You know how people talk about taking languages that’ll be useful? Meh. Usefulness is seriously overrated. ;) This morning I decided to continue my longstanding academic tradition of studying fringe languages by registering for Syriac and Ugaritic next semester. And I’m giddy with excitement.
You see, my freshman year I took Latin and Coptic, both semesters. Then after my mission I took Middle Egyptian and Greek, then Old English, and then Middle English. And this semester I’m taking Welsh. Not all of these are completely Davy Jonesed (and Welsh is thriving), sure, but even so, there’s something seriously awesome about studying languages no one else cares about. Aye, it warms the cockles of my heart. (Here you go, in case you were wondering. I know I was.)
Comments
In Welsh right no eh? That’s interesting but I don’t know how you define thriving. Did you know that 80% of Welsh people don’t speak Welsh? But Welsh is quite a resilient language, seeing as it was practically illegal only a handful of decades ago, forbidden to be spoken in schools, courts or many work places. And now that it is an official language of Britain some say that it is the most subsidized minority language in the world, with millions being fed in to Welsh media, of which only 1% of Britains understand.
Anyway, good luck wrapping your tongue around words like Llwchmynydd, Bwlchtocyn, Dwygfylch, Cmystwyth, Pontrhydfendigaid or Cnwch Coch or the phrase “A ydycg wedi talu a dodi eich tocyn yn y golwg.”
PS. Plagiarism alert! Sorry Ben, I’m not really this smart, I got it all from Bill Brysons ‘The Mother Tongue.’ I hope you haven’t read it so that I sounded smart for a few seconds.
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