Other events in my life have kept me from paying much attention to this
thread - but -the most commonly used affectionate term for 'grandfather'
in south Wales is/was (in my experience) Bamp or Bampa. I always used
the former term in Newport and our daughters in Aberystwyth the latter
term for my wife's father from Dowlais. With a grand daughter imminent
in London this is, as they say, 'under active consideration' here in
Dixie land.
Learning languages early? It is common experience that young children
seem to know instinctively which language is which, certainly in Wales.
Brian Davies
Emeritus Professor B E Davies PhD, C. Chem, FRSC
107 Teeside Drive
Anderson SC 29625-6937 USA
tel: (864) 646-7876
Hugh Watkins wrote:
On 28 Mar 2007, at 04:36, JANLWH(a)aol.com wrote:
> Dawn,
>
> Thanks for the answer. I thought that it might mean grandpa
> or grandma.
> My Welsh grandmother told me that granddad and grandmother were
> Dad-key or
> Dad-gee and Mom-key or Mom-gee. I don't know the correct spelling
> but that
> is what it sounded like to me as a young person. But she didn't
> want me to
> call her that. She always said this it the "new country." we are
> not in the
> "old country." I believe that she told me that as a school girl
> in Wales
> (1880's and 1890's), she was not permitted to speak Welsh in
> school. She was
> fluent in Welsh and English. She always said that she wasn't
> fluent in Welsh but
> the minute that one of her sisters or Welsh speaking friends
> called her on
> the phone, she spoke only Welsh! I think it was a way to keep
> little ears
> from ease dropping!!!!
>
yes language politics and bullying by teachers
welsh speakers were shamed in the playgrounds and made to wear boards
hung round their necks
of course bringing up kids to be bilingual confuses them at first but
in the end makes them more intelligent
kids see it as a game
I hope welsh fares better than irish
tv and radio channels are critical today
I watch a lot of german satellite tv in thenight
and my passive knowledge of German just gets better and better
I was watching a bavarian channel and found I could understand much
of what was I thought at first was dutch but in fact was the local
dialect
many words were just like danish (which I learned in my fourties and
fifties) but said differently with experience you can spot
international loan words (latin/ english) in any language
Hugh W
--
a wonderful artist in Denmark
http://www.ingerlisekristoffersen.dk/
Beta blogger
http://snaps4.blogspot.com/ photographs and walks
old blogger GENEALOGE
http://hughw36.blogspot.com/ MAIN BLOG
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