| The two divisions of the Celtic languages are usually classified
as P-Celtic (Welsh, Cornish, Breton) and Q-Celtic (Irish, Scots
Gaelic and Manx). THe difference between the branches is that
wherever a letter P is found in a P-Celtic word, the equivalent
Q-Celtic word contains a C (and vice versa).
Modern Irish does have a letter P, but it is found only in words
imported from other languages. At one time a letter C was substituted
for P: as an example the Latin word for Easter, Pasc, became in
Irish Casc. In very old documents St. Patrick is called Catric.
On the other hand the Irish saint Ciaran was called Perrin in
Cornish.
The P-Q split between linguistic groups is fairly common.
|
| true, Welsh does use a lot of consonants - however it is not quite as
bad as the previous note implies, for 'w' and 'y' are also vowel sounds
in Welsh in addition to a,e,i,o,u.
Also, it's all a question of what you're used to, in Russian for example
it is possible to have five consonants in a row and they don't seem to
have any problem.
Perhaps their tongues are shaped differently ? :-)
|
| I was always confused in school when the Welsh alphabet was read
out. All those additional "letters" (dd, ff, ch, ngh, ll,....),
But once they have been learnt I find that Welsh is really easy
to read - certainly compared to certain English words.
Many was the time I had to read Welsh text without fully understanding
the words or context (to my shame, I hasten to add!).
Trefor
|
|
<<< HYDRA::DISK$NOTES$LIBRARY:[NOTES$LIBRARY]DAVE_BARRY.NOTE;1 >>>
-< Dave Barry - Noted humorist >-
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Note 290.0 Foreign Languages Made Simply Stupid No replies
SMURF::DUNLAP 81 lines 8-FEB-1987 15:02
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Foreign Languages Made Simply Stupid
--by Dave Barry
Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to
discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the past
30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages. Oh,
sure, they speak SOME English, but usually just barely well enough to
receive a high-school diploma here in the United States. This can
lead to problems for you, the international traveler, when you need to
convey important information to them, such as:
"Which foreign country is this?"
And:
"You call this toilet paper?"
To their credit, some countries have made a sincere effort to adopt
English as their native language, a good example being England, but
even there you have problems. My wife and I were driving around
England once, and we came to a section called "Wales," which is this
linguistically deformed area that apparently is too poor to afford
vowels. All the road signs look like this:
LLWLNCWLWNRLLN - 3 km
It is a tragic sight indeed to see Welsh parents attempting to sing
traditional songs such as "Old MacDonald had a Farm" to their children
and lapsing into heartrending silence when they get to the part about
"E-I-E-I-O." If any of you in our reading audience have extra vowels
that you no longer need because, for example, your children have grown
up, I urge you to send them (your children) to: Vowels for Wales, c/o
Lord Chesterfield Parliament Luckystrike, the Duke of Earl, Pondwater-
on-Gabardine, England.
But the point I am trying to make here is that since the rest of
the world appears to be taking its sweet time about becoming fluent in
English, it looks like, in the interest of improving world peace and
understanding, it's up to us Americans to strike the bull on the horns
while the iron is hot and learn to speak a foreign language.
This is not an area where we are strong, as a nation: A recent poll
showed that 82 percent of the Americans surveyed speak no foreign
language at all.
Unfortunately, the same poll showed that 41 percent also cannot
speak English, 53 percent cannot name the state they live in, and 62
percent believe that the Declaration of Independence is "a kind of
fish." So we can see that we have a tough educational row to hoe
here, in the sense that Americans, not to put too fine a point on it,
have the IQs of bait. I mean, let's face it, this is obviously why
the Japanese are capable of building sophisticated videocassette
recorders, whereas we view it as a major achievement if we can hook
them up correctly to our TV sets. This is nothing to be ashamed of,
Americans! Say it out loud! "We're pretty stupid!" See? Doesn't
that feel good? Let's stop blaming the educational system for the
fact that our children score lower on standardized tests than any
other vertebrate life form on the planet! Let's stop all this
anguished whiny self-critical FRETTING over the recently discovered
fact that the guiding hand on the tiller of the ship of state belongs
to Mister Magoo! Remember: WE STILL HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Ha ha!
Getting back to the central point, we should all learn to speak a
foreign language. Fortunately, this is easy.
HOW TO SPEAK A FOREIGN LANGUAGE:
The key is to understand that foreigners communicate with each
other primarily by means of "idiomatic expressions," the main ones
being:
GERMAN: "Ach du lieber!" ("Darn it")
SPANISH: "Caramba!" ("Darn it!")
FRENCH: "Zut alors!" ("Look! A lors!")
Also, you should bear in mind that foreign persons for some reason
believe that everyday household objects and vegetables are "masculine"
or "feminine." For example, French persons believe that potatoes are
feminine, even though they (potatoes) do not have sexual organs, that
I have noticed. Dogs, on the other hand, are masculine, even if they
are not. (This does not mean, by the way, that a dog can have sex
with a potato, although it will probably try.)
PRONUNCIATION HINT: In most foreign languages, the letter "r" is
pronounced incorrectly. Also, if you are speaking German, at certain
points during each sentence you should give the impression you're
about to expel a major gob.
Okay? Practice these techniques in front of a mirror until you're
comfortable with them, then go to a country that is frequented by
foreigners and see if you can't increase their international
understanding, the way Jimmy Carter did during his 1977 presidential
visit to Poland, when he told a large welcoming crowd, through an
official State Department translator, that he was "pleased to be
grasping your secret parts."
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