I would love to be able to speak welsh….but all I can say at the moment is – “now on s4c digital its planed plant”! Oh.... I can also say “good evening” too.
My English father has lived in Wales since long before I was born 23 years ago, and despite the rest of us all speaking Welsh, he can still only understand a very very small amount, barely a few words.
Not that you ever use that to your advantage hey!
I always found Welsh quite easy to learn - but it's also easy to forget too when you really don't find yourself using it outside the school environment. Initially when I left school and went to Uni I did deliberately keep watching S4C programming in an effort not to forget and that did help, but as I haven't now for a few years it's somewhere at the back of my mind - though I think it be quite easy to pick up again.
Some people scoff at the dual-language rules in Wales, especially where my extended family live down near Cardiff where there's not too many bi-ligual people.... but hey, listening to "Y tren nesa am Platfform* chwech ydy y deng munud i hugain Arriva Trenau Cymru i Abertawe..." and then hearing the English translation straight after...one heck of a way to learn the language!
* thats another one - platform is platfform lol.
I apologise to Welsh purists out there - I love the Welsh language and unfortunately was brought up under a Tory government which didn't even give it half the respect it now has - but I find its quirkier touches a constant source of enjoyment.
Piece of interesting information - the juxtaposing of English-sounding or directly stolen English words in the middle of a Welsh news report was actually the direct inspiration for the Fast Show's Chanel 9 sketches.
Some people scoff at the dual-language rules in Wales, especially where my extended family live down near Cardiff where there's not too many bi-ligual people.... but hey, listening to "Y tren nesa am Platfform* chwech ydy y deng munud i hugain Arriva Trenau Cymru i Abertawe..." and then hearing the English translation straight after...one heck of a way to learn the language.
LOL I find that amusing as well when catching the train - they list all the stations it will be calling at in both Welsh and English.
Welsh like English evolved from the languages surrounding it - so a lot of words are shared - i mean whoever decided to call an ambulance an ambulance must have had a reason - and it was just Welshified.
Good point about the word Ambulance. The German word for ambulance is something like "kranken-wagen" (sp?) which literally means something like "illness vehicle". That name makes total sense! Whereas the English word "ambulance" does not contain any elements of other English words that would convey its purpose or its vehicular nature. English is a bloomin' dog's-dinner of a language, really...
It is related to the word ambulatory, "pertaining to walking". This comes from the Latin word for walking (ambulare), presumably conveying the way the ill were carried off by paramedics on foot
English speakers can't really complain other languages stealing from ours. English is a mongrel language derived from: Anglo-Saxon, Norse, Latin, Celtic, ancient Greek and French.
In addition we have borrowed words from languages in more modern times: Doppelganger, zeitgeist, bungalow, schtum, fiance(e), schadenfreude, ski, igloo, pyjamas and so on. In fact if you look at
Oxford Foreign Words and Phrases
, you'll see what I mean-- a whole book-full of foreign-language words used in English!
