Remember you can get 4 months extra on a 2 year subscription of Nord VPN at nordvpn.com/welsh and remember to use the code "WELSH" at checkout. It's risk free as well, with Nord's 30 day money back guarantee. So flipping there, chaps!
I recently purchased the osprey publising book on post roman kingdoms of gaul and britain. They show what they believe king arthur would have looked like as well asy gododdin and cadwallon ap cadfan. All are wearing late roman armour and I was wondering how accurate is this?
@@lacybookworm5039 yes. All surviving Celtic languages are in the Goidelic and Brythonic branches; the former includes Irish and the latter includes Welsh, so they're about as different as modern Celtic languages can be, but they're closer to each other than either is to the language of the Celtae, the tribe living in modern Belgium that the family is named after.
As a side note to the River Avon meaning it’s really called ‘the River River’, England also has Torpenhow Hill which means ‘Hill hill hill Hill’; one can only assume there’s a hill there. 😜
It's probably a joke. "Which hill?" "The tor" "The Tor? The tor of that hill is the tor?" "Aye that's the hill, the tor at the pen of that how" And so on and so forth
Yes, Jim, as a Scotsman (originally from Edinburgh, educated in Glasgow), I'd _love_ you to do more on Welsh place names and language, and Scottish/Irish associations. I found this fascinating 👍
""Hello from the Welsh American Channel. Just want to let you know that we Welsh Americans are also interested in what is going on in Wales and all things Welsh. Cymru am byth!"""
I would love a video on Welsh pronunciation - I'm studying Irish now, and it's funny how much Welsh does feel like, "Ah, yes, this is clearly the cousin of the language I'm studying," but of course the pronunciation is totally different. Also thought you'd appreciate that my Irish teacher starts every class with a log ainm (place name).
Bím ag éisteacht leis an físeán seo agus caithim a aithint tá an blás Breatnach Bheaga saghas cosúla an blás Mhannanach, agus muna fhios agat tá teanga Gaelach ar an oileán sin chomh maith, Gaelainn Mhannanach nó "Gaelg" sa teanga sin.
My grandmother (Nain) told me that her mother could have a conversation with the ‘Jonny Onions’ sellers that came over from Brittany in those days (I suppose late 19th/early 20th century, as my Nain was born in 1900). We are from Anglesey.
The title of the channel is "The Welsh Viking", so I expect to hear about Welsh and Viking both, probably in a medieval context. I think this video is right inside the expected scope of sujets for this channel.
On a side note Jimmy. I studied French (have an MA in French and German). Anyway, when I lived in France as part of my studies, I lived in Brittany (place called Lannion). One of the other British students there was Welsh. She spent most of her time not speaking French but speaking Welsh precisely because it is still mutually comprehensible with Breton. Not just was, still is.
Wonderful. I'd like to hear what their folk tales are like - I'd have thought that there'd be quite a body of tales about their migration from the Isles.
Honestly, as an older Canadian lady, I would love to learn everything about Wales or Cymru! I find history fascinating and you have a natural way of teaching, so share ALL of your knowledge!!!!
This was such an interesting video! I love learning the history behind place names. Also, I'm all for a country being called what THEY want to be called, not what some outsider calls them. So for what it's worth, I support Wales becoming Cymru.
A video on basic pronounciation would be great! I always like to know how to pronounce place names etc. correctly, even it´s just mentally while reading.
My English teacher at school was Welsh, and my French teacher was Breton. And they could understand each other if they used their respective native tongues.
A friend of mine is Welsh and lives in the Bretagne. He told me he has no problem speaking Welsh to his neighbours who still speak Breton. BTW, both his daughters learn Breton at school.
My one French teacher was Welsh, and apparently everyone she met while living in Wales thought she was Breton. I was the only kid in class who understood what she was talking about because I used to live in deepest darkest rural Brittany on and off, where most people in our hamlet didn't even speak French.
Oh more welsh centered topics please . I was raised in an area with a toe on the english side of the Northern Marches ( west of Shrewsbury) and Welsh culture fascinates me .
Firstly, to quote the late lamented Victoria Wood, “it’s all spelt ‘Ecclefechan’ and pronounced ‘Kirkcudbright ’”, and secondly, yes, I for one would love an episode or two about Welsh pronunciation!
That's made me remember the Avon lady who went door to door with cosmetics in the 80s.... She suddenly takes on cool Brythonic mythic connotations being the 'river' lady... 😂
I'd love a Brythonic language video by the way... I'm actually putting my Welsh learning slightly on hold whilst learning Cornish (as I keep mixing them up as they overlap so much 😅) but am very very keen on learning more about Brythonic languages/etymology in general... ❤
As a selected Cumbrian (of Devon heritage) living in Carlisle, but raised in North Wales for a time, and an archaeologist I really REALLY enjoyed this video. Diolch yn fawr ❤ (my Welsh is poor forgive me if it's spelled wrong). Yes to more Welsh content!!
There's one in Tennessee, too. The Appalachians were heavily settled by Scots and there's no stretch of the imagination to think there were Welsh there, too.
Yes, please a course on how to pronounce Cymraeg (Welsh) words would be wonderful, especially how to get Ll correct plus the R. I do have an ulterior motive for this. The Brother Cadfael Chronicles of Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter) was a well loved series of mysteries for my deceased mother, which I also like. I would love to correctly pronounce the names of the Welsh characters and locations that appear in a number of the books. Also, she mentioned various places and people including Viking Dublin. Historical mysteries with romance, what is not to love.
Me at 0:29 - YES PLEASE! I would love more videos on Welsh language and culture. I've wanted to learn Welsh since I read Susan Cooper's books and finding your channel was such a joy. I'd be thrilled for more videos elaborating on the topic.
Fluent Irish speaker here, absolutely fascinated by all your Welsh language content (being also a hopeless language nerd). We too have a national obsession with place names going back at least 1500 years. (Does Wales do "townlands"? It seems every rushy field in Ireland has its own name, and I've read in a plausible source that these names were fixed by about 800 CE.) We also do the thing with the slightly unexpected colour boundaries. But what I'm most delighted by in this video is the bit about Dover. Yes, I enjoyed your glee that people often land in a Welsh-named place, but then you explained it meant "water", and my brain went "DING!" - because the Irish for hippopotamus is "dobhar-each" ("water-horse"), and one of the words for otter is "dobharchú" ("waterhound"). Clearly, "dobhar" is cognate with "dˆwr" (damn coloniser keyboard won't add a hat to the w for me) - but as the ordinary modern Irish word for "water" is "uisce" (as in "whiskey", yes yes), I might never have known this gleaming little fact if you hadn't happened to bring it up. So thanks for that!
I would love the basics of the Welsh language. My great-grandparents came from Wales and I really want to connect with that heritage. So glad I found your vlog!
I always love learning more about place names, history, and Welsh. One thing I'm very interested in are false etymologies -- where a story has been created over the centuries to explain why some place is called something, but research shows the traditional explanation isn't right!
Go for it regarding changing from English back to Welsh - and the name of Wales to Cymru. I'm an Aussie of mainly Welsh descent and in Australia MANY place names are from the language of the various first nation/indigenous groups/ 'mobs'. We think nothing of it and take those names for granted , and sound and spell them correctly even if they are complex or' tongue-twisters' eg. Woolloomooloo, Carraragarmungee, Eurobodallah, Yarroweyah, Ngangalaba, Kalkarindji, Yoongarillup, Boomahnoomoonah, Cadibarrawirracanna and Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya, etc. More are being changed back to their original names.
Very interested in more welsh language videos! USAmerican viewer here in the Northeast and I've been surprised by how many words/place names I know in my area are welsh (thanks colonization). Nevertheless, I think making our idea of the UK less generic helps teach critical understanding of how what we consider "normal" or even unremarkable came to be there.
Personally, I'd love as much Welsh language & culture content as you're willing to make. It's not like we're not going to get plenty of history along with it... 😄
From the wikipedia page on the river Lune: Several elucidations for the origin of the name Lune exist. Firstly, it may be that the name is Brittonic in genesis and derived from *lǭn meaning "full, abundant",[2] or "healthy, pure" (c.f. Old Irish slán, Welsh llawn).[3] Secondly, Lune may represent Old English Ēa Lōn (ēa = "river") as a phonetic adaptation of a Romano-British name referring to a Romano-British god Ialonus who was worshipped in the area.[4]
I’m a big fan of the Welsh language and culture, and considering the near-disappearance of Welsh in history, seeing you do videos about Wales and the language and culture would he, in my opinion, essential to helping preserve the Welsh language and culture.
As a linguist and amateur toponymist, this video delights me! Aside from the obvious Pen Y Gent here in Yorkshire, and Mam Tor down the road in the Peak District, there's Leeds - forever confusing to non-native soeakers of English ('why's it plural?'). There's a fascinating theory of a substrate of brythonic in the dialects of the North of England - the 'yan tan tethra' sheep-counting, I used to live on Brocco Bank, and most interestingly, there's a village near me in South Yorkshire called Wales - which caused my Welsh friends great confusion when they moved here!
I'd love some more about Welsh history.... everyone knows about the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons but few would know anything about the Welsh kingdoms of the time... And the relationship of Gwynedd with Dublin is particularly interesting. Oh - and something about a possible Irish invasion or settlement of Wales in the very early medieval period would be good... I've heard about this but can't find out much about it.
Yes please, more videos on welsh, anything welsh! The language is beautiful and fascinating. A deep dive into the stories of the Mabinogion would also be very interesting!
I legitimately thought that Sponsorship Jimmy said, not “internet capable devices,” but instead “INTIMATE capable devices.” I truly thought we were about to get a completely different sponsorship read, but I was here for it. I had to replay it a couple of times though, because Nord VPN is not where I thought it was going.
YES PLEASE MORE WELSH CONTENT! Only, could you maybe add more maps for those of us who have no idea where all those lesser known British places are? :)
Yorkshire bloke living in Perth, Western Australia here. A tributary of the Swan River here in Perth is called the Avon, but interestingly here it's pronounced the old way with a short "a" as "Avvon". Back in my old part of the world, in Yorkshire, there is a hill called Pen-y-ghent, from Cumbric meaning head of the border, perhaps. Love your videos Jimmy, greetings from Western Australia.
Personally I LOVE the Cymry stuff. Fathers side of the family were Welsh, I know barely anything and am fascinated. It is such a lush sounding language.
Being from Northern England in a part of the country that used to be Rheged, it was always cool to see how many toponyms from the Hen Ogledd in places like Yorkshire and Cumbria, in spite of Anglo-Saxon and Norse toponyms still taking up a fair majority.
Aaaw YES to the etymology of toponomy!!! As someone who did a double major in history and geography and before that studied linguistics, this sounds like my absolute dream 🤩🥹 And another definite YES to a basics of welsh pronounciation video! This video was fascinating, too, btw! 😅 And I didn't find it slow but easy to follow, so... do with that information what you like 😁
We have a lot of celt/brittonic place names in Yorkshire, especially in the area of the old kingdom of Elmet. We even have Cumberworth which was named so because it was a settlement of celts who remained in the area (who identified as being from Cymru)
While the subject was specifically Welsh place names in the British Isles, I've long been fascinated by the Welsh names of towns where I grew up, and have now come back to, decades later. I grew up in Wyndmoor, and went to school in Wyncote. Nearby there are the towns of Wynwood, Bryn Mawr, and possibly my favorite ('cause I had a PO box there for a while): Bala Cynwyd. I love to joke that Welsh uses all the letters other languages left behind. Even the spelling of my name has an unnecessary "Y" in, although I don't think Kathryn is actually a Welsh spelling (please! Someone tell me if I'm wrong!). Great video, Jimmy! And yes, please, more Welsh language content!
As a Czech who knows roughly how Welsh spelling works, I always find this attitude towards it, well... funny? Don't get me wrong, Welsh is great. But to a Czech hearing it, it actually can have the beauty of a less consonant-heavy language. 😂 So that popular joke that Welsh has no vowels... no, they just spell vowels with letters English-speakers think of as consonants. It's just spelling. Czech? We actually have syllable-forming consonants. We can construct whole ass sentences without _pronouncing_ a single vowel. (Also I love that Welsh, unlike Gaeilge, is pretty predictable in how things are pronounced!)
Yes!! Definitely do a video on welsh language and pronunciation and definitely included places around where u live! (not like ur home specifically, but like historical sites that you've been with interesting names, places you've explored, etc.) Welsh and the history of the country is so ignored everywhere outside the UK and it's genuinely a treat to learn about the diversity of that island that we're often made to ignore or erase!!
The place names in the US get pretty wild. I live in a place with a Native American name (soooo much fun to hear call center people try to pronounce it). However, place names in my state come from everywhere, with a variety of English (possibly Welsh or Norse, too) names and then random ones which have to be a joke. One of the snowiest spots in the state got named Florida...
I live in Portugal and I've been learning Welsh as a hobby. And it's interesting to find names that have Welsh cognates. Like, Aveiro is related to Aberystwyth and other Aber-placenames, river Douro (Dūrius in Latin) is related to dŵr, and we have a river Ave in Vila do Conde is cognate of afon. (And Évora is cognate of Efrog and its English name York, which is related to the plant of efwr apparently?)
Maol Rós is "bald hill of the headland/promontory" in Irish and Scots Gaelic as well. There's a lot of cognates bouncing around between the Brytonic and Goidelic languages. Stratford from Stratford upon Avon is from OEn *Stræt-ford*: A ford on the Street (being a Roman road). The Avon in question isn't borrowed from Cymraeg, but is thought to be a survival from the Brythonic spoken before the Romans turned up and the Saxons replaced it. "British", if you will. My understanding of Cambria and Cymru is that they were different Brythonic kingdoms in the pre-Saxon days, and that one was Latinised Cambria (thus Gerald of Wales, *Geraldus Cambrensis*), and the other Cumbria, but by the time of the Normans it was an even bet which name was used for which area. Come check out the SCA College of Heralds some time. Historical Onomastics is kind of our jam.
I am so here for the Welsh pronunciation guide - and all things Welsh, really. (I'd advanced quite a ways in the Duolingo Welsh course when I noticed that people in the now-deleted comments section said that the computer voice botched some of the pronunciation. So there is stuff I just learnt wrong 🙄.)
Yes, Wales does mean foreigner, but the original meaning didn't have the negative connotation that it does now. The word whales comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word, "weahl" that has cognates with other Germanic words. And that word meant speakers of foreign languages, but specifically Romans and the Romance peoples. It's why the French speaking half of Belgium is home to the walloons and why walnuts are called walnuts, cause they were given to us by the Romans. Anyways, by the time the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes had come to Britain, the Romans were already there. However, the Germanic peoples used the word "weahl" to describe a different, but still incomprehensible, foreign languages - the Celtic languages. The Celts were then pushed to the fringes of the Isle of Britain - an area does the Anglo-Saxons therefore called "Wales" since that's where the Welsh were. However, the whales of that day didn't only encompass modern-day Wales, for instance, it also included the southwestern tip of modern-day England - a place now called Cornwall. The -wall at the end of Cornwall comes from the same root as "Wales". Or, in other words, they were the Cornish Welsh. There are other Wales as well, such as Norđwealas, the north walsh, who are in modern-day Wales and even the Strathclyde Welsh, who could be found in modern day Scotland and the Lake District of England. "Weahl" is also a cognate do the Roman name for France, Gallia, and the celts who lived there, the Gauls. Ws and Gs tend to get confused when romance and Germanic speakers share words. It's why we have guardian and warden, and guarantee and warranty. And that link between Welsh and Gaul is made very clear by the French name for Wales: Pays de Galles, what sort of means "land of the Gauls". Sorry for the ramble, but I thought I would clear up any confusion someone might have.
@@TheWelshViking it's actually a very similar etymology to the Slavic name for Germany, which is just their word for "silent" cause they couldn't understand the Germans.
This is really fascinating thanks. It helped explain to me why there are so many rivers called Avon in the UK. Also I was struck that Helvetica is another name for Switzerland. I checked and it comes from the name of the Gaulish tribe living in that region.
On Glasgow's origin, if we take element 'cau' as 'hollow or depression' rather than just field. Immediately East and behind the city's cathedral, where Kentigern's church once stood, there is a dip between the cathedral and the steep hill that the city's western Necropolis is on. This is quite possibly the 'Green hollow' that gave the city its name. Even after many centuries and a road being built through it, the hollow is still there and is still flanked by trees.
Really interesting and helpful video as an English person living less than half a mile inside Cymru. Before we moved. The bottom of our garden was Mally Brook the border of Herefordshire and Monmouthshire. My Welsh is terrible, but I do find the language, place names and history fascinating not to mention the beauty. Thanks for this wonderful video. I'll be watching more now.
Fascinating! I lived in Chirk for a while and I always wanted to live in Wales and now I live in Cumbria (not far from Penrith) so I have nearly achieved my dream.
Absolutely love etymology content! I recently read a book about the etymology of place names in Somerset (because I’m cool) and growing up there too there’s a lot of places with Coombe in the name because of the Welsh cwm. Also just the name Somerset can be broken down into ‘summer settlement’ - because it used to flood every winter - and in both Welsh and Cornish it is called gwlad yr haf (spelling may be different?) which means the land of the summer
This was fascinating and I'm so glad you spoke on this topic! I've been following the controversy on the reinstatement of Cymraeg names and I'm all for Cymru being the official name for Wales. I've been studying Cymraeg for awhile and would be thrilled to see a video on Welsh sounds 👍🏻
The point against it is this. The vast majority of people in Wales don't speak Welsh and this renaming makes them feel marginalised in their own country. The irony is, of course, is that this is the reverse of the situation regarding Welsh a few decades ago. The Welsh Language Act (passed to protect Welsh) states that both languages must be given equal prominence and status. It seems apparently it's OK to ignore that if the language been abandoned is the one every Welsh person speaks. I don't agree with this, even as someone who is also a Welsh learner who is passionate about defending the use of Welsh. After all, why stop the English using the word 'Snowdonia' when no Welsh speaker is going to stop using 'Caer' for Chester or 'Manceinion' for Manchester. Simply use the correct term in the language you're speaking, as we all do for everywhere else.
a little skip of joy when you mentionned the beautiful village of my fathers, where my own father unknowingly re-patriated (though there is quite a bit of family in the area), where he now preaches in Welsh, and where I found there are generations of our family in the graveyard: Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant.
I would definitely watch an introduction video to the Welsh language. Before watching coming across your videos, I vaguely knew that Welsh existed but I had no idea what it sounded like or that it was much more than just a dialect of other languages spoken on the British Isles.
Reminds me of the whole manufactured outrage at finally officially calling Denali Denali rather than "Mt. McKinley". My brother in Christ, us locals could peg you as a tourist because you would ask for Mt. McKinley. We always just called it Denali even before it became "official".
Welsh is such a beautiful language that I actually browsed a few language apps to see if it was included. Nope. Guess I'll just have to visit someday! P.S. Just signed up for Nord VPN using your link. Thanks, Jimmy!
Diolch yn fawr! Great video on a really interesting topic. Dw i'n hoffi gwylio! I'd certainly watch a video introducing Welsh pronunciation and the language, that would be great. I also note that with someof the Scottish placenames you referenced, there is a close correlation between the Brythonic elements and the Gaelic -- eaglais for Eccles- and maol for Mel-, for example. North of the Forth-Clyde line we also have a lot of Brythonic placenames which are thought to be the last traces of Pictish (as I'm sure you know), particularly those starting pit- and aber- (cf Aberdeen and Aberystwyth).
Remember you can get 4 months extra on a 2 year subscription of Nord VPN at nordvpn.com/welsh and remember to use the code "WELSH" at checkout. It's risk free as well, with Nord's 30 day money back guarantee. So flipping there, chaps!
But what's the Welsh for Nord VPN?
Santiago = Saint James
Is Welsh a Celtic language?
I recently purchased the osprey publising book on post roman kingdoms of gaul and britain.
They show what they believe king arthur would have looked like as well asy gododdin and cadwallon ap cadfan. All are wearing late roman armour and I was wondering how accurate is this?
@@lacybookworm5039 yes. All surviving Celtic languages are in the Goidelic and Brythonic branches; the former includes Irish and the latter includes Welsh, so they're about as different as modern Celtic languages can be, but they're closer to each other than either is to the language of the Celtae, the tribe living in modern Belgium that the family is named after.
As a side note to the River Avon meaning it’s really called ‘the River River’, England also has Torpenhow Hill which means ‘Hill hill hill Hill’; one can only assume there’s a hill there. 😜
It's probably a joke.
"Which hill?"
"The tor"
"The Tor? The tor of that hill is the tor?"
"Aye that's the hill, the tor at the pen of that how"
And so on and so forth
Yes, Jim, as a Scotsman (originally from Edinburgh, educated in Glasgow), I'd _love_ you to do more on Welsh place names and language, and Scottish/Irish associations. I found this fascinating 👍
I would love more Welsh based content, especially language based.🙂
I'm a linguist and I will watch any and all videos about Cymraeg!
I would love a video about welsh pronunciation and more about medieval Wales would be awesome!
""Hello from the Welsh American Channel. Just want to let you know that we Welsh Americans are also interested in what is going on in Wales and all things Welsh. Cymru am byth!"""
I would love a video on Welsh pronunciation - I'm studying Irish now, and it's funny how much Welsh does feel like, "Ah, yes, this is clearly the cousin of the language I'm studying," but of course the pronunciation is totally different. Also thought you'd appreciate that my Irish teacher starts every class with a log ainm (place name).
Bím ag éisteacht leis an físeán seo agus caithim a aithint tá an blás Breatnach Bheaga saghas cosúla an blás Mhannanach, agus muna fhios agat tá teanga Gaelach ar an oileán sin chomh maith, Gaelainn Mhannanach nó "Gaelg" sa teanga sin.
My grandmother (Nain) told me that her mother could have a conversation with the ‘Jonny Onions’ sellers that came over from Brittany in those days (I suppose late 19th/early 20th century, as my Nain was born in 1900). We are from Anglesey.
Yes. My diasporic self would very much like more of all this. 🙂
The title of the channel is "The Welsh Viking", so I expect to hear about Welsh and Viking both, probably in a medieval context. I think this video is right inside the expected scope of sujets for this channel.
Cumbrian here, and I'm for anything that detaches us from Westminster.
On a side note Jimmy. I studied French (have an MA in French and German). Anyway, when I lived in France as part of my studies, I lived in Brittany (place called Lannion). One of the other British students there was Welsh. She spent most of her time not speaking French but speaking Welsh precisely because it is still mutually comprehensible with Breton. Not just was, still is.
Wonderful. I'd like to hear what their folk tales are like - I'd have thought that there'd be quite a body of tales about their migration from the Isles.
Honestly, as an older Canadian lady, I would love to learn everything about Wales or Cymru! I find history fascinating and you have a natural way of teaching, so share ALL of your knowledge!!!!
I'd definitely watch Welsh language videos!
This was such an interesting video! I love learning the history behind place names.
Also, I'm all for a country being called what THEY want to be called, not what some outsider calls them. So for what it's worth, I support Wales becoming Cymru.
A video on basic pronounciation would be great! I always like to know how to pronounce place names etc. correctly, even it´s just mentally while reading.
My English teacher at school was Welsh, and my French teacher was Breton. And they could understand each other if they used their respective native tongues.
A friend of mine is Welsh and lives in the Bretagne. He told me he has no problem speaking Welsh to his neighbours who still speak Breton. BTW, both his daughters learn Breton at school.
that is great to read. :) Dw i'n hoffi Cymraeg a dw i eisiau dysgu Breton un dydd.@@seorsamaclately4294
My one French teacher was Welsh, and apparently everyone she met while living in Wales thought she was Breton. I was the only kid in class who understood what she was talking about because I used to live in deepest darkest rural Brittany on and off, where most people in our hamlet didn't even speak French.
Oh more welsh centered topics please . I was raised in an area with a toe on the english side of the Northern Marches ( west of Shrewsbury) and Welsh culture fascinates me .
More Welsh language and history please
Firstly, to quote the late lamented Victoria Wood, “it’s all spelt ‘Ecclefechan’ and pronounced ‘Kirkcudbright ’”, and secondly, yes, I for one would love an episode or two about Welsh pronunciation!
Yes to Welsh language basics video...! Yes!
I love this, and I think you should make whatever you want about Welsh history, language, culture, and I’ll watch it all
Id love more Welsh! Languages are great, especially reclaiming languages that others have tried to stamp out.
That's made me remember the Avon lady who went door to door with cosmetics in the 80s.... She suddenly takes on cool Brythonic mythic connotations being the 'river' lady... 😂
I'd love a Brythonic language video by the way... I'm actually putting my Welsh learning slightly on hold whilst learning Cornish (as I keep mixing them up as they overlap so much 😅) but am very very keen on learning more about Brythonic languages/etymology in general... ❤
I'll watch your videos no matter what the topic. I always learn something new.
Presenting Jimmy works for me. 😊
Yes, please, more Welsh language.
As a selected Cumbrian (of Devon heritage) living in Carlisle, but raised in North Wales for a time, and an archaeologist I really REALLY enjoyed this video. Diolch yn fawr ❤ (my Welsh is poor forgive me if it's spelled wrong).
Yes to more Welsh content!!
Now I'm wondering if the Cumberland Gap between Maryland and West Virginia is named after Wales!
There's one in Tennessee, too. The Appalachians were heavily settled by Scots and there's no stretch of the imagination to think there were Welsh there, too.
I'd love more Welsh language, especially pronunciation.
Yes, please a course on how to pronounce Cymraeg (Welsh) words would be wonderful, especially how to get Ll correct plus the R. I do have an ulterior motive for this. The Brother Cadfael Chronicles of Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter) was a well loved series of mysteries for my deceased mother, which I also like. I would love to correctly pronounce the names of the Welsh characters and locations that appear in a number of the books. Also, she mentioned various places and people including Viking Dublin. Historical mysteries with romance, what is not to love.
Me at 0:29 - YES PLEASE! I would love more videos on Welsh language and culture. I've wanted to learn Welsh since I read Susan Cooper's books and finding your channel was such a joy. I'd be thrilled for more videos elaborating on the topic.
Would love to have more Welsh language content!
Fluent Irish speaker here, absolutely fascinated by all your Welsh language content (being also a hopeless language nerd). We too have a national obsession with place names going back at least 1500 years. (Does Wales do "townlands"? It seems every rushy field in Ireland has its own name, and I've read in a plausible source that these names were fixed by about 800 CE.) We also do the thing with the slightly unexpected colour boundaries.
But what I'm most delighted by in this video is the bit about Dover. Yes, I enjoyed your glee that people often land in a Welsh-named place, but then you explained it meant "water", and my brain went "DING!" - because the Irish for hippopotamus is "dobhar-each" ("water-horse"), and one of the words for otter is "dobharchú" ("waterhound"). Clearly, "dobhar" is cognate with "dˆwr" (damn coloniser keyboard won't add a hat to the w for me) - but as the ordinary modern Irish word for "water" is "uisce" (as in "whiskey", yes yes), I might never have known this gleaming little fact if you hadn't happened to bring it up. So thanks for that!
Jimmy: if you'd be interested in.....
Me: hush up and take my money!
3:59 - _raises hand_ maybe it’ll even stick with me better than primary school Welsh lessons have 😅
i seem to remember enjoying your video on ancient sewage pipes, so I'm sure I''ll be glued to the screen for a video on etymology of placenames :)
I would love the basics of the Welsh language. My great-grandparents came from Wales and I really want to connect with that heritage. So glad I found your vlog!
I'd love to see more Welsh language/cultural things, it's really interesting!
Yay, more Welsh related videos please!!!! Possible collab with Cambrian Chronicles?!?
We actually should!
I always love learning more about place names, history, and Welsh.
One thing I'm very interested in are false etymologies -- where a story has been created over the centuries to explain why some place is called something, but research shows the traditional explanation isn't right!
Go for it regarding changing from English back to Welsh - and the name of Wales to Cymru. I'm an Aussie of mainly Welsh descent and in Australia MANY place names are from the language of the various first nation/indigenous groups/ 'mobs'. We think nothing of it and take those names for granted , and sound and spell them correctly even if they are complex or' tongue-twisters' eg. Woolloomooloo, Carraragarmungee, Eurobodallah, Yarroweyah, Ngangalaba, Kalkarindji, Yoongarillup, Boomahnoomoonah, Cadibarrawirracanna and Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya, etc. More are being changed back to their original names.
Very interested in more welsh language videos! USAmerican viewer here in the Northeast and I've been surprised by how many words/place names I know in my area are welsh (thanks colonization). Nevertheless, I think making our idea of the UK less generic helps teach critical understanding of how what we consider "normal" or even unremarkable came to be there.
I'll always be keen for more welsh language content.
Welsh is such an interesting language that rarely gets the attention it deserves.
Personally, I'd love as much Welsh language & culture content as you're willing to make. It's not like we're not going to get plenty of history along with it... 😄
you made a video about poop and we all watched it
i think we can handle some welsh lessons!
I was thinking of that video too!
The Lan in Lancaster is generally assumed to come from the river Lune on which it's built
From the wikipedia page on the river Lune: Several elucidations for the origin of the name Lune exist. Firstly, it may be that the name is Brittonic in genesis and derived from *lǭn meaning "full, abundant",[2] or "healthy, pure" (c.f. Old Irish slán, Welsh llawn).[3] Secondly, Lune may represent Old English Ēa Lōn (ēa = "river") as a phonetic adaptation of a Romano-British name referring to a Romano-British god Ialonus who was worshipped in the area.[4]
More welsh language content please!❤
How to Pronounce LL, DD, Y, and W: Introduction to Welsh Spelling and Pronunciation is totally something I would watch.
I’m a big fan of the Welsh language and culture, and considering the near-disappearance of Welsh in history, seeing you do videos about Wales and the language and culture would he, in my opinion, essential to helping preserve the Welsh language and culture.
As a linguist and amateur toponymist, this video delights me! Aside from the obvious Pen Y Gent here in Yorkshire, and Mam Tor down the road in the Peak District, there's Leeds - forever confusing to non-native soeakers of English ('why's it plural?'). There's a fascinating theory of a substrate of brythonic in the dialects of the North of England - the 'yan tan tethra' sheep-counting, I used to live on Brocco Bank, and most interestingly, there's a village near me in South Yorkshire called Wales - which caused my Welsh friends great confusion when they moved here!
I'd love some more about Welsh history.... everyone knows about the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons but few would know anything about the Welsh kingdoms of the time...
And the relationship of Gwynedd with Dublin is particularly interesting.
Oh - and something about a possible Irish invasion or settlement of Wales in the very early medieval period would be good... I've heard about this but can't find out much about it.
Yes please, more videos on welsh, anything welsh! The language is beautiful and fascinating.
A deep dive into the stories of the Mabinogion would also be very interesting!
Yes more Welsh language please. I love learning about the language and etymology
I would love a Welsh 101 video!
Yes please, an intro to Welsh language and pronunciation! I've seen a few, but never from a first language speaker.
I legitimately thought that Sponsorship Jimmy said, not “internet capable devices,” but instead “INTIMATE capable devices.” I truly thought we were about to get a completely different sponsorship read, but I was here for it. I had to replay it a couple of times though, because Nord VPN is not where I thought it was going.
YES PLEASE MORE WELSH CONTENT!
Only, could you maybe add more maps for those of us who have no idea where all those lesser known British places are? :)
Yorkshire bloke living in Perth, Western Australia here.
A tributary of the Swan River here in Perth is called the Avon, but interestingly here it's pronounced the old way with a short "a" as "Avvon".
Back in my old part of the world, in Yorkshire, there is a hill called Pen-y-ghent, from Cumbric meaning head of the border, perhaps.
Love your videos Jimmy, greetings from Western Australia.
Personally I LOVE the Cymry stuff. Fathers side of the family were Welsh, I know barely anything and am fascinated. It is such a lush sounding language.
Being from Northern England in a part of the country that used to be Rheged, it was always cool to see how many toponyms from the Hen Ogledd in places like Yorkshire and Cumbria, in spite of Anglo-Saxon and Norse toponyms still taking up a fair majority.
Okay, yes I giggled just before you said, "Don't we're moving on." 3rd grade me then just laughed. More Welsh, please. 🙏
Good to know I wasn't the only one!
Aaaw YES to the etymology of toponomy!!! As someone who did a double major in history and geography and before that studied linguistics, this sounds like my absolute dream 🤩🥹
And another definite YES to a basics of welsh pronounciation video!
This video was fascinating, too, btw! 😅 And I didn't find it slow but easy to follow, so... do with that information what you like 😁
Linguistics, etymology, and toponymy are some of my favourite topics so I'm always up for more videos on this!
We have a lot of celt/brittonic place names in Yorkshire, especially in the area of the old kingdom of Elmet. We even have Cumberworth which was named so because it was a settlement of celts who remained in the area (who identified as being from Cymru)
Another vote in favour of exploring cymraeg and Cymru. Also Happy St David's Day/Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant Hapus
While the subject was specifically Welsh place names in the British Isles, I've long been fascinated by the Welsh names of towns where I grew up, and have now come back to, decades later. I grew up in Wyndmoor, and went to school in Wyncote. Nearby there are the towns of Wynwood, Bryn Mawr, and possibly my favorite ('cause I had a PO box there for a while): Bala Cynwyd. I love to joke that Welsh uses all the letters other languages left behind. Even the spelling of my name has an unnecessary "Y" in, although I don't think Kathryn is actually a Welsh spelling (please! Someone tell me if I'm wrong!). Great video, Jimmy! And yes, please, more Welsh language content!
As a Czech who knows roughly how Welsh spelling works, I always find this attitude towards it, well... funny? Don't get me wrong, Welsh is great. But to a Czech hearing it, it actually can have the beauty of a less consonant-heavy language. 😂 So that popular joke that Welsh has no vowels... no, they just spell vowels with letters English-speakers think of as consonants. It's just spelling. Czech? We actually have syllable-forming consonants. We can construct whole ass sentences without _pronouncing_ a single vowel.
(Also I love that Welsh, unlike Gaeilge, is pretty predictable in how things are pronounced!)
Sorry, Kathrn (you did say the "y" was unnecessary), but a Welsh spelling wouldn't have K, it'd be Cathryn.
I would absolutely watch more Welsh language videos! Your videos are my first introduction to the Welsh language and it’s absolutely beautiful.
Yes!! Definitely do a video on welsh language and pronunciation and definitely included places around where u live! (not like ur home specifically, but like historical sites that you've been with interesting names, places you've explored, etc.) Welsh and the history of the country is so ignored everywhere outside the UK and it's genuinely a treat to learn about the diversity of that island that we're often made to ignore or erase!!
The place names in the US get pretty wild. I live in a place with a Native American name (soooo much fun to hear call center people try to pronounce it). However, place names in my state come from everywhere, with a variety of English (possibly Welsh or Norse, too) names and then random ones which have to be a joke. One of the snowiest spots in the state got named Florida...
I live in Portugal and I've been learning Welsh as a hobby. And it's interesting to find names that have Welsh cognates.
Like, Aveiro is related to Aberystwyth and other Aber-placenames, river Douro (Dūrius in Latin) is related to dŵr, and we have a river Ave in Vila do Conde is cognate of afon. (And Évora is cognate of Efrog and its English name York, which is related to the plant of efwr apparently?)
The Celtic and Italic language families are more closely related to each other than to any other branch of the Indo-European tree.
Hmmm, I wonder how much of that made it to Brazil.. very interesting!
Maol Rós is "bald hill of the headland/promontory" in Irish and Scots Gaelic as well. There's a lot of cognates bouncing around between the Brytonic and Goidelic languages.
Stratford from Stratford upon Avon is from OEn *Stræt-ford*: A ford on the Street (being a Roman road). The Avon in question isn't borrowed from Cymraeg, but is thought to be a survival from the Brythonic spoken before the Romans turned up and the Saxons replaced it. "British", if you will.
My understanding of Cambria and Cymru is that they were different Brythonic kingdoms in the pre-Saxon days, and that one was Latinised Cambria (thus Gerald of Wales, *Geraldus Cambrensis*), and the other Cumbria, but by the time of the Normans it was an even bet which name was used for which area.
Come check out the SCA College of Heralds some time. Historical Onomastics is kind of our jam.
Listening to you bellow a death lament in old welsh at York was astonishing. All for Welsh content.
I am so here for the Welsh pronunciation guide - and all things Welsh, really.
(I'd advanced quite a ways in the Duolingo Welsh course when I noticed that people in the now-deleted comments section said that the computer voice botched some of the pronunciation. So there is stuff I just learnt wrong 🙄.)
Yes please, Welsh language video! I am fascinated and would definitely watch :)
Yes, Wales does mean foreigner, but the original meaning didn't have the negative connotation that it does now. The word whales comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word, "weahl" that has cognates with other Germanic words. And that word meant speakers of foreign languages, but specifically Romans and the Romance peoples. It's why the French speaking half of Belgium is home to the walloons and why walnuts are called walnuts, cause they were given to us by the Romans. Anyways, by the time the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes had come to Britain, the Romans were already there. However, the Germanic peoples used the word "weahl" to describe a different, but still incomprehensible, foreign languages - the Celtic languages. The Celts were then pushed to the fringes of the Isle of Britain - an area does the Anglo-Saxons therefore called "Wales" since that's where the Welsh were. However, the whales of that day didn't only encompass modern-day Wales, for instance, it also included the southwestern tip of modern-day England - a place now called Cornwall. The -wall at the end of Cornwall comes from the same root as "Wales". Or, in other words, they were the Cornish Welsh. There are other Wales as well, such as Norđwealas, the north walsh, who are in modern-day Wales and even the Strathclyde Welsh, who could be found in modern day Scotland and the Lake District of England. "Weahl" is also a cognate do the Roman name for France, Gallia, and the celts who lived there, the Gauls. Ws and Gs tend to get confused when romance and Germanic speakers share words. It's why we have guardian and warden, and guarantee and warranty. And that link between Welsh and Gaul is made very clear by the French name for Wales: Pays de Galles, what sort of means "land of the Gauls". Sorry for the ramble, but I thought I would clear up any confusion someone might have.
Ah yes, “incomprehensible foreign language”. Totes inoffensive way to refer to a people.
Excellent info on the linguistics, diolch!
@@TheWelshViking it's actually a very similar etymology to the Slavic name for Germany, which is just their word for "silent" cause they couldn't understand the Germans.
This is really fascinating thanks. It helped explain to me why there are so many rivers called Avon in the UK. Also I was struck that Helvetica is another name for Switzerland. I checked and it comes from the name of the Gaulish tribe living in that region.
Jimmy, I would totally watch more videos. Modern Welsh pronunciation, Welsh names, Viking era re-naming. I’m here for it all!
yesyesyes to the basic pronunciation and introduction to welsh!! would love that!
On Glasgow's origin, if we take element 'cau' as 'hollow or depression' rather than just field. Immediately East and behind the city's cathedral, where Kentigern's church once stood, there is a dip between the cathedral and the steep hill that the city's western Necropolis is on. This is quite possibly the 'Green hollow' that gave the city its name. Even after many centuries and a road being built through it, the hollow is still there and is still flanked by trees.
More Welsh language and culture stuff, please
Really interesting and helpful video as an English person living less than half a mile inside Cymru. Before we moved. The bottom of our garden was Mally Brook the border of Herefordshire and Monmouthshire.
My Welsh is terrible, but I do find the language, place names and history fascinating not to mention the beauty.
Thanks for this wonderful video. I'll be watching more now.
Fascinating! I lived in Chirk for a while and I always wanted to live in Wales and now I live in Cumbria (not far from Penrith) so I have nearly achieved my dream.
You've lived in some very nice areas though!
Ooh childhood flashbacks. My auntie had basically that same fireplace.
More Welsh language videos, please! Welsh anything really, but I do love the language videos.
My Mum was in Brittany some 60 years ago and could understand a couple of old boys in a cafe talking Breton. So in linguistic terms not that long ago.
This is excellent video I would be very interested to see a video of Welsh pronunciation.
Absolutely love etymology content! I recently read a book about the etymology of place names in Somerset (because I’m cool) and growing up there too there’s a lot of places with Coombe in the name because of the Welsh cwm. Also just the name Somerset can be broken down into ‘summer settlement’ - because it used to flood every winter - and in both Welsh and Cornish it is called gwlad yr haf (spelling may be different?) which means the land of the summer
Yes to Welsh pronunciation and language content!
Would LOVE more on place names - I find them fascinating and have a book in the car that explains a lot
This was fascinating and I'm so glad you spoke on this topic! I've been following the controversy on the reinstatement of Cymraeg names and I'm all for Cymru being the official name for Wales.
I've been studying Cymraeg for awhile and would be thrilled to see a video on Welsh sounds 👍🏻
The point against it is this. The vast majority of people in Wales don't speak Welsh and this renaming makes them feel marginalised in their own country.
The irony is, of course, is that this is the reverse of the situation regarding Welsh a few decades ago.
The Welsh Language Act (passed to protect Welsh) states that both languages must be given equal prominence and status.
It seems apparently it's OK to ignore that if the language been abandoned is the one every Welsh person speaks.
I don't agree with this, even as someone who is also a Welsh learner who is passionate about defending the use of Welsh.
After all, why stop the English using the word 'Snowdonia' when no Welsh speaker is going to stop using 'Caer' for Chester or 'Manceinion' for Manchester.
Simply use the correct term in the language you're speaking, as we all do for everywhere else.
a little skip of joy when you mentionned the beautiful village of my fathers, where my own father unknowingly re-patriated (though there is quite a bit of family in the area), where he now preaches in Welsh, and where I found there are generations of our family in the graveyard: Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant.
Penrith just reminds me of "we went on holiday by mistake!" from Withnail and I. Also, yes please for more Welsh language content!
I was brought up in a valley called Combs in the middle of Derbyshire- and early spellings of the place name have it Cwm!
I would definitely watch an introduction video to the Welsh language.
Before watching coming across your videos, I vaguely knew that Welsh existed but I had no idea what it sounded like or that it was much more than just a dialect of other languages spoken on the British Isles.
Reminds me of the whole manufactured outrage at finally officially calling Denali Denali rather than "Mt. McKinley". My brother in Christ, us locals could peg you as a tourist because you would ask for Mt. McKinley. We always just called it Denali even before it became "official".
Welsh is such a beautiful language that I actually browsed a few language apps to see if it was included. Nope. Guess I'll just have to visit someday! P.S. Just signed up for Nord VPN using your link. Thanks, Jimmy!
I'd love more language content.
Diolch yn fawr! Great video on a really interesting topic. Dw i'n hoffi gwylio! I'd certainly watch a video introducing Welsh pronunciation and the language, that would be great.
I also note that with someof the Scottish placenames you referenced, there is a close correlation between the Brythonic elements and the Gaelic -- eaglais for Eccles- and maol for Mel-, for example. North of the Forth-Clyde line we also have a lot of Brythonic placenames which are thought to be the last traces of Pictish (as I'm sure you know), particularly those starting pit- and aber- (cf Aberdeen and Aberystwyth).
Eglwys/eccles/eaglais = all descend from Greek through Roman. The Romans having brought the religion with them.
Loving the Welsh deep dives!