Ty Living Welsh

Welsh is a wonderful, ancient language that has survived on the fringe of the island of Great Britain despite the dominance of its now world-wide-dominant neighbour, English. The literary works, particularly the poetry, has great power, even when translated into English, and English speakers can get a sense of the flavour of this Celtic language from the various worlds that have been absorbed into English. This course created by T. J. Rhys Jones (about as Welsh a name as they come) is a very easy, step-by-step process to learn what is in many ways a very difficult language - particularly for English speakers, whose language comes from Germanic and Latinate roots, going to a Celtic language which stems from a different tree is truly an excursion into foreign territory. Rhys Jones has made this trip quite enjoyable, and quite do-able. Unlike English, Welsh pronunciation is a lot less flexible in terms of matching spelling to sound, so learning the pronunciation is a bit easier to do. The grammar seciont also looks at the way words are put together - like many languages, there are colloquial expressions and multi-word phrases that stand in for single English words, and vice-versa. Each unit starts with a brief dialogue, which is then analysed for vocabulary and for grammar structure, and any other points of interest. There is also an introductory section on mutations, the shift of a sound from one to another depending upon use - Rhys Jones gives the examples of road signs: the word for Wales is Cymru, but a border sign when crossing into Wales might read Croeso i Gymru; similarly, the word for England is Lloegr, but the sign might read Croeso i Loegr. This is a codification in letters of what happens in regular speech - we do not as a rule stop and start between each word, and the spelling in Welsh takes this into account. There are a few difficulties with the text. While Rhys Jones indicates that there are dialect differences, some of the words don't match what I heard while in Wales in any location. As with any language text, I am more often to account the difficulty to myself than to the author of the instructional text. There is a glossary of words in the back, but I often found myself wishing it were a fuller dictionary rather than a simple word list. There are exercises to work through, whose translations are found in the appendix, as well as more detailed tables on mutations, gender in language constructions, the special verb 'have', which in Welsh can be variously translated as gyda, cael, wedi, or rhaid. This is a useful text; used in connection with travel or a book of poetry (Dafydd ap Gwilym is one of my favourite poets).

As a new Welsh Learner, I have purchased several programs. Although they are all very good, I found the layout of this book and cassette easier to get to a good basic grasp of pronunciation and phrasing. I really appreciated how the 'speed' of the recordings starts at a slower pace, and then speeds up as the course continues. This course seemed to be focused on the Southern dialects as its default.

For a beginner in studying Welsh, I found this book extremely helpful. There are clear lessons and comprehensive examples that allow you to understand the grammar and pronunciation of the language. Excercises are also included that help you practice your grasp of the language. A wonderful start for the beginner in Welsh!