Breakthroughs: Does anybody have small successes/breakthroughs speaking Cymraeg they want to share?

It sounds to me as though you most certainly do! Llongyfarchiadau mawr iawn… :star: :star2:

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Da iawn ti!! Llongyfarchiadau! Enjoy your weekend! :slight_smile:

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On the subject of loan words i’d be interested to know out of say the 3,000 most common used words in welsh and english are either.

New words made up in last say 70 years with no direct native language meaning (eg television) or

Genuine loan words (eg restaurant).

Just sheer curiosity.

Ah…my dodgy eyesight I suppose. I was looking for “Jyng” (without an “l”).
Hence my “joke” (which made no sense at all if it was supposed to be “jyngl”… :slight_smile: ).

I wrote the grace in English, but with the help of a friend to translate it, I then gave it in Welsh at this year’s St. David’s Day dinner here in Vancouver. Does that count?

Here it is:

Duw a fenditho’r bwyd hwn a’r dwylo a’i barataodd.
Duw a fenditho’r noson hon am i gyfeillgarwch gryfha.
Duw a fendithio’n hwyl ni a sut y rhannwn ni hwyl–
Gyda chariad yn y canol–cariad a wypo bawb.

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That’s a great achievement! More than counts!!

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Snap! Marriage/Wedding etc etc etc… and when I said ‘stolen’ I was getting at the fact that English claims all these words, some grabbed quite recently, but rarely admits where they came from! OK, it was a US Republican who said the memorable line about ‘entrepreneur’, but the attitude comes from a lot of folk in the UK! Not those on this forum, but the ‘English is best, why bother with the rest’ brigade who object to Welsh medium education for Welsh speaking children and want Parish Councils to change language just for them!
Remember that quote about ‘hiraeth’ being the best word in the English language!!

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The Danish word hygge became very popular with gentrified-East-End, Guardian-reading hipster types in recent years. The Danes will say this means much more than “cosiness”, just as the Germans will say the same thing about their “Gemütlichket”. All nationalities feel they are special, and they/we are all right to do so, because these things that we treasure are part of our identity. The only people to truly feel sorry for are those who somehow have lost their sense of identity, or who never had one. This can happen to people sometimes, through no fault of their own.

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Diolch yn fawr!

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I didn’t see your posting! I saw your reaction to Anthony’s comment and backed up! I’ll say that Grace counts! Brilliant!

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That’s “Pen Ben” I guess. I must admit that because I was confusing this with the pop quiz (which is actually on later), and because I know nothing about modern pop, I had not bothered with this.

But I have now listened to the latest programme, and it’s pretty good, isn’t it? Not that I get all that many answers right, but I seem to understand most of the questions.

Being something of a political animal, I also like to listen to “O’r Bae” (in the 12:00 slot). It’s not quite as much fun as “Byw Celwydd”, but it allows me to kid myself that I’m keeping my finger on the pulse of Welsh politics (although it’s often about national politics actually).

Thank you so much–you have always been so encouraging!

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This is starting to make me a tad nervous…

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Don’t you mean

“Dwi angen stopio teimlo’n jyst a tad nerfus”

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It would be fruitless of me to say don’t feel nervous. However, feel reassured that you will have a great time on bootcamp! I used “jyst” all the time and “reili” none of the bootcamp gov’nors will correct you for little borrowings like that. It was probably just a over-zealous bootcamper.

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Diolch, pawb. I think it will be interesting to put the spotlight on this for a bit actually. In the real world it can sometimes sound like Welsh is in danger of being completely hijacked by English, particularly for slightly more unusual and expressive words. Inevitable maybe, if you don’t want to be a complete pedant?

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I’ve had two small breakthroughs recently.

The other day, when I came home from work, one of my sons initiated a short conversation in Welsh. He asked me how I was (Sut wyt ti?) and I replied that I was fine (iawn). I then asked the same question to him and he replied that he was happy (Dw i’n hapus). I was very pleased that he had the confidence to initiate a conversation in Welsh (albeit a simple one), and to be ready to answer a question when it was addressed to him. If I’m lucky, before long, I won’t have to go outside my front door to find another Welsh speaker :slight_smile:

The second was a couple of days ago when I was listening to Radio Cymru. I was able to consciously deconstruct the word ‘adeiladol’ to work out what it meant. I managed to pick out the word ‘adeiladol’. I don’t think I had come across it before but I was familiar with ‘adeilad’ (a building) and was aware that you could add the suffix ‘-u’ to turn it into the verb ‘adeiladu’ (to build). I had also come across adjectives like ‘diddorol’ (interesting), and supposed that the ‘-ol’ suffix must make it an adjective. After thinking for a short time about adjectives relating to ‘building’, I managed to work out that it must mean ‘constructive’.

I am sure that as I have been working through the SSiW lessons I have been subsconciously acquiring the ability to construct/deconstruct Welsh words but it’s very nice when you suddenly realise that you have that new skill and that you can apply it appropriately.

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Both of those are excellent steps forward - well done! :star2:

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Well done!! That’s a lovely story!

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I had my first singing lesson last night…ever…through Welsh! The teaching was very complimentary of my Welsh. Except for the natural Wenglish/Italian need for singing we stayed in Welsh.

So I’m going to link (not physically) this to the thank you thread @elkiedeadman diolch yn fawr iawn! For spending that time in the theatre in Welsh teaching me to “eistedd ar y nodyn”! It’s because of all your positivity that I’ve bitten the bullet (all be it 9 months later than planned) and had this lesson!

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