Cyfweliad radio ag Eirlys Richards, cyfaill i ni sy’n byw yng Ngorllewin Awstralia, dysgu’r iaith frodorol Walmatjari, a dysgu’r bobl frodorol sut i fod yn diwtoriaid iaith. Mae hi’n sân am sut ddaeth hi i fyw yn Fitzroy Crossing, yn 1967, er mwyn cyfieithu’r beibl i iaith gwbl ddierth iddi hi. Erbyn hyn mae hi’n rhugl yn yr iaith, ac yn ennill gwobrau am ei chyhoeddiadau dwyieithog o straeon traddodiadol.

Daethon ni i’w nabod pan ddaeth hi yma rhyw 3 blynedd yn ôl, gyda ei ffrind Barbara (ieithydd arall), er mwyn ymchwilio bach o hanes eu teuluoedd Cymreig, a dysgu bach o iaith frodorol eu cyndeidiau. Braf iawn clywed ei llais eto.

Dadeni’r Gymraeg – mae hyn yn edrych yn gyfarwydd, felly mae’n debyg i mi ei flogio o’r blaen, ond dw i’n lled sicr na wnes i wrando ar bopeth o’r blaen. Stori ar NPR (radio cyhoeddus yr UDA) am deulu di-Gymraeg sy’n magu plentyn i siarad Cymraeg.

Wallography, or the Britton described – adolygiad o’r llyfr o 1682 gan y Sais William Richards.

Oes, mae *rhaid* i chi ddysgu!

Reporters of the Catalan Parliamentary Commission entrusted with writing the new Home-rule law for Catalonia admitted yesterday, January 12, that knowledge of Catalan language will be enforced by law, a wish all political parties are agreed on, even though Spanish Conservatives have some objections to.

Diolch i Sion Jobbins am y linc. Mae angen blog ar Sion, dw i’n credu.

Pick ‘n’ Mix Celts – gan awdur sy’n casau joss-stick Celticism â chasineb pur.

[Ireland] is indeed the self-proclaimed Celtic mecca, where the term Celtic is applied indiscriminately to virtually every department of life, from spirituality to politics, jewellery, music, sticky liqueurs and even the economy – the boom of the 1990s having been inevitably baptised the “Celtic tiger”.
The mainstream Churches, Catholic and Protestant, on both sides of the water, have embraced Celtic “heritage”, however dimly understood, with equal enthusiasm and often for similar reasons. It sounds vaguely anti-colonial – always a good thing. For them, too, it means anything positive, liberated, a tad “alternative”, or just plain wholesome.

Hoffwn i sgwennu rant go fawr am yr agwedd yma, ond mae awdur y darn yn llygad ei le, ac mae prinder o amser ’da fi: dw i ar fy fordd i ddysgu iaith y Celt bondigrybwyll i griw bach dethol o bobl. Fydd dim un ohonyn nhw yn gwisgo gemwaith piwter. (Jyst fel aside, dw i wedi sylweddoli bod y dysgwyr sy’n fwya rhamantus am yr iaith, eu cysylltiadau Cymreig, a holl bolycs y niwl Celtaidd yw’r rhai cyntaf i adael y cwrs pan daw’n amlwg nad ydych chi’n cael dysgu iaith Celtaidd heb wneud eich gwaith cartre.)

Problemau dysgu Iseldireg. Swnio’n gyfarwydd?

n Amsterdam, native speakers of English and other Westerners must wage an ongoing guerrilla battle if they want to speak the language of the country they’re living in. While the most common complaint is that when one speaks in Dutch one gets a response in English – which just about anywhere else in the world would not be done because it would be considered extremely rude – there are a number of others. One is that no one corrects you if you make a mistake. A related complaint is that no one helps you to learn the language either. And many people speak English at the slightest excuse. One person told me: “Dutch people can pause to think if they want to say something, but if I can’t immediately think of a word, they jump at me and scream �Say it in English!’”

Mae bob dysgwr Cymraeg â’i stori am y tro cyntaf iddo drial ei Gymraeg ar siaradwr brodorol, a chael ymateb cyffelyb. Mae’n dal i ddigwydd i mi, a dw i wedi dysgu ers 10 mlynedd bellach.

Diolch i Siôn am y linc.

Language Log ar ffersiynau lleol o feddalwed. Cwpl o bwyntiau dilys yma:

There’s also a subjective factor here. For many people, being able to do their work in their own language is a matter of pride, especially when the alternative is a language that they associate with colonialism.

[Microsoft] has often been criticized for not localizing their software when they didn’t see enough profit in it. For instance, it is reported that Microsoft only produced Welsh versions of its software after Welsh versions of Linux and other FLOSS software appeared.

Dysgu ym Mandarin yn Ysgol Caernarfon (yng Nghanada).

The board currently offers full bilingual programs in seven languages: American Sign Language (ASL), Arabic, Mandarin, German, Hebrew, Spanish and Ukranian. A total of 27 schools offer half of each day’s programming in the target language and the other half in English.

The model is a dramatic departure from the one found in most other large Canadian cities where languages other than French and English can be studied in individual credit courses, or else after school or on weekends in heritage language sessions. Edmonton, although not nearly as ethnically diverse as Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal, has emerged as the leader in second-language learning.

Indeed, bilingual education is now being trumpeted by some of Canada’s leading educators as the best way for children � and especially immigrant children � to develop their overall academic skills. The debate is critical in Canada where students who speak a language other than English at home now make up 20 to 50 per cent of the general school population in Canada’s biggest cities.

Ond fyddai’n braf i weld erthygl mor gynhwysfawr â hyn yn ein Papur Genedlaethol Bondigrybwyll ni? Erthygl am ddwyieithogrwydd sy ddim yn cael ei seilio ar gwesiynau o genedligrwydd, ac, yn enwedig, gwleidyddiaeth pleidiol.

Na, dw i ddim yn ôl, jyst ffeindio fy hunan gyda awr i’w lenwi yn y llyfrgell.

Languagehat ym Montreal – sy’n sôn am sut mae pobl Cwebéc yn hollol gyfforddus â chyfnewid codau (code switching), hynny yw, siarad mwwy nag un iaith ar yr un pryd, rhywbeth sy’n fy nrysu fi o hyd wrth siarad â Chymry Cymraeg.

People seemed by and large bilingual; a striking example of this occurred during our dinner at the (very good) Bistro C�t� Soleil on rue St-Denis, when we sat next to two women, the younger probably a grad student in art and the older perhaps her faculty advisor. The younger spoke almost entirely in French and the older almost entirely in English, but they clearly understood each other perfectly and occasionally dropped into the other’s language (both had fairly heavy accents). Other people switched back and forth in the course of a few sentences. I’ve been in many multilingual cities and some with a very widespread minority language (often Spanish in the US), but never one where two languages met on such equal terms. Whatever contortions Qu�bec has had to go through to get where it is today, I’m impressed with the result.

Falle na fydd rhaid i ni fynd trwy’r un contortions â Cwebéciaid, ond mae gyda ni crin dipyn o ymnyddu i’w wneud eto.

Cadw, cynnal ac adfer ieithoedd brodorol America. Llawer o ddolenni i’w archwilio.

Stori arall o Latfia: streic newyn dros hawliau iaith yn Latfia. Troi yng nghynffon hon o stori yw nid Latfieg yw iaith y protestwyr, ond Rwsieg. Maen nhw’n protestio yn erbyn newidiadau yn y sustem addysg sy’n golygu bod 60% o bynciau yn ysgolion Latfia yn cael eu dysgu trwy gyfrwng yr iaith Latfieg.

Mae teitl y stori yn drawiadol: Latvians hunger-strike over language. (Fi sy biau’r duo.) Dychmygwch y fath protest yma yng Nghymru, gan y bobl oedd tu ôl i’r mudiad Education First, er enghraifft. Ai “Cymry” fyddai’r bobl ’na? Os na, pam?

Racism in Welsh Politics – detholiad o’r erthygl gan Patrick McGuinness ymddangosodd yn Planet 159.

By [Raymond] Williams’s definition, the “nationalist” projects of small nations might be antidotes to, positive examples for, the nationalisms of larger nations. British politicians would rather have us waving flags on touchlines (even if that means the occasional bout of � largely uncondemned � “I�d rather be a Paki than a Turk” from England fans) than actually thinking about what “nation” really means. In Wales, they’d simply rather brand any intellectual activity that bears on this question and doesn’t come up with pious clichés “racist”.

Llawer mwy o erthyglau werth eu darllen yn llyfgell Planet.

Erthygl ar ddefnydd ieithoedd yn Estonia.

“Legitimization of conducting official business in the Russian language without a guarantee of official business in Estonian would lead to Estonian being forced out from the official business of the city and reduce motivation of municipal employees, employees of municipal institutions, including headmasters and teachers, to learn Estonian,” the Education and Science Ministry wrote in response to the Narva City Council’s request.

Ieithoedd bychain yn Ewrop a chais Sbaen i ennill yr hawl i’w dinasyddion ddefnyddio eu hieithoedd eu hunan wrth siarad â Brwsel. Nawr bod oob iaith newydd sy’n cael ei derbyn gan yr EU yn creu mwyfwy o “barau iaith”, gyda’r costau ychwanegol mae hynny yn golygu, ai hyn yw’r ffordd ymlaen?

Adroddiad Cyngres Ewrop: ymateb o’r Alban:

C�ig bliadhna as d�idh do ph�rlamaid na h-Alba a bhi air a st�idheachadh chan eil e ach bochd gu bheil sinn a’ faighinn dealbh nas soillear air staid na G�idhlig as an Roinn-E�rpa seach an luchd-riaghlaidh againn fh�n.

Five years after the establishment of the new Scottish parliament, it is a depressing fact that the clearest assessment of Gaelic provision comes from Europe rather than from our own rulers.

Sgersli bilîf.

Mae gwasanaeth teledu Maori yn cael ei lansio heddi. Mae’r erthygl yn cymharu’r sianel newydd â S4C, ac yn sôn am y problemau a ddinistriodd y fersiwn cyntaf o MTS.

Stori yn y Scotsman am adroddiad gan Gyngres Ewrop, sy’n darbwyllo y dylai sefudlu gorsaf teledu Gaeleg, ar fodel S4C. Felly, Big Brother yn yr Gaeleg, Pop Idol yn y Gaeleg, Blind Date yn y Gaeleg…