Anglicisms

Gyrru in Gogland tends to carry a more hurried approach to driving (in my experience). Which is a shame, as the slower you go, the more you see. And there’s so much beauty to behold…

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I’ve never used dreifio for ‘to drive’, I’ve always used gyrru, but gyrru can also mean ‘to send’, and the South version, hala, can also mean both ‘to drive’ and ‘to send’ (context tells you which) - so maybe that’s one reason why dreifio has snuck in to the lexicon - to avoid confusion. (Not saying it’s necessarily a good thing though!)

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In the days when drovers, including, I suspect one of my ancestors, were driving cattle and sheep, there was a certain logic to the ‘sending’ feel of the word, as the livestock were driven ahead, not following the drover! The word for ‘drove’ is past of drive and gyrri given in my little app. Drover, however, is ‘porthmon’ which sounds very imported to me, that ‘mon’ is NE England for ‘man’ isn’t it? Anyone know any other Welsh word for drover?
ps Watching Dal ati Bore Da. Heard ‘prowd’ for being proud of Blue Peter badges. Is this common? "Balch’ seems an OK word to me! Not hard to say. Short. So why use proud? De? Gogledd?

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Am I right in thinking that balch can mean glad as well as proud? I suppose context usually sorts out the difference, or in this case choosing the English? Words like proud sound pretty good in a Welsh accent to my ears, as do some other words that have been borrowed. :relaxed:

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yes, balch can also mean ‘glad’ and ‘pleased’.

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Prowd is very common. Last year’s DyF winner described herself as Prowd.

Imma say one thing - Rownd a Rownd.
[ducks & covers]

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…and also to spend :confounded:

This thread now has me thinking of words that sound like they should have been Welsh, or at least sound much better in a Welsh sentence, delivered with a good sturdy accent.
My first vote (after the brilliance of boncyrs) is muppet. Would that be Mwpyt?
(Honestly not watching the Muppet Movie with three small children…)

Isn’t muppet American? Don’t know the derivation.

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I would go for mypet I think :slight_smile: because puppet is pyped

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“A young Jim Henson with some of the Sam and Friends cast. The term Muppet was invented by Jim Henson at the beginning of his career to describe his puppet act. It is sometimes claimed, and refuted, that Henson created the term as a combination of the words marionette and puppet.”

Taken from the first post of a google search. :slight_smile:

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Ah yes - I’m including all good American English words too, although muppet always pops up first as a slightly affectionate and derogatory term, used by someone with a hefty cockney twang. Ooooh - hang on… It’s Delboy, describing Rodney, isn’t it?? ‘Yooooooou muppet!’

Perffaith! :grinning:

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what about words that sound the same or similar, but have very different meanings e.e.

pen and pen
tost and tossed
pump and pimp
mor and more
bwyta and bitter (south walian pronunciation)
glas and glass

ayyb

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Yes, difficult to “loan” them into a conversation of the other language. Having said that, glas and glass have a sort of shared feeling, colour-wise.

Also, I recently read a comment on a local village based social media page, from an exiled member: “That (picture) makes me more homesick.” I couldn’t help wondering if she meant mor/so.

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Heard Carwyn Jones say “so” this morning, but in the sense where “felly” would have worked, not “mor”. Some of those unsurprising gap fillers, like “so, rili, jyst etc” are simple little words, that maybe encourage the following words to then flow with another loan word - rili neis, where nice follows really better than an alternative like say hyfryd (rili hyfryd!? - that sounds odd to me and would be a calque, wouldn’t it). Without the rili, then something like mae’n hyfryd go-iawn might happen, but once that rili comes into play, it’s more than likely going to be followed by neis?

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@Davids - Similar-ish, I’m sure I’ve seen “nicyrs” in a Bethan Gwanas book (and google shows there is a book of that title by someone else), although gweiadur shows “nicers” as the spelling.
geiriaduracademi.org has that, and also blwmar/blwmars, which is also quite fun. :slight_smile:

Reminded of worse meaning clash! Some tobacco company brought out a brand called More and the French market pointed out that asking for a packet of death was…well… er??? :wink:

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I’ve often heard “so, felly…”

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I think you’re over-analysing that. :slight_smile: