For great escapism, try learning a new language

Summer is wearing on in my home town, but unfortunately both vacation time and budget have been expended for the season. Finding myself in need of a touch of escapism, I picked up a book at the public library with an attractive cover entitled Wales,  The First Place.

This is not my first interest in the language and country of Wales.  I have read How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn several times and have always wondered how to pronounce the double l in his last name.

Then several years ago, my husband Wayne and I almost traveled to Wales and had plans to stay in a coastal resort town called Llandudno, in North Wales.  That time I looked up the pronunciation of the Welsh double l and practiced the new sound (some hissing required!).

My current interest in Wales began with the discovery of a Welsh author, Jan Morris, who writes lyrical pieces about her native land.  She contributed the introduction to Wales,  The First Place. In it, she mentioned that Shakespeare declared the Welsh language to be "skimble-skamble stuff."  I was intrigued.  What do you suppose Welsh sounds like?

I went to my go-to online language course, Duolingo, and found that Welsh is one of the languages offered for free study.  I couldn't resist.  I added Welsh to the list of languages I study daily.

A new language brings with it a frisson of excitement for me.  Will I be able to connect the new language to one I know?  Where will I find the subject and verb in the sentence?  Will the spoken language match the written language?

Beginning Welsh lessons - Duolingo.com

 

I made a few preliminary hypotheses about the Welsh language after several attempts at the circles labeled Greeting 1 and Greeting 2.  First, I was relieved to find that Welsh appears to be written more or less as it is spoken. (I have been struggling with another Celtic language, Irish, on this point.) Then I found some words that relate to English, which makes them easier to retain, such as helo (hello) and sori (sorry).  Nouns seem to appear before adjectives, as they do in many languages; for example, bore da in Welsh literally means "morning good."   And I heard the same familiar sound used at the end of the Scottish word "loch" in the Welsh words for you (chi) and thanks (diolch).  The Welsh word for tired, wedi blino, made me smile, for some unknown reason.

A taste of Welsh culture was included in the language lessons when the names Megan, Sioned (a "sh" sound for the "s") Eleri, Dylan, and Gareth were used in greetings.  And the small red dragon used as the icon for the Duolingo Welch program let my thoughts travel back to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

  
  

Duolingo  Welsh dragon

A new language provided me a much appreciated respite from ordinary life.  And with the approximately 6000 languages in the world, I may have found a never-ending fountain of enjoyment.