Customer Reviews

Modern Welsh: A Comprehensive Grammar (Comprehensive Grammars)

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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" is the 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.

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.