Welsh Speaking Druids...

[Dysgwr]

Sut mae pawb,

Dw i'n dysgu Cymraeg ers tair blynedd. dw i'n byw yn Sbaen felly does gen i ddim llawer o gyfle i'w ymerfer hi.

Dw i wedi ffeindio (ar y we) cwrs dda iawn i helpu ni i siarad yr hen iaeth: Say Something in Welsh, ac mae o'n am ddim.

[Peter Freeman]

Ac hefyd, os ddiddorol gydach, mae fforwm Cymraeg ar y we;
http://www.maes-e.com/
Cyfle i chi ymarfer dy gymraeg sgwennu 'ta beth.

[Dysgwr]

Diolch yn fawr iawn Peter.

Wnes i geisio gwneud "geiriadur y derwedd" yma, ond wnaeth y syniad ddim ffynnu

Roeddwn i'n defnyddio mwy o Gymraeg yn fy "druidry"

Tan y tro
Terry

[Heddwen]

Mae Cymraeg ti'n dda iawn, Panoramix. Hoffwn i wneud mwy o ddefodol yn y Gymraeg gan fy mod yn byw yma ac yn ceisio anrhydeddu y lle rwy'n byw ac yn fy hynafiaid. Pob lwc gyda'r Gymraeg, cadwch i fyny gyda'r gwaith da.

Bendithion Yule i pawb oddi wrth Cymru gwyn

[tannos]

dw i'n sicr Heddwen fach y fyddi di defnyddio'th cymraeg trwy'r amser cyn bo hir, gei di weld . Mae'n gwestiwn o'r hyder. Dw i'n byw yn yr Almaen ac yn defnyddio'm cymraeg bron a bob dydd

[Roost]

Noswedd dda

Sut mae heddiw? Dw i'n dysgu Cymraeg ond dw i'n dim dda.

Wish I remembered more from school but Pembrokeshire (where I'm from) isn't the most Welsh part of Wales, well not the bit I was brought up in, wrong side of the Landsker. My mother's a native Welsh speaker but never spoke to my brother or I in Welsh. I'm trying to learn more now as much for my daughter's sake (she's 2 and a half and as we're in north Pembs now she'll be going to a Bilingual school) as for the cultural links. It's just finding the time - and I struggle practising on the neighbours as there's only so many times you can say "Bore da! Sut ych chi? Mae'n bwrw glaw heddiw!" lol

[Ffenics Y Feudwy]

I'm Welsh! I'm a druid! Unfortunately I'm not as fluently spoken as my half brother as his dad constantly spoke to him in welsh, but i know enough to follow a conversation as I was taught through the medium of welsh until I was 7, then it was on a nearly daily basis throughout school. I understand the basic grammar, mutations and pronounciation thanks to being taught at a young age but I'm afraid I'm not the best at it. Although I do love correcting people on pronounciation. Maybe a little too much!

Hwyl!

[Canu Taliesin]

Hawddamor gyfeillion annwyl, difyr iawn gweld cymaint o fynd ar yr hen bethau. Faint o Gymru sydd yma?

[Heddwas /|\]

... He was an anglican priest (funnily enough) that saw God present in the world, and indistinguishable from it. No division of subjest and object. A true spiritual visionary.

Celtic Christianity has arguably maintained its vision of Deity as imminent rather than transcendent precisely because it is rooted in the Druidic tradition.

[Ianto]

Henffych Kris. Ychydig yn hwyr i'r parti, mae genai ofn!

Cymro Cymraeg yn wreiddiol o Ynys Môn ydw i ac wedi gweld y goleini o'r diwedd! Dwi'n byw yn Ninas Mawddwy bellach, ond yn mynd 'nol i'r Ynys o leiaf unwaith y mis.

Ianto x

[skepticskitchen]

Hi
Partial Welsh speaking Welshman here. My Grandmother was fluent and a native speaker and we spoke in Welsh in my house until I was about 7...I live in the States (My family immigrated in 1948 to get away from the post-war rationing which lasted until 1954).

Currently I'm working on translating the rituals into Welsh and turning them into Gregorian Chants.

Cymru am byth,
/|\ Wesley

[Heddwen]

Hi
Partial Welsh speaking Welshman here. My Grandmother was fluent and a native speaker and we spoke in Welsh in my house until I was about 7...I live in the States (My family immigrated in 1948 to get away from the post-war rationing which lasted until 1954).

Currently I'm working on translating the rituals into Welsh and turning them into Gregorian Chants.

Cymru am byth,
/|\ Wesley

Lovely to hear that you're keeping the language alive over there, I'd love to hear the Gregorian chants.

[skepticskitchen]

There are several Welsh speaking communities in the US. My Grandmothers neighbors also spoke Welsh and had immigrated around the same time my Grandmother and her kids did. Most of the male kids went off to work in the coal mines of Tennessee and my Grandmother took up teaching as did my mother. Grandmother was one of the "cunning people" or "clever people" of Wales and provided herbal and natural folk remedies and medicines using ingredients right out of her extensive garden.

The "cunning people" are what became of the Ovates after the 7th Century. It runs in my family. Both men and women in my family have been "cunning people" dating all the back to at least the 17th century (which is as far back as my family records go) and in every generation. My Grandmother passed her knowledge on to me (as I showed more interest than my purely secular mother who was supposed to gain the knowledge from Grandmother) and I use it today providing herbal and natural remedies and medicines. I even have a flu medicine made with Elderberries that will help you get over your flu up to 5 days sooner than without, so it turns a 2 week sickness into a 1 week sickness so you can get back to work sooner. I hardly ever took a sick day during my childhood in school, and if I did it was only 1 day.

All of this was taught to me in the Welsh language, but we started speaking English more and more as my school teachers were dubious about the language I sometimes wrote in, and when I first started school I could barely speak English and my teachers called my Grandmother to the school and were trying to convince here that I was mentally retarded because I was counting to 10 "in a gibberish language" until Grandmother set them straight and told them I was speaking Welsh and didn't understand much english. I was finally fluent in English by the beginning of the 2nd grade.

I wish I had Grandmothers Welsh copy of The Mabinogion. I have a Welsh copy of The Red Book of Hergest copyright 1910, but I would like to have the complete Mabinogion in Welsh.

[Heddwen]

Great to hear that you come from such a long lineage of cunning folk and welsh speakers. Its so lovely that you have kept the traditions and customs alive. My grandmother couldn't speak any english until she was fairly old and remembered wearing the 'welsh not' sign around her neck at school. I can't speak it fluently but my children can as they went to a welsh language school. It will be so useful if they want to get a job here, as well as preserving the language. My great aunt was taught by a member of the cunning folk and practised herbal healing and incantations also.

[skepticskitchen]

My grandmother couldn't speak any english until she was fairly old and remembered wearing the 'welsh not' sign around her neck at school.

My Grandmother told me stories of the ffon cymraeg (Welsh stick) which was used to beat the first student heard by the teacher speaking Welsh. After the beating she was given the stick to beat the next student heard speaking Welsh. If my Grandmother failed to beat another student, she was beaten twice as hard as the first time. This was all with (guess what?) an English school teacher. Go figure.

[Heddwen]

Barbaric, wasn't it? Thankfully, things have moved on and I don't come from a very welsh speaking place - Aberystwyth. Hence, I was sent to an english first language school and for that reason I am not fluent although I am a keen learner - a lifelong learner. I'm a bit rusty at the moment.