There are no words for no or yes.
Are you English? is answered oes, I am,
are you Welsh? by nag oes, I am not.
Two vocabularies for singular and plural
adjectives that change on a whim it seems.
Willie maes bach, Willie of the small field
becomes cegin fach, small kitchen.
I can’t explain mutations and diphthongs
though Llanelli, Llanon, Llan,
two towns and a saint are known by all.
With no swear words of their own,
conversations can have English profanities
scattered through floods of Welsh
as trees in a river in full spate.
It would be good to have the language that, mated with dog Latin, gave birth to French;
but, as I was once admonished,
Englishmen don’t speak Welsh so I don’t.
Anyway, I’d have no one to talk to.
© Anthony Fisher March 2010