I've already told you about Irish and Scottish so now it's time for Welsh which closes my list of favourite Celtic languages because I'm not so familiar with others like Cornwall and so on. I'm pretty sure some of you've already seen this word:

http://www.travelingboy.com/john/northwales5.jpg

…and yep, it's in Welsh. But don't worry, this language has no more words as long as this one ;) ok, so maybe you wonder how is it possible to read so many consonants one beside another. I'll tell you - this is not the way Welsh speakers read it. For instance, w is usually read as u. But how to read this long word? It's simple because it is made from many words and full meaning is Saint Mary’s Church in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio of the red cave. Ok, now let's delete all spaces and we'll still be reading it very well, as the Welsh in their version. Let me make you Welsh version easier. Here you have an IPA version: /ˌɬan.vair.puɬˌɡwɪ̈n.ɡɪ̈ɬ.ɡoˌɡerˌʌːˌχwɪ̈rnˌdro.buɬˌɬan.tʌˌsil.jɒˌɡo.ɡoˈɡoːχ/

The thing I can tell you for sure is the fact that for me all these languages sounds very mystically and ancient a bit, like the part of old magic is hidden behind old languages, don't you think? Hearing Irish, Scottish or Welsh I see castles, lakes, mystery of some creatures like Nessie from Loch Ness or maybe people using magic like an old buddy Merlin. I don't know. For me there's an untold story covered under these old languages and reading in it or hearing it is like discovering something unknown. This is the way I like imagining for instance the king Arthur and his knights. As for our university and Welsh connection 23th may 2014 there was first  Eisteddfod a festival of Welsh culture. So maybe, next year when you'll see a poster about a next one you will take part in it. If so, see you ;) 

And here's a song in Welsh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOrhPofaOsI

Do you remember my last post about Irish? Let me continue this topic but in a bit different way. I want to tell you something about Scottish language.

Scottish, like Irish, belongs to the Celtic languages group. I can bet that most of you saw a movie or a few where brave men were fighting to death in their kilts for the land they loved. I did. And it really makes me sad that their language is extincting.

Recently I've come upon tv series called „Outlander”. It's about a lady living in the 1940s who in magical way, by touching big stones in Scotland, travelled 200 years in the past to the 1740s. There she was saved from a British solder (who looked exactly like her husband, the one from 1940) who was not really a good man. Rescued by a Scottish man and taken to his village, Claire, because that's her name, is helping villagers due to her nurse skills. The thing I like the most about this series is the way they speak. This is not a fake accent as it has always been in other movies or series that I'm familiar with. Producers took care of details like putting Scottish phrases into English speech. Even Claire is called Sassenach - an outlander or a foreigner, more specifically an English person, usage generally derogatory (as the producers, more specifically Àdhamh Ó Broin, explain). The thing that I love about it is the fact that fans, addicted to the series, will start to learn Scottish. Searching something more about Scottish parts in dialogues, I bumped into videos on youtube connected with series which can teach you how to pronounce some phrases or words in Scottish. Here you have one of those videos in which one of the main characters pronounces: Tha gaol agam ort (I love you) in Scottish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbB0IbXWC3I&list=PLus0YZufzZ8BhbKnZ-yJhtoS8E9KuuWlJ&index=12

I hope you' ll get some interest in this fascinating language. Below I put the wedding vow from this series, which is really lovely, so you could see what this language looks like:

Is tu fuil 'o mo chuislean, is tu cnaimh de mo chnaimh.

Is leatsa mo bhodhaig, chum gum bi sinn 'n ar n-aon.

Is leatsa m 'anam gus an criochnaich ar saoghal.

(Literal Translation

You are blood of my veins, you are bone of my bone.
Yours is my body, that we may be one.
Yours is my soul until our worlds end.)

sourse: http://www.lallybroch.com/LOL/blood-vow.html