I was looking back to see what I wrote on here last August.. looking for signs of encroaching senility and the like ... and I read this brilliant idea of mine ..... and right there and then I though of something that would make it even better and even more do-able.
But to start with, here's what I wrote then ...
Roedd Marged dynes brydferth, gyda tylluan yn clwydd ar ei deheulaw, 'run gem ar ei llaw*. Mae awel chwythu drwy'r eglwys y mae hi yn sefyll, yn aros yn dawel, yn dioddefus. Yn sydyn clywodd diasbad, yn dod oddi ar y groes gan yr allor.
Marged was a beautiful woman, with an owl perched on her right hand, which also bore a jewel*. A breeze blew through the church in which she stood, waiting silently, patiently. Suddenly she heard a scream , coming from the cross by the altar.
Here's the nouns from the story....
awel breeze
dynes woman
gem jewel, gem
llaw hand
tylluan owl
llan church
deheulaw right hand
allor altar
diasbad cry,scream
croes cross
Well, there's something they have in common ....
P A U S E
F O R
F U RT H E R
THOUGHT.
WHAT
HAVE
THEY
GOT
IN
COMMON ?
Well, obviously, all the nouns are feminine .
Learning noun genders is a complete pain in the bum.... wouldn't it be good if somebody wrote a story in Welsh in which all the nouns were feminine. We could say to ourselves, when we saw the word "awel" somewhere else, hey, that's a feminine noun, because I remember Marged (fem) in that church (fem) where there was a breeze (fem).
And then somebody, could write a different story ( in Welsh) in which all the nouns were masculine, and then you might see " rhyfelgri" and say, wow, that's masculine, because I remember Steffan (masc) letting out a wild battle-cry (masc) as he led his men (masc) into the lake ( llyn)(masc) ...
You might think he was a bit silly leading his men into a lake, but it often helps you memorise things if they're silly, or rude, or remarkable. Also, warriors tended to be rather smelly back then,
Anyhow, I think that a book of such stories ( well, two books actually) would fly off the shelves like flies flying off a shelf ..and it's my idea, but anyone out there can do it if they like, I waive all intellectual property in the hope that somebody will do it. ... relatively soon please, because i'm getting older by the minute. I can feel everything seizing up. Ouch.
...... so ........... that was my idea then. It still is. But now for my brilliant extra thing ........
I thought, maybe nobody has taken the idea up because it would be a lot of work.
So ... how about having the same idea, but making it a book of short stories, written by different people, and the whole lot having only masculine nouns? And later, another, feminine version. Or the other way round.
That would mean each author would only have to write a short story ...and you'd then have much more variety and interest. It would be quicker to produce, with much less work for each writer.
I'm sure that those two books would be brilliant for us poor downtrodden learners of Welsh, and would indeed fly off the shelves. And it would be A VERY GOOD THING.
This idea is FREE for anyone to actually do ..... come on ...... get on with it !
Now here's a chunky sort of song .... a "get-on-with-it" sort of song really ...