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!