

cyfarwyddwr - director

cynhyrchu - manufacture

gwddf - neck

hynod o - remarkably

er - since, though

bron - nearly, almost

maint - size, extent

ymestyn - stretch, extend

cyfrinach - secret

hofn - jitters, fright, dread

petai - if he would (?)

cyfarfod - meet

da-i-ddim - no-good

arswydo - horrify

cymysgu - mix

Corrections/additions welcome!

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Welsh Vocab Dump #2

(Words which I didn’t know from the second page of Harri Potter a Maen yr Athronydd)

tamp - damp

awgrymu - suggest, hint

cyn bo hir - before long

anniddorol - uninteresting

yn fodlon - contentedly

llusgo - drag

sgrechian - scream, screech (v.)

nerth - power, strength

asgwrn (pl. esgryn) - bone

sylwi - notice, observe, comment

brech - spotted (?)

cydio yn - take up

methu - miss, flop

lluchio - fling, throw

creision ŷd - corn flakes

arwydd - sign

As always, corrections welcome!

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Just an update on languages: This month I’m going to be studying Welsh with a friend, we’re trying to do one lesson of the old SSiW Course 2 and reading a page of Harri Potter a Maen yr Athronydd every day. We’ll see how it goes, I might post vocab/grammar dumps and such. I also want to try to keep on making Malayalam content and keep working on my studies, so maybe expect some of that too. Honestly, though, I am promising literally nothing, who know what you’ll get but it’ll be a fun surprise :)

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March Language Goals!

This March I’m going to be continuing to study Romani and also studying a bit of Welsh on the side. The overarching goal for them is to reach a solid A2 and B1 respectively. I know I said at the beginning of the year that my goal was to expand my vocabulary, so that’s mainly what I’ll be working on for both. Here are my goals:

Welsh

Do @languagessi’s Langblr News Challenge twice a week and write down new words

Message my friend who’s also learning Welsh every day

Romani

Learn 100 new vocab words per week (finish my stack of 400 index cards by the end of the month)

Read 3 pages of my book 2 days a week

Write a page in my journal 2 days a week

Speak for 10 minutes every day

My break is also at the end of this month and I’m taking the Catalan C1 exam in May, which I need to review for, so there might be things happening later on, stay tuned for updates! I’m also going to try to promise one IYIL Challenge post a week because I really want to finish them but I’ve been mired in work. Hopefully there will be some other posts; however I have finals soon so I can’t really make any promises. Either way, I’m hoping this month with be productive for languages, and I wish the same to all of you!

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Language Goals 2019

I’m going to try to keep this shorter than last year, but here’s what I want to do with my languages.

Current Languages

Catalan - Get that C1, whatever it takes to get there

Basque - Become conversationally fluent

Welsh - Talk to people in Welsh

Romani - Reach a B1, actually be able to understand some conversation & media

Western Abenaki - Feel more comfortable with what I know

Malayalam - Be able to hold a conversation with my dad or my aunt

Arabic - Review & solidify what I already know

Tamasheq - Expose myself to more of the language so I can put into practice what I already know

New Languages

Wolof - I’m hoping to go to Senegal to study abroad, so I want to learn enough Wolof to be able survive (which given that I don’t talk to people until I’m solidly intermediate is going to take a while rip :// )

Amharic - this is going to be the year, I’m starting the course for this today!

I really want to focus on getting my current languages stable and comfortable this year, as well as actually getting out and practicing them with people! I haven’t put many new languages on here, but we’ll see if that lasts. I have a lot that I want to learn, so if my studies go well I might add one or two more. Last year was really great, so I’m hoping the one to come will be even better!

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Fun life update: I’m now teaching a couple of my friends Welsh (which I’m not even close to qualified to be doing, which you’ll know if you follow this blog, but that’s another issue) and basically I had this weird sort of inside joke (?? not the right word) with my parents when I started learning Welsh because I was thirteen and the course was only teaching me how to say “I drink beer” and “I’m going to the pub” and when you’re thirteen that sort of thing is funny and also slightly horrifies your parents, but long story short I told this to my friend and she asked me for the word for beer and so I told her and then she asked me how to say, “It’s raining beer,” so I half-assed a translation of that too, and now we will literally  walk out of buildings and she’ll look up at the sky, then look at me and go, “Dwi’n hapus achos dydy hi ddim yn bwrw cwrw” tl;dr I have made mistakes and I have regrets now

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Advanced Learner Challenge (Welsh): Day 26

[ original post with full list of challenges / other posts by me for this challenge ]

Today’s Challenge:  Think of an everyday interaction you might have (for example, going to the bank) in which you do not yet have the vocabulary you would need. Look up the vocabulary you would use in such a situation (cultural differences are also worth noting!)

Since I’m catching a plane tomorrow, I thought it might be good to learn some airport vocabulary in Welsh, not that I would probably ever get the chance to use it but who knows? Some of these also probably apply to trains/buses/etc so will still be useful in a variety of situations. The things marked with a single question mark are probably okay just unconfirmed, anything with more than one question mark should be used with caution.

check in - cofrestru

luggage - bagiau

boarding pass - tocyn (???)

passport - trwydded deithio

identification - cerdyn adnabod (?)

security - diogelwch

terminal - terfynfa

gate - giât (?)

flight - hediad

destination - pen taith

departure(s) - ymadawiad(au)

airplane - awyren

take-off - mynd i’r awyr

steward - stiward

seat - sedd

seat belt - gwregys diogelwch

window - ffenest

aisle - eil

turbulence - tyrfedd (?)

arrival(s) - cyrhaeddiad(au)

customs - tollau

baggage claim - hawl bagiau (??)

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End-of-Month Reflection for June (finally)

Okay, so I’ve finally finished up with basically everything that I was supposed to do in June, which means it’s time for a reflection post!

Unfortunately, June coincided with the end of my quarter, packing up my dorm room, saying goodbye to everyone for the next four months, and coming home, the last of which has proved lethal for my language studies. Put simply, I did not get to do as much work as I would have liked. That being said, June/the beginning of July weren’t as bad as I’ve made them out to be, and I actually did do some stuff that I said I’d do - I put lots of effort into Arabic and made good progress, and I just finished the Advanced Learner Challenge for Welsh.

I didn’t officially finish my Arabic course, but that was a conscious choice on my part, as the last parts were mostly an assorted miscellany of expressions which I didn’t particularly want to take extensive notes on. I did, however, take extensive notes on all the sections before that, including LOTS of verb conjugation practice, and now I feel like I actually vaguely get how Arabic verbs work?? (a true miracle) I’m also trying to learn some Mashrou’ Leila songs and the lyrics have been easier to learn than before so clearly something’s clicking in my brain.

Welsh was a bit more of a struggle, but I was fairly consistent in my studies throughout the beginning of the month and was on track to finish, if not on time, just a bit late, but then I slacked off and took a couple of weeks to finish the last five challenges. That being said, I do feel like my Welsh is a bit more solid after having practiced so much, and I think there were concrete benefits, even if I didn’t finish on time.

Overall, while it was a difficult month, June was certainly not a lost month for my languages, and hopefully now that I’m back on my feet the rest of the summer will go a bit more smoothly! I’ll post an update soon on new language goals for the coming months, until then keep on language-ing!

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June Language Goals

Hey, sorry for disappearing for a week, but I am back and I have not forgotten about my languages – in fact, quite the opposite! I have lots of stuff planned for the month of June in terms of language study, so without further ado, here are my goals:

Welsh - Finish one advanced learner challenge item every day (similar to what I did with Basque)

Arabic - Make it through all the lessons in my Colloquial Levantine Arabic book (which is available for free here btw)

Haitian Creole/Brazilian Portuguese - me? learning languages for practical reasons??? it’s more likely than you’d think... (these would both be helpful for the job I’m doing over the summer so I’m going to look into them a bit on weekends)

I’ve actually started with these for the most part, I just didn’t have time to post about them because I need to move out of my dorm room by tomorrow, but as soon as I get home I’ll try to get back to posting more regularly. Happy Pride Month y nos volveremos a ver!