> I'm just now getting into studying Welsh. Unfortunately most of the > materials I've found focus on spoken Welsh; this isn't bad, its just that I > would like to learn to read it as well. Among the learning materials there > seems to be a lot of inconsistency regarding spelling. Is this inconsistency > reflected in modern written Welsh? The modern teaching material you will find is written in an artifical "dialect" called Cymraeg Byw, or Living Welsh, while books and materials written earlier (before the 80s, perhaps) are written in the literary standard, which has not changed (or has changed minimally) since the 1588 Bible was produced. In Cymraeg Byw, many of the letters which have become more or less silent in spoken usage have been dropped, the most noticeable being the 'f'. For example, English: I am greatest come Literary Welsh: yr ydwyf fi mwyaf dyfod Cymraeg Byw: rydw i mwya dod You also have some changes in vowels: English: I bought Literary Welsh: prynais Cymraeg Byw: prynes and in verb endings: English: we are they are Literary Welsh: yr ydym ni y maent hwy Cymraeg Byw: rydyn ni maen nhw (the pronoun has also changed) And I've learned from s.c.c./welsh-l that other conventions, which are not part of the Cymraeg Byw standard, are popular: English: I am I am not Literary Welsh: yr ydwyf fi nid ydwyf fi (ddim) Cymraeg Byw: rydw i dydw i ddim Cymraeg yr Internet: dwi dwi ddim Sorry for calling it "Cymraeg yr Internet", but this is the first place I have observed it. How widespread is this convention? Is it accepted as some sort of standard? =============================================================================== Roger Vanderveen Intel Corporation Hillsboro, OR ===============================================================================