Society Events | Link to area events | Directors | Links | Cymanfa or Gymanfa Ganu? | Welsh lessons | Newsletter | Memorials and Get-Well Wishes | Recipes from Welsh-Cake Bake-Off | Membership Form
Cambrian Heritage Society of Madison, Wisconsin
Society Events | Link to area events | Directors | Links | Cymanfa or Gymanfa Ganu? | Welsh lessons | Newsletter | Memorials and Get-Well Wishes | Recipes from Welsh-Cake Bake-Off | Membership Form
Cambrian Heritage Society of Madison, Wisconsin
Fall and spring gatherings feature speakers or performances of interest to members. Recent gatherings have featured programs including
Many gatherings also feature a short Welsh language lessons led by Avril Hanson, Kevin Rottet, or another fluent Welsh speaker, singing of Welsh hymns and folk songs, and a lavish te bach.
Jean McCarragher organized the Society's first annual Gymanfa Ganu in 2000. It was held in conjunction with a St. David's Day luncheon on February 26, 2000, and directed by Trefor Williams.
For the several years the Society has gathered for a picnic on a Saturday in early June and enjoyed performances by Celtic dancers, played games for Welsh prizes, and enjoyed everyone's best culinary creations with a potluck luncheon..
The current membership of the Society's Board of Directors is
Newyddion Cymraeg is the Society's newsletter. Send information
to be indluded in it to Trina Muich,
the editor... Contact her with information to be included. Anything you wish
to submit should be in ready-to-print format, please! To see the text of recent
newsletters, click here. Trina also maintains
the chapter's membership list/ mailing list in cooperation with Ellen Lloyd,
who receives membership dues for new or renewing emmbers. Please contact her
with any changes or corrections to your
address, telephone number, or e-mail address.
Visitors are always welcome at any Society gathering. Anyone interested in joining the Society and obtaining a copy of our directory should click here and print out the membership form to be mailed, along with the membership fee ($10.00 for individuals, $15.00 for couples or families). The form and check should be sent to Ellen Lloyd, the Society treasurer.
If you are aware of the death or illness of a member of the group, please contact Jean McCarragher and Trina Muich so that notes of cheer and sympathy can be sent and appropriate memorial notice placed in the Newyddion Cymraeg.
The Society would like to honor the memoriy of members or their loved ones who have passed away as well as send get-well sishes to any who are ill. If you know of any Society members who have been ill, who have dies, or who have lost family members, please send that information to Jean McCarragher, the Society's "Sunshine Coordinator",
There is a great article about Wales in the June, 2001, issue of National Geographic (pages 62-83).
To Mary Williams-Norton's main page or to her favorite recipe for Welsh cakes (diolch i Olwen Morgan Welk)
A short postscript on Welsh usage within the medium of English:
Cymanfa Ganu means singing festival or a singing festival,
since the indefinite article is not expressed in Welsh.
Y Gymanfa Ganu means the singing festival. The change of spelling
is a soft mutation (treiglad meddal) which occurs because cymanfa
is a feminine gender noun and singular feminine gender nouns mutate via the
soft mutation after the definite article. The adjective (or participle in
this case, since canu is a verb) also mutates to agree with a singular
feminine gender noun, so singing--canu--becomes ganu. Another
example of this would be red dragon--draig goch--and the red dragon--y
ddraig goch--with draig the feminine noun for dragon and
coch (red) mutated to modify it correctly.
What happens in everyday usage and/or mixing Welsh and English? Professor
Gwyn Thomas of the Department of Welsh at the University of Wales Bangor says*
that some mutations take over the original form and the case of Gymanfa
Ganu is one of these. Example:
Cwestiwn: Beth sydd yn y capel heno? Ateb: Gymanfa Ganu (Question:
What is in the chapel tonight? Answer: (a) singing festival. According to
Professor Thomas, although asking in mixed Welsh/English "What is a Cymanfa
Ganu?" is formally correctly and would have been the only acceptable
form in the past, "What is a Gymanfa Ganu?" is just as acceptable
now. He suggested that since Gymanfa Ganu appears in the name of organizations
such as the Welsh National Gymanfa Ganu Association and the Welsh Gymanfa
Ganu Association of Wisconsin, it might be better to use that form everywhere.
However, since plural nouns (masculine or feminine) do not mutate after the
article and modifiers of plural nouns are not mutated either, one must continue
to use cymanfaoedd canu to refer to a plurality of singing festivals!
Aren't the nuances of Welsh grammar fascinating? If you want to learn more,
go to the Cymdeithas Madog website
, register for Cwrs Cymraeg (Welsh course), and learn Welsh. You
can also learn online with the excellent BBC course Catchphrase.
*It helps to have learned friends who themselves have other learned friends. When I asked Dr. Iolo Wyn Williams and Nesta Williams about the proper use of cymanfa ganu and gymanfa ganu, they contacted their friend Professor Thomas for an especially well informed response and sent me his opinion. Diolch yn fawr iawn i Iolo, Nesta ac Yr Athro Thomas!
.