Welsh is an official language of Wales. This means, legally, it cannot be treated less favourably than English in any part of daily life. So we have bilingual signs and sometimes the translations are… well just awful.
This is a classic and made the news.
Welsh reads “I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.
Welsh reads “Wines and ghosts”
Welsh reads “Warning workers are exploding”
In English these drinks are alcohol free in Welsh the drinks are free “Alcohol for nothing”.
Um- Welsh reads “Free erections” yes really!
This seems a tad harsh “Injure yourself now”
Wording is fine but the English and the Welsh disagree on right/left
The sign says “Parcio I Bobi Anabl” which is “Parking to bake the disabled” which I don’t think Tesco were going for.
Oh god! I literally lost 20 minutes of my life trying to explain this to a Londoner. No we can’t just let some random person translate our stuff! Welsh is complex, Welsh is regional, and by god if you get it wrong you will make an absolute tit of yourself!
The return of Free Erections! A great week in the Cambrian News.
“Take me as you find me; if there’s no harm in it then there is nothing wrong with it and I am not ashamed of being myself.”
Amy Dillwyn was born Elizabeth Amy Dillwyn in Swansea on the 16th of May, 1845, and, by the turn of the century, would become a pioneering industrial and lesbian novelist.
Amy was born to Anglican Welsh gentry, Lewis Llewelyn and Elizabeth Dillwyn (née De la Beche). Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn was the Liberal MP for Swansea for 37 years, from 1855, and the owner of Dillwyn Spelter Works. Amy also had an older sister and brother, Mary (known as Minnie) and Henry (Harry), and a younger sister, Sarah (Essie). Amy’s uncle, John Dillwyn Llewelyn, and aunt, Mary Dillwyn, were both photographers - Mary was perhaps the first female photographer of Wales.
(Harry and Amy, taken by Mary Dillwyn, 1853.)
In early 1863, Amy ‘made her debut into society’ and later that year became engaged to Llewellyn Thomas of Llwynmadoc, who she had known since they were children. However, Llewellyn died of smallpox in 1864 before the wedding could take place. Alison Favre writes of this period; ‘Despite some misgiving about marriage, she was number she learned of her fiancé’s sudden death…’
(Amy in her engagement dress in 1863 and in her mourning dress in 1864.)
Amy however continued the Season, engaged herself in social engagements, and especially enjoyed visiting Margam Castle with her brother Harry. Amy especially had a close relationship to Olive Talbot of Margam, an aristocrat and invalid who Amy would refer to as her ‘wife’ in her diaries. These feelings were apparently unrequited, and is thought to be the source of the recurring theme of unrequited love in Amy’s writing.
(Olive Talbot and Amy in Buxton in 1871.)
In her late 20′s and 30′s she started writing, out of illness, depression and frustration with her unrequited love for Olive (in Kirsti Bohata’s words). Certainly she was frustrated also with becoming a ‘spinster’ and ‘old maid,’ considering devoting herself to God instead, and she first wrote religious allegories, and then short stories for the Spectator.
Her first novel, The Rebecca Rioter, was based on stories her grandfather told her of his, and her father and uncle’s, experiences in the Rebecca Riots, and the novel certainly dealt with pushing gender boundaries, class boundaries, and forbidden love, which are also themes in her other novels. Jill,however, most represents her feelings for Olive, as Jill, the lesbian protagonist, a tomboy and rebel who pushes all kinds of boundaries, runs away from her uncaring upper-class family, pretends to be a maid, and then falls for an aristocratic woman, Kitty, and this romantic friendship certainly seems to represent Amy’s romantic friendship with Olive.
Amy had published her six novels by 1892, when her father, Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn, died - Harry had died in 1890 and Minnie also had died. Amy lost their family home when Lewis Llewelyn’s grandson, and Minnie’s son, John inherited the Hendrefoilan estate. Amy found herself a purpose however when she managed and saved the Dillwyn Spelter Works, saving 300 jobs, and became one of the first female industrialists in Britain. By 1899 the Spelter Works were out of debt, and as Amy wrote; “at last the works are really mine.”
Amy became locally famous as a businesswoman, as well as for her masculine image, of her dress and ‘cigar-smoking’ - articles then headlined her cigar-smoking, and indeed still do. This image made her known nationally, and perhaps even internationally, but Amy Dillwyn was significant for more than her unique clothing and cigars, but as a pioneer, a feminist, a social activist, and as a boundary-crossing novelist and diarist, who wrote honestly and passionately about her lesbian love.
Amy Dillwyn died in Swansea on the 13th of December, 1935, aged 90.
Three of Amy’s novels, previously forgotten about or ‘under-read,’ have been republished by Honno, and Kirsti Bohata at Swansea University continues to research Amy Dillwyn’s life and her place in lesbian history.
I’m going to abuse this blog a bit this once, but it is related. They’re getting rid of the Duolingo forum tomorrow, which is fairly shocking because there are too many good resources posted on there!
I’m trying to copy over some of them for reference, because there are things that maybe I’m not advanced enough to use right now, but I would like to be able to use once I’m a little more skilled at Welsh.
Copied below are all the resources, verbatim. (Some resources may be repeated because I’m just copying)
The two best, best resources for self-learning, apart from Duolingo itself, for visual learners, are the series of videos on pronunciation on youtube:- https://www.youtube.com/user/welshplus
and the Big Welsh Challenge course :- http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/bigwelshchallenge/ (click on ‘enter course’, then 'skip introduction’), the section 'practice with tutor’ is particularly useful, especially the male South Wales presenter, who is a well know, very funny Welsh actor. (Ignore the 'archive notice’ and click on 'enter course’, it works fine.)
Hard copies are available through all the usual book sellers.
For auditory learners 'Say something in Welsh’ is very good and has a wide network of supporters in particular its popular Facebook group. https://www.saysomethingin.com/welsh/course1
Here is a website which gives a daily crossword and also a range of 'her geirfa’ vocabulary challenges:- http://www.happyhere.co.uk/
In addition for people not anywhere near a Welsh class, there are a number of people and places that offer online Skype lessons. Here is the link to the Skype courses of one of the Welsh centres in Wales:-http://www.coleggwent.ac.uk/welshcentre#.V1Zh_5PR-V5.
Below is the list of apps grouped into themes and in alphabetic order. Enjoy!
Lovely free course for beginners, offers a variety of activities and contains plenty authentic audio recordings. A more advanced course from the same developer is available for purchase.
Say something in Welsh, a great Welsh course available from the website and via app. Users can choose between North/South Welsh pronunciation. The Challenges and Course 1 are for free and there’s more paid content. I highly recommend this app.
Another amazing app that teaches you how to use mutations properly. There is a list of words causing mutation, you can also look up grammar rules regarding prepositions, numbers, etc. Good to have it in your toolkit.
Welsh Number Whizz is an app designed to help you learn the traditional vigesimal number system. Could be useful especially for us Duolingers, as the Welsh course focuses on the decimal system.
I put Anki here as one of the two tools I know and use for flashcards. Anki is available both in a desktop and app version. There are a few big decks with Welsh flashcards, you can find them here: Dal Ati AndroidandiOS
For all those who have access to S4C this is a very useful app to learn vocabulary that is used in S4C programmes.
I fell in love with this cute game from the first tap. Such a great idea to explain the legend of two dragons in Dinas Emrys and turn it into a Welsh learning app. Great music and sounds, try it out!
If you want to learn some medical Cymraeg, check out this one: nicely arranged topics with authentic recordings and English translations. Simple and intuitive, well worth taking a look.
Many of you probably know Memrise, a popular website and app for learning languages and other subjects using flashcards. But do you know that there are many great decks (or courses, as they are called on Memrise) with Welsh vocabulary? Take a look here to see a list of Welsh flashcard courses on Memrise:
Interesting vocabulary app for learning Welsh. 8,160 words structured in about 200 levels arranged by number of letters and alphabetic order. Each level contains about 20-25 words. The app is nicely designed and fun to play. Perhaps one downside is that many of these words are old or very specialised and I often have to look up the English translations to find out what something is. Nevertheless, you will surely get to know lots of vocab after completing all the levels, so give it a try.
A very nice Welsh-English and English-Welsh dictionary. Recognizes mutations, contains common phrases. And it works offline as well. A must-have.
GPC Geiriadur Prifysgol AndroidandiOSA monolingual dictionary of Welsh, less useful for beginners, but definitely something to have on your be-able-to-use wishlist. Great features: you can download the whole database to your memory card and there are language games.
This one is perhaps not for beginners, but it’s good to know about it for the future. Contains a number of different translations of the Bible into Welsh from different periods of history.
This app allows you to buy a digital edition of Lingo Newydd, a bi-monthly magazine for Welsh learners. Articles are colour-coded to mark difficulty and there are audio recordings of articles (which you wouldn’t get in the paper edition). You can either but a single issue for £1.49 or a subscription plan (Lingo Newydd costs £9.99 year). Ap Golwg also gives access to the Golwg360 website. It’s totally free and has a useful VOCAB button at the top that shows definitions of words in articles. You don’t need the app to access the website, but it’s nice to have a shortcut to news in Welsh on your mobile device.
If you hunt around http://www.ybont.org there are a lot of supporting materials for learners of all levels.
For an online dictionary, https://www.gweiadur.com is very good (free registration to use its full range of information).
For a smartphone app, the free Ap Geiriaduron is good.An authoritative English to Welsh dictionary is https://geiriaduracademi.org, although many of its examples of usage use more formal Welsh than is taught on introductory courses such as this Duolingo one.
The National Centre for Learning Welsh has a web site including many materials for learners. Look around https://learnwelsh.cymru for materials supporting the national MynediadandSylfaen courses for adults.
A few more apps which I have found good are: Tywydd which gives you the weather forecast in Welsh and teaches you weather related vocabulary.
Gwlad Gwlad which teaches you to sing and pronounce the National Anthem of Wales.
The Magi Ann children’s books apps which allow you to tap to hear the words spoken in Welsh or tap to see the English translation.
Stories: For entry (mynediad) and foundation (sylfaen) level stories, go to the Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Amdani: Learn Welsh Festival of Reading (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNbPx7YxCU13oE6qCWs9hjP57ypKscCgR). The short stories are written for learners, and read by the authors, from the books 'Agor y Drws’ (entry) and 'Ffenest’ (Foundation). I was able to buy both books online from my local, Welsh bookshop in Llanrwst (https://www.bysabawd.cymru/en/products/books/welsh-books?search=cyfres%20amdani) and find it is really helpful to hear the author read the story out loud while reading the book myself.
Soooo since I’ve been learning Welsh for a while I thought about making a list to share a few resources to learn Celtic languages! (I’ll keep updating this post!)
Hello! I’m a queer Welsh writer living in Ceredigion. I’m the one man team behind the Llyfr Enfys Project- where I’m writing Welsh’s first ever LGBTQ+ dictionary!
The project is split into 2- the first edition of the dictionary contains 80 terms such as:
Anghyfunryw-Heterosexual
Anneuaidd- Nonbinary
Anrhywiol- Asexual
Bwtsh-Butch
Camenwi- Deadnaming
Cydryweddol- Cisgender
Deurywiol- Bisexual
Dirywedd-Agender
Dyn Traws- Trans Man
Dysfforia Rhywedd- Gender Dysphoria
Hollrywiol- Pansexual
Hoyw-Gay
Lesbiaidd- Lesbian
Menyw Draws- Trans Woman
Niwtrois- Neutrois
Rhyweddhylifol- Genderfluid
Trawsryweddol- Transgender
Ymgwestiynu- Questioning
And many more terms to fill in the gaps of language, such as coining terms for aromantic, transmasc, transfem and mspec identities!
I would really appreciate if you could reblog this and share it with any langblrs you know to spread the word!
Gorau -> best Y diwylliant o gwmpas tîm pêl-droed Cymru yw un o’r pethe* gorau yn y byd. The culture around the Welsh football team is one of the best things in the world. *pethe -> pethau, SW
Relatedly, gorau chwarae, cyd chwarae -> (to my best abilities translates to) the best play is played together
(I’m new to Welsh football, and pretty much to all football)
Hapus -> happy :D
sgorio -> to score (verb)
gôl -> a goal
tocyn(nau) -> ticket(s)
Gyda'n gilydd, yn gryfach -> together, stronger. cryf -> strong
Cenedl -> nation Ein cenedl (probably tweeted 50 times by @/Wales) Our nation
Terfynol -> final Ysgôr terfynol ar diwedd o'r gêm. The final score at the end of the game.
Hanner amser -> half time
Ysbrydoliaeth -> Inspiration Ysbrydoli -> to inspire
Sefyll gyda'n/gyda'i gilydd -> stand together sefyll -> to stand, except with regards to a test, where it would mean to sit or take: sefyll prawf -> to sit an exam
Ymarfer -> practice, to practise (as in both the noun and the verb) Mae nhw'n ymarfer ergydion cosb. They are practising penalty shots. (not sure about ergydion cosb tbh) Mae rhaid iddo fe fynychu ymarfer pêl droed! He must attend football practice!
Targed -> target. Ma fe'n Iawn ar y darged! He’s right on target!
Mawr, enfawr, gormod. -> big, even bigger, too much (just up the magnitude!)
Some direct quotes (cuz I got lazy to pluck out vocab)
Da’n ni gyd mor mor browd ohonotti!We are very, very proud ofyou!
Cer i warae dy 'gyts’ di mas! Ti 'di llwyddo cyflawni gwyrthiau dros dy wlad. Mwynha’r ornest! Go play your guts out! You have (succeeded in?) achieving miracles for/across the country. Enjoy the match!
So, I made a post about bad Welsh translation and saw a hashtag that said something about Welsh having so few vowels and so many consonants.
The thing is that Welsh is a different language and therefore our words look different.
The English alphabet has 26 letters of which 5 are vowels (A. E. I. O. U).
BeholdYr Wyddor- the Welsh alphabet. We have 29 letters and 7 (seven) of those are vowels (A. E. I. O. U. W. Y) Though Y is a vowel when it wants to be AND a consonant when it wants to be- it’s just cool like that. So we actually have two more vowels than English.
Words like dŵr- water or wyth-eight or llychlyd-dusty have vowels in them just not the ones you’re used to so you may think they don’t.
Also yes some of our letters are made up of two together- it changes the sound they make. F makes a V sound like in Voice and FF makes a F sound like in Four.
The Welsh National Anthem if you’ve never heard it before. So much more musical and moving than that of our next door neighbours!!! (God save who now?)
