10 September, 2006

WELSHMAN WANTED

Respectable drama teacher seeks outgoing Welshman with sense of humour for amusing individual project. Welshpersons of a female disposition also welcome. Preference will be given to those living somewhere between Jebel Ali and Satwa. Many thanks.

Actually, I have a student who needs to develop a Welsh accent for a role, but she is not British, we don't know any Welsh people here, I have no recordings, and my Welsh accent is only suitable for pantomime. So we're stumped.

Is there anyone out there who'd like to help?

Please contact me on HeyMamaDuck@gmail.com
Posted by Passionate Dilettante at 6:24 pm

6 comments:

secretdubai said...

"Welshman wanted"

The first and last time this phrase will ever appear in the history of personal ads.


;)

10 September, 2006 19:05
Tim Newman said...

Cheeky wench!!!

10 September, 2006 19:46
secretdubai said...

Both. It's an Indo-European language on the Celtic branch, most closely related to Breton and Cornish. It is totally mutually unintelligible with English. Ie: unlike Swedish and Norwegian, or Mahgreb and Mashreq Arabic, there is no way an English speaker could understand any Welsh without being taught, and vice versa.

Welsh people also have an accent (which varies from North to South, but is always identifiably "Welsh") when they speak English.

10 September, 2006 23:27
secretdubai said...

Just as with Welsh, they have separate languages, but also identifiable accents. I can always recognise an Irish accent, and I can sometimes tell the difference between Southern and Northern Irish accents. There would also be lots more subtle variants of accent within Ireland that Irish people would more easily recognise. With Scottish: I can recognise that, but I can't really distinguish between different Scottish accents, but a Scottish person could. Occasionally I confuse a very hard Northern Irish accent with Scottish, but only if I haven't been listening for long enough. I would never confuse Southern Irish with Scottish because Southern Irish is so much softer.

In terms of languages, Scottish and Irish are quite closely related to each other, and (I think) possibly mutually intelligible. Like Welsh they are on the Celtic branch of Indo European, but on a separate (twig?!) within that, and not mutually intelligible with Welsh (except perhaps to linguists). See here.

Kind of funny to think that they all were mutually intelligible once, back in the days of proto-Celtic, but now people that once understood one another can no longer do so (unless they learn each other's language).

11 September, 2006 04:18
Anonymous said...

Wow, Secret, that is erudite.

Interestingly, for DG's further information, speaking of the Indo-European family, Hindi is thus related to English, as French is related to Bengali and German is related to Punjabi. See here.

Hindi has no relation, however, to any of the South Indian languages, such as Tamil or Malayalam, which are not derived from Sanskrit, but are basically Dravidian.

To most South Indians, Hindi is as alien as Russian. On the other hand, English should be acceptable to North Indians as it is related to Hindi.

Any luck with the Welsh person? I mean the Welsh person who could be male but with a "female disposition".

11 September, 2006 09:41
Passionate Dilettante said...

Fascinating stuff, Secret.

Tonk, you can trace the spread and development of language, as our ancestors migrated north and spread across across Europe. As groups moved into different terrains and climates in successive migrations, new words evolved. Thus,while the progress and evolution of words for milk can be traced through every Indo-European language, some had no word for snow or sea for centuries. Bill Bryson's 'Mother Tongue'is very good, if you're interested.

Tim - Aaaaah!

No I haven't found my WelshPERSON yet, but I'm glad I posted. Unexpected pleasures.

Dear WelshPERSON, wherever you are, please contact me on HeyMamaDuck@Gmail.com. Ta!

11 September, 2006 16:44

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