Lessons In Welsh, Are you ready?

[gwenynen]

P.S. : Wow, I'm getting lost here. This forum is so big; I feel like a tiny boat in the Pacific Ocean.

I remembered there was a Welsh only thread by susieg76 but it was directed to Gaelic Forum. But there aren't many Welsh posts; it would indeed be nice to have a separate section for Welsh learners.

[WizardofOwls]

I have been in contact with Macfive, the site owner, and he has told me that the Celtic Languages will at some point in the future be divided into seperate sub-forums, one for each of the Celtic Languages! I believe that will help some with the confusion. I hope anyway!

[susieq76]

Bore da gwenynen!! Croeso y Celtic Radio!
We are in the middle of trying to straighten and organize all the Celtic Languages threads, so please excuse the mess.

I am so glad that you are on. We can learn together, as I am just learning Welsh. Pop back on anytime, and create a new topic in Wales anytime you would like.

I will unlock the Croeso thread for you, didn't realize it was locked! Sorry!

Susanna

[gwenynen]

Wizard of Owls, Susanna, thanks. I'll look forward to the new set up.

Susanna, thanks for unlocking "Croeso." I've posted already.

[Siarls]

To the post saying there's a Southern Dialect... indeed there is, but then there are also the Dyfedeg (spoken west of Swansea) and Gwenhwyseg dialects (spoken east of Swansea). I live in Swansea county, so speak a bit of a melange of the two, but is not classed as an official dialect. I think that officially I am recognised as Gwenhwyseg.

And just a little thing to add to pronunciation... Welsh words are usually stressed on the penultimate syllable. If there is irregularity in where the stress is, Welsh follows the same rule as Spanish... accents above the stressed syllable. However, irregularity in stresses are much rarer in Welsh than they are in Spanish.

[Siarls]

Examples of irregular stresses are the verbs:
nesáu to approach
casáu to hate

[gwenynen]

Does that mean the stress will be on the first syllable for the words with only two syllables?
Example: defnYddio (stress on Y) and dEfnydd (strees on E)?

[Siarls]

Yes, exactly!

[gwenynen]

I have been making dreadful mistakes all these months! Except the words I heard being spoken, I used to put stress on the second syllable of two syllable words. I somehow felt it sounded more 'Welsh.' This is a hard blow! But it's better to be late than never. Diolch, Siarls.

[susieq76]

That is interesting, as I was taught in my books to always stress the second syllable, unless it was a one syllable word.

[Siarls]

How do you mean, Susieg? As in
ysgrifennu
(1) (2) (3) (4) : syllables

[susieq76]

Exactly. Or Dyfedd or eis[/I]tedffod. I assume that is what you are talking about when you mentioned the accents? Or do I have it all wrong, lol?

[Siarls]

[]Dyfedd[/i] - do you mean the former county in South West Wales - Dyfed?
You're right that it's eisteddfod, but it's Dyfed.
Always penultimate syllable is where the stress lies.

[gwenynen]

Siarls, I do seem to come across Welsh speakers in lesson tapes who stress the last syllable. Could that be regional preference?

[Siarls]

Perhaps it is regional variation. What might be happening is, often in Welsh, people treat different syllables as different words. This is definitely dialectal. I in fact do that. I'd be interested to see examples. It may help toward my degree as I am most interested in regional variations than any other aspect of Welsh.