I started getting very angry reading your post, until I realised that was exactly the effect you were going for - well played.
I was going for laughs rather than anger but am glad that yours abated.
Oh yes, me too!
He may be Welsh-speaking and insistent, but on this he doesnāt know what heās talking about.
Dw i eisiau.
Thanks for the welcome!
I wonāt need any intent for thatā¦ XD
It was not, it was second language teaching.
Since @ElynnWinter is just starting to learn Welsh she may not yet have acquired any of Garethās books. Garethās Amazon page may be of interest to her, if only to give her āammunitionā if she should need it.
Croeso Elynn - have fun with this lovely language.
You might listen to āY Talwrnā on Radio Cymru. There are some masters at playing with words on there. Doesnāt matter if you donāt understand it all (I certainly donāt). Itās just nice to hear people who enjoy words using them well. (And itās by no means all deadly serious).
ā¦doesnāt know his eisiau from his elbow, so to speakā¦
Ha ha, Iād like to say that -
āI saw that one comingā.
Oh thank you! Another satisfied customer - we like those!!
Iāve just found it and am listening to it now! I normally shy away from listening and prefer watching - I like to ācheatā with other cues to help me (just not subtitles - they ruin everything for me!). Iām really enjoying it and understanding a lot more than I thought - although I canāt connect much together, but they REALLY enjoy the sound of the words, donāt they? Me too.
Just before this I watched the farming programme and understood almost nothing. It made me feel a bit flat, really. I know thereās probably a lot of specialist language in there, but even so. I felt as though my brain was in the wrong gear altogether. Y Talwrn is making me feel a lot better!
Ahaā¦ Iād be inclined to put it down to that, then - some kind of a hiccup, either in their presentation or his concentrationā¦
I particularly appreciate the regular reference to literary vs spoken. Iāve been reticent to buy it because I was worried it would focus too much on the formal. However, you won me over with your mention of ābws a tacsiā being the more common version in place of ābws a thacsiā.
Oh thatās not my style at all, Anthonyā¦
Itās really interesting that you find Talwrn y Beirdd easier to understand than the farming programme. It could be because the poetsā speech is a bit more measured than that of the farmers, or maybe it is the nature of the vocabulary. I would never have recommended Talwrn as a starter programme, but youāve made me wonder about things. Iām sure that the literary Welsh used in many of the poems is far more challenging than the more street- (or ratehr farm-) Welsh in the farming programme, but the incidental Welsh - ie the stuff that you are most likely to pick up on and understand - might very well be clearer.
Think of farmer vs poet when speaking Englishā¦
Plus, Ceri Wyn has a lovely clear Welsh voice.
I started to wonder if, having opened up my ears (and hopefully brain) by using SSiW, I was actually being distracted by the visual cues that I thought I relied on. I caught myself wondering if the sheep showing sisters were twins, and did they look more like their mum or dadā¦ This might have been because I felt too out of my depth (my sheepy vocab is clearly lacking).
With Y Talwrn, I had no expectations of understanding anything (especially having just been thwarted by farming) but I immediately enjoyed the way they used language - and how beautifully they spoke it. And yes, it was slower and more measured - and confidently expressed. The slightly embarrassed farmers said things in exactly the tone I would use if I was suddenly on the telly and trying to wrestle a pig at the same time (although I didnāt understand the presenters either, and they certainly spoke in a less pig-wrestly way!).
Thereās an excellent tip in there for anyone:
Donāt expect too much - this is a new language to you, which means that you are going to get thrown by loads of things - like pig-wrestly voices - taht wouldnāt affect you in your first language. Remember that kids (they are so good at language) take 10 years and more to develop understandings of subtlety. Mine are 10, 8, 5 and 4, and none of them are able to understand āplease be quietā yet.
And just enjoy the language, even when you donāt understand a word. Talwrn is a brilliant way of hearing Welsh in itās full glory. This isnāt the place to talk about cynghanedd, but consider what kind of language this must be that you can write long passages of poetry where every line has to obey strict rules about what order the consonants fall inā¦
Not especially sheepy, but if you do not mind learning Cymraeg along with small children, I find S4C Childrensā programs fun and a painless learning experienceā¦ (my little toy poodle just heard the music for Nico Nog, a Jack Rusell who lives on a canal boat and has lots of animal friends, some of whom she likes to bark at!). Hafod Haul is Heti single-lady farmer with Jaff y ci, her trusty friend and ci defaid (sheepdog). On Saturday and Sunday mornings I record Cyw, the omnibus type program, and play it back anytime I am trying to type on here and want to keep Toffi (poodle) entertained! Very varied vocabulary. Octonauts about the sea, in and under it! Most are translations of programs originally in English (or American or Australian!!!). Guto Gwningan = Peter Rabbit!!
ps If you are the person from Kidlington who signed the petition, Diolch yn fawr!