Gang,
First I must thank Priscilla, Roland, Unc (Roland's gr-uncle and
life of
our party!!), Gary and his cousin Sandra (who was a delight!) for being so
brave to make this venture with me!
Yes that did take some degree of bravery but we were up to it. :-) It was
quite a memorable time for all of us and something I'm sure we'll always enjoy
remembering.
Priscilla is a very brave soul for
riding with me the whole time...even Roland and Unc experienced my
driving!! (It did get better, guys....didn't it Pricilla?!)
Er, uh... at this time I have no comment. :-)
I'm not certain how all of you (those who went) would like to
share the
info and all the experiences with the group....just remember this is
archived, however.
You have my permission to tell all the tales you wish. After this week is
over I'll have more time to write and I'll work on polishing my journal of the
trip.
Roland, Roy (perhaps others of you remember the guy I contacted in
Dogellau) showed me some resources that would be of interest in the future.
I went through a huge box of 1681 and 1688 census. Some are being copied
and sent to me. They will arrive with the huge record I found on the
Rhiwlas Estate.
Looking forward to that. Roy was an interesting man. I'm sorry we missed his
visit at the library but I'm sure we'll be working with him in the future.
The double L is the pits. (Especially when it appears in a word
twice!)
Say it with me, now: "The double L is the pits!"
What??? ARGH! The double L is great! It just takes a little practice and,
believe it or not, it flows pretty easily once you have it down. As old Mr. Davies
told us, Welsh is a phonetic lauguage. When you can pronounce the sounds you can
read it and speak it.
For Fron Goch -- Fron is as you see it in English.
Here I have to respectfully disagree. The F in Welsh is pronounced like a V,
so Fron is not quite as you see it in English. In fact you will find several
genealogical references to the place actually spell Vrongoch, which is no doubt from
an American trying to spell what he/she has heard spoken.
Goch is gutteral as it
would be for the German ICH (meaning I --but no I sound.) G is always
hard. O is the sound as in AH, but OCH is more like you are trying to
muster up enough salva to spit. Think of an old farmer with chewing
tobacco ! <G> The sound is said in the throat.
What a charming description! We would expect that from myself or Unc, but
from such a delicate lady as yourself??? I'm shocked.... :-)) Yes, and it's
similar
to the Scottish "loch" as in "Loch Ness", but as you so eloquently
described it,
it's gutteral.
Rhiwlas -- (may need help on this one, travelers!) To me, it sounds
like:
Rule Less. I know that isn't the true sound of RH, but close enough to get
you understood.
Sort of, but you need to roll your R and breath out heavily when you say it.
For Aberywstwyth. I do believe I have heard this two ways, right
Priscilla? I think our last B & B lady said: Aber WIST with. (But then
she was English) I said that for a time and was corrected. It is probably
more correct: AberST with. (The capitols are the accented syllable.) In
this case the Aber and ST are said almost as one syllable with the accent
on the ST. That is the town for the National Library.
You're right, this one is debatable. The second is more correct, as I
understood the word pronounced by our Welsh speaking hostess on the farm in
Aberywstwyth. What a super lady she was! She was an Evans, by the way. As for the
English, they were only a bit better than we were at pronouncing Welsh words.
For Dogellau. Dough -GETH-llau (Remember the LL is that throat
sound and
the AU is like you hurt yourself... (or AU as in OWL without the L) This
is where the parish records are (some in the National library, as well)
I think you want to say it as Dough-GE-llau, with a short E sound. The Welsh
pronunciation of the LL is making you think there is another TH sound in there, when
in fact I the extra TH in your description is extraneous.
For Llangollen. (DOUBLE LL TWICE!!) Llan GOCH llin. (Remember the
LL
sound, however. In this case the GOCH is how we would say it in English
not so gutteral....more like GOK.
Sort of, but I would say you have the same situation here as above. The O
running into the Welsh LL is making you hear a K sound that isn't there.
Enough for now! As this was my second visit to the house, would
another of
you like to share your first impressions of that moment/day?
In due time, I promise. My time is very short with trying to get caught up
on things. I will write the journal of the trip and make it available for anyone who
wants it. But it was a wonderful moment when Unc and I pulled up in front of the
house. It was emotional and all I could manage to say was "Welcome home, Unc."
He
just kept saying "This is it! This is the place! This is it!"
ALSO, did you make it to Dinfwr Castle, Roland? Did Unc try to climb
it?
Unc is the man! He did climb it and did very well at it. He not only made it
to the castle, but he climbed all the towers. It was a steep climb but he handled
it. I was amazed at how well he kept the pace throughout the trip. Wasn't that an
incredible view of the valley from there?! Wales is an amazing place. Did you get to
Strata Florida? Did you see the graves of the Welsh Princes? That was a cool place
too.
More to come.
RM