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Donna Boyce
Two issues ago in this column you read an excerpted article “Cuddle up to cwtch, Wales' best loved word” and in the last newsletter WSCO member Joan Bash wrote about her family and what that word meant to them.
My maternal grandmother was born in Wales but I heard only one word of the language from her – mam-gu (mahm’ gee) – grandmother. In North Wales the more-common word for grandmother is nain (nine) but Mam-gu was from the south, from Hopkinstown, across the bridge from the market town of Pontypridd in the Rhondda Valley, County of Glamorgan. Many of my cousins still refer to her as Mam-gu, but why did we not hear more Welsh spoken? My mother’s sister answered that question several years ago.
When 18-year-old Mary Jones, whose mother had died of tuberculosis only three months previously, was married in April of 1901 to an English-only-speaking carpenter, they took up residence with her father, John T. Jones (try doing genealogy research on that name!). John T. told his daughter that, since her husband could not understand Welsh, they would not speak it. So, as my Aunt Marian put it, Mary “lost her Welsh.”
I feel sad knowing that she had to wait so long to hear her native language spoken in her own house – until she could be called “Grandmother” in the Language of Heaven. But I’m proud to know that she had the gumption and strength to triumph and honor her heritage, even in this small way.
What Welsh word/s do you remember from your childhood? Were you taught Welsh by a parent or grandparent, or does one particular word or phrase mean something special to you? Will you share your memories with us? Send a letter to WSCO Dragon Tales, PO Box 12023, Columbus, OH, 43212, or write to the editor at dragontalesnews[at]sbcglobal[dot]net.
Want to be able to pronounce their names better when you talk to Gwynfor, Briallen, Padrig, Alwen, Angharad, and Rhodri? Check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/livinginwales/sites/howdoisay/names/.
At this time of increasing political coverage, it seems appropriate to mention that the presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann Marie Davies Romney, is of Welsh heritage.
In a September 19, 2004 Boston Globe article, Ann said, “[My father, Edward Davies,] was a Welsh immigrant; he was born in Maesteg, southern Wales, to coal miners. I feel like I’m only a step away from there – I feel tied to my Welsh ancestry.”
It is reported that one Christmas Ann baked Welsh cookies for Mitt’s staff. At one time she posted a recipe for Welsh Tea Cakes, which she calls Welsh Skillet Cakes, on Mitt’s website.
“It was once I picked up the car in Cardiff that the enormity of my predicament hit me. I was jet-lagged and sleep deprived, driving for the first time on the left side of the road while trying to read a map...I drove slowly, lurched along, wove my way through roundabouts in the wrong lanes, got lost, and held up traffic behind me. In short, I was An American Driver in Wales -- which is what the policeman concluded when he pulled me over for drunk driving.”
“That night a full Welsh moon woke me, shining in the skylight over my bed, and I fell back asleep to the sound of an owl softly calling in the cold spring night. I woke the next morning to the sound of a symphony of songbirds, more than I’d ever heard in Ohio.”
Be sure to look for WSCO member Lee Evans’ delightful article in the next issue of Dragon Tales.
Dewi Sant, Saint David, is the patron saint of Wales/Cymru -- there are few facts and many legends about the life of Dewi. He died on the first of March in either 589 or 601 A.D.
March 1st, Saint David’s Day (Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant) is the traditional day of the Welsh, celebrated all over the world by wearing one of the National emblems, a leek or a daffodil, in commemoration of this Celtic saint’s death.
Dewi Sant is credited with the spread of Christianity in southern Wales and is said to be buried in what is today St. David’s Cathedral, located on a peninsula in Pembrokeshire in southwestern Wales.