As a boy from the Welsh valleys I can say that I used to wake up every day surrounded by beautiful scenery and to birdsong. And that is wales in its entirity, green, hilly and full of song.
I remeber when the Welsh coal mines were still running, the pit head in amongst all the mountains..... Lovely
I would like to ask a Welshman for a favour. I really need to take an interview with someone who has something to do with the Welsh culture, language, customs and traditions of any kind. To put it short I need to talk to a Welsh person. I would be very grateful for any help. :)
It is all incredulous what I read here. You do not know nothing about Wales and dare to speak about it as if you were an expert. The Welsh have their own distinct language, traditions, and most of all the sense of nationality. Those of you who write that this is a part of England please read sth about Wales before you write anthing like this once more. Sht to think about- england takes more from Wales than the other way round. Think for a moment why they do not want to give them a state? Because they would lost more than they have as their own.
Shame they have a habit of supplying central heating to incomers' homes :D
I dont understand what u mean here.
Welsh people are passionate about everything, especially rugby. We have our own sense of identity and are fiercely patriotic.
The people of the Welsh Valleys went through an incredibly difficult time when all the mines closed, it made us stronger and our sense of community is fantastic. How amny English people can say they truly can rely on their neigbours let alone a whole community
Welsh people are passionate about everything, especially rugby. We have our own sense of identity and are fiercely patriotic. The people of the Welsh Valleys went through an incredibly difficult time when all the mines closed, it made us stronger and our sense of community is fantastic.
these welsh must be the coolest nation in the world!
It's a little joke from the time the Sons of Glendower were torching English holiday cottages. There was an advert on TV at th time for coal central heating "Come home to a real fire". The "Not the 9 O'clock News" team (Rowan Atkinson, Mel Smith et al) did a parody... "Come home to a real fire... buy a cottage in Wales".
I understand what you mean about the mines closing etc. My mothers side of the family are from Tyneside and my aunt was living in a mining village during and after the miners' strike. It wasn't just the Welsh Valleys which suffered. I grew up in Shropshire. The area around thre used to be full of mines. None now tho'.
I admire Welsh cultural patriotism. What does bug me is when it is just used as an excuse for anti-Englishness rather than promoting the positive aspects of Wales and welshness (same with any patriotism, really).
How close is John Llewelyn's "How Green Was My Valley" to the real Wales?? Are Angharad and Bronwyn still popular Cymraeic names for girls or has the whole country irreparably Anglicized?
england takes more from Wales than the other way round
I think tax payers in England have been sponsoring the Welsh for some time. Not to take anything away from Wales it is a very nice part of the world. Most Welsh people I have met are good sorts. I don't know wether I would trust one wearing wellies on a dark night though.
How close is John Llewelyn's "How Green Was My Valley" to the real Wales??
How close is " A Tree grows in Brooklyn" to life in the New York these days???? Life in wales is fine these days as long as you avoid the forays from Harlech castle by roving bands of English knights and men at arms harrying the countryside............................
Saesneg, compared with Polish, I find Celtic languages such as Cymrae and Gaelic to be quite "unphonetic". For instance, I tried pronouncing "Erin go bragh!", "Failte!" and "Slante!" during a St. Paddie's bash at the Irish Cultural Centre near where we live. Stone cold sober all of us, at the start of the evening's festivities anyway, my Irish-born colleagues broke into resounding gales of laughter at my attempts to pronounce their language. About the only thing I got right was "Siobbhan" (Shuhvawn) and "Padraig" (Paawhdrik) and that was about it.
"Llewelyn" I was told sounds sort of like "Jewwell'n" when a double "Ll -" sounds pops up-:) Reminds me a bit of certain Spanish pronuncations of "eLLa", "LLodra" etc...
"Llewelyn" I was told sounds sort of like "Jewwell'n" when a double "Ll -" sounds pops up-:) Reminds me a bit of certain Spanish pronuncations of "eLLa", "LLodra" etc...
hmmm...the double LL is more like an English L, but instead of removing your tongue from your top inside gum to make the sound, leave it there and blow air through it...
Cymraeg is surprisingly phonetic, certainly compared to English anyway, in that the same letter combinations are pronounced the same way every time.
Well, I guess that Cymrae (notice I don't call it "Welsh", as I've been told that's disrespectful!!) is more phonetic than Irish. It seems that NO letters are pronounced as they appear written to an non-Gaelic speaker!
I first fell in love with the Cymrae(-ic) language and culture when I discovered Dylan Thomas and Emlyn Williams as a high school student! Thomas wrote of course in breathtakingly beautiful English, yet one always sensed some underpinning of his Welsh ancestral tongue-:) Richard Burton changed his name from Something-something Jones, as did Ray Milland and many other successful Welshmen who made it big in the world.
The longest river name in the world is Welsh too, I believe-:) Hungarian though lays claim to longest European place name LOL
Im guessing you are or speak Polish Lyzko? The double LL seems to this non welsh speaker to be closest to the Polish "ch" sound,which funnily enough is how us Scots pronounce "Loch" ,ie,as though it was a Polish word ,like the russian pronunciation of Chleb ;)
"ch" sound,which funnily enough is how us Scots pronounce "Loch" ,ie,as though it was a Polish word
"Loch" was used as the example in a phonetic guide for pronouncing the Polish "ch" within the names of the characters in an English translation of Sienkiewicz's trilogy.
