Absolutely true. Actually, I don’t know anything about Italian’s preference for languages based on tonal quality. I’m agreeing that I think French, Italian, Spanish are some of the most pleasant sounding languages. Even cursing is like playing with fine silk! I was surprised when I first heard the word for Daughter in Cymraeg ‘merch.’ The ‘ch’ is very hard for something that I don’t perceive as being hard. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoy playing with the language.
I don’t know if this has any truth in it, but I read a long time ago that Saesneg was a way of describing how the English language was irritating and annoying to the ears of the native Britons with all it’s hissing “s” sounds. ssssssneg.
I’m afraid as kids we used to call them ‘squashed fly biscuits’ (with a bit of imagination the currants looked like the remains of flies) …
Us too!
Well, based on the Wikipedia article that Richard Buck posted above, variations of that name were fairly common for those!
What would “squashed fly biscuits” translate to in Welsh, and would it be recognised as fond, affectionate, community-building “teasing tone” or might it be seen as dismissive alone?
Now there’s a question! I’ll make a stab at bisgedi gwybed wedi gwasgu for “squashed fly biscuits”, but no idea about the second part of the question - maybe calling them that would simply result in some very strange looks…
:black_flag::black_flag::black_flag::butterfly:
:welsh_flag:
Regarding the mid-challenge breather interlude and also the congrats at the end of each challenge - Does anyone else find themselves starting to translate these into Welsh?
Yes!
Yes, all the time!
Then often comes the “hey, I don’t remember these words from previous challenges, why is he using them?”.
Then I realize.
Quick prounounciation question please…
CREU - Create
Is this prounounced as:
CREE (as in English CRE - ate)
CRY (as in English CRY - ing)
CRAY (as in English CRA - te)
Hope thats clear!
Diolch o galon!
Dai.
CRAY (as in English CRA - te)
well, more or less… the ‘ay’ sound is slightly ‘darker’ than the English ‘ay’ (I have no idea how to explain it better than that)
Even just for fun - I learnt it from my first pronunciation tutor .
@DaiRoberts If you’d like to give it a listen, it goes: “dyn, sydd wedi creu (…)” and once more soon after.
By the way there’s a lot of words in this song I enjoy pronouncing and were quite tricky to learn in a sequence and at that speed!
Just something that crossed my mind:
I’m guessing that we’ve dropped the 1st neu from a choice, ie don’t need it these days?
As in
(Pa un) Rwyt ti isiau neu te neu goffee -> Rwyt ti isiau te neu goffee
Meaning
(Which) do you want: tea or coffee
I’m guessing (but would be glad of confirmation) that you could still have neu de neu goffi if you meant the equivalent of English “either… or…”
Haven’t come across this pattern myself… you will hear/see ‘unai x neu y’…