Comments on: Cymru!

By: Trevski

Trevski — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:11:21 +0000

Sorry, my title should be written Trefscu…diawl, mun, we’re clever buggers, us Welsh.

By: Andyc

Andyc — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 04:19:01 +0000

On-topic: again, what Robert Merkel said.

Off-topic (ie, Welsh Phonetics 101):

“Cymru” = name of country. “Cymraeg” = name of language, adjective describing nationality.

wilful:
“c” in Welsh is always “hard” (ie, velar stop) except when part of “ch” (pronouned as in GHerman or Gaelic). “k” is not used in native Welsh words.

“y” is a central vowel which when stressed is close to Strine/Southern English “cut”, but when unstressed is closer, more i-like and very close to the vowel in the “jis’ a goldarn’ minute” pronunciation of “just” or the Russian vowel transcribed as “y”.

“u” is always like said centralised “i”. If you want an “oo” sound in Welsh, you write it “w”.

Hence “Cymru” is pronounced approximately “COME-ree” (International Phonetic Alphabet approx. /’k^mri/, where ‘^’ = upside down ‘v’ and ‘i’ should have a strikethrough) with a slight guttural quality to the “ree”, as well as a properly rolled “r”.

“Cymraeg” is “come-REIG” in which “REIG” rhymes with the first syllable of “tiger”. IPa is less ambiguous: “/k^m’raig/).

Zarquon: the adjective for “North” is “gogledd”, hence “gogs”, a term only used by perfidious Southerners.

The full explanation of the Llanfair PG village name is at the wikitravel article.

It can be seen that ‘North” does not feature in it – Welsh has many words with the syllable “go” (“ogof” = “cave”, “goch” = “red”…)

NB: the Great Welsh Shibboleth “ll” is neither difficult to pronounce, nor “thl” or “cl” as claimed by the more cloth-eared popular guides. It is “hl”. Which admittedly takes some getting used to at the end of a syllable…

Iechyd da!

By: Stephen L

Stephen L — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 02:22:47 +0000

There is lots of research into similar ideas for stationary technologies, particularly big power stations. However, I have the same reaction as Robert – I simply can’t imagine how you could overcome the essential physical problems when applying it to a vehicle given the size of capture tank required. I’m very suspicious.

By: crankynick

crankynick — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:58:23 +0000

Wilful,

There’s a team at Monash working on something similar, I think, and they may well have a trial version installed somewhere.

There’s also a US company called GreenFuel, that has a trial version of something very similar installed at a 20MW cogeneration power station at MIT in the US.

By: Leinad

Leinad — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:31:09 +0000

…a name which was, of course, fabricated in the 19th century in order to attract tourists.

“Come to North Wales, see our… name.”

By: Zarquon

Zarquon — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:20:12 +0000

‘gog’ means north, Gogs are people from North Wales. (Hence the claymation show name)

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

By: The Oil Companies

The Oil Companies — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:17:53 +0000

“…meaning clear distinctions of that sort are historically interesting but not actually applicable.”

Valid point.

Have the Ethnographic-Historical Research Division killed.

Better still, have them turned into oil.

By: Leinad

Leinad — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:13:14 +0000

Gogs was art

By: Zarquon

Zarquon — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:10:06 +0000

Gogs, feh.

By: wilful

wilful — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:07:16 +0000

The English, from a technical standpoint, are English, not British.

I think there’s been enough cross-fertilisation over the past ~1500 years to overcome any of those distinctions. Many of the native ‘british’ stayed put on their lands when the saxons invaded, meaning clear distinctions of that sort are historically interesting but not actually applicable.

But, is it a hard C or soft, and the U, how is that said?