Even in English, I always called my place on Gower a cottage (bwthyn), never a little house!
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How does bychan differ from bach? Is it a subtlety like the difference between âlittleâ and âsmallâ in English?
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Goodness, this was in Gower! Her step father was the lighthouse keeper at Rhossili. She lived near the Wormâs Head! Where are you? I think her house is now National Trust. I say âlighthouse keeperâ, I may mean Coastguard. I donât think there is a lighthouse thereâŚ
I am now in Yr Alban (Scotland) and nobody in Rhossili in my day spoke Welsh. In fact they were famous for being hard to teach it to! Friend of mine, kind hearted, willing girl, sad that she was so bad at Welsh in Gowerton school, was told, âDonât worry, dear, we never succeed in teaching Welsh to any child from Gower!â This friend was much older than me. I am 76 and she died some years back!
Pretty much. In these cases it probably helps to think of tš bach and tš bychan as âidiomatic phrasesâ rather than pairs of individual words.
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Brilliant! Well that was certainly true in my Motherâs case, as she can do no more than count to ten. She went to Gowerton Girlsâ Grammar school. Perhaps sheâll find this some consolation!
p.s. The coastguardâs cottage had been National Trust for some time while I was still there. I did know verious coastguards by sight before that, but only really at the âgoing round carol singing at Christmasâ level. I am not Gower stock. I had an âauntieâ in the village, but she was from Swansea. ps anything else o this we will have to use PM (personal messages)
âTš eitha bachâ is the way SSiW mentions in one of the lessons to get around this.
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Which is also used in ysgol feithrin as the term for wendy house. 
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yes, wendy house probably would still have raised a few giggles, but slightly less embarassing than living in a loo!
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Yes, but that means something slightly different, of course.
@siaronjames is as usual spot-on with her tš bychan.
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I came across this when I started reading, Bethan Gwanasâ Blodwyn Jones books. Nice to know the history of this phrase.
I was thinking of Ty Cosi, but thatâs obviously wrong on every level, unless you want to keep the pot warm or everyone in house has just come down with a dose of chickenpox.
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It is a northern expression. My auntie (first language speaker) explained it to me years ago as meaning it was the sixth place (or room) in the house. Most houses had six rooms - 1. the kitchen, 2. the dining room, 3. the lounge, 4 & 5. two bedrooms, and âthe sixth placeâ (which wasnât mentioned in polite company).
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Lounge strikes me as very modern. We, when i was young, had front parlour for people like the rent man and us at Christmas when the fire was lit, and middle room for eating and sitting, with kitchen and little scullery at back, where the tap was! Tš bach out back but part of house adjoining scullery and in front of coal house which was reached from scullery directly
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Every time I call the sitting room the lounge, my mum yells âCatherine! You do not live in a PUB!â If I ever called it the front room, my brother took joy in pointing out it was on the side, and therefore not a front room at all.
Families, eh?
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Youâre completely right @henddraig. I said âlounge,â because thatâs what weâd call it now; but my auntie said âparlour.â
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Is she also particular about whether itâs a sofa, couch or setee?
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couch - Auntie
setee - snobby Mam
sofa - me
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