Aug 26, 2024
the brazilian miku trend is awesome so i hit miku with the welsh beam
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the brazilian miku trend is awesome so i hit miku with the welsh beam
Which emblazonment of the flag of Wales in Wplace is better? Part 2
Option 1
Option 2
Option 3
Option 4
Option 5
Flag Wars Bonus Round
Hey, I’m doing a design project based around the Welsh language as was wondering if you knew if there was any word for ‘welsh person’. Like Welshman being Cymro and Welshwoman being Cymraes. Do you know if there’s (even if not official) any gender neutral version?
Apologies for only just answering this ask!
You're probably already aware of Cymry (Welsh people) the plural of Cymro - which is unfortunately plural and not singular. But Cymro/Cymry are interesting in that they aren't suffixed with an -o or a -y - they're both derived from kömroɣ* - the (reconstructed) Common Brittonic word for compatriot. Whereas Cymraes takes Cymro and swaps in-aes/-es, the feminine suffix. Similarly, you have athro (male teacher) and athrawes (female teacher), brenin (king) and brenhines (queen), actor (male actor) and actores (female actor), Norwyad (Norwegian man), Norwyes (Norwegian woman) etc. Each time, the masculine form is treated as the default and only modified with a feminine ending -es/aes when a woman is being referred to. Which is a feature shared with many other gendered European languages *sigh*. It's frustrating but it leaves us with 2 choices:
Simply adopt the masculine form as the sole term and use it for everyone, regardless of gender. E.g. many women refuse to use athrawes for themselves and will say athro to refer to a female teacher. Ditto actor instead of actores (a similar process has occurred in English with many gendered words such as actress and waitress being phased out in favour of simply using actor, waiter for everyone regardless of gender).
Use an additional suffix which denotes gender neutrality. I am a (very rusty) Spanish speaker and there is a movement in Spanish to use gender neutral -e in places where masculine -o or feminine -a are used. E.g. Latine instead of Latino/Latina. There have been attempts to do this in Welsh but they haven't had much traction (I know of attempts dating back at least a decade. But there isn't a consensus on what a suitable gender neutral suffix might be (a problem also shared with Spanish speakers, some of whom have used -x instead of -o/-a, e.g. Latinx. The use of -x has been more controversial than -e, however). In Welsh, I have only seen propositions for gender neutral pronouns, rather than suffixes. Which have not yet been addressed.
On solution 2., there are issues which haven't really been worked out (hence why I think the first gender neutral movement in Welsh (largely online) ran out of steam). But mayhaps this ask is a springboard to opening this discussion up to other Welsh speakers.
My 2 cents are that we're going to need a sound - ideally a vowel which isn't already in use as a suffix denoting something specific. My gut instinct is to go to -y, but we cannot use -y due to Cymry already existing. -W sounds great in theory but is clunky on its own when attempting to form neologisms with it. E.g. Cymrw, Athrw, Norwyw etc. If -es is taken by the feminine, that leaves -a, and -i to play with - both of which already exist as suffixes in other contexts (but that isn't a complete dealbreaker).
Theoretically one could take a leaf out of the book of the feminine suffix -es and add an 's'. Which might lead to things like -ws to help with flow. -Ws already exists but is very colloquial and low frequency, which could be a goer (no promises - I'm a descriptivist not a prscriptivist!). E.g. you could have Cymrws, Athrws, Norwyws (greater development needed imo). which helps with the flow.
"Ydy'r athrawes wedi mynd? (Has the (female) teacher gone?) -> "Ydy'r athrws wedi mynd?" (Has the teacher (gender neutral) gone?).
Buuuuut the problem with -ws is that depending on accent, it might get mistaken as -es/aes in speech, particularly fast speech.
Another alternative might be -a or -i. E.g. Cymra, Athra, Norwya (though -a is often gendered feminine in other European languages and may be misleading on that front). Or Cymri, Athri, Norwyi (has immediate problems due to similarity in sound to Cymry and clunkiness with other words).
Cymraes differs to most other words suffixed with -es (for complicated historical reasons [See section § 65 in A Welsh Grammar, Historical and Comparative (1913)]. In principle, -es becomes -aes in only this case. Which is why we have Norwyes (or Eidales, Ffrances etc.) and Cymraes rather that Cymres. Based on this, for any neologism to work, it has to mimic this sound change in a way which seems natural, despite being a new addition to the language. "ae" is a dipthong in Welsh and for historical reasons,-es -> -aes in this case. Therefore a gender neutral replacement for -aes must also include a dipthong to preserve flow as best as possible and resemble the sound changes which Cymraes went through to get to where it is now. In other words we're getting into queer space-time territory because we have to be present in both the past and the present (linguistically speaking) simultaneously. In effect, we're conlanging for gender neutrality in a living language. Because the stem we're using (Cymr-) is so old (roughly 2500 years old but I am simplifying things here for brevity), we have to play by the old rules if that makes sense? Or it won't look or sound right. Ergo, I think using a dipthong containing "w" would be the best bet. E.g. Cymruws (Cymr- + -uw- + s).
But this is all conjecture and theorising from one person (me) so huge pinch of salt this is my 2 cents and nothing more. But, having said that I'd appreciate any other Welsh speakers weighing in with opinions (even if it's to say certain words sound clunky etc.).
Is there an official Welsh word of the year? Like the Oxford word of the year (but better).
only for you anon
Ex-inmates say Welsh speakers were made to use English at Wales' biggest prison.
Ummmm?????????????? Cool cool cool this is normal and fine right
Do you have any advice for learning Welsh, in particular Welsh grammar??
Everyone is different, and will have their own way of learning, but my advice would be:
1. Avoid Duolingo like the plague. It's not worth it. I'm pretty sure lots of the Welsh course is AI generated these days too?
2. SaySomethingInWelsh is a great resource for me personally, though it only teaches you spoken Welsh, and it's not free. I tend to do a lesson a day in the morning while I get ready
3. If you're in Wales and can access the Welsh lessons run by the Welsh government, those are really good too! (I think maybe you can access them if you're not in Wales too actually, but I'm not sure about outside the UK)
4. Talk to Welsh speakers! Most are very happy to practice with you and help you learn and will be able to answer questions about things like grammar! SaySomethingInWelsh also has a forum for this if you go down that route
5. Immerse yourself in the Welsh Language. This can be harder if you're not in Wales, but Welsh TV, books, radio, music, theatre, etc can be a great resource and I think there's even books and TV specifically aimed at helping you to learn. Tumblr blogs like @textpostscymraeg are really useful too!
6. Most of all, it's just practice. Learning a language is hard, and it takes many years to become fluent (I'm still very far from being fluent myself), but the best way of practicing is taking the plunge and trying to speak in Welsh with other Welsh speakers/learners, even if it's scary :')
Hope this is helpful :) Feel free to ask me if you have any other questions!
Officially filed a complaint eith the welsh language commission (or whatever) about Royal Mail. They've completely stopped giving out bilingual dockets at my delivery office, and my recent uniform order was in English. This is completely unacceptable, and not even the first time they've been told off for this
Cymblr - mae Emma'n chwylio am siaradwyr rhygl a dysgwyr safon canolig neu uwch i gymeryd rhan mewn darn o ymchwil cyflym iawn (10 munud), ar y we. Dwi wedi ei wneud o fy hyn a mae o'n hawdd iawn. Fedrwch chi helpu?