[sticky entry] Sticky: About this journal

Jan. 7th, 2026 10:33 pm
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)

My main aim with this journal is to share my thoughts, experiences, and interesting things I've learned while I do my Celtic Studies degree. Celtic Studies is the study of Celtic languages, both modern and extinct, with focus on the six Celtic languages spoken today (Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Breton, Manx, and Cornish) and their associated histories, literatures, cultures, folklores, politics, etc.

A map of the six Celtic nations: Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall, and BrittanyAs well as my Celtic Studies BA, I am also working on a Certificate of Higher Education in Modern Languages. I'm one of the Cornish Language Officers for the Association of Celtic Students. At the moment I'm planning on doing an MA in medieval studies with a focus on Celtic languages/history, and I'd like to do a PhD in something eventually!

I've been interested in Celtic languages and Celtic nations my whole life, although I only started to seriously learn the languages/history/etc when I was a teenager. I'm from Wales, one side of my family is Cornish, and the other side is Scottish and Irish, so the Celtic nations and languages have always been very near and dear to my heart. I'm a second-language Welsh speaker, and I grew up with a little bit of Cornish, Irish, and Scots (the Germanic language) from my family.

I would also like to try and aid in combatting the misinformation, ignorance, and bigotry against the Celtic nations, both online and in my daily life. I'd love to read comments and talk, as long as you're not looking for an argument or a "debate". I'm very aware that the Celtic Studies sphere can attract all sorts of alt-right/white supremacist types looking to distort and use our cultures and peoples to fuel their own bigoted agendas, and I will not tolerate that at all here.

I'm also transgender, multiply disabled, a multimedia artist, and a musician, so those are also likely to make themselves known in this journal from time to time.

Images are hosted on Postimages.

Languages I know:
Read more... )

I want to learn:
Read more... )

My long-term language-learning goals are to:Read more... )

2026 goals

Jan. 7th, 2026 10:36 pm
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
This entry will be updated throughout the year as I complete these challenges I've set myself!

Watch a film in a Celtic language every week
Read more... )


Read a book in a Celtic language every monthRead more... )
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
Ta mee geearree dy ynsagh Gaelg! Níl Manannais agam fé láthair, ach bhí mé ábalta cúpla focal a thuiscint :) Bhí sé scannán an-ghearr ach tá sé go deas Manannais a chloisteáil agus feiceáil ar an scáileán. Táim ag iarraidh chomh mórán scannán a fheiceáil agus is féidir sna teangacha Ceilteacha i mbliana!

Nasc YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=16o5fmargkE

smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
letterboxd.com/twitchcoded/list/celtic-language-films/

I've made a Letterboxd list of Celtic language films! I'm going to try and watch as many as I can this year. Hopefully.

There's definitely more stuff out there but I think this is enough for now considering this list has over 130 films on it and i've only seen 1 of them. (Not all of them are entirely in a Celtic language and some of them are only short films). There only appear to be 2 Manx films on the entirety of Letterboxd although other stuff does exist!!

smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
https://theconversation.com/history-shows-that-britain-has-always-been-multilingual-230474

History shows that Britain has always been multilingual

A common lament among those opposed to immigration is that “in many parts of England, you don’t hear English spoken any more”. But it has never been the case that English was the only language spoken on this island.

smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
When I worry that my Irish is bad someone usually says "don't worry, you can speak it better than most people in Ireland can!!" like that's supposed to make me feel better or something? You've just made me feel miserable about colonialism now. Is this supposed to make me feel good? Do other people feel good when someone says this to them?

Thoughts

Dec. 29th, 2025 01:38 pm
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)

Fascinated by people who always seem to have a tidy, aesthetically-pleasing study area because whenever I study it looks like this.
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
I kind of want to learn Diné Bizaad (Navajo). Growing up in Wales means that I spent YEARS being told that Welsh was weird and ugly and different for it's sounds such as LL (ɬ in IPA, Ł in Navajo), and then I found out that a bunch of Native American languages also have that sound which is kind of beautiful that we share ɬ across an ocean.
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
Ar Tumblr, tá daoine ag déanamh blaganna ag aistriú post sa mBéarla do theangacha eile, agus táim ag iarraidh blag mar sin freisin a dhéanamh, ach tá blaganna Gaeilge, Breatnaise, agus Coirnise cheana féin ann. Mar sin, ba mhaith liom blag Sean-Ghaeilge a dhéanamh! Tá blaganna Sean-Bhéarla, Sean-Lochlainnise, agus Laidin ann mar sin tá daoine ag déanamh blaganna seanteangacha ann. Ach, níl ach Sean-Ghaeilge bhunúsach agam, agus nílim ag iarraidh botún a dhéanamh. Ach dhéanfainn an blag chun cleachtadh, b'fhéidir.
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
Is faoiseamh mór é scríobh sa Nua-Ghaeilge in ionad sa Sean-Ghaeilge, ní chaithfidh mé ceapadh faoi na tuisil sin go léir. Is breá liom Sean-Ghaeilge. Ach. Buíochas le Dia. Tá tuisil sa Nua-Ghaeilge, ar ndóigh, ach tá i bhfad níos lú ag tarlú ann.

Is breá liom Sean-Ghaeilge agus is breá liom a gramadach AGUS tá Nua-Ghaeilge fionnuar agus is faoiseamh é.
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
Tá m'obair bhaile Sean-Ghaeilge déanta agam agus thug mé é do mo léachtóir yaayyyyy agus tá m'obair ceart den chuid is mó. Ceapaim go bhfuil Sean-Ghaeilge cheart go leor agam :)
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
Ma' siarad tafodiaith hwntw fel siaradwr ail iaith nad yw'n byw yn y de yn gallu bod yn boen, achos ma' siaradwyr hwntw iaith gynta'n gweud wrtho fi mod i'n siarad Cymraeg yn iawn a bod fy ngramadeg yn iawn fel hwntw, ond wedyn ma' siaradwyr iaith gynta o'r gogledd yn gweud wrtho fi bod fy Nghymraeg yn anghywir er bod siaradwyr ail iaith o'r de yn gweud bod yr un peth yn union yn gywir. Ac wedyn so rhai o'r siaradwyr iaith gynta o'r gogledd hyd yn oed yn trïo siarad 'da fi achos mod i'n siaradwr ail iaith o'r de ?? Fi'n gwbod mod i'n dal i ddysgu ond ma'n rhwystredig.
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
Fi moyn prawf lefelau CEFR ar gyfer Cymraeg, fel y prawf ar gyfer gwyddeleg ar teg.ie. Ma Dysgu Cymraeg yn sôn am brawf ar eu gwefan ond sai'n gallu dod o hyd iddo fe. Ma syniad da am beth yw fy lefel ond fi moyn sefyll prawf :(
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
Tá mé ag dul ag déanamh an scrúdú CEFR ar TEG agus tá mé ag dul ag feiceáil cé mhéad nár gcuimhnigh mé :')
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
I think I'm going to try and post every day in Irish in the lead-up to my semester there.

Also my university are very keen that we make some sort of journal or vlog or something while we're on the exchange semester, and I was thinking I could do something like that in Irish too although I'm bad at journalling and I've never tried to vlog before. And also I think they want the journals/vlogs to be in English so they can show them to future students going on exchange, but I want to do it in Irish for me and I can just add an English translation/subtitles later.
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/dec/08/linguists-start-compiling-first-ever-complete-dictionary-of-ancient-celtic

Linguists start compiling first ever complete dictionary of ancient Celtic

More than 1,000 words used as far back as 325BC to be collected for insight into past linguistic landscape

Pictish

Dec. 9th, 2025 01:15 am
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
Saw someone complaining on Facebook (what a shocker!) the other day that if Gaelic has been made an official language of Scotland then they should also revive Pictish and make that an official language too..... if you, random person on Facebook, somehow have enough extant Pictish to be able to accurately reconstruct and revive the entire language well enough to be used in every day speech then go ahead..? I would love to see that, it would certainly solve some academic debate.

Book ideas

Dec. 5th, 2025 10:46 am
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
Potential ideas for books I'd like to write include German (and possibly French) specifically for people wanting to read academic Celtic studies texts in it. Like the "German for Musicians" book I have but "German for Celticists" I suppose. And also maybe an Old Irish-Modern Irish dictionary if no-one else has done it by the time that I'd feel confident enough with my Irish (of numerous time periods) to do that.
smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)


For YEARS I've complained that the southern version of the Dysgu Cymraeg coaster wasn't southern enough for my tastes, but at last Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol have given me the "moyn dishgled?" of my dreams

Profile

smmg: A circle containing the flags of the six Celtic nations, with a pair of crutches crossed over the top. The disability pride flag is in the background. (Default)
S.H.M. Mac Giolla Íosa Gilbert

January 2026

S M T W T F S
     123
45 6 78910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Tags

Style Credit

Powered by Dreamwidth Studios
Page generated Jan. 10th, 2026 01:41 pm