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Welshmen unite! You have nothing to lose but your hang-ups!
It was heartening to see the warm welcome to the Wales rugby team as they returned home, having acquitted themselves brilliantly in the Rugby World Cup with a fourth place success. That's not bad for a country whose population places it at about number 140 out of 225 countries of the world. However, it seems its only during the 80 minutes of an international rugby match Wales becomes one nation proud, united and bursting with patriotism.
Unfortunately, at other times the events of history have caused Wales to be a nation lacking in self-confidence. Historians point to conquest by the Normans, Edward Ists bloody campaign and the various Acts passed between 1535 and 1542 which made in Wales part of England - at least, in law. This sense of oppression and being downtrodden has sadly been embraced by many Welshmen throughout subsequent years. This resentment was reinforced by educators who forbade use of the Welsh language in schools by means of the notorious "Welsh not" token where any child heard speaking Welsh at school was made to wear the token around their neck, passing it on to another offender if caught, and the last child at the end of the day was caned. However, it was never official government policy.
I grew up with my Welsh valleys mam-gu (grandmother) furious if ever Winston Churchill's name was mentioned in the house because he was said to have sent the troops in against the South Wales miners in Tonypandy. The reality was actually somewhat different but the point was that this was seen as yet another example of the Welsh being treated badly by the English.
For 150 years the mines and quarries of Wales North and South supplied the United Kingdom, the Empire and the World with iron, steel, coal and slate to drive the Industrial Revolution. Sadly, the vast wealth that these valuable resources created was not enjoyed by the miners, ironworkers and quarrymen that paid a terrible price in poor wages and working conditions with many paying the ultimate price in the many industrial accidents or cruel, lingering deaths through occupational diseases like pneumoconiosis or silicosis. This became yet another brick in the wall built by Welshmen of examples of oppression and was duly embraced.
Where I live in the mountains of Snowdonia, we are rich with a great history of castles and yet I was amazed that none of my Welsh friends would dream of going into magnificent castles like Caernarfon or Conwy because of the association with Edward I and English oppression. More up-to-date is the fact that most people living in the nearby town of Bethesda would not dream of going anywhere near Penrhyn Castle, because that was the home of the local Penrhyn Quarry owner who locked out the quarrymen for two years at the start of the 20th century.
I am happy to say that I am a Welshman without this cultural baggage and was drawn by hiraeth to come and live back in my beloved Wales. I accept the relationship between Wales and England would not be used as a model for contentment between nations, but I believe a major shift of culture is needed.
Wales is a country where we have magnificent cultural heritage, Europe's oldest language still flourishing, choirs and a musical tradition unsurpassed in the world. We have stunningly beautiful mountains, rivers, valleys and landscapes. We have more wonderful castles than you could shake a stick at, heritage railways that bring pleasure to every child and grown-up child smelling the steam and oil. We have given the world much-loved actors, politicians like Nye Bevan who gave us the NHS, world famous singers and pop groups. We have our own language which is slowly growing after long decline. We have our own Welsh Government which, for all its flaws, is becoming distinctive and confident. If we were to embrace all that we have as proud Welsh men and women, then the move for Welsh independence would simply disappear as Wales adopted its rightful place as a nation in a Union of nations, co-equal, co-valued and the envy of the world.
So Welsh men and women throw off those chains of oppression and being downtrodden. They dont exist any longer. Despite everyone and everything: we're still here - Er gwaethaf pawb a phopeth: dyn ni yma o hyd!
English Yes Wenglish well,aye, mun
well there ew are see
English No Wenglish ew gorra be jokin
@Swansea
Yes and No
Welsh doesn't have a single word to use every time for yes and no questions. The word used depends on the form of the question. You must generally answer using the relevant form of the verb used in the question, or in questions where the verb is not the first element you use either 'ie' / 'nage'. "Ie" is often pronounced "ia" in northern dialects of Welsh.
Why do Americans say shed-ule and not sked-ule? They learned it at shool. Mind you, why is K-A-N-S-A-S pronounced logically, but put A-R on the front and and pronounciation makes no sense!
Vocabulary differences between N and S Welsh are easy. My wife 'mashes' tea and I 'brew' it. We all learn regional variations. No, the Welsh learner has two Mt Everests to scale: the dreaded mutations and how to say 'yes' or 'no' quickly when asked a question. I'm going to get there!
I come from Machynlleth, so to the Gogs I'm a Southyn and to the people of that area I'm a Gog! As I am reminded daily !The vocabulary overlaps both ways in the centre. I say moen but I also say taid. The best example is for saying the time The south will say 10 min i wech & 10 min wedi wech. The centre will say 10 min i wech but 10 min wedi chwech and the north say chwech both times. Aside I was once called a Paki &&&%%%@@@ by a Kardiff lady!!!!
It's good to hear about Welsh accents - in the plural. When listening to spoken Welsh the clue is in the vocabulary as well as accent (taid/tad-cu, rwan/nawr, llefrith/llaith etc). I can pick out a Valleys or a Cardiff accent easily but it's hardest up here in Gwynedd where most people are first-language Welsh. People can have a variety of English accents but all with that breathy way that Gogs speak. I love it!
I work for a call centre that deals with public transport in Cymru/Wales. I would think around 10 % of our enquires are initially in Welsh,however at the end of the query, I would go to around 20 % who thank me in Welsh and I don't mean just diolch yn fawr.I thought I could tell by accents who are the native speakers but not any more. About 1/2 million speakers of various degree is about right.Let me say here and now that I love this work after being a shift manager/foreman for 20 years. The different accents I hear daily are music to my ears
I don't remember. Maybe I sent it to your email
Quien sabe?
I just remembered this one
http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001716.php
There are not 600,000 Welsh speakers. There are 600,000 people who with very varying degrees of accuracy have ticked a particular box on a form. They were urged to do this by activists in exactly the same way that Punjabi speakers in Pakistan are urged to exaggerate their command of Urdu.In the US the spokesmen of ethnic minorities try to get their constituencies to bias what they say because the census results have influence in Washington. Having spent my life reading census and survey reports I have some idea how to sniff out humbug.
Look how Americans were fooled by the Kinsey reports with their bad sampling and built in bias.The more recent and more careful surveys done by the University of Chicago show that only between 1% and 3% of Americans are gay not the 10% suggested by Kinsey.
I suppose on Guy Fawkes day it's appropriate for Christie to light a barrel of gunpowder to see what happens! The Gaeltacht areas are artificially maintained. When I drove on the Dingle all signs were in Irish and my maps were useless. I have to agree that insistence on Welsh for public centre jobs means we don't always get the best candidates. See Gwynedd Council who couldn't organise their way out of a paper bag. However in my oart of Gwynedd 69% are first languge Welsh and it thrives here. My best litmus test is groups of teenagers speaking Welsh rather than 'cooler' English. Last census showed 600,000 Welsh speakers - in a year or so we'll know todays's figure. BTW you can order in Wesh in our local Indian or Chinese restaurants. They've learned our language!