Tair caseg đu, draw yn yr eithin;
Dewch i gyd i lys y brenin.
[12] The Ty-fry is a house said to be some 200 years old, and situated about two miles from Rhonđa Fechan: more exactly it is about one-fourth of a mile from the station of Ystrad Rhonđa, and stands at the foot of Mynyđ yr Eglwys on the Treorky side. It is now surrounded by the cottages of colliers, one of whom occupies it. For this information I have to thank Mr. Probert Evans. [↑]
[13] It is to be borne in mind that the sound of h is uncertain in Glamorgan pronunciation, whether the language used is Welsh or English. The pronunciation indicated, however, by Mr. Evans comes near enough to the authentic form written Elfarch. [↑]
[14] In the Snowdon district of Gwyneđ the call is drwi, drwi, drŵ-i bach, while in North Cardiganshire it is trwi, trwi, trw-e fach, also pronounced sometimes with a surd r, produced by making the breath cause both lips to vibrate—tR′wi, tR′wi, which can hardly be distinguished from pR′wi, pR′wi. For the more forcibly the lips are vibrated the more difficult it becomes to start by closing them to pronounce p: so the tendency with R′ is to make the preceding consonant into some kind of a t. [↑]
[15] This is the Welsh form of the borrowed name Jane, and its pronunciation in North Cardiganshire is Si̯ân, with si̯ pronounced approximately like the ti of such French words as nation and the like; but of late years I find the si̯ made into English sh under the influence, probably, to some extent of the English taught at school. This happens in North Wales, even in districts where there are still plenty of people who cannot approach the English words fish and shilling nearer than fiss and silling. Si̯ôn and Si̯ân represent an old importation of English John and Jane, but they are now considered old-fashioned and superseded by John and Jane, which I learned to pronounce Dsi̯òn and Dsi̯ên, except that Si̯ôn survives as a family name, written Shone, in the neighbourhood of Wrexham. [↑]
[16] This term dafad (or dafaden), ‘a sheep,’ also used for ‘a wart,’ and dafad (or dafaden) wyỻt, literally ‘a wild sheep,’ for cancer or epithelioma, raises a question which I am quite unable to answer: why should a wart have been likened to a sheep? [↑]
[17] The name is probably a shortening of Caweỻyn, and that perhaps of Caweỻ-lyn, ‘Creel or Basket Lake.’ Its old name is said to have been Ỻyn Tarđenni. [↑]
[18] Tyn is a shortening of tyđyn, which is not quite forgotten in the case of Tyn Gadlas or Tyn Siarlas (for Tyđyn Siarlys), ‘Charles’ Tenement,’ in the immediate neighbourhood. Similarly the Anglesey Farm of Tyn yr Onnen used at one time to be Tyđyn yr Onnen in the books of Jesus College, Oxford, to which it belongs. [↑]