Porthpenwaig S4C

Welsh General / Questions
#1

“Porthpenwaig is set in the Llŷn peninsula and if you ever wanted a chance to immerse yourself in the Welsh of north Wales here it is. I get the feeling I will have to watch each episode several times to get an idea of what is going on, but it’s a great challenge and shaping up to being an interesting series.”

Dee, mentioned this in the weekly e-mail. Diolch, Dee!
This would be great listening for those going on the Luxury Bootcamp on the Llŷn in April. Picked up a quite a few useful phrases/words just in the first episode. Then, just as I was thinking where’s John Ogwen? (He appears in all Welsh drama!)He appeared playing, Largo. John Ogwen: a great character actor

http://www.s4c.cymru/drama/e_porthpenwaig.shtml

#2

And I see “Iolo” from Rownd a Rownd is in it as well (Tudur Lloyd Evans).
I find him one of the more difficult characters on RaR to understand, but I presume it is authentic NW Welsh. I don’t know if it’s authentic Ynys Môn Welsh. I will have to try to compare his speech in Porthpenwaig to his speech in RaR in case he uses a different accent/dialect.

#3

I see it’s set in the beautiful village of, Aberborth, which was one known for its herrings industry. Cleverly, the fictionally titled, Porthpenwaig, translates as Herrings-Port. Pennog - herring. Penwaig - herrings.

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#4

Still really enjoying this series and have picked up a lot of useful words and ways of using them naturally in sentences for when I’m next in Gwynedd. Great for tuning our ears to northern…

http://www.s4c.cymru/clic/c_level2.shtml?programme_id=415665292

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#5

Actually I have a question about something that I’ve heard in this show, and then I heard in Pobol y Cwm this week. It’s an expression that I’ve recently read in a fantasy book so I thought it was part of the fantasy, but now it pops up in 2 different shows.

I can’t remember exactly what they said but it’s something like “Diolch am y drefn” and in the book I’m reading (Igam Ogam) it tends to have Drefn with a capital ‘D’. Anyone know what it’s referring to? Is it idiomatic?

#6

Thanks for the order (Drefn - order). (from Geiriadur mawr).

Thanks for the new word (now all i need is to remember it).

Cheers J.P.

#7

Diolch i’r drefn = thank goodness/heavens (literally, I suppose, thank the order of things) ?

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#8

Diolch Rob. I thought it seemed to have some kind of meaning like that. It was weird how I hadn’t come across it before, then suddenly it popped up in 3 different places in the same week … though it could be that I didn’t notice it before and now I do.

#9

The Gweiadur gives it as - providentially, thankfully - as well.