#welsh stuff

I found a tiny collared snake born this spring in the river today ! It's absurdly pretty, and I feel like people deserve to see this wee little babe is so I'm going to tag @snake-spotted ❤️

People say that our European snakes are drearily dull, drab and boring but I respectfully disagree.

notes to be taken:

my family is from South Wales. I will be describing everything with a Cardiff accent because that’s how my mum taught me

spelling out pronunciation is next to impossible when the alphabet is different but I am doing what I can

I am not fluent. I can read Welsh, but my conversation and understanding is lacking

there are hundreds of years of history that will explain this

you will not be able to pronounce some of these sounds. this is because Welsh is a completely different alphabet to English. you most likely won’t have learned these sounds. and that’s fine. I’ll provide alternative pronunciations as best I can

good morning: bore da (bore-ay da) shorten the “a” and soften the “r”. bore da

good afternoon: prynhawn da (preen-hown da) preen but soften the “r”. “hown” - imagine “hound” without the d

good evening/night: nos da (noss da)

thank you: diolch (dee-olch)

please: os gwelwch yn dda… look. it comes at the end of the sentence. “os” = os. “gwelwch”… guel-ish. guel-ish theen da (with a soft ‘d’). dd is a separate letter in the Welsh alphabet. it’s closest to the “th” sound in English, with the tongue further forward

Since Eirian is a welsh name, is it pronounced "ee-ree-an" or "aye-ree-an?"

Also supposedly it's derived from Arian too?

Okay, so Eirian would, to me, be pronounced as Ay (like u would say the letter A) ree- an. I say this because I have a park near me called Eirias so like make of that what u will!!!