Liam Dutton nails pronouncing Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

[demmiblue]

[Lochloosa]

1. Nice smug look on his face when he was done....he deserved it.

[Byronic]

2. Never even hesitated.

There might have been a couple of practise runs over his early morning coffee, though. Well done, that man!

Cymru am byth!

[ailsagirl]

17. Do you speak Welsh, Byronic?

My hat's off to you if you do!

[Byronic]

27. Not as well as I would like, ailsagirl

I'm not fluent enough, but will keep working at it.

[ailsagirl]

30. I'm impressed!

Even to know a few phrases is impressive-- that's really something!

Hwyl fawr am nawr!

[geardaddy]

32. Dal ati Byronic bach!

Keep at it Byronic!

[Byronic]

37. Diolch yn fawr!

I'm just one of those Welshmen who needs to learn Welsh.

There are rather a lot of us, alas!

I'm a man of Gwent but was never taught Welsh in school - French, German, Latin (well it was a catholic school) but not Welsh.

Things are a lot better now though. Welsh is taught in schools again and cultural events such as the Eisteddfodd are growing in popularity. It's nice to see.

[sarge43]

3. Impressive!

[malthaussen]

4. I'll never get those Scottish place names in a million years...

-- Mal

[SwissTony]

5. The name he was trying to pronounce was Welsh, not Scottish.

And he's been everywhere. Now he's in prison. He's a despicable child molester.

I wouldn't mind if you deleted your post, malthaussen. I'm sure my fellow Auissies would be as grateful as I would be.

[demmiblue]

6. Wow... thanks for exposing him to those of us that weren't in the know.

What a pos.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Rolf Harris is in prison, not Liam Dutton, right?

[SwissTony]

8. Yes, it's Harris.

And he was by no means the worst.

Google Jimmy Savile...but have a bucket ready.

But Liam, to the best of my knowledge, is as pure as the driven snow. And, it appears, he's not Welsh. He just learned the name phonetically. Wonderfull effort.

[malthaussen]

9. Yes, that's the joke, you see.

As for Mr Harris personally, it is certainly sad and awful that he spent so many years abusing children. This particular song came out before he started all that, and I do not, as a rule, rate performances on the character of the performer anyway.

And I doubt you have the standing to speak for all Australians.

-- Mal

[SwissTony]

10. So, if you wish to post videos made by child molesters,

go for it.

You must be proud.

[demmiblue]

11. How do you know the song came out before he "started all that?"

You don't seem to understand the pathology related to pedophiles/child porn fanatics.

Gross.

[malthaussen]

12. He is only convicted for acts dating back to 67, IIRC.

What he was doing before then is speculation.

-- Mal

[SwissTony]

14. You're in some sense defending this guy?

He was born in 1930. That means he was 36/37 in 1967.

About what he did in the years preceding 1967, I can only speculate?? Got it!!!

I'm sure you and I would be more than happy to let our 12 year old daughters spend a day with Rolf if we could send them back in a time machine to 1966. Nothing could go wrong, could it?

[mackerel]

38. Wasn't Harris a friend of Saville's? They had a lot in common the fecks.

[Baitball Blogger]

13. Yes, but how can we be sure he got it right?

[ailsagirl]

16. Hah!! Good point-- we'd never know

[geardaddy]

35. He got it pretty much right

He kind of skips a syllable (just doesn't pronounce the "r" with a roll and so it's harder to understand)

Here's it slowed down and pronounced with a more Welsh accent https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Cy-Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch_%28Welsh_pronunciation%2C_recorded_17-05-2012%29.ogg

[ailsagirl]

15. He sure nailed it!!

I'd love to hear him say it again... very slowly.

The Welsh certainly have some interesting words, many with a dearth of vowels!

Sadly, the Welsh language is dying out I'm told.

[hunter]

19. Welsh is listed as "vulnerable" by UNESCO

http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/index.php

It's still very much alive and celebrated in some communities.

BBC news in Welsh here:

http://www.bbc.com/cymrufyw

Preserving languages is important.

[demmiblue]

20. +1 (and then some)

[ailsagirl]

22. Preserving languages is very important

When I was touring England and Wales, our tour guide went on about how the language was fading and that the new generations didn't know it and weren't taught it, etc. Maybe he was exaggerating. Hope so.

Welsh has to be one of the hardest languages to learn, IMO!

Thanks for the links

[hunter]

24. I think hi speed internet may help preserve languages.

Last edited Thu Sep 10, 2015, 09:12 PM - Edit history (1)

Kids can move away to another country but still communicate with folks at home and with one another using their native language.

In ancient times (like when I was my kid's age...) international phone calls were expensive and paper mail was slow.

Now people can use their laptop or tablet as video phones, and in most places that's not especially expensive or even free.

There's a place in Argentina where Welsh people settled and there's been a big effort to bring the language back and increase communication with people in Wales.

Over the years use of the Welsh language declined, and there was comparatively little contact between Wales and Chubut for many years after 1914. Things began to change when a large number of Welsh people visited Patagonia in 1965 for celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the colony. Since then there has been a great increase in the number of visitors from Wales. Teachers are sent to assist in keeping the language alive, and there is some social cachet in knowing the language—even among people who are not of Welsh ancestry. There are still important cultural activities, including chapel, poetry and Welsh teas served in teahouses alongside the river in Gaiman and Dolavon. In 2006, the links between the Chubut Valley and Wales were again underscored, this time in a sporting context. The first of a two-Test tour to Argentina by the Wales national rugby union team was played in Puerto Madryn, a 27–25 win for Argentina. Another example of the Argentina-Wales connection is that Welsh Centre in London has been for many years one of the main venues for dancing Argentine tango.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y_Wladfa

[ailsagirl]

25. Well, thanks for letting me know!

I wasn't aware of any of this. So there is hope for language preservation if people want it enough!

I think Scottish Gaelic might be teetering a bit. When I was on mainland Scotland, I never heard a word
of it. But when I visited Lewis/Harris Island, the locals conversed in it when they did their marketing! Of
course I couldn't make out a word but it was exciting to hear it being used so commonly. And all the
signs (for banks, markets, etc.) were bilingual.

[eppur_se_muova]

26. It's also an easy way for non-speakers to learn about the languages ...

there are a lot of free language tutorial sites on the Web; the more "minor" the language the more energy put into the Web site (though not always matched by technological proficiency). Just google "learn <language> online" if you've always been curious about say, Euskara, Xhosa or Kickapoo (or even long-dead languages like Tocharian). And don't forget Omniglot.

ETA: Uh, you might want to make that "learn <language> FREE online" ...

[hunter]

29. I could wander around Omniglot all day.

My computers have always been fairly unique on the web because I'm a relentless accumulator of international character sets.

I may not be able to make heads or tales of a language, but little white rectangular outlines where writing ought to be bothers me.

[geardaddy]

34. Yes, it's very much alive in Northwest Wales

Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon
(A Nation without a language is a nation without a heart)

[geardaddy]

33. No dearth of vowels

W and Y are vowels, as well.

A E I O U W Y are the Welsh vowels. And Welsh isn't dying out. It's vulnerable, but it is still very much a living community language, particularly in the Northwest of Wales.

[ailsagirl]

18. Thanks for posting, demmiblue!!

I love stories about language(s)!!

[frogmarch]

21. It means

Full meaning: “Saint Mary’s Church in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio of the red cave”.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

I like it. The name has a nice ring to it.

[ailsagirl]

23. Wow!!!

Thanks for translating!

[demmiblue]

28. Heh!

[geardaddy]

36. And nearly no one ever calls it by its full name in Wales

It's always "Llanfair P. G." or "Llanfairpwll"

It was kind of a way to get it's name on the map during the Victorian age.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanfairpwllgwyngyll#Significance_of_the_name

[geardaddy]

31. Da iawn chdi!

Well done you!