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Dec. 18th, 2009 08:54 pmAfter my final, I went to the library to pick up some Welsh dictionaries and grammars for a Secret Project. It took a lot longer that I thought it was going to, as I had failed to take into account the age of the library books.
So, the majority of the grammars were about Literary Welsh. Which is related to Welsh the same was as the text of the King's James Bible is related to English. Except with more made up words, as the writers had some really, really wrong etymological theories. Most of these words had been thrown out of Literary Welsh, but the wacky ideas about pronouns said, so I wanted to stay away from them.
With the remaining grammars, half of those were Living Welsh. Living Welsh is the bastard child of Literary Welsh and Colloquial Welsh.
I took all this time narrowing down grammars, and the only Colloquial Welsh grammar was the one I had used before in my projects involving Welsh. I also ended up with a grammar I was unsure the exact style it covers, but since I'm familiar with the author I checked it out anyway.
Then came the fun task of finding a book that was written in Welsh. At first I thought this would be an easy task as I saw a book intended for beginners in Welsh. It was checked out. All the other novels on the shelves were translated from Welsh, which left me with poetry. Lots and lots of poetry, in medieval, Renaissance, and modern flavors. I was almost swayed by a book of Old Welsh erotic poetry, but I saw sense and picked up a book of Modern poetry.
Okay, technically there were other prose books, but it mostly consisted of reprints of medieval Welsh texts.
Since I was there, sorting though the entire Welsh section ( it's about the size of a household bookcase ) I picked up two other books. The first is about Celtic Christianity, and the other is about how Latin and Greek languages influenced the Welsh language and culture.
Oh, and I also got the most recent dictionary they had as to get the most new words possible. Such as noticeboard ( hysbysfwrdd ) and roundabout ( trogylch ). The most recent dictionary there was 1971. I'm sure that there is an even more recent one, but it's in the Reference Room. Happily, it is the revised edition of another dictionary I had checked out before, and still includes the sections that list place names, animals, plants, and food.
So, the majority of the grammars were about Literary Welsh. Which is related to Welsh the same was as the text of the King's James Bible is related to English. Except with more made up words, as the writers had some really, really wrong etymological theories. Most of these words had been thrown out of Literary Welsh, but the wacky ideas about pronouns said, so I wanted to stay away from them.
With the remaining grammars, half of those were Living Welsh. Living Welsh is the bastard child of Literary Welsh and Colloquial Welsh.
I took all this time narrowing down grammars, and the only Colloquial Welsh grammar was the one I had used before in my projects involving Welsh. I also ended up with a grammar I was unsure the exact style it covers, but since I'm familiar with the author I checked it out anyway.
Then came the fun task of finding a book that was written in Welsh. At first I thought this would be an easy task as I saw a book intended for beginners in Welsh. It was checked out. All the other novels on the shelves were translated from Welsh, which left me with poetry. Lots and lots of poetry, in medieval, Renaissance, and modern flavors. I was almost swayed by a book of Old Welsh erotic poetry, but I saw sense and picked up a book of Modern poetry.
Okay, technically there were other prose books, but it mostly consisted of reprints of medieval Welsh texts.
Since I was there, sorting though the entire Welsh section ( it's about the size of a household bookcase ) I picked up two other books. The first is about Celtic Christianity, and the other is about how Latin and Greek languages influenced the Welsh language and culture.
Oh, and I also got the most recent dictionary they had as to get the most new words possible. Such as noticeboard ( hysbysfwrdd ) and roundabout ( trogylch ). The most recent dictionary there was 1971. I'm sure that there is an even more recent one, but it's in the Reference Room. Happily, it is the revised edition of another dictionary I had checked out before, and still includes the sections that list place names, animals, plants, and food.
