Monday, December 10, 2007


So You Want to: Begin Learning Welsh?

As I say on this Amazon list, there's a new jokey title out these holidays "Scouts in Bondage," featuring inadvertently humorous titles from a used booksellers stash. Among them I recall mentioned "Welsh in a Week." So promised, in fact, a 2005 TV series over there in Cymru at http://www.acen.co.uk/s4c/welshinaweek/

However, cowed by eclipsis and lenition in comparatively easy Irish let alone the fearsome mutations in its venerable and more complicated cousin Welsh, I cannot say the same. Still, here's 40 helps for learners, of whom perhaps I may be one presently. I started, logically, by reading the last entry on the list, Sandi Thomas' "You Don't Speak Welsh!" to gain an idea of how Gaeilge compares with Cymraeg for an adult learner. She's also from California, and also missed Mexican food when gritting it out across the Irish Sea at her immersion course in Aberstywyth. I review Sandi's tale on this blog's next entry and over there at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/R2GKSL0NFGXA0B

1 comment:

Bo said...

Good God, a Fhionnchu, I think Welsh is far far less complicated than Irish. Despite five years of equal effort, I'm fluent in one and very hesistant in the other. For a start, there are no cases, no palatalisation, and an almost completely phonetic system of spelling.
I'll have to get these books you recommend!
Cheers
Beir bua
Mark