Not My Mother Tongue

When my parents were alive we would go down home to Wales three times a year; Easter and February and October half term.  Then at least once a year, until lockdowns etc made it impossible.

From Facebook Archives

28 November 2021 at 12:54

Ferretfingers is obviously missing Wales.

On Sunday mornings he puts on Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol and the omnibus edition of Pobl y Cwm, which often sets me off speaking to him in, what can best be described as, pidgin Welsh.

We've had a fire two nights running so today his exercise was to be sawing logs.

"Dere 'mlaen Dafydd, mae rhaid i ni torri bren am y tân.  Dewch y bwcedai a'r saw mas i'r garage and tynnaf i'r ceffyl saw mas o fe.  I wonder what the Welsh for saw horse is!"

Thunderthighs was most amused to see me flicking through the Geiriadur Mawr Ferretfingers bought at Siop y Pentan the last time we were in Carmarthen market.

"You mean you don't know what the Welsh for saw-horse is and you were brought up in the country."

"Strangely enough no.  Welsh is my second language, not my mam-iaith."

Anyway it wasn't in the dictionary so as saw is llif (noun) llifio (verb) and horse is ceffyl, saw-horse should be ceffyl-llifio.

I'm happy to be corrected by any of my mam-iaith ffrindiau sy'n gwybod yn gwell.

 🐑🐑🐑

To save those of you who haven’t the language of the Lord from the horrors of Google translate here is a little glossary (sans pronunciation tips and the spelling may not be entirely accurate)

Am y tân – for the fire

Dere ‘mlaen – come along

Dewch y bwcedai – bring the buckets

Fe – it, more accurately him as nouns and pronouns are gendered in Welsh (her is hi)

Ffrindiau – friends

Geiriadur – dictionary

Gwell – better

Mae rhaid in ni – we must

Mam iaith – mother tongue

Mas i – out to

Mas o – out of

Mawr - big

Sy’n gwybod – who know

Torri bren – cut wood

Tynnaf i’r – I’ll pull the