Even when you don't speak a language, it's often possible to pick up one or two words when abroad. At the very least, people often affect some sort of accent to indicate effort - who hasn't had a go at a mock Italian accent when ordering some 'bel-la pas-ta' or 'spa-ghet-ti bolo-gne-se'? Granted, tonal languages like Chinese and Japanese are going to prove more of a challenge, but in most European languages, being an English speaker means you should have at least a go at the basics of hallo-ing and goodbye-ing. Except there are a few languages that are guaranteed to flummox even the most dedicated of holiday linguists. Hungarian's one, but there's one even more close to home. Oh yes. Welsh.
Choice facts that I have learned: Welsh has two extra letters in the alphabet. But, sadly for all those Scrabble players, the high-scoring letters of j,k,q,v,x and z are taken out. Even more sadly, there are lots of double letters (which, 'Speak Welsh' helpfully advises are one single letter if you're doing a crossword. ch, dd, ff, ll, ng, ph, rh, th, Apparently it's a gendered language (masculine and feminine, which I hadn't known), and you pronounce everything that you see. Apart from when they're exceptions, which you just have to learn. But how on earth do you pronounce every letter in something as basic as 'I am' - 'Rydw i'?
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