We arrived in Cardiff about a week ago now, in the early afternoon on the train from Paddington Station, having arrived at Heathrow that morning on an overnight flight from Detroit. We pulled our luggage out from the train platform to the lobby, paused just long enough to buy a small map of downtown Cardiff, then headed out through the station doors to the cab stand, to be greeted immediately by several cabbies asking if we wanted a cab, Surely, we said, and were directed over to the cab first in the cue, with the explanation that this was how it worked; everyone takes their turn.No muss, no fuss - doors were opened, luggage stowed, we got in, the cabbie turned, looked at me: Plasturton Avenue I said a little tentatively, looking at my wife for reassurance since I inevitably mispronounce even the simplest words. She nodded approvingly, confirming I was conforming with the coaching she had given me on the train, causing me to more loudly declare "We're going to Plasturton Avenue. Then, an exchange something like the following:Where?Plasturton.Where?Plasturton.I have never heard of that place. Is it in Cardiff?Yeah, Im pretty sure Then, our cabbie, out the window to another cabbie but still facing me to ensure I named the place:Do you know where this is?Plas Plasturton I stumbled as he came up to the window. We want we want to go to PlasturtonPlas tur ton he said slowly, No, no, I never heard Then, he grinned, moved back from the window, folded his arms across a middle I usually think of as reserved for truck drivers, grinned again, looked sideways with a now face-splitting grin at another cabbie standing close by, then came back to the widow: Plasturton. Oh, Plasturton. Yes, yes, we know that. Five minutes from here. Then, to our cabbie: Plasturton. Take them to Plasturton. Our cabbie grinned. In fact, excepting for my wife and me, by now that whole little universe of cabbies was grinning. Ten minutes later, were on Plasturton Avenue, standing in front of the house that will be our home in Wales for the next three months, having just had our first lesson in one of the things that makes Wales truly distinctive.According to folks who study how we talk, intonations are different in Wales. Whereas most of us English speakers tend to augment sound with stressed syllables, thats not true of the Welsh. Instead, rhythm counts more, with stress tending to go to penultimate syllables. Hence, I was asking to go to PLAS-tur-TON. However, once the cabbies figured it out, we ended up going to Plas-TUR-ton.