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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 1, 2019 16:11:16 GMT -5
My middle son spent a semester at Aberystwyth University in the study-abroad program. He loved Wales. I sent him a Happy St. David's Day today.
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 2, 2019 8:06:04 GMT -5
Interesting. I hope this isn't one of those holidays where you use it as an excuse to drink.  |
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Post by Rob Allen on Mar 3, 2019 0:20:55 GMT -5
Interesting. I hope this isn't one of those holidays where you use it as an excuse to drink. I didn't know we needed an excuse. |
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Post by berkley on Mar 3, 2019 2:48:48 GMT -5
I have one Welsh friend - well, he was born here in Canada but his parents are Welsh. His first name is Rob, coincidentally.
One of the best things about Torchwood, the Dr. Who spin-off show from several years ago, was that it featured the Welsh accent in a starring role. I love the sound of it.
I'm a rugby fan, so Wales is more present in my consciousness than is probably the case for a lot of Canadians, as they're one of that handful of nations where rugby is one of the most popular sports and their national team ranks accordingly, usually somewhere in the top 5, never less than the top 8 in the world.
Speaking of rugby, when I first started watching it back in the late 80s or early 90s, it was the Welsh club competition that was shown on our sports tv channel here in Canada, and Llanelli was one of the prominent teams. That was my first exposure to the Welsh 'll' sound.
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Post by Rob Allen on Mar 3, 2019 2:57:21 GMT -5
Speaking of rugby, when I first started watching it back in the late 80s or early 90s, it was the Welsh club competition that was shown on our sports tv channel here in Canada, and Llanelli was one of the prominent teams. That was my first exposure to the Welsh 'll' sound. I never heard my grandmother say the name of the town where she grew up, Llandrillo, but I have heard a native Welsh speaker say it. It's hard to describe the 'll' sound; much easier to get when you hear it from a native. |
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Post by berkley on Mar 3, 2019 3:36:20 GMT -5
Speaking of rugby, when I first started watching it back in the late 80s or early 90s, it was the Welsh club competition that was shown on our sports tv channel here in Canada, and Llanelli was one of the prominent teams. That was my first exposure to the Welsh 'll' sound. I never heard my grandmother say the name of the town where she grew up, Llandrillo, but I have heard a native Welsh speaker say it. It's hard to describe the 'll' sound; much easier to get when you hear it from a native. When I first heard them say Llanelli on tv, I heard something like - but not quite - 'Clannettli'.
I'll give you my take on it, but this is completely from the experience of person who knows nothing of the Welsh language: you know how the 'cl' sound works in English - the 'c' is formed by making a click at the back of the tongue and then the 'l' follows immediately. Then look at the 't' sound - the 't' is done at the tip of the tongue. So I think that in the 'll' , the first 'l' is a sound analogous to 'c' and 't' but formed at the sides of the tongue, and then the second 'l' is just the normal (to us) 'l' sound. I forget all the linguistic terms for this stuff, pardon me.
OTOH, I just listened to the word on google-translate and it sounded very different from how they used to say it on the rugby broadcast - more like 'Slannelsi'. So I'm probably totally out to lunch.
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Post by Rob Allen on Mar 1, 2020 21:09:25 GMT -5
Here we are again - our annual salute to Wales, the Welsh people, their descendants overseas, and admirers of Welsh culture everywhere. Happy St. David's Day 2020!  |
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Post by The Captain on Mar 1, 2020 21:23:59 GMT -5
Here we are again - our annual salute to Wales, the Welsh people, their descendants overseas, and admirers of Welsh culture everywhere. Happy St. David's Day 2020! Thanks Rob! As I've learned over the past year, I have a lot more Welsh ancestry than my father ever let on (not that he was hiding it, he just didn't have any idea or interest in finding out). That, coupled with my trip to Wales last August, have given me a much-greater appreciation for the Welsh people and culture. |
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Post by beccabear67 on Mar 1, 2020 22:08:29 GMT -5
Cheers! I'll have to take The Troggs off and put on what Meic Stevens and Mary Hopkin I have that's not in English... also, I have this early '70s folk album from Wales (Cymru)... says on the back (the part in English anyway) that this family group are/were from Montgomeryshire and had appeared on tv. There are some nice Welsh tracks in with some fairly unremarkable covers of songs in English. :format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-9470056-1481133337-8268.jpeg.jpg) |
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Post by berkley on Mar 1, 2020 23:16:07 GMT -5
No youtube tracks that I can find.
One of my favourite bands, Badfinger, were from Swansea. What are some of the other great Welsh bands, pop or otherwise?
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,201 
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Post by Confessor on Mar 2, 2020 5:43:55 GMT -5
No youtube tracks that I can find. One of my favourite bands, Badfinger, were from Swansea. What are some of the other great Welsh bands, pop or otherwise? Off of the top of my head, The Manic Street Preachers, Tom Jones, Feeder, Mary Hopkin, Man, The Stereophonics, The Alarm, Shirley Bassey, Catatonia, Budgie, Amen Corner, Duffy, Goldie Lookin' Chain, Shakin' Stevens, and my personal all-time favourite Welsh band, Super Furry Animals. The Super Furry Animals actually recorded an entire album sung in Welsh back in 2000, called Mwng. Here's a one of their Welsh language singles, "Ysbeidiau Heulog", with a handy English translation of the lyrics... |
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Post by berkley on Mar 2, 2020 8:50:48 GMT -5
A lot of those are new to me, will check them out. If you hadn't said that Super Furry Animals track was from 2000 I would have guessed it was from around 1980.
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Post by brutalis on Mar 2, 2020 8:58:47 GMT -5
You need some Bryn Terfel music in your lives!
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 2, 2020 10:05:38 GMT -5
And here's this year's Shakespeare and the Welshmen lesson...
In Henry IV, Part One, the great Welsh leader, Owen Glendower, is one of the rebel leaders in the civil war against Henry IV.
Early in the play we learn form that he and his Welshmen have dealt a powerful and violent blow to one of the king's armies:
WESTMORELAND
The noble Mortimer,
Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
A thousand of his people butchered;
Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse,
Such beastly shameless transformation,
By those Welshwomen done as may not be
Without much shame retold or spoken of.
Glendower is forever claiming that he has magical powers in the face of the gibes of the hard-headed, volatile Hotspur. To Hotspur, Glendower seems like an old uncle trying to spook him around a campfire. They go back and forth in 3.1:
GLENDOWER
Give me leave
To tell you once again that at my birth
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
These signs have mark'd me extraordinary;
And all the courses of my life do show
I am not in the roll of common men.Where is he living, clipp'd in with the sea
That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales,
Which calls me pupil, or hath read to me?
And bring him out that is but woman's son
Can trace me in the tedious ways of art
And hold me pace in deep experiments.
HOTSPUR
I think there's no man speaks better Welsh.
I'll to dinner.
GLENDOWER
I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
HOTSPUR
Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come when you do call for them?
GLENDOWER
Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command
The devil.
HOTSPUR
And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil
By telling truth: tell truth and shame the devil.
If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither,
And I'll be sworn I have power to shame him hence.
O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil!
It's Glendower who might be said to have the last laugh, though, as he and his Welshmen never show for the crucial battle against the king. They live to fight another day. The same could not be said for poor Harry Percy, aka Hotspur.
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Post by beccabear67 on Mar 2, 2020 14:12:04 GMT -5
Only half of Badfinger (possibly the most doomed band ever) were Welsh, half were Merseysiders from a bit north. But before that they were The Iveys, all four from Wales; on the move to London The Iveys lost a member and added a Liverpudlian whom their manager knew. Then with the name-change another went back to Wales and another Liverpudlian entered. I only know the football team from Tottenham are called The Hotspur. I pull for the Wolverhampton Wanderers though.  |
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