Product Description

This thoroughly updated new edition of Colloquial Welsh is easy to use and completely up-to-date!

Specially written by an experienced teacher for self-study or class use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Welsh. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

What makes Colloquial Welsh your best choice in personal language learning?

• Interactive – lots of exercises for regular practice.
• Clear – concise grammar notes.
• Practical – useful vocabulary and pronunciation guide.
• Complete – including answer key and reference section.

By the end of this rewarding course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in Welsh in a broad range of everyday situations.

Accompanying audio material is available to purchase separately on CD/MP3 format, or comes included in the great value Colloquials Pack.

Product Description

Learn Welsh in just 10 lessons!

Teach Yourself Welsh Conversation shows youhow easy it can be to pick up a new language. It encourages you to speak out loud from the very start. The audio program features 10 topics that include 15 key words, three useful phrases, and one grammar point. Two sample conversations bring all those elements together correctly. There are plenty of review opportunities, so you can gauge your progress and reinforce what you have learned.

In addition, the third CD provides invaluable guidance on holding two-way conversations, addressing such issues as speaking with people who talk very fast or use words and phrases you do not know.

Includes three 60-minute audio CDs

Customer Reviews (3)

Teach Yourself Welsh Conversation
Thank you so much - product arrived in a timely fashion and was just as described.
Couldn't ask for more!

A good beginning for Welsh conversation
I own both the Teach Yourself Welsh and Teach Yourself Welsh Conversation courses.I struggled with the conversations on the CDs with the Welsh course; but the Welsh Conversation course is much easier to follow, takes smaller steps in teaching the Welsh language.In case you may not know it, Welsh is a difficult language to learn.So it helps that the steps are small and more easily learned.If you are familiar with the Pimsleur CD teaching methods, this course, Welsh Conversation, more like that.Frankly the regular Teach Yourself Welsh course is not that easy to follow during the CD conversations, and to this reviewer has been a bit of a disappointment.

teach yourself welsh conversation
Audio quality is excellent. Teaching is easy to follow and well presented.
Highly recommended. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Very strange, almost R-rated depictions of Welsh people
I own the 1984 version, so perhaps the newer version has been changed. However, the practice dialogues in the book are very strange, as they feature a lot of drinking and extramarital affairs.

For instance, in the photo-dialogue for chapter 1, a housewife coaxes a salesman into bed (with a photo of the two of them in the bed!) and the student gets to learn such important phrases as "The husband is coming" and "D**n, the clothes are not by the bed, what can we do?" Another lesson involves a husband tricking his wife into going on vacation at a nudist colony and then getting her pregnant (no pictures of THAT, mind you, but they do show the couple drinking). You get the impression that Welsh people spend all their time getting drunk and/or having sex.

A very odd little book.

Great first book!
My folks brought me this book from Wales. At first I found the phonetic spellings difficult, but onceI'd heard the language spoken, I realized those spellings were very accurate. I especially liked the "Choose one from column A and one from column B" approach to sentence construction.By flipping around, finding the various tenses, and looking up words in the dictionary, I was able to write passable letters to my Welsh-speaking friends within a couple of months. I recommend it highly as a first book for new students of Welsh. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an updated and extended version of the book previously published under the title "A Geography of the Welsh Language 1961-1991". The publication expands on the main themes addressed within the original text, makes reference to research, and presents sets of language data both for individuals and for households in wales. An additional chapter examines the impact of migration on the language, the relationship between social class and ability to speak Welsh, and the bases for the reproduction and maintenance of the language within the context of the family. The final chapter is extended and considers the prospects for the language, in the light of political and insitutional developments (including the Assembly), planning issues (most notably housing) and developments in the field of education. The implications of these and other socio-economic forces for the long-term well-being of the language are evaluated. ... Read more

Product Description
This title includes a book and 2 CDs. Knowing the Welsh language is the key to understanding the culture and history of Wales. This volume is an ideal starter for travellers wanting to learn the language. The 17 lessons are specially designed to help visitors feel comfortable in the country in a variety of situations with dialogues and vocabulary grounded in the detail of everyday life. The two 80-minute audio CDs feature native speakers who offer a unique means of learning the language as spoken in today's Wales. The book rounds off with discussions on Welsh culture, history and life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

New to Welsh
Just in receipt--without CDs or a classroom experience, Welsh should not be attempted.It will take this summer's efforts for sure.

Beginners Welsh by Heini Gruffudd
Provides a good overview of Welsh including grammatical guides and a brief history of the area. Language courses are very practical and efficiently done... unlike some other language books, you don't have to wade through silly, extraneous dialogues about non-native students learning the language. The dialogues get right to the salient linguistic points. Excellent! ... Read more

Product Description
The first volume in a pioneering series on the social history of the Welsh language deals mainly with the period between the Acts of Union and the Industrial Revolution. The status of the language in matters relating to politics, administration, and law is discussed, as well as its place in the fields of religion, education, and scholarship. New light is shed on Welsh as a spoken language as well as its geographical distribution, and particular attention is paid to the efforts made to raise the status of the language in order to remove the stigma placed upon it by the celebrated "language clause" of 1536. ... Read more

Product Description
Written in a lucid, non-technical style, the book starts with the story of how the English language changed throughout the sixteenth century. Subsequent chapters define Shakespeare's main artistic tools and illustrate their poetic and theatrical contributions: Renaissance rhetoric, imagery and metaphor, blank verse, prose speech, and wordplay. The conclusion surveys Shakespeare's multiple and often conflicting ideas about language, encompassing both his enthusiasm at what words can do for us and his suspicion of what words can do to us. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Absolutely indispensible
This book is one of the few books of Shakespearean scholarship that I have read which I find completely, unequivocably indispensible. If you have ever been interested in just how Will Shakespeare does what he does with language, Prof. McDonald's book is the one to read. Thorough but not overlong, it is actually a speedy read.
As for spotchboy, there is absolutely NO evidence for an authorship controversy. This "identity question" was created by bored, insipid people who have a penchant for conspiracy theories. Prof. McDonald ignores that question because there is no issue to discuss, and the book deals with the arts of language. I wish the self-proclaimed "anti-Stratfordians" would realize the arts of scholarship. But it is refreshing to see that even they can realize how great a piece of scholarship this is.

excellent but one glaring ommision
It's no surprise that Prof. McDonald has written such an interesting, informative book. Way back when he was my favorite professor. His enthusiam and understanding got me hooked on the Bard. The one major drawback is his complete disregard of the current authorship scholarship that pretty much settles the identity question, proving for all intents that the Shakespeare canon was written by the Edward deVere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. (For those wishing to learn more, a good place to start in this area is Joseph Sobran's "Alias Shakespeare".) Like most scholars in the academy, McDonald chooses to remain in deep denial about this. So much for disinterested free inquiry. Such a pity. ... Read more

Product Description

Work out Welsh grammar

Whether you are using it as acourse or a reference, Teach Yourself Welsh Grammar is your comprehensiveresource for how the Welsh language works. It isstructured so that you can look up language forms accordingto what you want to say, even if you don’t yet know the grammaticalterms.

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Customer Reviews (1)

Introducing the story of a "life-enhancing" tongue
This little guide's only 125 pages of text, but packs an impressive amount of material into its compact size. Part of the U. of Wales Press series, it introduces you to the history of the language more than its features. The first chapter on its origins takes but ten pages, while "The Changing Fortunes of the Language" narrates its growth, flourishing, and shifting into modern times over sixty pages. The state of the current (as of 1999) language takes about the same space, and a short chapter comparing Welsh with 'other Non-state Languages in Europe" densely gives lots of facts in less than ten pages. Finally, "A Note on the Characteristics of Welsh" in a few pages gives only a hint of what I would have wished much more about: how the language works, not as a grammatical overview but a look at its distinguishing features.

Still, given the editorial constraints which undoubtably keet this a pocket guide, Davies manages to express her interest in this ancient language with erudition, insight, and control. Illustrations and charts break up the text; I found many of the latter helpful in visualizing the linguistic points. Maps also assist understanding of dialectal features and where speakers lived yesterday and at present.

A couple of examples of her comments demonstrate Davies' ability to transcend a dutiful recital of statistics, names, and locations. In the 1920s, for example, bus routes linked far-off places to tourists, and cars also began to enable Anglophones to enter where none may have gone so distantly before. "Remote villages where no language but Welsh had been heard for fifteen centuries, now resounded in summer for English visitors." (62)

As for Plaid Cymru's campaign to conserve Welsh Wales, she sees contradictions in preserving Welsh-speaking communities that need "economic infrastructure" to survive. If Plaid (judging from her perspective ten years ago) appeals more to the minority constituency, this may strengthen the language at the expense of the party's contraction from a wider national influence, so "it will be unable to become the party of Wales as a whole." (110) Davies guardedly holds optimism in the language's holding pattern, and its growth in schools, but fairly indicates its decline as a communal language in many places where it once dominated. On the other hand, unique to Celtic languages, Cardiff represents an urban enclave of speakers, and in such developments Davies sees hope for the future.

Finally, as her preface and afterword eloquently if briefly describe, Davies knows what it's like to be curious about the language while remaining on the outside looking, or hearing, in. As no book seemed to give an overview for such curious readers, she wrote one. "Wanting to read a book is the best reason for writing one." (viii) As an adult learner of Cymraeg, Davies convinces you of what she concludes is its characteristic as a "life-enhancing" emblem of culture and knowledge. ... Read more

Product Description
The third volume in a series of studies on the social history of the Welsh language. This text aims to deepen the understanding of the relationship between the Welsh language and community in the 19th century by revealing parallels and contrasts evident at regional or local level. ... Read more

Product Description
The 1891 census was the first to collect information about the language spoken by the people of Wales, and is therefore a particularly reliable source for historians analyzing the socio-economic structure of Weslh- and English-language ability and the process of language change in Wales at the end of the 19th century. This study concentrates on 20 communities, chosen for their geographical, economic and linguistic characteristics which in 1891, accounted for about 5 per cent of the total population of Wales. For each of the selected areas, a detailed picture of the socio-economic pattern of language use has been constructed by examining a range of social variables, such as age, sex, relation to head of household, place of birth and occupation, in relation to the language spoken. Intergenerational language shift, the linguistic influence of extra-family members, and the effects of mixed marriages on language change are investigated, and particular consideration is given to migration streams and the presence of incoming strangers and returning kin. ... Read more

Product Description
This study presents a compendium of statistical material relating to the Welsh language in the 19th century. Divided into five sections, the statistical findings are presented in tabular form, together with explanatory maps. The volume offers a mirror to the changing linguistic character of Wales in a critical period in its history. ... Read more

Product Description
This is the fifth volume in a pioneering series of authoritative studies on the social history of the Welsh language. It contains twenty-two chapters, all written by acknowledged experts in the field, dealing with the status of the Welsh language in a wide range of social domains, including agriculture and industry, education, religion, politics, law and culture. Although bureaucrats, Celtophobes and some of the upwardly mobile Welsh-speaking bourgeoisie were reluctant to promote the interests of the native tongue, these clearly exerted enormous potential for Welsh to become, both numerically and socially, a powerful influence in several contested domains. The series 'A Social History of the Welsh Language', the fruits of the second major research project of the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies of the University of Wales, will interest and intrigue the general public as well as specialists in the field and help readers to familiarise themselves with the history of a language which, over the centuries, has been an integral part of the everyday life of the Welsh people and their sense of nationhood. ... Read more

Product Description
Language serves as both a symbol and a definer of culture. The well-being and integrity of a culture depend heavily on the strength and vitality of its associated language. It is for this reason that the process of language change within particular cultures needs to be monitored and scrutinized. This volume is a map-based analysis of patterns of language change, specifically the Welsh language. It concludes that the prime influences on the language derive from the large-scale socio-economic changes which have taken place in western society as a whole since the end of World War II. ... Read more

Product Description
Unique in its combination of detailed grammar and challenging exercises, this workbook is an important supplement to any study in modern Welsh language. With emphasis on colloquial, spoken Welsh as used my modern-day native speakers, Basic Welsh is intended as a grammar-based self tutor for those in the earlier stages of learning Welsh.

Features include almost forty grammar points with full explanations; a wide range of increasingly challenging exercises; an answer key for each test; and a Welsh/English-English/Welsh glossary. Used together with its sister volume, Intermediate Welsh, these grammars will support study of the language up to the advanced level. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

For the advanced or precocious student
I am not crazy about this book.It does have some terrific points and points of view about handling the mutations and regional dialects, and as the other reviewer said it is not for the beginners.It covers a lot of points and details in what really is not a large volume, but they are points and details that I think should have been titled something other than "Basic Welsh.""Details of Modern Welsh" might be a better description.This might be a good candidate for an audiobook instead of text, for some of us.I am both a beginner and not really... I have been poking at the language off and on for twenty years or so.The best books I have found for beginners are actually booklets put out by Teledu BBC Cymru called Dechrau Siarad Starting to Speak Welsh. I also have enjoyed a booklet called Speak Welsh, by Gwen Pritchard Jones.Unfortunately these little booklets can be hard to come by.A nice fat dictionary is also invaluable.

Not for absolute beginners
As someone who has been studying Welsh for over a year, I have found King's book helpful in reviewing basic grammatical concepts. The book is organized in units with each unit briefly discussing a specific grammatical point (e.g. "soft mutations" or "the perfect tense"). It helps to have some basic knowledge of gramatical terms as well as a grasp of the basic structures of Welsh before delving into this book. I highly recommend it as a review for the beginning student of Welsh, but it is not an introduction to the language for absolute beginners. ... Read more

Product Description
This new expanded edition of Modern Welsh is the ideal reference source for all speakers and learners of Welsh, suitable for use in schools, colleges, universities and adult classes at all levels. Focusing on contemporary spoken Welsh, this new enlarged edition features a substantial new function-based section, explaining and exemplifying a wide range of sentence and phrase patterns. Notes on variations between dialects and between spoken and formal written forms have also been expanded.
The Grammar presents the complexities of Welsh in a concise and readable form. Common grammatical patterns and parts of speech are discussed in detail, and extensive cross-references make the book comprehensive and easy to use.
Features include
*full use of authentic examples
*particular attention to areas of confusion and difficulty
*extensive index and cross referencing
*initial consonant mutations marked throughout
*separate additional section on communicative functions
*notes on variation between dialects and on formal written language. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Grammars gibble but they don't fall down...
The use of grammars to teach languages (foreign or otherwise) has been deemed anathema by Those Who Know Better, but I believe it's one of the best ways to learn if you can't "immerse" yourself in the language. Actually, for a hairy language like Welsh you'll eventually want to look at a grammar anyway--if you ever plan on getting beyond the "I am a tourist, where is the nearest nuclear containment facility?" or "There are frogs in my bidet, please ventilate my overthruster" stage, that is.

Surprisingly, there are multiple Welsh grammar books on the market. Of the ones I've looked at "Modern Welsh" isthe most comprehensive, readable, and up-to-date. It avoids the use of linguistspeak, is organized in a very usable fashion, and could be read from cover-to-cover if you so desired. And it (supposedly, I can't say of my own knowledge) describes how Welsh is really spoken.

Combined with "Basic Welsh" and "Intermediate Welsh" by the same author, you'll have a decent guide to learning how the language is supposed to work. The other two books are meant to be used as exercise/review tutorials, while this reference covers everything in them plus a lot more.

Although it's a paperback book it seems like a decent binding--sewed and glued folios instead of the all-too-frequent glued cut pages, and the cover seems very sturdy. This probably accounts for some of the cost.

Comprehensive and Easy to Read
Once you've gotten through a basic course or a good book-and-tape set, you'll want a grammar.This one is excellent.

Every principle is illustrated with examples, making this book useful for personal study as well as for use as a reference. Principles such as sentence structure are demonstrated in English as well as Welsh.Where differences of usage exist between north and south Welsh, or literary and colloquial Welsh, they are identified.

The more unusual features of Welsh (mutation, the coexistence of decimal and vingesimal numbering systems, and the existence of both a singular/plural and a collective/unit distinction, for instance) are treated elegantly.

This book is very accessible and well-indexed, making it ideal for students. ... Read more

Product Description
This superb edition of Oxford's Modern Welsh Dictionary has been thoroughly updated with new words in both English and Welsh. It contains hundreds of example phrases of spoken and written Welsh, so that readers can see the language in context. Excellent grammar notes on tricky words and important topics mean that help is always at hand, whether users are working in Welsh or in English. Also included is a new section on vocabulary relating to the Welsh Assembly, to complement the vocabulary lists of countries, regions, languages, and cities that are already present in the dictionary. The handy paperback format and superior coverage of vocabulary make the dictionary the ideal first-choice for those who want a quick-reference dictionary that can be carried easily. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Welsh Dicitionary.
This is the best of many excellent Welsh Dictionaries, far in advance of any other I have used in the past. Its inclusion of phrases using the designated word is a great help. ... Read more

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This title has been revised, with Internet links offering opportunities to hear the language spoken by a native speaker. Grammar is clearly explained, and puzzles provide plenty of practice. This title is part of a series providing a thorough grounding in useful, basic foreign language skills. ... Read more

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Follow the shoelace as it helps Robin the weasel, Princess Eleanor and Fido the pet dragon solve their problems. Innovative activity storybook helps children learn to lace and tie their shoes. ... Read more