There was one “pause” in level 1 where that happened to me (Cat starting before I have a chance to even think)–because there was literally about a single second gap for a long sentence. I figured it was a mistake and didn’t worry about it. There also was the one time where Aran was the first to give the Welsh translation instead of Cat, of course. I eventually started answering before Aran was done, and trying to continue if Cat started before I was done (and sometimes if I forgot something, I would follow along with Cat and occasionally pass her before she finished).
@tatjana, you also obviously care about protecting Cymraeg–don’t forget that even hanging out on a learners’ forum and encouraging people who are learning contributes to keeping the language strong.
It sounds like the message is, go back and do Course 1 (at least once I finish the current Level 2 lessons) because magically delicious things happen there.
And I noticed that there’s a new lesson (Challenge 11) in Level 2 that showed up overnight! Yay!
Ahhh … You do Northern course which is a bit further then Southern. We (southerns ) will come to that a bit later but there’s no worries I would remain without material to go through. I was instructed to repeat Lesson 24 and 25 of course 2 and 3 each 2 months and I still have half the way through Level 1 to do.
Thank you. I’m doing my best (although I always tend to think I could do some more …).
Yup, that certainly sounds like a mistake on our part…
Incidentally, the northern voice is Catrin (very rarely shortened even by family!) while the southern voice (just to keep you all on your toes!) is Cat (short for Catherine, I believe)…
Well, in my thoughts I always say “moje dve Katke” what should translate something like “my two Cats” or something similar. You are all so great people @aran. You’ll never really know how much I admire both of families.
Yes, it’s very similar to German, which is I think what I like about it, I have a strange fascination with the languages that have the hard “r” and this German “ch” sounds. And the more these sounds are present in the language, the more I love it:)
Just let me know if you need someone to experiment on with Russian. I’ll put the German on cruise control and give Russian priority if the timing is right for testing or launching Russian.
I have to admit total ignorance of Irish in any form and I don’t know Gallic,But years back a friend left a book in the photocopier at work and I saw the Gallic alphabet and discovered ‘river’ was ‘afon’ but spelled something like amhon or…??? As far as I could see, letters which mutate had an ‘h’ or ‘hi’ added to give the result of the mutation!! I realised at once that no form of Gaelic was for me!!! Round here in Argyll, a lot of places are pronounced in ways which imply lack of consistency!! ‘ai’ is like English ‘ay’ or like ‘i’!!!
@JustinandEirwen, @Karla, thank you both very much:) I’ll try to be as quick as I can, I’m very impatient to do it (also for purely selfish reason - I need my cariad to start speaking Russian before he moves here. otherwise it’ll be very hard for him to haggle over the prices with taxi drivers, and haggling with taxi drivers is a very important part of the Russian culture, not less than drinking:)
I sometimes think that Irish spelling was developed with the only purpose to drive foreigners insane. I can see no other reason why some words consist of around 10 letters , only two sounds of which will be pronounced! It was very fashionable some years ago to love everything Irish and study Irish here, but I fear not many people have succeeded in it.
Someone said something about protecting languages, Cymraeg was, of course, at one time illegal, but our colonisers realised you can’t legislate effectively about what Mam says to baban bach! If I was a linguist, in fellow-feeling, I’d learn Kurdish. I think Catalan seems safe. Yiddish was only a diaspora cross, of Hebrew and German, and I wouldn’t think is worth preserving. Are any other languages than Kurdish illegal in their own land?
My step-father had a little Gaidhlig from his childhood - which has similarly challenging spelling! He used to like to say that it was important to have a lot of spare letters in case any of them got lost or broken…
This isn’t the case anymore, but the indigenous languages of Australia certainly were for a long time. Sadly, the majority have been lost thanks to a very successful cultural genocide and the fact that they had no written format. A couple still survive, but I don’t know of any courses that are aimed at making them more widely known outside of the very small indigenous communities that still speak them. I’ve never even come across anyone who uses them in everyday life…although that could come from the fact that I live in the city, and not in the north west, mainly indigenous communities.
There are quite a few people who are not at all happy about the decline of Yiddish (and the language lives on in insular ultra-conservative religious communities as a primary community language). I have a friend (not very religious) who speaks only Yiddish with his wife and kids to help carry on a 1000-year old tradition. That task seems now far harder than the one facing Irish, though.
Yiddish is completely mutually-intelligible with German once you learn about 100-200 Hebrew and Slavic loanwords and get used to the sound and syntax changes (these sounds can vary quite a lot between dialects, though). It used to be called “Jargon” by Germans a hundred years ago.
“River” in Irish is “abhainn” (âwen), btw. The letter accumulation due to mutation looks bizarre at first, but jumping into Welsh, I realize it’s like losing training wheels. Not quite as bad as losing vowel points in Hebrew, but still a bit scary.
Oh, go raibh mile maith agat, Aran, this has just changed my world:) I don’t think I’ll ever get frustrated with Goidelic spellings anymore - the explanation is just too cute)
In principle one would think that all languages are worth preserving - just as is an understanding of culture and history. How to find the resources to do that and how to decide what and which languages play a role in our future are social and political choices which inspire heated debate.
I think we’re on a slippery slope when we start deciding as outsiders which languages are and aren’t ‘worth’ preserving. By definition, if a language (or dialect, or creole for that matter) holds cultural significance to its speakers, then it is worth preserving. In my opinion, the world loses a little richness and cultural diversity every time a language dies.
) will come to that a bit later but there’s no worries I would remain without material to go through. I was instructed to repeat Lesson 24 and 25 of course 2 and 3 each 2 months and I still have half the way through Level 1 to do.
