Welsh Speakers?

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Tue November 25th, 2008, 4:47 pm

Anyone here fluent in Welsh?

Carine · Post by **Carine** » Tue November 25th, 2008, 5:21 pm

No, not me, although I wish I was.
My partner is Scottish but 3 of his children live in South Wales and some their children learned Welsh in school. In Wales there are schoold where only English is spoken or taught but there are also Welsh schools where Welsh is taught as well.

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Tue November 25th, 2008, 5:35 pm

That is one language I would love to hear spoken. It sounds so musical on the pages.

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Tue November 25th, 2008, 6:05 pm

[quote=""Rowan""]Anyone here fluent in Welsh?[/quote]

I speak a very little and very badly!
My youngest son was recently at the University in Aberystwyth doing environmental sciences. Basically if you're English, you turn left at Shrewsbury and drive all the way across mid-Wales until you reach the sea. All the road signs are in Welsh and you get to learn them! There are Welsh TV programmes, so you could probably pick them up at Youtube.
Here's a Welsh band singing Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' in Welsh - beautiful!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sF_5WLagqIU

pat · Post by **pat** » Wed November 26th, 2008, 2:55 am

Hubby and I tried to learn after spending a lot of holidays there. We picked up lots of words! As EC says the road signs are all in Welsh, and there was a soap in welsh set in a pub I think, that was good!

(I do have friends on another forum that are fluent in it, if you need translations or something.)

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Wed November 26th, 2008, 3:30 pm

I ask all of this because the guys who created icanhascheezburger.com have many other similar blogs, one of which is failblog.org. Silly me didn't read the comments on the photo in question which provided the information about the sign. The translation to Welsh doesn't match what the sign said in English.

This is the explanation for the sign (which no longer exists): "They sent a request for a translation and the response was from a person on vacation. They didnt know that was what they were being told so they figured that was the translation into Welsh. They took the sign down promptly after finding out about their [mistake]."

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Thu November 27th, 2008, 2:22 am

LOL - great story!

I've spent some time with Welsh textbooks and language tapes, but my skill level was undoubtedly way below EC's even at the peak of my ability. Once, while traveling in Wales, I tried pronouncing the name of a town "correctly" and the bus driver had no idea what I was saying. It was one of those with the double "L", which is very hard for non-Welsh-speakers even to hear, much less recognize as language. The "ll" is pronounced by putting the tongue to the roof of the mouth and kind of blowing around the edges. Shakespeare had a Welsh character in one of his "Henry" plays and spelled his name "Fluellen" (Llywellyn).

Carine · Post by **Carine** » Thu November 27th, 2008, 6:56 am

I found this on the net : A Welsh Course

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Thu November 27th, 2008, 3:13 pm

Rowan, that sign is priceless. EC, watched two videos of that singer, I'm going to have to get my hands on a CD if there is one. What a beautiful language.