#cymblr

[official-wales]

Hi! Random question, where would you recommend I start if I want to learn Welsh? (A specific youtuber, a course, etc)

SHWMAE!! I made a post that might be useful to you recently. I'll put it here.

If I had to paraphrase some of the useful things from that post, I'd say definitely check out learnwelsh.cymru. It has loads of different course options suited to how you want to learn, as well as loads of other cool resources at different levels.

Definitely recommend Doctor Cymraeg. He's like everyone's high school second language Welsh teacher, but if the teacher taught exclusively while walking through the local park.

Another good youtube account is Welsh With Us. I haven't watched a lot, but it's pretty good if you want to really get to grips with grammar and pronunciation.

Let me know if I can be of any more help! And if anyone else could recommend me some good resources to give out, that would be great too

Diolch and have fun learning!!! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[fishmirrors]

hhhngh welsh miku…

[b1odeuwed]

the brazilian miku trend is awesome so i hit miku with the welsh beam

[llyfrenfys]

PLEASE TELL US ABOUT Y DDRAIG TRAWS!

Certainly! I'm more than happy to oblige.

First though I'm gonna need to tldr: the history of Y Ddraig Goch before we get onto the (accidentally) canonically trans part.

A brief history of Y Ddraig Goch:

(The modern Welsh flag)

Y Ddraig Goch first appears in the tales of the Mabinogi (Charlotte Guest version) in the tale of Lludd and Llefelys where it is fighting a white dragon. The fight is also described/expanded upon in the c. 829 AD text Historia Brittonum (attributed to Nennius) - where the red dragon represents Wales and the white dragon represents the Anglo-Saxons. In the story the red dragon triumphs over the white. Of course, Geoffrey of Monmouth also covers the story c. 1136 in Historia Regnum Brittaniae in which he introduces the concept of the red dragon heralding the arrival of King Arthur.

Geoffrey of Monmouth claims Arthur used a banner featuring a golden dragon. But we also know the accuracy of Monmouth can be questionable at times. Owain Glyndŵr did use a banner with a golden dragon called Y Ddraig Aur - raised in 1401 at Caernarfon - Glyndŵr chose this banner as a nod to the supposed banner of Arthur and his father.

Later on the Tudor monarchs (being a Welsh family) adopted a red dragon on a white and green background in their heraldry. Eventually Y Ddraig Goch on a white and green background became the official badge of Wales in 1800. The design became the official flag of Wales in 1959.

Y Ddraig Traws:

Now for the thing you're all here for -

So, as outlined, the history of the dragon as a national symbol of Wales goes back a long way. If we're just talking post-1959, there's some interesting implications for Y Ddraig Goch's depiction.

This is what the Welsh flag (and Y Ddraig Goch) looked like in 1959 when it was officially adopted as the flag of Wales. It looks broadly the same as the first flag and has some common features - such as not having a penis (or, as in the correct heraldic terminology - a pizzle). Meanwhile, in the arms of the Tudors (specifically Henry VII)

(Tudor dragon with pizzle) vs (dragon on the flag of Cardiff - pizzleless)

the penis is almost always included. So much to the point that the present royal family still includes the penis. While pretty much 0 depictions of the dragon in Wales include a penis. So you could interpret this as the dragon is seen as male only by the British royal family and as female everywhere else (which kinda implies that at some point the Tudor dragon had an mtf transition in Wales and she keeps getting misgendered by the royal family every time she is depicted in (mostly) England).

So much to the point that in 1995 this pound coin was made by the Royal Mint featuring the pizzle on the dragon with all four feet touching the ground as opposed to standing up (passant rather than rampant).

But in Wales you'd be hard pressed to see a pizzled dragon anywhere. Ergo, we can only conclude Y Ddraig Goch is trans and she transitioned in Wales and keeps getting misgendered in England.

[note: This is mostly tongue in cheek - but I do think it's fun to extrapolate that the Welsh dragon is trans because of the differences in depiction between Wales and England. Like many things Welsh, it is misrepresented by England and the idea of the Welsh dragon being misgendered only in England is, I think, a good metaphor for a whole lot of English treatment of Wales.]

Unrelatedly, there is a gay Welsh flag held at the National Museum of Wales which has a very wonky dragon which I find very endearing.

(cleaned up version I made)

So much so I made it an emoji in my Welsh bilingual LGBTQIA+ Discord (requirements for joining are - be 16+, either speak or are learning Welsh and identify as LGBTQIA+ in some way. Dm for link!).

(triaist ti 'you tried' emoji)

~ Completely unrelatedly ~ never forget the time someone was trying to homophobic to me by suggesting that I was disrespecting all the soldiers who died 'for the Welsh flag' by making it rainbow colours and not red - arguing that any change of colour of the dragon was disrespectful. Reader, my bus pass at the time for Mid Wales Travel had a purple dragon on it.

[crynwr-drwg]

*this is aimed mostly at people who live in or are from Wales/Cymru, but anyone can give their thoughts.

Would love to hear reasonings from either side with it in the tags or replies

In reference to this petition:

[creatrixcymraes]

How do you say period (like to have your period) yn gymraeg? Mine driving me crazy makes it occur to me that it's an important word to know, and not one I'm likely to learn on an app! 💗💗💗

That is a good question! The Welsh word for menstruation is "mislif" or "fisglwyf", which translates literally as "month-wound" haha

I actually don't know whether that's the most commonly used word among first-language Welsh speakers, so I'd love to hear any additional input from people that know more than me 💖

[siaradwast]

goddd one of those "pretty words i just found out about" tiktoks came up on my pinterest and one of the words was.... hiraeth. and the definition given was something like "an intense homesickness for a home you cannot return to". and im just. how like. difficult is it to actually find the proper cultural context of a word & how the definition relates to that. i don't think i would mind the common usage of hiraeth on the Internet so much if there was any sort of reference to wales/welsh/welsh context of the word included .... but there never is !!!!

[03josten]

does anyone have any welsh language tv shows recommendations????? the few i've tried in the past have absolutely bored me but i need the practice

[eternal-moss]

Oh yeah question for cymblr, I was asking my dad this and he didn’t know, I was wondering if it was well known or not- I think most saints are called ‘Sant []’, but Saint David always seems to be ‘Dewi Sant’, is there a reason for it being the other way around? Is this way more common than just him bc I can’t think of any besides him. If anyone knows the answer I’d be interested :)

[blodeuweddschild]

Message to welsh tumblr we need to start going by cymblr right now this is not a request it is a demand

[cythraul]

#tymblr, I am currently putting together plans to visit Wales in 2025. We're still brainstorming destinations.

If folks have recommendations, I'm super eager to hear them!

[chaosintheavenue]

Screenshot courtesy of my brother. What in the sweet fuck is this fake Welsh? XD

[llyfrenfys]

I have made some Welsh LGBTQ+ Prints!

P'nawn da! Today is the day I'm finally launching my Welsh LGBTQ+ prints for sale (find them here). Like with my dissertation, they're pay as you feel (min. £2 plus postage) and I can post them to the UK, US, EU and Canada! Designs include the 2017 Gilbert Baker flag with the stripe meanings in Welsh and English, the map of Wales featuring my pride redesigns of the historic county flags of Wales, lesbian redesign of the Cardiff flag and a brand new design featuring 12 pride flags with the names of each in Welsh and English. I have 5 of each print in stock!

If you're new here or didn't know, unfortunately I experienced several major life changes this year which have really affected my finances (hospitalisation, long term relationship ended, emergency house move, job loss due to employer discrimination and a family member diagnosed with a terminal illness. For more details see this post). In order to help support myself I'm offering these prints for sale while I search for a new part time job. At the time of writing, I only have enough money in savings to cover 2 more months of rent and bills (not including food), so anything you can spare will help me afford food and keep doing what I love. I also have a patreon if you want to support me there.

I have also got my 47-page undergraduate dissertation on the development of Welsh-language terminology between 1972 and 2022 available here as pay as you feel (even £1!). Any support is hugely, hugely appreciated.

[crynwr-drwg]

If you can, please come check us out in Trefforest! If you need more information, check the tweet, or just ask!

[creatrixcymraes]

more door signs ready to sell! these will be listed online if there are any left after Aberystwyth Pride this weekend 😇