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Question about Colloquial Welsh

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dmaddock1
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5434 days ago

174 posts - 426 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, Esperanto, Latin, Ancient Greek

 
 Message 1 of 7
15 August 2014 at 3:06pm | IP Logged 
I have the book and CDs for Colloquial Welsh by Gareth King and I have noticed a discrepancy between the two. In the vowel section of the pronunciation guide the book omits examples for the 'u' sound. They are included on the audio, but I'm unsure which words are being said. Can somebody help me work them out? Here is the relevant audio excerpt.

Thanks.
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montmorency
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 2 of 7
15 August 2014 at 7:29pm | IP Logged 
dmaddock1 wrote:
I have the book and CDs for Colloquial Welsh by Gareth King and I
have noticed a discrepancy between the two. In the vowel section of the pronunciation
guide the book omits examples for the 'u' sound. They are included on the audio, but
I'm unsure which words are being said. Can somebody help me work them out?
Here is the relevant
audio excerpt.


Thanks.


I don't have the book, but I think the words were:

du (black)
cul (narrow)
llyn (lake)
sul (Sunday)
un (one)
tynnu (to pull)


BTW, I can strongly recommend this site:

Say Something in Welsh


There is the original Course 1 (in northern and southern versions), plus the new
version "Level 1", all free. Only the northern version of the "Level 1" is complete
yet, but there is enough there to keep anyone going for a good while.

It's a completely audio course though - no reading or writing involved, although there
is a course guide, only for use after doing the lessons.



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dmaddock1
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5434 days ago

174 posts - 426 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, Esperanto, Latin, Ancient Greek

 
 Message 3 of 7
15 August 2014 at 8:04pm | IP Logged 
Thanks! Might it be llun instead of llyn (because they're all supposed to have the letter u)?

Thanks for reminding me about SSiW. I toyed around with it long ago, but I wasn't serious and didn't go beyond the first 2-3 lessons. I didn't know there was a new version. If I was to start over, would you recommend the new version over the old? (I want to study North Welsh anyway.)

By the way, my impetus for looking into Welsh again is that I just came back from Wales. An audio-only course if fine for me, but I've got to get the basic spelling rules down. Being unsure how to pronounce any Welsh I saw there was frustrating and my brain won't let it go!
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montmorency
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Senior Member
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2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 4 of 7
16 August 2014 at 1:31am | IP Logged 
Oops....yes, it must be "llun" then .... picture or photograph.

Yes, I think I'd go with the new "Level 1".

It gives you a better overall view of the language.

They had had a few years to think about it again before writing the new version, so a
lot of thought has gone into it.

It might be worth doing the vocab sessions from the old course 1 though, after you have
finished the 25 lessons of Level 1.

Yes, not a bad idea to get the basic spelling rules under your belt.

Gareth King can probably tell you what you need to know, but the most important are
probably that:

single "f" is like an English "v"
double f - "ff" - is like an English "f"

double d - "dd" - is a voiced "th" sound ("then" or "this")

"th" is like English "th".

You probably know that "ll" is a unique Welsh sound, and I won't try to describe it.

"r" is almost always rolled quite hard.
With "rh", the "h" is sounded first, and the "r" is rolled hard.

"ch" is very guttural, and harder than Scottish "ch" I think.

You probably have an idea about "u" by now.

"y" has two possble sounds, but I'll leave that one for Gareth King.

If you know how "cwm" (as in "Cwm Rhonda") is pronounced, you know what to do with "w".

I wish you lots of luck - pob lwc - on your Welsh journey, and pob hwyl - a lot of fun.

:-)


Edited by montmorency on 16 August 2014 at 1:35am

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montmorency
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Speaks: English*, German
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 Message 5 of 7
16 August 2014 at 1:41am | IP Logged 
p.s.

Lle   nes ti fynd yng nghymru?

Where did you go in    Wales?

(mynd = "go" but it softens to fynd after the "ti" - you will learn about that in the 1st
few lessons though)
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dmaddock1
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5434 days ago

174 posts - 426 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, Esperanto, Latin, Ancient Greek

 
 Message 6 of 7
16 August 2014 at 2:44am | IP Logged 
Thanks, I'll give it a go.

We drove a vintage VW camper van pretty much around the entire Welsh coast. Stayed a few days in the Caernarfon & Angelsey region then drove down south near Newcastle Emlyn, hitting Aberystwyth on the way. Absolutely beautiful.
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montmorency
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Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4829 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 7 of 7
16 August 2014 at 5:57pm | IP Logged 
dmaddock1 wrote:
Thanks, I'll give it a go.

We drove a vintage VW camper van pretty much around the entire Welsh coast. Stayed a
few days in the Caernarfon & Angelsey region then drove down south near Newcastle
Emlyn, hitting Aberystwyth on the way. Absolutely beautiful.


Da iawn. Hyfryd!


BTW, although spelling and pronunciation of Welsh is somewhat more consistent than
English, don't be too surprised to find variations. Even Aran and Catrin in the lessons
pronounce some words differently. There seems to be a lot of flexibility in the
language. My personal theory is that it might derive partly from the geography /
toplogy of the place. Even nowadays, there are a lot of remote homesteads / farmsteads
/ villages, and imagine what it must have been like before modern means of
communication. So I am guessing that led to a tradition of wide variability, even
between neighbouring villages. Perhaps it's a little like Switzerland in this respect

The SSiW mantra is "paid a phoenu." "don't worry".

One of the course authors has said, only slightly tongue in cheek I think, that if you
speak confidently, but say some things a little "wrong", then the person hearing you
will just accept it and assume you are from a different village or valley. :-)



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