Craith - Anyone want to discuss this S4C drama series? (Warning, may contain spoilers).
Oh dear, I really didn’t want to be the person starting yet another thread on an S4C drama, but if no one else is going to start it…
So, what do we all think of it then?
A couple of linguistic-y things:
I’ve noticed that several (all?) the characters, when talking about the murdered girl always give her age in English, i.e. “sixteen”. Is this a normal convention now? (As, I believe, is often the case for prices in shops, and I’ve often heard year numbers in English in an otherwise Welsh sentence). However, I think I heard someone else’s age given in Welsh.
The other things is I can’t properly work out who is speaking Gog and who isn’t. Some people seem to be speaking in a mixture. However, could (well) be my ears…
I’m enjoying it so far, though I admit I have to look away when that girl is self-harming. That’s just a bit too much for me! It’s great to see such excellent roles for our very talented Welsh actors though.
@mikeellwood C’mon, Mike, I was waiting for you to start it…
I’m enjoying it, too! Cadi speaks with a Southern accent, I’ve heard her use “Sa i”, and something else I can’t remember at the moment that said “South” to me. I noticed that about the numbers, too - definitely interesting to see where the English creeps in. Lots of that in Un Bore Mercher, too. I agree with @Deborah-SSi - hard to watch that girl. I’m waiting to see how her story is going to connect in to the rest. So far, it’s less twisty-turny than Un Bore Mercher, but very suspenseful. Totally loving these Welsh dramas!
I’m rewatching my DVDs of Y Gwyll (in Welsh with English subtitles) to prep me for watching Series 3 (English only, boo) on Netflix. If anyone sees the Series 3 Welsh DVDs become available anywhere, please let me know!
Learning Welsh has got me into the whole Sunday night crime drama thing. Though I have only watched the first part so far!
As a learner I wouldn’t say ‘sixteen’ unless I had genuinely forgotten the Welsh. I suppose un ar bymtheg is a bit long?
Mostly the characters speak gog, but I don’t think anything is ever exclusively one or the other.
Yes, it seems easier to follow than Un Bore Mercher, I’ll switch the subtitles off until it gets confusing.
My dad watches Casualty and always looks away at the gory bits. I have worked in the health service for too long and lost my sqeamishness!
On S4C’s Ffermio the farmers invariably seem to use numbers in Saesneg for prices for animals etc - presumably cross-border trade with England in animals and supplies has a lot to do with that.
Farmings a strange business, they still auction livestock with prices in guineas. I suppose it’s that they want non Welsh speakers to buy their stock too. So English sticks as Welsh speakers don’t like translating back and forth all the time?
Hello pawb - late to the party, but I’m enjoying Craith enormously.
I like the variations in accents and dialects - I feel very at home with how Cadi speaks, she’s very easy to understand. There are some very northern accents which make me work hard - much like some of the Rownd a Rownd crew!
I still find Gillian Elisa (Dylan’s mum) very easy to listen to (not saying I’d want to bump into her character on a dark and stormy night mind), even though she is using more northern language than she usually does. If you look at how she spoke in Bang, you get a very different picture.
The thing with the numbers is something I’ve noticed time after time watching programmes with North Walian speakers - there seems to be much more use of English numbers, and sometimes months too. And not, as I was expecting, a ‘modern’ intrusion - I’ve seen footage from the seventies or thereabouts, with elderly ladies referring to the year in straight up English style, but using almost no other English at all.
I’d rather like to know where that little house on the island is - is that Cadi’s dad’s place?
Totally. You’d have to arrange it so that the tides were at sensible times* during the week, so that you could go out and about into the wider Welsh speaking world/have visitors.
*At the end of my first year at uni, I spent a week in a cottage down in Devon that was only accessible for 3 hours either side of low tide. It was an experience…
You wouldn’t want to find you’d run out of milk 5 minutes after it became impossible to get to the mainland (or booze, of course… ).
Curiously, I don’t find the northern accents as “broad” as on Rownd a Rownd, which makes me wonder if the latter are somewhat “laid on with a trowel”. Mind you, I’ve seen “Meical” on a “behind the scenes” video that’s on Youtube, and he’s as impossible to understand in that as he is in the programme. He could have been staying in character I suppose.
I found the victim’s father and sister made my R&R radar go off - that particular accent puts me in mind of Meical and Michelle. The chief in charge (don’t know what her name is) also draws my attention, because she is obviously very well spoken, and I understand most of what she says, but I find her accent strong enough to make me think about that instead of her words!
When I listen to people from the South, I’m beginning to pick up the idea that they might be from different regions. I’m hoping the same thing will happen over time with more Northern accents too.
Been watching. Find it very dark, very Nordic! Not sure that I like it exactly. Also, the lass playing Cadi has past associations which seem unfortunate. I find it hard to tust her! I suppose I’ll carry on watching, but it takes effort to choose it, whereas R&R is light relief and I pounce on some very dark stuff like Spiral (Engrenage) on BBC4. That’s the slot Y Gwyllt ends up in as Hinterland!
It’s been mentioned before at least once, but for those (like me) watching via Clic, the “Sain disgrifio” option is really useful. Especially in something like this which has lots of silences in between dialogues.
The sain disgrifio gives a sort of running commentary, in Welsh, which is very helpful in knowing where we are and which characters are involved.
(I don’t know whether it is available, other than via Clic).
[ Having said that, I’m not 100% sure what verb tense/tenses are being used.The meaning is usually clear, but I find myself wondering “why did they say it that way?” - Something to come back to after a bit more experience with this & a bit more study I think. ]
