Hoping for a little help here in talking to kids. Promoting the language
There are a lot of expressions that move from language to language unchanged for instance cool in English becoming cwl in Welsh, but what about some of the others used around here?
Such as:
Awesome
Rad
Just saying
Hanging
Stuff, or Just stuff ( as in what have you been doing)
Random
I tried saying Hefryd (Lovely) but it didnt cut it. Gwech (great)seems to be ok.
One of our favourite singsong sayings ( well one of their favourite singsong sayings meaning back off) is
Stop Donât talk to me
Loser lamo wannabe
Like Oh Totally
Anyway, any help would be marvellous?, delightful? much appreciated? Na, how about awesome!
I have seen âAwswmâ used in tweets by some Welsh speakers, but then Iâve never come across an officially accepted welsh word for âAwesomeâ.
Incidentally, I actually think âHyfrydâ is a lovely word personally⊠(see what I did there!!!).
âRadâ Iâve never heard in spoken English here, let alone in Welsh - other than in Australian soap operas of the 90âs (âHome and Awayâ comes to mind). I think its like surfer slang, but a word Iâve never heard on our shores!
âJust Sayingâ - I would use âDim ond gweudâ (or âDim ond dweudâ if youâre not using southern dialect!), but to be honest, most young Welsh speakers just revert to English for most of these - since âhangingâ in slang terms means something different to the original term âhangingâ (although I would use âchillingâ, but Iâm not a teen anymore, so what do I know!!).
I would suggest, if you have access to S4C Clic or BBC iPlayer, find a programme called âGwaith/Cartrefâ and watch that to get ideas of what slang teenagers use. Itâs just finished its current series on S4C this week, so the whole series should be available for a couple more weeks yet. Itâs set at a fictional high school school just outside Cardiff and will reveal a lot of actual spoken dialect by school children - youâll be surprised how much of these slang words actually remain in English!
I hope this will help in some way.
Gav
EDIT: I just noticed in another thread that you live in Australia (which explains the use of âRadâ!), so the suggestion of using those sites I mentioned may be useless to you!
There is a âS4C Internationalâ website, where certain programmes are made available for viewing outside Wales and the UK, but Iâm not sure if âGwaith/Cartrefâ is one of them. Itâs worth finding out though, because you never know!
I am the worst possible person to reply to this because I am far too old to be cool and keep finding that the Cymraeg I remember is hopelessly out of date - but I did wonder if âanhygoelâ , literally, âunbelievableâ but also - amazing, incredible, extraordinary and remarkable, might cover awesome?
p.s What does 'Rad; mean in Australia? To me it is an old unit of the amount of ionising radiation!
Iâm older than dirt, too, but I believe:
rad = radical = cool
and I think it came out of surfer slang, which might be shared between California and Australia�
âRownd a Rowndâ is on the International S4C site, and used to be quite teenager-oriented. That is less the case nowadays, but there are still some teens among the regular characters. Iâm not sure if they use authentic current teen slang though.
(Note that (unlike Gwaith/Cartref) itâs northern Welsh, and specifically from Ynys MĂŽn).
(BTW, do English kids still say âwickedâ? - That was all the rage when ours were in their teens, but thatâs quite a long time ago now! (hard as it is for me to believe sometimes).)
Always pleased to get feedback on Southern and Northern forms. We are learning Southern.
Found the answer to another I was looking for -âWhats up?ââ is Beth syân bod?â
Using Osym/Awswm already.
Well, I seem to have misled on âRadâ, seems its used as a bit of a joke by the teenagers here ( hmmm teenagers-now how does that translate?), rad has been left behind, washed up on the shores of the middle aged here.
However âwickedâ still used.
Another that has come up that is new, is âepicâ. Any suggestions.
Anyway Iâll be adding in âanhygoelâ, -sounds like a good âwowâ word.
( Hi there! Stevoâs son Calebo here. Just like to make a point that no matter how many cool/modern words he gets he will still be totally uncool. Just because he says that doing the dishes and taking the trash out is âcwlâ does not mean it is âcwl.â More like âdim cwlâ I tell him)
If you want to hear a bit of yoof-speak on Radio Cymru, tune into Cwis Pop at 6pm on Friday evenings (or listen on the iPlayer). It features teams of school pupils from across Wales and the presenters Magi Dodd (valleys Welsh) and Ifan SiĂŽn Davies (Meirionnydd/Bangor) so a great mix.
Whatâs the matter? Thatâs what it has meant as long as I remember! About 50+ years! I suppose âWhatâs up?â is the current way to say that!
Shmae Calebo! I am even less cwl! I am old enough to be your Nain/Mamgu, and I know that using âcwlâ words makes the really cool cringe!! Maybe you should try conversing with @Novem who is female, 15 and from/in Finland!
Itâs not something Iâve ever really seen translated. Cysgair has glaslanciau, but since llanc is not universally used for âyoung man, ladâ I wonder how widespread glaslanc/glaslances might be.
If I was pushed into a corner and told that I had to make a word up on the spot, I think I might come up with arddegwyr.
I was hoping to congratulate you on coining a new word that I felt was ârightâ, too!
The âbad newsâ is that arddegwr (plural arddegwyr) is already in the Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, meaning (exactly as expected): âteenagerâ. So we canât claim a new word - this time.
The Good News (of course) is that your guess of arddegwyr was instinctively right, without referring to the dictionary first.
I guess a specifically female teenager could be an arddegwraig (not sure if that would be used by arddegwyr, though).
There are also arddegyn [male] and arddegen [female] as alternative forms. With plural arddegion.
