An Introduction to the Welsh Language.
"Gwr is an interesting word," said Mattieu one evening. "In Welsh, it means husband. In Breton, slave. Which way the transference?"
In other news of things Welsh, grass and sky are the same shade: glas. Synthetic greens have their own color, gwyrdd, but it is a more contemporary word (like pinc).
Furthermore, Welsh (and Irish) is a verb-first language, thus making it (as I told Veronica in a moment of frustrated profanity) quite literally "ass-backwards" to Latinists. Almost every present-tense verb we've come across has actually been a verb-noun. Example:
Dw i'n dod o San Francisco.: I do come from San Francisco. The verb-noun is in boldface-- dod, to come. Example two:
Dyn ni'n hoffi coffi.: We do like coffee. hoffi, to like.
Or, if you want to get really intricate, there are questions:
Ydy Alice yn hoffi wisgi? (Does Alice like wiskey?)
Nac ydy, dydy he ddim yn hoffi wisgi. Mae Alice ddim wedi yfed wisgi. Mae Beata yn hoffi wisgi, ac mae Alice yn hoffi cwrw Cymraeg. (No she doesn't, she does not like whiskey. Alice has never drunk whiskey. Beata does like whisky, and Alice does like Welsh beer.)
Ydy Kat yn hoffi sider? (Does Kat like cider?)
Ydy, mae Kat yn hoffi sider iawn. (She does, Kat does like cider very much.)
Roeddon nhw chwarae pel-droed nos lun? (Were they playing football Monday night?)
Do, roeddon nhw chwarae pel-droed nos lin ac byddan nhw chware nos fory (Yes, they were playing football Monday night and they will play tomorrow night.)
You may have noticed that there is no simple "yes" or "no". Mattieu says that this is a built-in test of whether or not someone actually speaks the language.
These minor amusements, however, pale in comparison to the traditional Welsh system of counting. Not only are there both feminine and masculine forms of two, three, and four, but it is a system loosely based on God-knows-what, creating the following system which I recreate primarily for Steph's amusement, with literal mathematical translations:
un 1
dau/dwy 2
tri/tair 3
pedwar/pedair 4
pump 5
chwech 6
saith 7
wyth 8
naw 9
deg 10
un ar ddeg 1 + 10
deuddeg 12
tri ar ddeg 3 + 10
pedwar ar ddeg 4 + 10
pymtheg 15
un ar bymtheg 1 + 15
dau ar bymtheg 2 + 15
deunaw 9 + 9
pedwar ar bymtheg 4 + 15
ugain 20
deg ar hugain 10 + 20
deugain 20 + 20
hanner cant 100/2
trigain 3 x 20
pedwar ugain 4 x 20
cant 100
Mae pen tost gyda fi! (Is a headache with me!)
In other news of things Welsh, grass and sky are the same shade: glas. Synthetic greens have their own color, gwyrdd, but it is a more contemporary word (like pinc).
Furthermore, Welsh (and Irish) is a verb-first language, thus making it (as I told Veronica in a moment of frustrated profanity) quite literally "ass-backwards" to Latinists. Almost every present-tense verb we've come across has actually been a verb-noun. Example:
Dw i'n dod o San Francisco.: I do come from San Francisco. The verb-noun is in boldface-- dod, to come. Example two:
Dyn ni'n hoffi coffi.: We do like coffee. hoffi, to like.
Or, if you want to get really intricate, there are questions:
Ydy Alice yn hoffi wisgi? (Does Alice like wiskey?)
Nac ydy, dydy he ddim yn hoffi wisgi. Mae Alice ddim wedi yfed wisgi. Mae Beata yn hoffi wisgi, ac mae Alice yn hoffi cwrw Cymraeg. (No she doesn't, she does not like whiskey. Alice has never drunk whiskey. Beata does like whisky, and Alice does like Welsh beer.)
Ydy Kat yn hoffi sider? (Does Kat like cider?)
Ydy, mae Kat yn hoffi sider iawn. (She does, Kat does like cider very much.)
Roeddon nhw chwarae pel-droed nos lun? (Were they playing football Monday night?)
Do, roeddon nhw chwarae pel-droed nos lin ac byddan nhw chware nos fory (Yes, they were playing football Monday night and they will play tomorrow night.)
You may have noticed that there is no simple "yes" or "no". Mattieu says that this is a built-in test of whether or not someone actually speaks the language.
These minor amusements, however, pale in comparison to the traditional Welsh system of counting. Not only are there both feminine and masculine forms of two, three, and four, but it is a system loosely based on God-knows-what, creating the following system which I recreate primarily for Steph's amusement, with literal mathematical translations:
un 1
dau/dwy 2
tri/tair 3
pedwar/pedair 4
pump 5
chwech 6
saith 7
wyth 8
naw 9
deg 10
un ar ddeg 1 + 10
deuddeg 12
tri ar ddeg 3 + 10
pedwar ar ddeg 4 + 10
pymtheg 15
un ar bymtheg 1 + 15
dau ar bymtheg 2 + 15
deunaw 9 + 9
pedwar ar bymtheg 4 + 15
ugain 20
deg ar hugain 10 + 20
deugain 20 + 20
hanner cant 100/2
trigain 3 x 20
pedwar ugain 4 x 20
cant 100
Mae pen tost gyda fi! (Is a headache with me!)
6 Comments:
I should like to state my points in correlative order to the teachings outlined in your latest Blog.
(Which is not to say I shall refrain from the making of points having precious wee relationship to your Blog.)
1. From this moment forward, SLAVE and HUSBAND are to be used interchangeably in every language… when it is conducive to our bliss and respite.
2. Grass and sky are often the same shade in San Francisco, as well. Though not of late, what with blazing sol and the record-breaking heat wave blistering a wide swath ‘cross your home of origin.
3. Though mine eyes did moisten at the cross you carry in this craven (… surely, the cowards way!) verb-first linguistic world, let us dwell on the little gifts we DO receive. “Why, Sir Welsh Professor, those ubiquitous end of the sentence surprises in Latin were fatiguing me so! (This is a likely moment for the delicate hand gesture, or some well-practiced batting of the eyelashes, gently mascara-ed.) How simply lovely to be studying a tongue (… another gesture, perhaps?) that presents its intention so forthrightly.” (Look down at your notebook, then up again just ever-so.)
4. Remaining appreciative of your candid observations (scalding and otherwise), as well as the YOU ARE THERE nature of those dialogues of daily living, one cannot help but to wish this noble immersion program provided more vocabulary sheets on, say, larks and the meandering stream, while cutting back on the seemingly overwhelming number of brew and footy lists.
5. I humbly opine that there is never a simple YES or NO in any language, despite appearances to the otherwise. This is especially true of men.
6. Might there be some sort of rustic “counting song” to help us with the numbers? Something along the lines of CHICKADEE, CHICKADEE? (Mae pen tost gyda fi, tambien!)
In admiration, I close.
By
Anonymous, at 6:43 PM
Alice, you are my hero. As is that ridiculously retarded number system. How completely awesome and utterly meaningless can counting numbers be? When I get back to Chicago, I will be demanding you speak in Welsh to me quite a bit.
Oh, and for the record, Welsh's Verb-Subj-Obj syntax makes it a really popular in linguistic textbooks as an example of varied sentence orders. *shrug* For little languages like Welsh, they have to take whatever publicity they can get... even if it does involve unLatinlike structure...
By
Stephanie, at 10:30 PM
Whoa, deunaw's the real pattern-breaker here.
And it's time you started (slowly and carefully) exploring the wide world of distilled spirits, methinks. Not to mention rakiya.
By
Patrick, at 3:02 AM
this spouse/slave intermixing is not merely an artifact of welsh or breton. Even in a much more well-known language, Spanish, the word for "handcuffs" is the same as for "wives" -- esposas.
--Jared
By
Anonymous, at 2:54 PM
I think that's more the nature of handcuffs than the nature of marriage.
By
Alice Teresa, at 6:04 PM
In Japanese, they tell us to be careful speaking the word for husband: they stress that it's shujin, not shuujin. (husband vs. prisoner)
Hm.... This could very well be more sinister than mere coincidence...
By
Stephanie, at 11:29 PM
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