What am I hearing?

From another Facebook status, this time a young person from Aberystwyth:
“Ffili credu…” with the poster’s bilingual explanantion “Can’t believe…”.
My guess is that it’s local for ffaelu : fail (to).

Is this in common use? If so would Ffaelu only be used where “fail to/failed to” would be ok in English.

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I think David on Rownd a Rownd says this occasionally as well – I think it’s usually subtitled ffaelu but sounds like ffili when he says it.

I think the most recent occasion was “I didn’t manage to / didn’t get around to (tell Dani I was breaking up with here)”, which fits better to “fail to” than to e.g. “couldn’t” (gallu) or “didn’t” (peidio).

Yes, very common usage. :slight_smile:

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Ffili is pretty much the southern version of methu.

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What is Bechod! (or something like that), and what does it mean?

I hear it most often from Dani on RaR, often in a context a bit like “the poor thing!” (like Creadur!) but sometimes not, just after hearing something negative perhaps.

The Ap Geiriaduron says “Bechod!“ = “Shame!“. Seems to fit nicely with the connotation you mentioned.

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Literally, ‘pechod’ is ‘sin’, but it’s used as Hendrik says in the sense of ‘what a pity’… :slight_smile:

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Bechod and bendith are two of the things that we’ve taken to using as a family to an extent that even the youngest no longer ask “er what does that mean” like they do with so many other things I say!
Bit by bit Welsh is becoming part of the everyday for us.

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What’s bendith, then? Literally, “a blessing”, I presume, but how is it used?

Often when someone sneezes…:wink:

I’ve also heard it as a rather elaborate, slightly over-the-top way of thanking someone, but not very often.

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It’s after a sneeze! (or should that be tisian!)
Right coffee break over - back to work…

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Also where you might say “awww, bless” in English.

See also “O, bendith ar ei phen!” for “oh, bless her!”.

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Lovely - it is one of those words that is almost identical (because of its Latin origin - “peccatum”) to Dutch - “pech”, with an almost identical meaning.

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“Pech” (das Pech) is used in a similar way in German, meaning basically bad luck.
It presumably also originally meant “sin”, but in modern German, they seem to use a different word: “Sünde”.

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Indeed.

According to my etymological dictionary, German “Pech” is from Latin pix “pitch” (the sticky, tar-like substance) and thus related to English “pitch” – and the meaning derivation in German may have been “pitch > hellfire > punishment > bad luck”. (For the “hellfire” bit, compare also Pech und Schwefel “pitch and sulphur” which is used a bit like “fire and brimstone” in English.) Or possibly from sticky pitch used to coat branches in order to catch birds – those birds would then Pech haben “have bad luck; literally, have pitch”.

That’s right as well – that’s the only word I’d use for “sin” in German.

To bring the circle back to Welsh: I’ve heard that in some northern dialects of German, (the local dialect equivalent of) “Sünde” is also used like “(that’s a) pity” like Welsh bechod is.

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Bechod, there goes my theory…

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In last week’s 35 Diwrnod, which I finally got around to watching, I heard, not, beth or pa siec but ‘pwy siec?’ Which I thought meant who not what! Context, “I asked her if she’d got the cheque. What do you think she said?” We all knew she knew nothing about any cheque so would ask, "“What cheque?”
Can anyone explain the use of pwy?

Could it be “pwy yw siec?” / “Who’s cheque?” ?

A southern usage - particularly common in Ceredigion, where you’ll often hear it used instead of ‘pa’.

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Is there a Welsh word that sounds like “comos”?

I heard it in the sentence: S’dim eisau i ti eglero. Dwi’n gwybod yn comos beth sy’n mynd ymlaen.

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