#source: audio

“Mae fe'n salw o dal”.

Wnes i wrando ar podlediad Elis a John, a dwedodd Elis bod gafodd e perthynas sy wedi dweud o rhywun sy'n dal: “Ti'n salw o dal”, meaning “you're so tall it's actually offputting”, literally ‘your height is almost [a thing] of grotesqueness/ugliness’.

I imagine this can be modified to use in other situations too, but it's the idea of describing an attribute as “[adjective] o [quality]” is the thing I wanted to note here.

Salw -> ugly

A little bit of Welsh from English radio today, for fun! Here's Welsh comedian and broadcaster Elis James, a native South Walian Welsh speaker, with his friend, foil and cohost, the English comedian John Robins, who from gigging in Wales and driving across the UK has picked up some Welsh! His pronunciation is hardly perfect, but I figured for a bit of fun, vocabulary and listening (largely to Elis, for the pronunciation at least), I'd post this here.

Vocabulary, transcribed

llath(au) -> yard(s)

ambiwlans(ys) -> ambulance(s) (sounds the same as English, singular and plural, lluosog, except if you really want to make it sound Welsh you could also use ambiwlansiau)

araf -> slow (adjective. The verb 'to slow' as in 'slow down' is arafu)

canol ddinas -> city centre (North America: downtown)

gwasanaeth(au) -> service(s) (of any kind, not just service stations!)

Dw i angen gwasanaeth i fy ngherbyd, os gwelwch yn dda. I need a service for my vehicle please.

Dyn ni'n stopio ar y gwasanaethau/yr orsaf wasanaeth. We are stopping at the services/service station.

Some more examples:

Bydd rhaid i ni gymryd y ffordd wasanaeth. We will need to take the service road.

Am ofnadwy! Mae'r ffyrd gwasanaeth wedi torri. How awful! The service roads are broken.

Dwi'n newid fy nharparwr gwasanaeth eleni. I am changing my service provider this year.

'taswn i'n gwybod fod o'n wir 'faswn i ddim am fyw yn hir am fod cymaint o hen salwch a thorcalon; 'dw 'i' di blino' meddai hi, roedd hi'n hanner wedi tri 'roedd dim diben siarad mwy nac esbonio

gad iddi fynd, gad iddi fynd gad lonydd iddi, gad iddi fynd fedri di ddim ei chadw hi, gad iddi fynd o mi awn i o 'ma heddiw 'tae 'na gyfle

mae'n nhw'n llifo mor rhwydd o ben-blwydd i ben-blwydd

dyddiau gefais i i garu pobl; ond pan mae'n dechrau mynd yn hwyr ac mae'r gitar yng nghefn y car dw 'i'n dyheu am weld fy mhlant i gyd cyn cysgu

gad iddi fynd, gad iddi fynd gad lonydd iddi, gad iddi fynd fedri di ddim ei chadw hi, gad iddi fynd o mi awn i'n ol i'r ffynnon, 'tae 'na lwybr

gad iddi fynd, gad iddi fynd gad lonydd iddi, gad iddi fynd fedri di ddim ei chadw hi, gad iddi fynd o mi awn i o 'ma heddiw 'tae 'na gyfle

Translation:

If I'd have known that it was true I wouldn't have wanted to live for long Because there's so much sickness and heartbreak; "I'm tired" she said; it was half past three And there was no point saying any more or explaining

Let her go, Let her go Leave her in peace, Let her go, You can't keep her, Let her go Oh I'd leave here tomorrow if I had a chance

Oh they flow along so easy From birthday to birthday These days given to me for loving people; But when it's starting to get late And the guitar's in the back of the car I long to see all my children before I sleep

Let her go, Let her go Leave her in peace, Let her go, You can't keep her, Let her go Oh I'd go back to the well if there were a pathway Let her go, Let her go Leave her in peace, Let her go, You can't keep her, Let her go Oh I'd leave here tomorrow if I had a chance

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Some more learner level Welsh from English radio, comedians Elis James, south-Walian Welshman, and John Robins, Bristolian learner, speaking Welsh.

Vocabulary

Coginio -> to cook

crwst (crystiau) -> crust(s) [of a pie, etc.] crystyn (crystiau) -> crust(s) [of bread, etc.:] "Mae wedi mynd yn goffi crystyn arno!" "He's got coffee crust on him!" —Hen ddywediad o Arfon am un sy'n dioddef tlodi mawr (yn yfed coffi wedi'i wneud drwy losgi crystyn) An old saying from Arfon about one who suffers great poverty (drinks coffee made by burning crust)* (via EinCymraeg on Twitter) *correct me if I've translated this incorrectly

Coginio Fy Nghrwst -> Cooking My Crust, S4C's fictional reflection of Bakeoff, spearheaded by John Robins. "fy" causes a nasal mutation.

Noson -> night

llawen -> fun, jovial, festive (if you recall from about 10 days ago, merry Christmas in Welsh is Nadolig llawen)

Noson Lawen: nos/noson is feminine and causes a soft mutation. S4C TV Series.

Some other related uses: Roedd hi lawen iawn pan oedd hi'n clywed y newyddion. She was overjoyed when she heard the news.

Excuse me while I abuse this blog a bit! I was listening to Radio Cymru today and Rhys Mwyn was on doing a series on music in decades, this one was on the 00s, he recently also did a Degawd y 90'au show with Cerys Matthews that I'm going to listen to after.

I wanted to keep this specific bit since him and Gai Toms are talking about the solo careers/"what happened to them?" of some prominent bands of the 90s' "sîn roc Gymraeg": bands like Super Furry Animals, Catatonia, Big Leaves, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, etc., most of whom are actually enjoying fairly high profile careers right now!

SFA - Gruff is having the time of his life, a UK top 10 album with Seeking New Gods, to say nothing of his entire, super interesting solo back catalogue and the Mercury nominations with Boom Bip (and that was a full decade ago), his film scores etc. But every single member of SFA is still active and quite high profile in music, and all of the Super Furries bar Gruff do have a side project together too. Catatonia - Cerys has also had a very high profile career since Catatonia ended, with her solo work but also as a presenter, Big Leaves split off into Sibrydion after the band ended, though I'm not quite sure what happened after Sibrydion stopped. Gorky's - Euros Childs runs his record label and has been doing his solo work for a bit, and a couple of years ago he permanently joined Teenage Fanclub so that's great for him!

Etc. Anyway, my Welsh is only fledgeling so I didn't quite catch all of the chat Rhys and Gai were having, so I've put it up here so I can slowly pause and look up words in my dictionary. Ah, language is a slow process... Anyway, all this is to say feel free to scroll by if the alt rock movement doesn't really interest you, otherwise this is probably like. A good listening exercise. I've removed the songs played because Tumblr doesn't take mp3 files larger than 10 MB unfortunately, but played on the show were:

Pep Le Pew - Y Magwraeth Llwybr Llaethog - Satta ym Mhontcanna Gwenno - Môr Hud Sherbet Antlers - Bywyd Mor Hir Super Furry Animals - Ymaelodi Â'r Ymylon Anweledig - Gweld Y Llun

I cannot recommend Gwenno's new album, Tresor, highly enough! Most of it is actually in Cornish, not Welsh. On today's show it looked like there was a theme of playing artists' first single, so this song goes back a bit.