Wenglish - the Dialect of the South Wales Valleys

Product Information

Connolly, John H. (1990), "Port Talbot English", in Coupland, Nikolas; Thomas, Alan Richard (eds.), English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change, Multilingual Matters Ltd., pp.121–129, ISBN 978-1-85359-032-0 Previously Alfred English & Sons Funeral Directors and now part of the W. English family, our Walthamstow funeral home continues to serve the community with the same team, professionalism and service that our families have become accustomed to. You can depend on us to arrange and conduct a beautiful service that will celebrate your loved one's life in a way that is personal and meaningful to family and friends. The funeral service can be just as special and unique as your loved one. We will do everything we can to accommodate all of your personal requests, no matter how big, small or different. In northern varieties, /əʊ/ as in coat and /ɔː/ as in caught/court may be merged into /ɔː/ (phonetically [ oː]). [7]

Welsh writing in English might be said to begin with the 15th-century bard Ieuan ap Hywel Swrdwal (?1430 - ?1480), whose Hymn to the Virgin was written at Oxford in England in about 1470 and uses a Welsh poetic form, the awdl, and Welsh orthography; for example:

1. “Not gonna lie to you…”

Crystal, David (4 August 2003), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language Second Edition, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521530330 We will welcome you into our funeral home, treating you as if you were a member of our own family. Our home is designed with your comfort in mind, with the best standard of facilities to look after your loved one, and a team of attentive, dedicated staff. As Wales has become increasingly more anglicised, code-switching has become increasingly more common. [27] [28] Examples [ edit ]

We want nothing more than for every detail of your loved one's farewell to be just as you want. We believe life with those we love is deeply personal, which is why we want to ensure that their funeral is a unique celebration of life, giving family and friends the chance to say goodbye in a meaningful way. Wenglish is the name given to the dialect of English spoken in the valleys and townships of South Wales. Its idiosyncrasies can be traced to the grammar and vocabulary of the Welsh language. Characteristics include bringing additional verbs to the beginning of a sentence, an excess of auxiliaries, strange emphatic repetitions, using unlikely parts of verbs, literal translation of idioms and uses of non standard prepositions. Wikipedia lists some of the features of Wenglish as: If someone asks me to pass them something, I’ll hand it to them and say ‘you are’. This may sound alien to you if you’re not from South Wales but trust me, everyone says this when they pass an item or offer something to someone else. So many times I’ve said these 20 words or sayings from South Wales and been met with confusion when not at home because I’m neither speaking Welsh or English to English-speakers. I’ve gone all of my life assuming these phrases are said around the whole UK but certain ones I’ve had pointed out to me by English friends or asked what something means and I’ve realised it’s so specific to Wales, South Wales or sometimes the phrases are only heard in Cardiff and Barry!

10. “Humming” / “buzzing” / “minging”

We see it all over Europe and in immigrant communities in Britain you will often hear English words being taken into their own language. As I’m writing about words you hear in Wales and explaining them I bet they do sound confusing… like when did ‘you are’ become a thing we say in Barry/Cardiff?! Always makes me laugh that one! The Word At The Beginning Is The Same At The End b) Angry, upset; “He’ll off when he hears about that!” (c) On the go; “That baby is proper craxy again – had us off all night with him he did!” In 1974 the county on Monmouthshire disappeared and replaced by the county of Gwent and we were now all officially Welsh. Phew! Having said that, Gwent was very Anglicised at the time compared with most of its surrounding areas, and still is.

Peter Garrett; Nikolas Coupland; Angie Williams, eds. (15 July 2003). Investigating Language Attitudes: Social Meanings of Dialect, Ethnicity and Performance. University of Wales Press. p.73. ISBN 9781783162086 . Retrieved 2 September 2019. a b c Deuchar, Margaret (December 2005). "Congruence and Welsh–English code-switching". Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 8 (3): 255–269. doi: 10.1017/S1366728905002294. ISSN 1469-1841. S2CID 144548890. The book combines an alphabetical glossary of 1,800 terms, dialogue examples, grammar and exercises, and has a general introduction to the social and geographical context of how people speak across the Valleys.

20. “Mitcher”

Ahh, cwtch. The lovely Welsh word that means a loving cuddle. This emblematic Welsh word represents the friendly nature of Welsh people. There is nothing in the world better than a cwtch. Half and half d) To be fondled and snuggled up in an especially loving way “Cwtch up to your mam now”. A child nursed “Welsh fashion is well and truly being ‘cwtched’ The presence of English in Wales intensified on the passing of the Laws in Wales Acts of 1535–1542, the statutes having promoted the dominance of English in Wales; this, coupled with the closure of the monasteries, which closed down many centres of Welsh education, led to decline in the use of the Welsh language. In Cardiff, the vowel of "kit" /ɪ/ sounds slightly closer to the schwa sound of above, an advanced close-mid central unrounded vowel [ɘ̟] [6]