Rygbi

So disappointing that Welsh supporters call out ‘Come On Wales!’ instead of ‘Dewch Ymlaen, Cymru!’, as I did And in the National Anthem why do they pronounce the word ‘pleidiol’ as ‘plydiol’ rather than ‘playdiol’?.
Nefyn

I would have been of the ones singing pl(eye)diol rather than pl(ay)diol. "ei"is closer to the English “eye” in these parts as is “ae”. I reserve the “ay” as in play (or something close sound for “eu”. I acknowledge that the pronunciation changes radically as you venture North.

Still Welsh isn’t unique with its accent variations - my wife and I can’t agree how to say the English words “bus” or “bath”.

I live in Us Trad May Rig (Ystrad Meurig) :smile:

I have been playing or watching rugby for 62 years and have never seen such a magnificent and exciting afternoon of international rugby. The performances and commitment of all three contendors (four if you include France) were superb. 211 points in 5 hours!

People of my age tend to talk about the good old days but. let’s face it - THESE are the good old days. Roll on the world cup

Oh and before I forget - llongyfarchiadau mawrion mawr, Iwerddon :star2:
(edited to remove alcohol-fuelled errors :blush: )

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Absolutely outstanding effort by the Welsh boys in the second half today. Just a shame they conceded that try right at the end. The points pressure might just have been too much for Ireland otherwise. The rugby today was more like southern hemisphere rugby and long may it continue. Wales, England and Ireland (and to some extent France) all showed what is possible when you play with the ball in hand a little more.

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Well done to Ireland indeed. A well deserved win of the six nations.

And I am someone who has always pronounced “pleidiol” with the “e” as a bit of a “schwa”, as all the native Welsh speakers round here do.

As Hewrop says, such things change from area to area.
It’s why “gwaed” rhymes with “Gwlad” in the dialect the anthem was written in, but not necessarilary in all Welsh dialects :wink:

So how does that actually sound, Owain? Does it rhyme with “eye”, “play” or something else?

Oh, sorry! Just seen this!

Just an unnecessarily complicated way of saying it rhymes with “eye”, really.

I mean, to my ears, the diphthong is normally composed of a sort of “uh” + “ee”. But it will differ from person to person. And from word to word with that person and second to second with them as well!
Whereas “eh” + “ee” is also used.
Both used and perfectly good round here, I would say, anyway.

Thanks Owain. It seems Ceredigion and Abertawe (or you and I at least) pronounce this in a similar way.

C’MON CYMRU placards were being handed out by the truckload in St Mary St. prior to the Ireland game - all courtesy of the Assembly funded Pethau Bychain. The version of the anthem as printed phonetically on them is ‘Played-eeyol weave eem goo-lard’, thanks Carwyn. Anyway, ‘Siarad Cymraeg, chi?’ I enquired of the two young ladies doing the distributing, ‘Oh, no. Sorry’ came the replies, so you can make what you want of that

That they didn’t speak Welsh?

On the subject of Pethau Bychain there is an amusing quiz on the wales on line website find it under ‘Fun’ 20 multiple choice questions English to Welsh, includes Sponge Bob Square Pants. I got 16/20, challenge open

For a quicklink to the quiz go my twitter a/c @daibananas…pob lwc

I did that earlier and got 20/20 but wasn’t sure if the first question was a trick - two of the answers were correct.

When Barry John first went to Zeland Newydd, they marvelled and changed their game!! I would agree with our Bokki friend, but would contend that, in the day, we always played like that!!
I recall a game between London Welsh and Cardiff when the latter fielded Barry & Gareth and LW fielded most of the rest of the Welsh team. Cardiff won by a mile, because B & G knew what to do with the ball!! Remember, in Hymns & Arias, Max says, “a fast & open game”? That is how Welsh rugby always was. The teams were less fit, they were amateurs, but anyone at the Arms Park in 1969 for Wales/England, who saw the Sais dead on their feet at the end would know why I remembered that game on Saturday!
p.s. Why do the crowds no longer sing Calon Lan, Cwm Rhondda etc. etc,?
pps: I was at Twickenham when Max was inspired to write H&A!!! A chap in front of me got so excited, he grabbed the crutch from under his mate’s arm and waved it in the air!!! That game was a bit like Saturday too!!

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Exciting as it was, and I have watched the whole second half three times, give me the tension of the Ireland game any day. Mind you, it does help no end when you are fortunate enough to be present…Uruguay tickets spare anyone?

Oh, as a spectator sport, true!
I recall meeting two French folk at a Wales/Ireland match at Lansdown Road and asking why they were there when France was playing in Paris. They replied that they expected our game to be much the better one!!! I seem to recall they were right!! (But I’d never have missed a Wales game to watch another that might, on form, have been better!!).

Yes, indeed, an excellent day of rugby. Still, I can’t help but regret that the modern game seems to rely far to much on simple brute force, so that the players have lost the ability to play the elegant running and handling game that Rugby Union was up until it turned officially professional. Yes, in wet conditions there used to be a lot of kicking, but that was largely due to the nature of a wet leather ball. I recently had the opportunity to handle a modern rugby ball—what a difference! It’s like holding something made of Velcro!

In that case why, oh why, do so many top players drop it???
Did you try it when it was wet???

Totally agree. People at work have to endure my eulogy to what rugby used to be on an almost weekly basis!

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No idea, other than to suppose that they simply do not have the ball-handling skills that were necessary previously. Just look at the quality of passing for proof of this. If we had passed the ball that way in the sixties and dropped it quite so often, we’d have been up and down Orwell field a hundred times doing nothing but simple passes (Orwell field was one of the training fields at school). I went to school in England, but our Rugby master, Mr. Evans, was a former scrum-half who, rumour had it, had had a try-out for Wales: he stood for no nonsense!