Friday, May 15, 2020

Oes gafr eto?

I mentioned in a previous post that I always get nervous when leading Zac's. What I didn't say is that I need reassurance afterwards that it went okay.

Yesterday Monty (who was at the study on Tuesday) asked me if I would film a short talk for his church. That buoyed me up no end. I said to Husband, 'Monty must think I'm okay to ask me to speak.'
Husband said, 'Or he's desperate.'

I love my husband, really I do, it's just that sometimes I have to remind myself why.

* * * * * *
My Welsh learning is going on apace. I can ask for ninety-one lemons, and tell you that Owen wants pink parsnips. I can even tell you how old I am - with a bit of help from my cheat sheet.
Dw i'n chwech deg saith oed.

But the Welsh language doesn't like to make it easy. They have mutations - first letters may change depending on what comes before - and the mutations can be either hard or soft. No, I don't understand either. This is the disadvantage of learning from Duolingo: they don't explain why.

And words just change at what seems like random occasions. So you have coffi (coffee) but you have ddau goffi or dri choffi (two and three coffees). And, incidentally two is dau and three is tri but they're mutated.

As for please. Take your pick from:
os gwelidi'n dda;
os gwelwch yn dda;
os gwelwch chi'n dda;
or plis. (The i should have a little cap on it.)

In junior school we learned Welsh but I gave it up in senior school in favour of German, which I also gave up as soon as possible. The only thing I remember from my junior school days is learning a song about a goat. The goat comes in different colours and the song gets faster each time you sing it.
Oes gafr eto ... etc

4 comments:

SmitoniusAndSonata said...

I'll know who to blame when I dream all night of being pursued over the rocks by Disney-esque goats playing harps.

Debra She Who Seeks said...

That goat song ROCKS!

Ole Phat Stu said...

pam ydych chi'n meddwl ei bod hi'n anodd dysgu Cymraeg?

Marie Smith said...

I enjoyed the song. It fear I’d never be able to learn the language at this stage.