The things i do to myself

[cornerofmadness]

Noswaith dda. Wedi blino ac mae hi’n oer. Sut pwy dych chi?

That means I am a big fat idiot who likes to make herself nuts (okay it really means Good evening. I’m tired and it’s cold. How are you? In Welsh). Yes Welsh. I’ve decided to take a class in Welsh. My college is like the only Welsh language/culture preservation society in America. They’re offering a free class (I’m in with one of my friends from the English dept AND some of my past and current students)

Why did I think this was a good idea? I’m crazy? I’ve always been fascinated by Welsh which is in theory a Germanic language and yet so different. Also I tried to teach myself when I first created Sulien, one of my vampires (which really tickled the teacher to death)

Have I mentioned I SUCK at languages? I’m okay with the romance languages. Tried to learn Japanese, that was pitiful. German? I can’t even make those sounds. Lakota? Okay I didn’t totally suck with that one. So I look at my new alphabet. There are no Q, K, X or Z but we have new fun letter combos and none of the vowels sound like they do in English.



NG- just sounds like NNNG I can do that

DD – sounds like vth, that I can do

F = V

FF = English F sound

TH = soft lispy ‘th’ like in thin

R= Rolled like in Italian

RH – the h sound comes before the r…okay then

LL – hiss like a cat

CH – unpronounceable hair ball noise. No, seriously. It sounds like freaking Klingon ( well at least I learned Klingon once upon a time…)

W = Oooo

Y = changes like the wind (haven’t yet figured out how to predict this)

I have learned I can not make guttural sounds. Seriously I can not. It’s very hard and unnatural to me.

And I’m laughing hysericall that these work sheets look like the stuff you used to get in language classes in grade school and oh so very UK with questions like

Wyt ti’n hoffi Eastenders (informal tense – do you like the Eastenders) and Dych chi’n hoffi Coronation Street? (same question formal tense)

What have I gotten myself into? I dig that I’m being taught by a picture of a dragon.

Hwyl!

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I WANT TO BE IN THAT CLASS.

Simply so I can learn to pronounce my DD and FF and TH and LL and CH properly.

Though I think I've kinda gotten my LL down already.

Pronouncing 'Lloyd' is always fun after that: *hairballhissing soundOHuhd*

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

it's so HARD to pronounce. at least Spanish and Italian you didn't have to make weird noises that sound like parseltongue

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I never could roll my rrrrrs.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

sometimes yes sometimes no but i can do that better than hairball hawking noises

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Hahahahahah.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Welsh isn't a Germanic language; it's Celtic.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

apparently there is great debate over that and many consider it Germanic. I always thought it was celtic as well.

[sillymagpie.livejournal.com]

Sooooo.... Monty Python wasn't far off with the joke that in Welsh "It's only spelled 'luxury yacht.' It's pronounced 'throatwarbler mangrove.'"

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yep they were right on

[hierath.livejournal.com]

Ah, Welsh...

I used to be able to order chips and call somebody a sexy slut in Welsh, but I don't think I can any more.

It's just constanants held together with phlegm, really... ;)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

hahha fun

yes the instructor mentioned that

[bob_fish.livejournal.com]

I'm really amused by all the descriptions in the comments here: "it sounds like parseltongue" and "it's just consonants held together with phlegm" in particular. I think to get into the spirit of things you should try Welsh cuisine like cawl (neck of lamb and root vegetable stew, actually rather nice), lava bread (boiled seaweed - the same type as nori) and welshcakes (crumbly scone things with raisins). I bet your Welsh students can't shut up about how much they miss their mams' cawl, every Welsh person I know praises Welsh food to the skies.

Annoyingly, I can actually do both the cat-hissing LL and the hairball-coughing CH. This is because my best friend is Welsh and it's not possible to pronounce either her home village or the nearest town (Llanelli) without learning those. It took years of badgering and hearing her say them for me to learn.

Both Russian and Hebrew have similar hairball noises, so I have good news. Once you have learnt the noise you'll be able to correctly pronounce the names of the cities Haifa and Kharkov without spitting. Useful!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

welsh cakes I have had. there's a guy i've been buying from for a decade or more that sells them online and at festivals and they are yummy. I don't like stew or seaweed so...

hahaha I bet. Having native speakers (like our instructor) around would help.

Hebrew another lanuage I would probably be hopeless in

[bob_fish.livejournal.com]

They are yummy. They're pretty easy and fun to make too, but I'm not sure how diabetic friendly what with the sugar.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

they aren't and he offers no sugar free but I figure I get them once a year at the irish festival so really where's the harm?

(and i did learn how to make them back when i first came up with my Welsh vampire.He likes them)

[bob_fish.livejournal.com]

I love the idea of a Welsh vampire who loves welshcakes! Does he miss his mam's welshcakes?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

ha, probably not. I'm not sure he remembers them. He was sent to a monastery as a boy back in the uh 1100's?

[bob_fish.livejournal.com]

Oh noes! But he enjoys the modern welshcakes? So has he been vamping around Wales more recently? Swansea? Cardiff? Llandudno?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

of all places Deadwood South dakota

but yes he does (these vampires get to eat reald food as they age)

Actually the first three chapters of this are up if you following the original filter tags (Machiavelli Moon)

[bob_fish.livejournal.com]

No place for a Welshman ...

Did it go up recently? I haven't seen it.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

last year? Around this time last year so at the very tail end of this. hwen i get back to high speed I can dig for it.

It placed into the semi-finals at the Amazon Breakthrough novel contest last year