Tiny questions with quick answers - continuing thread

Andy, I happened to bump into Ifan Jones Evans (familiar face on S4C agricultural programmes!) in the office today, so I asked him if there was a Welsh equivalent term for ‘rigg-weltered’. He’d heard of the English term ‘hefting’ (definitely ‘cynefin’) but hadn’t actually heard of ‘rigg-weltered’ before, but he said they’d say “wedi cwympo’n lletwith” (at least in his neck of the woods - around Tregaron). He said that although it literally translates as “fell awkwardly”, in the context of farming, that’s what he’d expect to hear when referring to sheep on their backs.

Hope that helps!

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I have been trying to remember the word, in English, used on Gower for sheep on back, too wet, fat, over-fleeced or pregnant to get up. ‘Cast’ rings a bell, but I’m not sure there is a simple translation into Cymraeg. In fact Ifan Jones Evans comments implies there is not!
edit: p.s. I have turned such sheep over many times, once with added difficulty when my ‘Auntie’ wanted to help instead of holding her dog away from the action as I had asked! But, once when I had three dogs with me, I met an unfortunate ewe tangled in wire against a wall. The dogs did not help and I couldn’t work out how to free her, so I ran me and dogs back to the farm. Fortunately the farmer was in and came with me to…no sign of ewe. We finally found some blood on the wire to prove I wasn’t going nuts, but he said it is amazing the messes sheep can get themselves out of!

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Definitely cast where horses are concerned - it seems a very good word for sheep stuck upside down! I may start applying the word to the hundreds of sleepy ladybirds that often end up waving about on their backs in our house at this time of year…

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It does, diolch o galon, and it does make a lot of sense.
@henddraig , I’ve heard ‘cast’ as well and I think that’s quite widespread.
I’m still in the market for sheep terminology, so if anyone has any suggestions for ‘wether, gimmer, hogget, shearling, bield, intake etc. That would be lovely. :grinning:

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Well Ifan’s gone home now, but next time I see him I’ll ask if he knows of a good online agricultural dictionary!
In the meantime, and talking of agricultural dictionaries, I don’t know if you might be interested, but perhaps the books (there are 4 volumes) Cydymaith Byd Amaeth by Huw Jones may be useful (I haven’t read them myself - just googling about for “termau amaethyddol” :wink: ). I haven’t checked all sources, but all 4 volumes can be found on ebay at the moment at various prices.

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Brilliant, thank you. I’ll have a look at that and do some more googling myself.

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I checked “Rigg weltered” with my siblings, who are now scattered across various rural locations; one lives in a village by the name of Hazle Rigg. They seemed to be aware of it’s (rig weltered) meaning, but I suspect only via a quick goggle search. One family member mentioned that he often uprights/unrigg welters(?) a sheep when out walking the dogs.

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Lovely term, ‘uprights’. :grinning: Do they recognise the word ‘bratting’?

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Been playing with the free Glossika course. Some of the responses seem a bit “foreign” if you know what I mean. To “You must be hungry” I would say “rhaid I ti llwglyd”. The answer they give is “rhaid dy dod ti’n llwglyd”. If you need the to be in there I would say “rhaid I ti bod yn llwglyd”. I am I just getting this wrong or is it a gog thing?

You could say ‘Rhaid dy fod ti’n llwglyd’ or ‘Rhaid i ti fod yn llwglyd’ - but yes, you need the ‘bod’ - it’s the ‘be’ bit of ‘be hungry’… :slight_smile:

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That makes sense. Thanks.

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I don’t think so, but I do, now :slight_smile:

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When do you say what for greeting? Is it Bore da till noon, then P’nawn da till about 5 or 6 and then Noswaith dda?

I somehow never know what to say to start a conversation e.g. on the phone and always want to say Dydd da… which is fine as a greeting in Cornish but is not used in Welsh, as far as I know!

Or can I always start with S’mae or Helo or Haia? Would those be too informal for talking to a stranger on the phone?

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Helo or S’mae to just about everyone is fine.

Bore da (til 12 - unless you don’t know the time then it normally leads to a small conversation anyway, like when I said that to a patient at 17:50 last night), p’nawn da til 4 or 5 or maybe 7 or 8 in the summer (if it’s light you can get away within).

S’dach chi/S’dych chi also works but normally after a helo.

Haia is fine informally and to most strangers. People don’t tend to think they’re Royalty so they’re ok with informality within reason.

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Diolch i ti Anthony!

Pleser :blush:

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The alternative to noswaith dda of course is shouting “TI’N IAWN BOI?” Over a remix of Lleucu Llwyd while you hand your mate a pint.

(Disclaimer…I’ve never done this :flushed:)

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Checking this out with @louis :smiley:

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If you are in Caernarfon a quick “iawn cont” will suffice at anytime to anyone. :laughing: :wink:

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and what does cont mean?

edit: or maybe I shouldn’t have asked that?

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