I’m sure this question must have been asked a few times before, but I wondered about the pronunciation of ‘wnes i’ or ‘weles i’ or ‘es i’ etc – Aran pronounces them with a “sh” sound for the ‘s’, whereas Catrin pronounces them with a sharp “s” sound. Is that just a dialect difference? I know Aran is a second language speaker and Catrin is a first language speaker, but I wondered what the difference was between the two pronunciations and which one to follow? Diolch!
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I’m sure @aran will chime in here, but as I understand it, Aran has a tendency to sort of slur his pronunciation of a final ‘s’ so that it sounds more like ‘sh’. Generally, when there are small differences in pronunciation between Aran and Catrin, I tend to favor Catrin’s, so in this case, I use a more clear ‘s’ sound. I am aware, however, that she is sometimes said to sound like she’s speaking in church - which is to say a little formal and maybe old-fashioned?
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Sionned’s pretty much covered this 
One small point - the ‘sh’ sound isn’t a second language thing, it’s a common variant (and one that I hear Catrin use reasonably often when she’s not near a microphone…
).
So it’s very much about following your own preferences here…
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Aha! Thank you! So perhaps it’s a bit like using your “phone voice” rather than relaxed everyday conversation. Thank you!
Diolch yn fawr for the link. I was fascinated by the sheer effort being put in to the Welsh Room, and the article was pretty good, with one unfortunate error! Julius Caesar was actually repulsed rapidly in 55BC and, in the following year, although an alliance with a local ‘king’ started, no Roman settlement was set up. The great Julius failed!! It was not until 43AD, nearly they a century later that the Emperor Claudius, keen to show himself worthy of the title, set out to succeed where ‘great Julius’ had failed and, with careful preparation, mainly involving getting British alliances, succeeded! Of course, it took a lot longer to ‘take’ even as much of Prydain as they managed, which on a long-term basis, I think, didn’t really extend north of Hadrian’s famous wall, the best bit of spin-doctoring I know of!!
p.s. [quote=“sionned, post:1370, topic:3153”]
a little formal and maybe old-fashioned?
[/quote]
That explains why it sounds right to me!!
One slight word of warning here - I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s a reliable formal/informal marker - there’s plenty of random personal preference in there as well - I definitely hear Catrin using ‘s’ in informal settings as well…
Mae’n bosib gor-goginio’r cwstard.
Looking up overcooked and came across this - difficult one to pin down. Is this common usage - correct??. What would be familiar in cwm-tawe?
Is there a general way of saying this sort of thing - overbaked, overlooked, overdone - came across gorneu somewhere, must come from gor and wneud I think. I don’t want to just shoe in English-isms or use archaisms, but trying to get an idea of what might be said etc?
Gor- is a common prefix, similar to over- in English. It is thus described in the Modern Welsh Dictionary, so I’d say not archaic 
It says further that it generally attaches to verbnouns and adjectives (the latter case more restricted in its use). Go crazy with it.
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Diouzh Louis, I,ll go crazy with it, but also try not to gorwneud e
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Dydy gormod o “gor” ddim yn ddigon
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Helo pawb
I have a quick question (which may or may not have been asked previously). I’m doing course 1 north, up to lesson 20 now. During the lessons, aran says repeat the lessons until you are confident to move on. But on here, the mantra seems to be “don’t repeat lessons”. I’m confused!
When I first started 3 months ago I was repeating the lessons and progress was slow but steady. Now I am not repeating lessons and although I feel less confident, progress through the lessons is quicker.
Diolch!
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If you are (as I believe) doing the older Course 1 (rather than the new “Level 1”) what you are running in to is the change over time of Aran’s thoughts on the best way for the lessons to work. The older lessons were more conservative in that respect, suggesting that you repeat until you can get, say, 75 or 80 percent right before moving on. Since then, Aran has found that, using his lessons and/or challenges, many people can actually learn and retain just as much if they charge through them. Partially this is due to the fact that all of the lessons repeat earlier stuff in the later lessons, so you are continually reviewing what you have done and don’t lose it. By the time you complete an entire course, you have a pretty solid basis with which to move on. The lessons still work if you take it carefully, but if you find you are comfortable moving more quickly, by all means do. If it doesn’t work for you, you can always go back and slow down.
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Diolch yn fawr Sionned! Clir fel crisial rŵan.
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Croeso! Sionned has answered your question, but it is good to say, “Simae, Helo!” This is a lovely forum full of kind helpful people and me! (I am infamous for being too like the animal after whom I am named here!) Where are you? Are you on the map? If not @Sionned will place you there if you like, and if you are outside Wales, I’ll try to get you to sign a petition!
S’mae!
I’m in Penwortham, Lancashire. Yes, I am on the map under a slightly different name (colin-dale72). I have signed the petition, yes.
I seem to have been slowly beguiled into learning Cymraeg. I holidayed on Ynys Môn in June, and as a keen runner, lover of British history and peruser of maps I was keen to learn the meanings of place names, as I have learned in England. This opened my eyes to the sheer amount of history in such a small island (so many saints!), and via Wikipedia my ‘obsesiwn Cymraeg’ grew further.
Returning home, I (and my long suffering partner, Kelly) expected this to fizzle out like all my previous obsessions (I have always had them come and go, and suspect that I have mild Aspergers).
But it hasn’t. It’s grown. As well as getting part way through SSiW, I have completed the Duolingo course, and an halfway through the ‘All round confidence’ 1600 word module on the Memrise app (recommended). To get myself used to hearing spoken Cymraeg, I watch S4C whenever I get chance, or listen to Radio Cymru/podcasts while running/out doing chores. In the car I listen to 9bach (awesome, even if I can’t understand a lot of it - but then lyrics are always harder to get I find) I have gotten to the stage where I can watch or listen to something and, at least, ‘get the gist’. And I’ve gone from somebody who was at best indifferent to Wales, to someone who considers himself its friend.
Sorry for unloading, but now you know everything! Hwyl!
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you even live in a place where the name shares a mix pf brythonic maybe Cumbric and English i its roots.
i’vr recently been tracking another forum where thers was real venom shown against the presence of the langauge on Ynys Mon and how the language mentally damages kids or how the language is completely useless to anyond crom England. These atr hard core fruitcakes who pump out the same stuff all the time and a lot of of them, maybe most are actlually Wrlsh by birth.
It is so nice to hear someone crom England saying things like this. I appteciaye that a vast number of peopld on SSIW are from all over the world and it really heartwarming to be honest and puts a lot kf people i lnow in Wales to shame.
there is 80% support for the language in Wales, but a vocal minority come across as extremely cymrophobic and are really affecting the use and growth of the Language.
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please excuse all the phone tupos
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True! And before I moved here I spent my entire life in east Lancs under the benign gaze of PENdle Hill. So there are remnants to be found still in Yr Hen Ogledd.
I’m in no position to comment on other people’s (especially Welsh people’s) attitudes to the language, but it saddens me that there are those who are opposed to it so vehemently. As for it not being useful, it’s about RESPECT. If you go into someone’s home you show them respect. If uninvited then all the more so. To those who question why I learn, I would first say ‘Why climb a mountain?’ or ‘Why run a marathon?’. Because it’s there. I don’t want to get political (my inner Lancastrian says ‘Shut up Colin its nowt to do wi you’) and I’ve only delved lightly into the political side (Tynged yr Iaith, Tryweryn, Cymdeithas) but its clear that feelings are strong.
I must say when I stayed on Ynys Môn, I saw the language being spoken confidently everywhere and just wished that I could have joined in!
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Ah, Pendle Hill. Allegedly the word Hill in three languages. That gives you a head start here
That’s what I have always heard. But what if that’s not the case? In the 13th century it was recorded as Penull or Penhull. What if this is not pen - hill but some remnant of its brythonic name, lost to history… It’s something that I’ve pondered for a while now. Suppose we’ll never know.