Minor European Languages

[Tolls]

If 'y' is in the last syllable of a multi-syllable word it is pronounced 'i' (as in sit)...earlier syllables would pronounce it 'uh'...if it is in a single syllable word it is pronounced 'ee'...

There are exceptions (as with any language), but this generally holds...hence:

cymru (uh)
caerdydd (ih)
pen-y-bont (ee)

...for something like Llanfair etc you have to take the individual words that make up the name to get a decent pronounciation, since it is not really a proper placename.

[Gangerolf]

what's a minor language btw. less than 500 000 speakers?

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Sooooo...... any Basque speakers show up yet?

No, there still trying to get their fuses lit in the parking lot.

[Solly]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
what's a minor language btw. less than 500 000 speakers?

You don't really need defintions. I suppose a good one would be languages that are only used in one country yet are not that country's official national language.

One of my flatmates has a grandmother who can still speak Cornish Gaelic. I think it's that anyway..

[Tolls]

Cornish Gaelic I find a bit of an odd one, since it did actually die out before being resurrected by Cornish nationalists...or someone like that.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Tolls
Cornish Gaelic I find a bit of an odd one, since it did actually die out before being resurrected by Cornish nationalists...or someone like that.

That's why alot of this stuff is pretty silly. Welsh is not too far off from that either.

[Solly]

Originally posted by GP


That's why alot of this stuff is pretty silly. Welsh is not too far off from that either.

I remember arguing with a liberal friend of mine about the absolute idiocy of keeping dying languages alive. We should all speak one language, far more efficient.

But of course he was all whiny blah culture blah tradition...

[TCO]

Originally posted by Boddington's


I remember arguing with a liberal friend of mine about the absolute idiocy of keeping dying languages alive. We should all speak one language, far more efficient.

But of course he was all whiny blah culture blah tradition...

What a *****. You should have pushed him over.

[Solly]

He was sat down.

[Myrddin]

Llanfairpwllgwyngerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogo

I believe that you missed 'gyllgo' in the middle


I too don't believe that penguin is derived from Welsh, but it is suggested that 'pen-gwyn' was used by sailors to describe the great auk (a large flightless bird) and so was also used when they first saw penguins

[Dauphin]

Merlin, that's a suggestion I would discount unless you are a Welsh nationalist clinging to some sense of Welsh being important.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Myrddin


I believe that you missed 'gyllgo' in the middle


I too don't believe that penguin is derived from Welsh, but it is suggested that 'pen-gwyn' was used by sailors to describe the great auk (a large flightless bird) and so was also used when they first saw penguins

So I did. You must appreciate it isn't the easiest of words to type

[Myrddin]

No, especially since I'm not sure what a spell-checker would do to it

However I prefer Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog as my favourite-sounding place-name.

Why is it that native English speakers have a problem with rrolling rrrr sounds?

[Solly]

Because there are better things to do with your tongue.

[David James]

What? No one has mentionned Frisian yet? Spoken by a half a million or so in Northern Netherlands (Friesland and Groningen), NW Germany (Ost Friesland) and some islands off the west coast of Denmark...

Stew, you would start a topic like this...