#learn welsh

my dad just got 97% in his welsh exam and I am very proud of him!!!!

Dod nôl am wythnos newydd! Shwmae folks, glad you've been liking the Welsh music Wednesday recommendations so far, I've got one of Wales and especially Welsh language music's brightest stars as a spotlit artist for today!

Adwaith are an indie rock trio from Caermarthen in South Wales, made of three school friends Gwenllian Anthony, Hollie Singer (who is, aptly, one of the two singers in the band) and Heledd Owen.

They started out as more of a punk band, writing songs with a feminist punk rock angle, talking about their lives as girls in town (Lipstick Coch is a great song to check out from the time). They wrote as they spoke, a deliberate choice to be more conversational and not feel afraid to make mistakes in their Welsh, as language learners and feel more confident. And Adwaith have every reason to be confident: they are one of the most exciting bands to come out of Wales, and lately they have only been going from strength to strength.

Winning the Welsh Music Prize for their debut album, 2018's Melyn, Adwaith began expanding their sound into more indie and post punk on their second album Bato Mato, inspired by a trip taken by the band to get to a show, on the Trans Siberian Express train. They won the Welsh Music Prize again for that album, and to date that makes them the only artist ever to have won the prize twice!

It also took them beyond the usual boundaries of minority language music: Adwaith played the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury, and were even picked up for a session by the iconic radio station KEXP when they were at the ESNS showcase festival in the Netherlands in 2022.

They've released their third album this February called Solas, and once again Adwaith have taken a bold step. Solas is an all-Welsh language double album, and the band continues to grow sonically: they lean into darker synths, write about life and the world around them, find pockets of joy in the darkness, and just generally have written an album that should be lauded.

Anyway, Adwaith are extremely cool. Here's Solas on Bandcamp, if you like them, go buy their album and support them independently if you can. (Alternately if you're just in the area, they are on Libertino Records.)

I've linked the first song ‘Planed’ (‘Planet’), because it's quite Depeche Mode to my ears.

Today I'd like to give a shout out to three shops in Llangefni on Ynys Môn (Anglesey) who are taking part in the Mentrau Iaith scheme "Hapus i Siarad", which helps Welsh language learners like me practice our Welsh outside the classroom:

- Cain, a lovely card and gift shop;

- Cwpwrdd Cornel, the local Welsh language book shop; and

- Gwalia, a local delicatessen and cake shop.

Diolch yn fawr iawn/ Thank you very much for giving me such a warm welcome, helping me to speak some Welsh and filling in my card!

I've just emailed in the card to enter a raffle where one lucky learner will win a Welsh residential course!

Diolch eto/ Thank you again!

In Wales, there's two noticeable dialects of Welsh: North and South.

I am from South Wales, where our capital Cardiff is. So you'll be learning the Southern dialect, but you should be able to understand most of Northern Welsh.

In South Wales, we are predominantly English speaking, especially in the South East (Cardiff, Newport etc). But, as a legal requirement we have to learn Welsh so I can assure you it's still viable!!

The plan is as follows:

Every day, post a word including pronunciation

Weekends will also have grammar sections, usually one per week

I'd be more than happy to answer questions!

I am quite busy so I may miss some deadlines

I'll include exercises and sentences to help you out!

Oh and I'll teach you a bit about Wales itself!!

b a s i c s

skel // he / him // 26

queer // trans // druidic pagan

canada (eastern time) // third-year creative writing student

w r i t i n g

nonfiction // historical fiction // poetry

↪current WIP: n/a

l a n g u a g e

native: english 🇨🇦

currently studying: n / a

previously studied: french 🇫🇷 & mandarin 🇹🇼

i n t e r e s t s

cartoons, documentaries, video games, synthpop, indie folk, vocaloid, mythology, history, social justice

if there are any writeblr or langblr discord servers you think i'd make a good fit for, please don't hesitate to drop me a message or an ask. i'd love to join, as i'm much more active over there than i am on tumblr.

Protip to dysgwyr / Welsh learners-

If you're looking for active Welsh language tags to follow on certain subjects, search for mutated forms as well. That way, more relevant posts show up.