I thought that I would request assistance for another Welsh story card game I started to work on in order to utilise a modified version of the nanDeck code I wrote for Owain’s game. This game is all about telling a Celtic fairy tale as a group, but with a competitive element and a winner at the end of it. Its not a new idea, being based on another game, but I think it will work well in Welsh.
Basically, we have 2 sets of cards, the first one having words or phrases that might form part of, or inspire part of, a Celtic fairy tale. These cards are split up into Digwyddiadau, Eitemau, Llefydd, Cymeriadau and Nodweddion (that is “characteristics” right? - I mean things like Strong, Sad, Lucky, and so on). So my first question is, are those category names okay? I’m looking for a strong North Welsh bias in the names.
The second deck of cards, the hardest to develop, are a set of stock fairy tale endings, things like “and so the enemy was defeated and the land prospered ever after”. Players can use cards in their hand to interrupt the current tale in order to try to bend it to match the ending that they have in their hand (chosen randomly at the start of the game). It is help with these cards that I need. So if you have any ideas, please post them here, in English with the Welsh translation if you know it (if not, it would be great if someone else could try the translation using spoken North Welsh as the basis). We need endings particularly suitable for Celtic-themed stories remember.
Lastly in this post, I’m looking for help with the following translations:
Stone Circle
Burial Mound (or a fairy hill or whatever)
Haunted
Long Lost
Far Away
Underwater
Disguised
Poisoned
Stolen
A Ruin
Sounds absolutely fantastic Stu! Your category names sound fine to me (although I’m not too sure what ‘characteristics’ is yn Gymraeg either).
Can’t be much of a help with your list, but here’s two I’ll have a crack at:
Underwater - dan y dŵr (pretty literal but it does the job)
Stolen - I would say ‘wedi dwgyd’, but I’m guessing that in the north you would say ‘wedi dwyn’?
Sorry I can’t help more than that at the moment. Will have a think.
Also, have you come across Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folk Tale before? A quick google search found a reasonable outline of it here. Could be useful in stimulating plot ideas.
Okay, now I need the best way of writing the command for breaking into or interrupting someone elses story. My initial stab is Torrwch ar draws! Thoughts?
Have also just remembered that poison is ‘gwenwyn’, so I’m guessing that ‘poisoned’ could be ‘wedi gwenwyn’. Also, could ‘stone circle’ literally be ‘cylch carreg’?
My life is complete. My old hero Vladimir Propp has been name-checked on the SSiW forum. I can’t believe it gets any better than this, so I’m now going to retire…
This is a really interesting development from the RPG side of things, Stu - great stuff - my only recommendation is that once you’ve finished picking the brains on here, you consider getting a professional translator to cast an eye over the results before you actually build anything…
Thanks Aran. Not that interested in a professional translation really. The words on the card are just prompts, although the Endings would be nice if they were 100% right I suppose…
I’d expect that you’d be able to get someone to give it a quick look-over for little or no cost - and if it was little, we’d be happy to chip in - just because some of these less-often-used words can sound very odd, and it can be disheartening for a learner to get used to using something and then have people raise eyebrows at them…
Good call. I’m hoping that Sali Mali won’t lead me astray for most of the story words! I’ll report back as soon as I have something that can be sense checked…
Can I please ask for a sense-check on these sentences? I wouldn’t hesitate to use them in speech, but need opinions:
Mae rhywbeth yn cael ei dorri - Something gets broken Mae pobl yn gadael eu gilydd - People leave each other Mae pobl yn disgyn mewn cariad - People fall in love Mae rhywbeth yn diflannu - Something disappears Mae amser yn mynd heibio - Time goes past
Okay, that last one is an Al Lewis lyric. I’d also like the best way to say:
This animal can speak!
This thing is alive!
This thing can fly!
This animal can speak! - Mae’r anifail hwn yn gallu siarad!
This thing is alive! - Mae’r peth 'ma yn fyw!
This thing can fly! - Mae’r peth 'ma yn gallu hedfan!
And the others are all fine (although of course I’m saying that without seeing/understanding the context)…
If I want to use short forms? (I’m still feeling my way with the short forms for the present/future, I must admit). BTW, there is no context with these - they are just words or phrases on a card, there to spark ideas for 1 or 2 sentences made up by the player to form part of the tale.
If you want to be very formal, you’d probably go for:
Caiff rhywbeth ei dorri
…but if you’re putting something together here to support learners who want to be practising speaking, I think you’d be much better off with your original options…
