I am so glad you’re pleased with it Nigel - and thank you for your kind words. 
1 Like
Not so fast. There’s a typo on page 1 - y diwylliant glo. Now, I always confuse diwydiant and diwylliant, but you… I’m afraid I shall have to burn my copy.
1 Like
O bygar! 
Burn all copies immediately.
And then burn the author.
Don’t worry, no one need ever know. It can be our little secret.
1 Like
Yes. Mam yw’r gair. 
1 Like
Actually the right way to view this is as a Very Good Thing - it demonstrates (correctly) to the Gentle Reader that the author is a mere human being, and not (as is widely but erroneously supposed) a god or similar superbeing. So I’m very pleased about that. 
5 Likes
Nobody reads page 1 anyway.
Except you, Nigel. 
1 Like
Blame the proof reader. Obvious booby-trap by a cunning author to check whether the publisher is employing decent proof readers.
1 Like
Actually, I assumed you were some sort of beer-powered bot. Just get ChatGPT to write your next book - what could possibly go wrong? Ask it for a new edition of your Modern Welsh Dictionary. It’s getting less modern every day. (My old copy’s misleadingly called a ‘pocket’ dictionary - just how big are your pockets?)
1 Like
Ah, but what you don’t know is how many errors the proof-reader weeded out first…* (And I’m writing as a former professional proof-reader!)
(*Not wishing to cast aspersions, @garethrking - just acknowledging that while everyone does their utmost, we are all human and some things do just slip through.)
2 Likes
I’m afraid in these cases the oversight is mine, since the proof-reader only checks the English.
But I think I’m going to go with @robbruce 's ingenious ‘deliberate mistake’ excuse here. And I’m regarded as SUCH a naughty boy by the sefydliad Cymraeg anyway that they would think me perfectly capable of such behaviour.
3 Likes
In which case, I think it’s a genius idea. We all mix up diwylliant and diwydiant (I have to stop and think every time I want to use one or the other), so drawing attention to the two words is extremely useful
3 Likes
yup, me too!
2 Likes
Very good point, very well made, Sara. We’ll go with that, and perhaps in the intro to the next book I’ll mention the ‘326 alert readers who rose to the challenge of spotting the deliberate error’ and won themselves a small prize.
Meanwhile I note with relief that already way back in 2007 in the Dictionary (p72!) I certainly DID seem to know the difference between these two troublesome words - but of course like lots of decent normal people I still have to pause and think every time.
4 Likes
There is a cute little mnemonic to help with the distinction. Literature is a part of culture, the Welsh word is LLenyddiaeth → diwyLLiant, and steel (Dur) is a part of industry → diwyDiant.
4 Likes
There’s a useful mnemonic for this, which I find works very well (except when writing a book, obviously):
diwyDiant - d for dur steel
diwyLLiant - ll for llenyddiaeth literature
2 Likes
Snap!!
I’m really sorry. I should have kept my mouth shut and messaged you. Everyone’s going on about a trivial typo and not how brilliant your book is. It is well sick, as the young people say. Still, I’ve learnt that other people confuse the two words, it’s not just me.
3 Likes
There is absolutely no need for apologies, Nigel!
And thank you again for your kind words on the book itself.
Typos and other errors are part-and-parcel of publishing any book - in every single one of mine I have scrupulously checked everything three times at proof stage, and STILL when the first hard copy lands on my doormat, I open it completely at random and immediately spot an error!
Life is full of confusion - I, for example, often confuse coarse cut marmalade with fine cut, as you may perhaps already have noticed in the section on mistakes in the new book.
5 Likes
I hadn’t come across this before, but I’ve always just thought
inDustry - diwyDiant
and “the other one is the other one” - only half a mnemonic to remember
6 Likes