Ernie Brooker

http://www.ernestbrooker.co.uk/

this is an awesome website :-) it is made by 84 y/o Ernie Brooker

start as i mean to go on...

THE WELSH ALPHABET: (28 letters)

A, B ,C ,Ch, D, Dd, E, F, Ff, G, Ng, H, I, L
Ll, M, N, O, P, Ph, R, Rh, S, T, Th, U, W, Y

(Note that Welsh does not possess the letters J, K, Q, V, X or Z, though you will often come across "borrowings" from English, such as John, Jones, Jam and Jiwbil (Jubilee); Wrexham (Wrecsam); Zw (Zoo).

THE VOWELS: (A, E, I, U, O, W, Y)

A as in man. Welsh words: am, ac Pronounced the same as in English)

E as in bet or echo. Welsh words: gest (guest); enaid (enide)

I as in pin or queen. Welsh words: ni (nee); mi (me); lili (lily); min (meen)

U as in pita: Welsh words: ganu (ganee); cu (key); Cymru (Kumree); tu (tee); un (een)

O as in lot or moe. Welsh words: o'r (0re); don (don); dod (dode); bob (bobe)

W as in Zoo or bus. Welsh words: cwm (koom), bws (bus); yw (you); galw (galoo)

Y has two distinct sounds: the final sound in happy or the vowel sound in myrrh Welsh words: Y (uh); Yr (ur); yn (un); fry (vree); byd (beed)

All the vowels can be lengthened by the addition of a circumflex (ä), known in Welsh as "to bach" (little roof). Welsh words: Tän (taan), län (laan)

THE DIPHTHONGS:

Ae, Ai and Au are pronounced as English "eye": ninnau (nineye); mae (my); henaid (henide); main (mine); craig (crige)

Eu and Ei are pronounced the same way as the English ay in pray. Welsh words: deisiau (dayshy), or in some dialects (deeshuh); deil (dale or dile); teulu (taylee or tyelee)

Ew is more difficult to describe. It can be approximated as eh-oo or perhaps as in the word mount. The nearest English sound is found in English midland dialect words such as the Birmingham pronunciation of "you" (yew). Welsh words: mewn (meh-oon or moun); tew (teh-oo)

I'w and Y'w sound almost identical to the English "Ee-you." or "Yew" or "You": Welsh words: clyw (clee-oo); byw (bee-you or b'you); menyw (menee-you or menyou)

Oe is similar to the English Oy or Oi. Welsh words: croeso (croyso); troed (troid); oen (oin)

Ow is pronounced as in the English tow, or low: Welsh word: Rhown (rhone); rho (hrow)

Wy as in English wi in win or oo-ee: Welsh words: Wy (oo-ee); wyn (win); mwyn (mooin)

Ywy is pronounced as in English Howie. Welsh words: bywyd (bowid); tywyll (towith)

Aw as in the English cow. Welsh words: mawr (mour); prynhawn (prinhown); lawr (lour)

THE CONSONANTS:
For the most part b, d, h, l, m, n, p, r, s, and t are pronounced the same as their English equivalents (h is always pronounced, never silent). Those that differ are as follows:

C always as in cat; never as in since. Welsh words: canu (Kanee); cwm (come); cael (kile); and of course, Cymru (Kumree)

Ch as in the Scottish loch or the German ach or noch. The sound is never as in church, but as in loch or Docherty. Welsh words: edrychwn (edrych oon); uwch (youch ), chwi (Chee)

Dd is pronounced like the English th in the words seethe or them. Welsh words: bydd (beethe); sydd (seethe); ddofon (thovon); ffyddlon (futh lon)

Th is like the English th in words such as think, forth, thank. Welsh words: gwaith (gwithe); byth (beeth)

F as in the English V. Welsh words: afon (avon); fi (vee); fydd (veethe); hyfryd (huvrid); fawr (vowr), fach (vach)

Ff as in the English f. Welsh words: ffynnon (funon); ffyrdd (furth); ffaith (fithe)

G always as in English goat, gore. Welsh words: ganu (ganee); ganaf (ganav); angau (angeye); gem (game)

Ng as in English finger or Long Island. Ng usually occurs with an h following as a mutation of c. Welsh words Yng Nghaerdydd (in Cardiff: pronounced ung hire deethe) or Yng Nghymru (in Wales: pronounced ung Humree)

Ll is an aspirated L. That means you form your lips and tongue to pronounce L, but then you blow air gently around the sides of the tongue instead of saying anything. Got it? The nearest you can get to this sound in English is to pronounce it as an l with a th in front of it. Welsh words: llan (thlan); llawr (thlour); llwyd (thlooid)

Rh sounds as if the h come before the r. There is a slight blowing out of air before the r is pronounces. Welsh words: rhengau (hrengye); rhag (hrag); rhy (hree)

The most common expressions that Welsh-Americans come across are Cymanfa Ganu (Kumanva Ganee); Eisteddfod (Aye-steth-vod); and Noson Lawen (Nosson Lowen)

PRACTICE
Read the following, written using the Welsh alphabet:

Gwd lwc. Ai hop ddat yw can ryd ddys and ddat yt meiks sens tw yw. Iff yw can ryd ddys, dden yw ar dwing ffaen and wil haf no problems at ol yn lyrnyng awr ffaen Welsh alffabet.

Good luck: I hope that you can read this, and that it makes sense to you. If you can read this, then you are doing fine and will have no problems at all in learning our fine Welsh alphabet.

the man

man do i miss my bubble of friends at the college! what a lovely happy safe place to be! for all the annoyances of data entry in the morning they are such a lovely team to be in.

and now i'm out, where am i?

back to being relief really, bottom of the pecking order in a few places no real power to change much, less voice and less support. this isn't a failing of my other workplaces, they are lovely too, but at a part time relief volunteer backup spacefiller you can't help but realise you aint fully part of it!

i had a dream last night that i fought the man and lost. maybe i am reading too much jezebel. i also could do with another job quicktime. i'm hoping that my trip home this weekend will improve rather than ruin my spirits!

the internet

i was googleing for my favourite weather presenter, tom chakalaka and i found this rant on a forum.


"Why oh why are so many female BBC weather presenters pregnant?

What is the thought process behind their being the choice for this job?

In no other programme are so many pregnant women chosen. They are even chosen to front the programmes if it is obvious that they are pregnant to begin with.

It seems to be some kind of positive bias - non-pregnant women and men need not apply!"


i dunno where to start and i loled so much i thought i would share it.

snot

good: mel is on her way here w00p!!

bad: i'm still ill

ugly: snot is ugly lol

going rouge

rogue –noun 1. a dishonest, knavish person; scoundrel.
2. a playfully mischievous person; scamp
3. a tramp or vagabond.
4. a rogue elephant or other animal of similar disposition.
5. Biology. a usually inferior organism, esp. a plant, varying markedly from the normal.

–verb (used without object) 6. to live or act as a rogue.

–verb (used with object) 7. to cheat.
8. to uproot or destroy (plants, etc., that do not conform to a desired standard).
9. to perform this operation upon: to rogue a field.

–adjective 10. (of an animal) having an abnormally savage or unpredictable disposition, as a rogue elephant.
11. no longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable; deviating, renegade: a rogue cop; a rogue union local.

Synonyms:
1. villain, trickster, swindler, cheat, mountebank, quack. See knave

(sarah palin has a book out, i thought i'd post these definitions of 'rouge')

ill kiddie

i am not very well.

i am totally not used to this, i picked up a bad cough on friday and was too run down to fight it and then it became a full blown cold.

i guess this is what i deserve for this weekend, where i climbed along a wall, tried to sail a boat and build a bridge, built a raft and paddled it around, got soaked quite a few times, took a couple of cold showers, ate canteen food and didn't sleep enough.

tough as the weekend was the people on my course are stars and i am well glad i went!

but yeh, i'm gunna need a few days off work to recover from this. dave is making me a niace curry i can smell it which means it must be good!! :-)

mel visits soon and i would like to be over this by then, i should be anyway!