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