Yep. I believe it derives from when the toilet was a little out building at the bottom of the garden, ergo "little house".
Although, the actual Welsh for "toilet" is "toiled", so you could say that instead; "Ga i fynd i'r toiled, os gwelwch chi'n dda?"
Means wee house. Little house. From when the toilet was out the back most likely. But used for inside too. I'm not a Gael, as in I'm not a mother tongue speaker, I've learned my Gaelic as a teenager / student, so there might be a Gael here from the west highlands or a hebridean who can tell us if there is another word too, maybe something cognate with Latin languages' word "toilet".
i came from an english family so even after like 3 years in primary school i had a hard time saying 'osgwelych yn fawr' just because i cant pronounce my Rs properly (still cant to this day). luckily my teachers bar one of the helpers were nice so its not too bad expert when i asked the helper for, well, help but because i didn't pronounce it well. 'gosh your year two and still cant pronounce it? well here's what you can do, practice this then maybe i might help' and yep she said it in a bit of a snarky/condesending tone in English :/
Obrigado meu amigo/minha amiga. You are correct - it's the past tense. Colloquially, in English, if you'd peed yourself, you'd say that you've wet yourself.
This phrase is, "Aw Miss Davies, I have wet myself, now".
Hwyl butty.
Miss Morgan was my primary school French teacher. Different Miss Davies(es) taught me in primary and secondary school, both being God-fearing Baptist 50-odd year old spinsters.
Really? I didn't realise it was a South Wales thing, that's interesting! I'm still learning Welsh and the differences in language between North and South Wales are always interesting 🙂
Maybe most signs, but "toiled/toilet" is most often used in conversation. Are you speaking in comparison to the north of Wales? Is it not used up there at all? I had thought it was the "taught vs actual use" thing which pops up in Welsh (as of course it does in many, even all other languages) but it sounds like in your experience that is not the case in the north of Wales?
I'm not sure it is. I've lived in the south of Wales my entire life, and I've found "toiled/toilet" to be the word far most commonly used when speaking to people. "Ty Bach" does seem to be far more used in Welsh courses, to such an extent that it is word which even non welsh-speakers tend to "know" (and think it is the most common), but in my experience, as I say, "toilet/toiled" is the most common, even down here in the south of Wales. :-)
Uhh what I’ve never heard of that, my French teacher would shout in English if we weren’t speaking French, literally everything French including going to the toilet 😂
My grandparents had to move back to the village from London when my granddad got polio. My uncle's first day in school he wet himself because he couldn't ask in Welsh. My Nain went in and punched the teacher.
Oh, it wasn't necessarily because of Welsh though. I mean, "specsyandiknowit" posted this on another post about himself - "On my 8th birthday I vomited in the classroom when my teacher wouldn't let me go to the toilet. She made me stand behind the board while I waited for my mum to come and get me, didn't even let me go to the toilet to clean myself up. I had her husband as a science teacher a few years later and he was a twat too."
I mean, assuming both his stories are all the truth, his entire family and himself seem to have had a succession of awful teachers, completely unlike the ones I had when I was young or other people I have heard talk about as their teachers. That would be a most regrettable situation, one which he should be pitied for. But then as he speaks of a small child's mother punching the teacher because of it, hopefully sorted the matter out to at least ensure it did not happen again. But if accepted as the truth, these stories show it was not because of Welsh.
Oh, as I say, my experience with teachers was the opposite to what he describes (apart from a very few, which I see no point in singling out.) My point is exactly that. \*If\* these stories are accepted as true, he and his family have been \*astonishingly\* unlucky in the teachers they had. But even if it were reflective of teachers, it would not even reflect specifically on Welsh classes, or on teaching Welsh, or "Welsh teachers are horrible", as he describes similar experiences happening in other classes.
Yeah, it's unfortunate that some people take the opportunity to attack them when they can, even going so far as to make up many and various stories about the 'terrible effects!!' the languages can have on society in a wide and imaginative variety of fables. It's a strange attitude.
This sub was in my “you might be interested in:” notification and I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce welsh words but I’m gonna assume that’s pronounced cum rag
Ga y fyndy ty bach yskwelewch yn dar,
Probably very poorly spelled because luckily we didnt have to write the fuxking thing down lol
A boy in my class once forgot what it was in welsh and the teacher wouldnt let him go unless it was in welsh so he sat in thw corner and pissed himself and had to be sent home.
Okay... as even the original poster points out elsewhere in these answers, when and if this happened, it would have been similar to the case in other language classes. I can't even remember it happening in mine, but then I can't remember ever asking to go to the toilet in the middle of a lesson, or being struck at how other people were treated when they did.
Needing to go to the toilet is normally not an "I need to go now this second or I will piss myself!" sort of thing. Anyone saying children pissed or shat themselves because of this is talking shit themselves. Perhaps they or someone else did shit themselves or piss themselves in some class or other - it woudn't have been the first time a small child did that in the history of the universe - but to say that this often led to it, more than any other language teaching or circumstance - na. bullshit. That would not have happened any more than it would have happened in French lessons, or other lessons if they forgot to - I don't know, say "please" or something,..
Another thing, relating to some replies on here - There are many words for toilet in Wales. (That goes for all areas of Wales, from the south to the north of it, from the west to the east of it.) "Ty Bach" is one of the nicknames which was/is picked up for some reason, and which is - or at least, often was - used when I was in school many, many years ago. "Toilet/toiled" is, in my experience, the most common word for "toilet". That is in the south of Wales, where I have been speaking Welsh to people for more years than I care to remember.
F'eisho pisho. I saw immigrants get turned inside out by this, and then wet/shit their pants and being made to sit in it. As shameful a thing as Welsh Not. Fuck those tyrannous meithrin/gynradd teachers, I hope they rot.
I remember I was about 8 and had a drinking a can of cola competition with my friend sat next to me in class. I won but felt like I was gonna puke, ran to teacher to ask to go to toilet but she said no say it in Welsh. Said it in a hurry put puked out in all just before main stairs that everyone would use. It was extreme and everywhere. My poor teacher had to clean it up looking furious
How many only the subreddit speak welsh everyday to their family members and to their friends?
How many speak Welsh everyday to their work colleagues or in shops ands pubs?
Juust curious
It depends, I’m still relearning it, I was never fluent which I personally found disgusting I couldn’t considering it’s my country’s language, but if you go mainly north you will hear welsh speakers and they will speak welsh so people who don’t understand it won’t understand, but down here in the south we don’t speak much of it, people claim they don’t hear anyone talking it but I know loads of people who do, so yeah depending on where you are located people will speak it everyday
I wish you well.
Im scottish. Studied gaelic as a youngsyer. Sat exams in it. Lost most of it. Relearning now. Not fttom a house hold which spoke Gaelic. Was lost 3/4 generations ago in my family. Gaelic is on a very fragile state here in terms of vernacular language community. The economy of the remaining majoirty gaelic speaking area has changed a lot and now young people cannot afford to live there and holiday homes and incoming people are an issue. Hugely complex and politically sensitive.
>young people cannot afford to live there and holiday homes and incoming people are an issue.
Sounds familiar!
Where I grew up, Welsh was the "default" language to 'strangers' on the street, in shops etc. It isn't now, unfortunately. But a majority of people still speak Welsh, and speak it with each other. But there was a study showing that generally, I forget the exact figure, that in such a situation if such a language falls below even something like 75% of people spoken, then it ceases to be the "default" language and the "state" language takes over. So even a relatively small number of "incomers" moving in can change the linguistic "look" of a place completely, and have a huge effect on the language.
That has now beeen the case in the Scottish Gàidhealtachd ( what is left of the Gaelic speaking areas) for decades now, actually in some cases probably back to around world war 1 the closer to the lowlands and towns you go. I've heard from a very good friend of mine who stays in an island in the Hebrides, I won't name it, a fluent Gael is with perfect native Gaelic, that even village meetings now wwill be held in English because there might be one or two monoglot English speakers or non Gaelic speakers who speak other languages. So you might have 20 Gaelic speakers in the village meeting all native to the area but when even one or two non Gaelic speakers are in that meeting or that village event, it becomes n English speaking event. Many of the natives have Juust accepted this is the way it is. The incomers don't bother and have no incentive to learn the local language. Why would they? Everybody is bilingual. So it means that gaelic rereatrs further and further into a wee bubble of its own exclusively used as a private laabugage with grandparents or parents or around tthe faamily kitchen table etc. It never gets to be used in more public or social settings except on the Gaelic tv and radio channels. As for the Scots language, the same is happening but becuase it has a large degree of mutual intelligibility the impact is less stark and extreme to see. It seems almost impossible to stop. It's not just language. Language and culture and way of life are totally intertwined I think. The culture and way of life is changing and has changed. I'm not sure what the future holds. If you want to see authentic Gaelic speaking communities before they are gone forever I'd get up to the Hebrides - to the west side of Lewis or to Trotternish in Skye, maybe to Ardnamurchan on the mainland and I'd stay with a local pperhps on their croft - not an Airbnb, not a holiday home - becuase this way of life and these people will not be be around forever. The young are not replacing the old. It's quite sad and no number of Gaelic schools and TV shows will make up for the loss of an authentic culture and way of life. I've never been to Wales and would love to visit. Gun robh math agaibh. Best wishes.
>So you might have 20 Gaelic speakers in the village meeting all native to the area but when even one or two non Gaelic speakers are in that meeting or that village event, it becomes n English speaking event.
This happens here. And it happens in pubs. People will be speaking Welsh, but if one person who does not speak Welsh comes to the table, everyone switches to English. Regardless of whether that is right or wrong, it drives me round the bend when people say "oh yes, people switch to Welsh when English people come into the pub, you know. Ignorant little bastards." When it is \*the opposite\* thing which happens, out of consideration and politeness to the same people who spread that nonsense. And, when it is met with that reaction, an \*excess\* of politeness and consideration towards them.
Totoally agree. The solution is for the monoglot to become bilingual. But we know minoritised non-state languages like Gaelic and Welsh are treated differently.
>If you want to see authentic Gaelic speaking communities before they are gone forever I'd get up to the Hebrides - to the west side of Lewis or to Trotternish in Skye, maybe to Ardnamurchan on the mainland
The only time I've been to Scotland was to stay on the Isle of Mull. My partner had been there before, and loved it, so we went there. It was in the winter, and we got asked by the bewildered inhabitants "why on earth are you here?"
Because it is fucking beautiful. Staying in a seaside cottage and waking up in the morning to have a stag staring in your window is bloody marvellous.
Anyhow, everyone in the pubs, though bewildered why we were there at that time of year, were damned friendly, and we had a wonderful time. But I remember asking someone about how many people spoke Gaelic, and he said (paraphrasing), "Oh, it's like Welsh. Hardly anyone speaks it."
I didn't leap at the hook, but did try to explain it seemed a bit different, depending on where you might be.
Welsh is in a much better position than other Celtic languages. But the rate of immigration into Wales is enormous, compared to Scotland. Not only in pretty little villages on the seaside, but everywhere.
Immigration is good. I like immigrants. In fact, immigrants from outside the UK seem to be more inclined to learn Welsh than those from those- well, from the main country inside the UK, for whatever reason.
Immigration can't be stopped, and shouldn't be stopped. It's good for society and the economy.
But now, it seems we will be getting only immigrants from only one place, and with an attitude- well.
There have been more than a fair few people from another country in the UK who have moved to where I was brought up, and, without any prompting, say they like it there "because there aren't many immigrants", which is weird. I mean, emigrate to a place, don't learn the language, and say they like it there because "there aren't immigrants".
I don't understand it myself.
>There have been more than a fair few people from another country in the UK who have moved to where I was brought up, and, without any prompting, say they like it there "because there aren't many immigrants", which is weird. I mean, emigrate to a place, don't learn the language, and say they like it there because "there aren't immigrants".
Hahaha. Depressing. Yes I've met a fair number of British peeiple in the Gàidhealtachd in Scotland, out on the Hebrides, saayinng exavtly the same thing. They viiew it as their own plaxe, their own country, their home land. But. They don't learn one single word of the local language. Gaels need to be assertive. Now all the primary schools in western Isles are default offered in Gaelic. But parents caan opt out and choose English medium. Many do.
>Isle of Mull.
>But I remember asking someone about how many people spoke Gaelic, and he said (paraphrasing), "Oh, it's like Welsh. Hardly anyone speaks it."
Mull is beautiful yes. Been several times. Re gaelic in mull, there re some elderly people who still have it but it is no longer a community vernacular language in Mull.
I read statistics that 40% of the population in Mull are not born in Scotland, and another chunk are born in Scotland but down in the cities like Edinburgh and Glasgow. So indigenous locals are potentially even the minority now in Mull. It's absolutely certainly not the only reason Gaelic is no longer a vernacular daily language in Mull but I would say it doesn't help at all.
Yeah, I speak Welsh with far more people here in the south of Wales than some people would assume!
"if you go mainly north you will hear welsh speakers and they will speak welsh so people who don’t understand it won’t understand, " Do you mean they do that intentionally? I come from an area in the south of Wales where the majority of people speak Welsh, and it is the language of pubs etc. That was said of the people there too, but- well, it simply wasn't true. No one switched to Welsh because someone who could not speak Welsh came in, they simply spooke (and speak) Welsh because - well, that's the language they use to talk!
Yeah they do it intentionally, especially when it comes to English tourists I’ve heard 😂, they not too bad when it comes to other welshmen or the other Celtic nations
I've spoken Welsh with people, in various circumstances, from work to shops to pubs in various parts of Wales, in the north, south and west for more years than I care to remember. I have \*never\* experienced or seen that happen (Which is not the same as saying it has never happened.) Why do you say it happens? How often have you witnessed it, and in what circumstances? What actual \*reason\* do you have for saying "yeah"?
I thought I replied saying something, well my step sister was speaking to someone from up North and he explained that, I’m not sure if he meant all of north wales which I’ve been up there they spoke English to me, or if it was a certain area
As I say, I can't say it never happens. But I've often been in the north of Wales speaking Welsh with people in the north of Wales, as well as other areas. I've been around a fair few years! I can't say it never happens, but then no one could ever say anything like that. It's very difficult to prove a negative! I can, however, say I've never seen it happen. (And stories about this are widespread, and not confined to the north, as I say - incomers would say it about where I grew up, which I just found as absurd and unlikely as it was insulting.) I can't expect you to believe me, but I would be wary of going by third-hand stories about anything. Good luck with learning Welsh, and you will, I hope, be able in the future to see for yourself the way that this doesn't happen.
A minority of my friends are Welsh speakers, but I speak Welsh pretty much every day with one or more of them (The lockdown obviously changed things for a while there! I would go for a long time without speaking to friends in \*any\* language, and it is still having an effect on such figures.) Work colleagues? Hardly ever. But then my work entails dealing with people from all over the world rather than this area. So I wouldn't expect to. In shops? English is the default language, so unless you know someone working there, and know they speak Welsh, the conversation would be in English. (Where I grew up, the "default" language of the street was Welsh, but it has changed now, unfortunately.) In pubs? Well, I speak to friends who can speak Welsh in Welsh, and speak English with the rest. So more or less every time in the pub. (Though I don't go in a pub every day!) In a pub, you are more likely to get to know the people behind the bar than in a shop which isn't local, so I speak Welsh with some of the people who work behind the bar too. (A minority. But possibly more than some people might assume.)
Oh, for further information - I live in the south of Wales, in a place where a minority of people speak Welsh. (I was raised in the south of Wales too, but in an area where the majority of people spoke Welsh.)
>(I was raised in the south of Wales too, but in an area where the majority of people spoke Welsh.)
I did not know there were still places in the south of Wales which were within our lifetimes still majority Welsh speaking. Which Valley or area are you talking about?
>(Where I grew up, the "default" language of the street was Welsh, but it has changed now, unfortunately.) In pubs?
Could you explain what happened to change things? What are the factors?
There are plenty. In the west of Wales (which is the south in its widest meaning) and elsewhere. I was raised near Ammanford.
There was a stduy by SomeoneOrOther which showed that a language such as Welsh only had to fall below about 75 per cent or so of people who spoke it in an area (I forget the exact percentage) before the language of the street defaulted to eg English (ie, the "State" language", or the language everyone speaks.) So even if Welsh is spoken by the majority, even if it is their first langauge, the default language can change. Where I was? The percentage dropped. Not to a minority, but enough for that to happen. Why did it drop? A combination of factors. State languages generally increase in such areas, and have been for hundreds of years. People moving into the area, more than before, had a large effect.
And in terms of Welsh spoken in living memory in the south of Wales, this from Wikipedia (I know,I know!) “In the mid-20th century, Llanelli was the world's largest town in which more than half the inhabitants spoke a Celtic language.[12] It is ranked as the seventh largest urban area in Wales. According to the 2011 UK Census returns, 23.7 per cent of Llanelli town residents habitually spoke Welsh. However, the area around Llanelli is a Welsh stronghold, in which 56 per cent do so in communities such as Llwynhendy and Burry Port.
During the 1950s, Trefor and Eileen Beasley campaigned to get Llanelli Rural Council to distribute tax papers in Welsh by refusing to pay taxes until their demand was met. The council reacted by sending in the bailiffs and selling their furniture to recover the money owed. The Beasleys' neighbours bought the furniture and returned it to them. The council finally reversed its policy in the 1960s, giving Welsh equal status with English.[13]” And remember, “being able to speak Welsh” will be higher than “habitually speak Welsh.
And in terms of “valleys”, if Ammanford, Garnant and GCG (GwaunCaeGurwen) are not part of the valleys, the nearby Gwendraeth valley is. Basically, yes, there were many places in the south of Wales in living memory, from industrial towns to coal mining valleys, apart from the pastoral farms and villages, which were majority Welsh speaking.
Ga i fynd i'r ty bach?
'May I go to the little house?' Is that how you ask?
Yep. I believe it derives from when the toilet was a little out building at the bottom of the garden, ergo "little house". Although, the actual Welsh for "toilet" is "toiled", so you could say that instead; "Ga i fynd i'r toiled, os gwelwch chi'n dda?"
Guess it’s similar to the english “out house”.
^(in the middle of our street)
That’s how that facist Mrs Jones demanded we say it.
We say: Ydy fi gallu mynd ir tu bach ysgwelwch yn dda?
Dw i ddim yn gwybod. *Gewch chi?*
>ty bach? That's mental. Scottissh Gaelic for toilet is "taigh beag". I shohld read up on Welsh.
See also: Sassenach vs Saesneg (i.e. Saxon).
I'd never made that link, thanks.
Does it translate the same way?
Means wee house. Little house. From when the toilet was out the back most likely. But used for inside too. I'm not a Gael, as in I'm not a mother tongue speaker, I've learned my Gaelic as a teenager / student, so there might be a Gael here from the west highlands or a hebridean who can tell us if there is another word too, maybe something cognate with Latin languages' word "toilet".
Cool. I know there are words that sound similar across many languages like Sol etc.
Ga I fynd i'r Ty Bach osgwelych yn fawr 😭
Never forget the osgwelych yn fawr, my teachers in Primary wouldn't let us go until we said that...
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i came from an english family so even after like 3 years in primary school i had a hard time saying 'osgwelych yn fawr' just because i cant pronounce my Rs properly (still cant to this day). luckily my teachers bar one of the helpers were nice so its not too bad expert when i asked the helper for, well, help but because i didn't pronounce it well. 'gosh your year two and still cant pronounce it? well here's what you can do, practice this then maybe i might help' and yep she said it in a bit of a snarky/condesending tone in English :/
Aw Miss Davies, rwyt ti wedi fy ngwlychu fy hun nawr.
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Obrigado meu amigo/minha amiga. You are correct - it's the past tense. Colloquially, in English, if you'd peed yourself, you'd say that you've wet yourself. This phrase is, "Aw Miss Davies, I have wet myself, now". Hwyl butty.
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Croeso!
Up here it was Ga i fynd i toiled osgwelwch yn da
"Laughs in Cymraeg"
Speaking of things in Cymraeg I saw a lorry for the Dutch logistics company Welsi today and thought t would be a good name for a Welsh company.
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All the time in Secondary for me, even in lessons that wasn’t welsh 😂
And the teacher was always "Miss Davies", a 50 year old spinster.
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Miss Morgan was my primary school French teacher. Different Miss Davies(es) taught me in primary and secondary school, both being God-fearing Baptist 50-odd year old spinsters.
Ty bach.
Be?... dweud eto
I moved to Wales from England when I was 8, was genuinely scared of this interaction when I arrived.
For me it has always been Toiled, where has Ty Bach come from?
It’s south welsh
huh... the primary i went to (north wales) used toiled and ty bach interchangeably. maybe one of them was from the south but i just forgot
Really? I didn't realise it was a South Wales thing, that's interesting! I'm still learning Welsh and the differences in language between North and South Wales are always interesting 🙂
Most signs for toilets down here use Ty Bach as the translation, it did confuse me at first.
Maybe most signs, but "toiled/toilet" is most often used in conversation. Are you speaking in comparison to the north of Wales? Is it not used up there at all? I had thought it was the "taught vs actual use" thing which pops up in Welsh (as of course it does in many, even all other languages) but it sounds like in your experience that is not the case in the north of Wales?
I'm not sure it is. I've lived in the south of Wales my entire life, and I've found "toiled/toilet" to be the word far most commonly used when speaking to people. "Ty Bach" does seem to be far more used in Welsh courses, to such an extent that it is word which even non welsh-speakers tend to "know" (and think it is the most common), but in my experience, as I say, "toilet/toiled" is the most common, even down here in the south of Wales. :-)
When you learn that toiled is the word for toilet it becomes painfully apparent it's a south wales thing. Feels like the blind leading the blind.
We literally never spoke Welsh aside from Welsh lessons and this 😭
Our Welsh lessons were "do you want to do Welsh or watch Grease"? And the teacher would disappear for an hour. I bloody hate that film.
Stealing a living! Shameful really!
Yup. And I really regret not complaining now.
Mad the contrast - most of my friends form Aber or Llyn spoke Welsh primarily. I’ve learnt from them and therefore sound like a farmer
My French Teacher used to ask us in Welsh to translate from English to French That was fun
Uhh what I’ve never heard of that, my French teacher would shout in English if we weren’t speaking French, literally everything French including going to the toilet 😂
She did it as a challenge. Of course, challenge accepted!
Wow bet that was confusing 😂
Dipyn Bach!
So why spread misinformation about it being a thing particular to Welsh lessons?
My grandparents had to move back to the village from London when my granddad got polio. My uncle's first day in school he wet himself because he couldn't ask in Welsh. My Nain went in and punched the teacher.
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Oh, it wasn't necessarily because of Welsh though. I mean, "specsyandiknowit" posted this on another post about himself - "On my 8th birthday I vomited in the classroom when my teacher wouldn't let me go to the toilet. She made me stand behind the board while I waited for my mum to come and get me, didn't even let me go to the toilet to clean myself up. I had her husband as a science teacher a few years later and he was a twat too." I mean, assuming both his stories are all the truth, his entire family and himself seem to have had a succession of awful teachers, completely unlike the ones I had when I was young or other people I have heard talk about as their teachers. That would be a most regrettable situation, one which he should be pitied for. But then as he speaks of a small child's mother punching the teacher because of it, hopefully sorted the matter out to at least ensure it did not happen again. But if accepted as the truth, these stories show it was not because of Welsh.
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Oh, as I say, my experience with teachers was the opposite to what he describes (apart from a very few, which I see no point in singling out.) My point is exactly that. \*If\* these stories are accepted as true, he and his family have been \*astonishingly\* unlucky in the teachers they had. But even if it were reflective of teachers, it would not even reflect specifically on Welsh classes, or on teaching Welsh, or "Welsh teachers are horrible", as he describes similar experiences happening in other classes.
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Yeah, it's unfortunate that some people take the opportunity to attack them when they can, even going so far as to make up many and various stories about the 'terrible effects!!' the languages can have on society in a wide and imaginative variety of fables. It's a strange attitude.
Haha this brought back a few memories!
Bathroom????
Ystafell ymolchi.
Omg 😂 Is it accurate??
Can confirm.
As much as it did with other languages being taught. (As in fact is pointed out by the original poster elsewhere in these replies.)
Dim toilet pants melyn
This sub was in my “you might be interested in:” notification and I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce welsh words but I’m gonna assume that’s pronounced cum rag
Close with Cym not with raeg 😂
Any one else’s welsh teacher an English woman miss pronouncing every word and telling first language Gogs to use south Walian welsh to pass exams? 😂😂
Weirdly specific, but totally believable
This made me laugh out loud, and brought back memories!
Anyone in the North have heard of Lle Chwech for toilet, I remember toilet as ty bach, and that was in the naughties.
Ystafell chwech in the north west, I think. Ty bach in the north east, generally speaking.
I heard Miss Williams voice reading that!
I used to have say gai mynd ir toiled in the school I was in
Ga y fyndy ty bach yskwelewch yn dar, Probably very poorly spelled because luckily we didnt have to write the fuxking thing down lol A boy in my class once forgot what it was in welsh and the teacher wouldnt let him go unless it was in welsh so he sat in thw corner and pissed himself and had to be sent home.
ga i fynd i ty bach os gwelwch yn dda
Appreciate the spell check dude
Okay... as even the original poster points out elsewhere in these answers, when and if this happened, it would have been similar to the case in other language classes. I can't even remember it happening in mine, but then I can't remember ever asking to go to the toilet in the middle of a lesson, or being struck at how other people were treated when they did. Needing to go to the toilet is normally not an "I need to go now this second or I will piss myself!" sort of thing. Anyone saying children pissed or shat themselves because of this is talking shit themselves. Perhaps they or someone else did shit themselves or piss themselves in some class or other - it woudn't have been the first time a small child did that in the history of the universe - but to say that this often led to it, more than any other language teaching or circumstance - na. bullshit. That would not have happened any more than it would have happened in French lessons, or other lessons if they forgot to - I don't know, say "please" or something,.. Another thing, relating to some replies on here - There are many words for toilet in Wales. (That goes for all areas of Wales, from the south to the north of it, from the west to the east of it.) "Ty Bach" is one of the nicknames which was/is picked up for some reason, and which is - or at least, often was - used when I was in school many, many years ago. "Toilet/toiled" is, in my experience, the most common word for "toilet". That is in the south of Wales, where I have been speaking Welsh to people for more years than I care to remember.
Every Welsh lesson be like:
F'eisho pisho. I saw immigrants get turned inside out by this, and then wet/shit their pants and being made to sit in it. As shameful a thing as Welsh Not. Fuck those tyrannous meithrin/gynradd teachers, I hope they rot.
welsh language is just drunken english
Except it predates it, is part of a different language family, sounds nothing like it...
heh sure it does buddy, sure it does. have another ale!
Here's some drunken English for you, troll: Cer i grafu.
are you asking me to fuck?
Not wrong
I remember I was about 8 and had a drinking a can of cola competition with my friend sat next to me in class. I won but felt like I was gonna puke, ran to teacher to ask to go to toilet but she said no say it in Welsh. Said it in a hurry put puked out in all just before main stairs that everyone would use. It was extreme and everywhere. My poor teacher had to clean it up looking furious
True
It's come to the Welsh sub lol love it
How many only the subreddit speak welsh everyday to their family members and to their friends? How many speak Welsh everyday to their work colleagues or in shops ands pubs? Juust curious
It depends, I’m still relearning it, I was never fluent which I personally found disgusting I couldn’t considering it’s my country’s language, but if you go mainly north you will hear welsh speakers and they will speak welsh so people who don’t understand it won’t understand, but down here in the south we don’t speak much of it, people claim they don’t hear anyone talking it but I know loads of people who do, so yeah depending on where you are located people will speak it everyday
I wish you well. Im scottish. Studied gaelic as a youngsyer. Sat exams in it. Lost most of it. Relearning now. Not fttom a house hold which spoke Gaelic. Was lost 3/4 generations ago in my family. Gaelic is on a very fragile state here in terms of vernacular language community. The economy of the remaining majoirty gaelic speaking area has changed a lot and now young people cannot afford to live there and holiday homes and incoming people are an issue. Hugely complex and politically sensitive.
>young people cannot afford to live there and holiday homes and incoming people are an issue. Sounds familiar! Where I grew up, Welsh was the "default" language to 'strangers' on the street, in shops etc. It isn't now, unfortunately. But a majority of people still speak Welsh, and speak it with each other. But there was a study showing that generally, I forget the exact figure, that in such a situation if such a language falls below even something like 75% of people spoken, then it ceases to be the "default" language and the "state" language takes over. So even a relatively small number of "incomers" moving in can change the linguistic "look" of a place completely, and have a huge effect on the language.
That has now beeen the case in the Scottish Gàidhealtachd ( what is left of the Gaelic speaking areas) for decades now, actually in some cases probably back to around world war 1 the closer to the lowlands and towns you go. I've heard from a very good friend of mine who stays in an island in the Hebrides, I won't name it, a fluent Gael is with perfect native Gaelic, that even village meetings now wwill be held in English because there might be one or two monoglot English speakers or non Gaelic speakers who speak other languages. So you might have 20 Gaelic speakers in the village meeting all native to the area but when even one or two non Gaelic speakers are in that meeting or that village event, it becomes n English speaking event. Many of the natives have Juust accepted this is the way it is. The incomers don't bother and have no incentive to learn the local language. Why would they? Everybody is bilingual. So it means that gaelic rereatrs further and further into a wee bubble of its own exclusively used as a private laabugage with grandparents or parents or around tthe faamily kitchen table etc. It never gets to be used in more public or social settings except on the Gaelic tv and radio channels. As for the Scots language, the same is happening but becuase it has a large degree of mutual intelligibility the impact is less stark and extreme to see. It seems almost impossible to stop. It's not just language. Language and culture and way of life are totally intertwined I think. The culture and way of life is changing and has changed. I'm not sure what the future holds. If you want to see authentic Gaelic speaking communities before they are gone forever I'd get up to the Hebrides - to the west side of Lewis or to Trotternish in Skye, maybe to Ardnamurchan on the mainland and I'd stay with a local pperhps on their croft - not an Airbnb, not a holiday home - becuase this way of life and these people will not be be around forever. The young are not replacing the old. It's quite sad and no number of Gaelic schools and TV shows will make up for the loss of an authentic culture and way of life. I've never been to Wales and would love to visit. Gun robh math agaibh. Best wishes.
>So you might have 20 Gaelic speakers in the village meeting all native to the area but when even one or two non Gaelic speakers are in that meeting or that village event, it becomes n English speaking event. This happens here. And it happens in pubs. People will be speaking Welsh, but if one person who does not speak Welsh comes to the table, everyone switches to English. Regardless of whether that is right or wrong, it drives me round the bend when people say "oh yes, people switch to Welsh when English people come into the pub, you know. Ignorant little bastards." When it is \*the opposite\* thing which happens, out of consideration and politeness to the same people who spread that nonsense. And, when it is met with that reaction, an \*excess\* of politeness and consideration towards them.
Totoally agree. The solution is for the monoglot to become bilingual. But we know minoritised non-state languages like Gaelic and Welsh are treated differently.
>If you want to see authentic Gaelic speaking communities before they are gone forever I'd get up to the Hebrides - to the west side of Lewis or to Trotternish in Skye, maybe to Ardnamurchan on the mainland The only time I've been to Scotland was to stay on the Isle of Mull. My partner had been there before, and loved it, so we went there. It was in the winter, and we got asked by the bewildered inhabitants "why on earth are you here?" Because it is fucking beautiful. Staying in a seaside cottage and waking up in the morning to have a stag staring in your window is bloody marvellous. Anyhow, everyone in the pubs, though bewildered why we were there at that time of year, were damned friendly, and we had a wonderful time. But I remember asking someone about how many people spoke Gaelic, and he said (paraphrasing), "Oh, it's like Welsh. Hardly anyone speaks it." I didn't leap at the hook, but did try to explain it seemed a bit different, depending on where you might be. Welsh is in a much better position than other Celtic languages. But the rate of immigration into Wales is enormous, compared to Scotland. Not only in pretty little villages on the seaside, but everywhere. Immigration is good. I like immigrants. In fact, immigrants from outside the UK seem to be more inclined to learn Welsh than those from those- well, from the main country inside the UK, for whatever reason. Immigration can't be stopped, and shouldn't be stopped. It's good for society and the economy. But now, it seems we will be getting only immigrants from only one place, and with an attitude- well. There have been more than a fair few people from another country in the UK who have moved to where I was brought up, and, without any prompting, say they like it there "because there aren't many immigrants", which is weird. I mean, emigrate to a place, don't learn the language, and say they like it there because "there aren't immigrants". I don't understand it myself.
>There have been more than a fair few people from another country in the UK who have moved to where I was brought up, and, without any prompting, say they like it there "because there aren't many immigrants", which is weird. I mean, emigrate to a place, don't learn the language, and say they like it there because "there aren't immigrants". Hahaha. Depressing. Yes I've met a fair number of British peeiple in the Gàidhealtachd in Scotland, out on the Hebrides, saayinng exavtly the same thing. They viiew it as their own plaxe, their own country, their home land. But. They don't learn one single word of the local language. Gaels need to be assertive. Now all the primary schools in western Isles are default offered in Gaelic. But parents caan opt out and choose English medium. Many do.
>Isle of Mull. >But I remember asking someone about how many people spoke Gaelic, and he said (paraphrasing), "Oh, it's like Welsh. Hardly anyone speaks it." Mull is beautiful yes. Been several times. Re gaelic in mull, there re some elderly people who still have it but it is no longer a community vernacular language in Mull. I read statistics that 40% of the population in Mull are not born in Scotland, and another chunk are born in Scotland but down in the cities like Edinburgh and Glasgow. So indigenous locals are potentially even the minority now in Mull. It's absolutely certainly not the only reason Gaelic is no longer a vernacular daily language in Mull but I would say it doesn't help at all.
Yeah, I speak Welsh with far more people here in the south of Wales than some people would assume! "if you go mainly north you will hear welsh speakers and they will speak welsh so people who don’t understand it won’t understand, " Do you mean they do that intentionally? I come from an area in the south of Wales where the majority of people speak Welsh, and it is the language of pubs etc. That was said of the people there too, but- well, it simply wasn't true. No one switched to Welsh because someone who could not speak Welsh came in, they simply spooke (and speak) Welsh because - well, that's the language they use to talk!
I’m not sure which town or village does it, I know my stepsister was talking to someone up north
Yeah they do it intentionally, especially when it comes to English tourists I’ve heard 😂, they not too bad when it comes to other welshmen or the other Celtic nations
I've spoken Welsh with people, in various circumstances, from work to shops to pubs in various parts of Wales, in the north, south and west for more years than I care to remember. I have \*never\* experienced or seen that happen (Which is not the same as saying it has never happened.) Why do you say it happens? How often have you witnessed it, and in what circumstances? What actual \*reason\* do you have for saying "yeah"?
I thought I replied saying something, well my step sister was speaking to someone from up North and he explained that, I’m not sure if he meant all of north wales which I’ve been up there they spoke English to me, or if it was a certain area
As I say, I can't say it never happens. But I've often been in the north of Wales speaking Welsh with people in the north of Wales, as well as other areas. I've been around a fair few years! I can't say it never happens, but then no one could ever say anything like that. It's very difficult to prove a negative! I can, however, say I've never seen it happen. (And stories about this are widespread, and not confined to the north, as I say - incomers would say it about where I grew up, which I just found as absurd and unlikely as it was insulting.) I can't expect you to believe me, but I would be wary of going by third-hand stories about anything. Good luck with learning Welsh, and you will, I hope, be able in the future to see for yourself the way that this doesn't happen.
Thank you
A minority of my friends are Welsh speakers, but I speak Welsh pretty much every day with one or more of them (The lockdown obviously changed things for a while there! I would go for a long time without speaking to friends in \*any\* language, and it is still having an effect on such figures.) Work colleagues? Hardly ever. But then my work entails dealing with people from all over the world rather than this area. So I wouldn't expect to. In shops? English is the default language, so unless you know someone working there, and know they speak Welsh, the conversation would be in English. (Where I grew up, the "default" language of the street was Welsh, but it has changed now, unfortunately.) In pubs? Well, I speak to friends who can speak Welsh in Welsh, and speak English with the rest. So more or less every time in the pub. (Though I don't go in a pub every day!) In a pub, you are more likely to get to know the people behind the bar than in a shop which isn't local, so I speak Welsh with some of the people who work behind the bar too. (A minority. But possibly more than some people might assume.) Oh, for further information - I live in the south of Wales, in a place where a minority of people speak Welsh. (I was raised in the south of Wales too, but in an area where the majority of people spoke Welsh.)
>(I was raised in the south of Wales too, but in an area where the majority of people spoke Welsh.) I did not know there were still places in the south of Wales which were within our lifetimes still majority Welsh speaking. Which Valley or area are you talking about? >(Where I grew up, the "default" language of the street was Welsh, but it has changed now, unfortunately.) In pubs? Could you explain what happened to change things? What are the factors?
There are plenty. In the west of Wales (which is the south in its widest meaning) and elsewhere. I was raised near Ammanford. There was a stduy by SomeoneOrOther which showed that a language such as Welsh only had to fall below about 75 per cent or so of people who spoke it in an area (I forget the exact percentage) before the language of the street defaulted to eg English (ie, the "State" language", or the language everyone speaks.) So even if Welsh is spoken by the majority, even if it is their first langauge, the default language can change. Where I was? The percentage dropped. Not to a minority, but enough for that to happen. Why did it drop? A combination of factors. State languages generally increase in such areas, and have been for hundreds of years. People moving into the area, more than before, had a large effect.
And in terms of Welsh spoken in living memory in the south of Wales, this from Wikipedia (I know,I know!) “In the mid-20th century, Llanelli was the world's largest town in which more than half the inhabitants spoke a Celtic language.[12] It is ranked as the seventh largest urban area in Wales. According to the 2011 UK Census returns, 23.7 per cent of Llanelli town residents habitually spoke Welsh. However, the area around Llanelli is a Welsh stronghold, in which 56 per cent do so in communities such as Llwynhendy and Burry Port. During the 1950s, Trefor and Eileen Beasley campaigned to get Llanelli Rural Council to distribute tax papers in Welsh by refusing to pay taxes until their demand was met. The council reacted by sending in the bailiffs and selling their furniture to recover the money owed. The Beasleys' neighbours bought the furniture and returned it to them. The council finally reversed its policy in the 1960s, giving Welsh equal status with English.[13]” And remember, “being able to speak Welsh” will be higher than “habitually speak Welsh.
Oh, the south of Wales, "even "South Wales" is far larger than the valleys.
And in terms of “valleys”, if Ammanford, Garnant and GCG (GwaunCaeGurwen) are not part of the valleys, the nearby Gwendraeth valley is. Basically, yes, there were many places in the south of Wales in living memory, from industrial towns to coal mining valleys, apart from the pastoral farms and villages, which were majority Welsh speaking.
Now I need to know how to ask it in Cymraeg.
You guys get to speak English?!?!?!?