tac said:
Wallowas. schmallowas.Try Llanfihaengl-ym-Rhaedr, or, better yet, Bwylchgwyn. Even road signs…Fordd Ddwyddianniol, Gwasanaethau, Arafwch Nawr, ‘Pam welych olau goch, sebbwch yma’, and ‘Ymddiriadolaeth Genadlaeothol Cymru’.
You Washingtonians have got it easy.
tac
John, you have it alll wrong, my friend. The Welsh language was here first by about 1500 years before the Anglo-Saxons came…
Iechydd dda!
tac
I’ve seen their scribbles on the rocks, tac.
I actually speak a little Gaelic, 'tho not stone-age Welsh, I’m afraid. My sweet wife is Irish, her brother a Gaelic scholar who speaks the language at home, and her otherbrother a Welshman by adoption. None of this changes the fundamental and indisputable fact however, that the Welsh are funny people.
The Romans, with their alphabet and all, may even have tried to influence them. They failed utterly, of course, and the proof is evident to this day in the difficulty that the poor Welsh have with the simplest of Roman-style orthographic rules.
One can only feel immense pity for a people so constitutionally handicapped. :lol:
Doubtless you are familiar with the Asterix books, which tell the true story of Roman-Gaelic interaction as it really occurred, in only a very slightly different location… I understand that these scholarly works are available nowadays in several modern European languages, not merely in the original Gaulois. They do make for a most illuminating read.
Slainte! 
You will not be altogether amazed to find that they are also published in Welsh.
You’d better carry on your premise and critique of the inadequacies of the Welsh with my wife, who is Welsh.
tac
You tell him Tac…Wonder if John has seen the film Rorke’s Drift?
Ah, yes, the gallant stand of the 24th of Foot and a detachment of Royal Engineers. I think that there may have been a couple of Welshmen there but remember that a border has TWO sides, and most of the Toms there came from Warwickshire. Birmingham is the largest city there, and those who emanate from that town, called ‘Brum’ have an annoyingly whiney voice. Think of the singer Noddy of Slade. Most Americans think the group is called ‘Slide’. The comedian Jasper Carrot is also a Brummie, and would really benefit from the rapid application of a sack of snooker balls to the temple.
Ifor Emmanuel [‘Owen’ in the movie] certainly had a most melifluous set of vocal chords, but for sure there was nobody like him at Rourke’s Drift.
tac
I belive the movie is called ‘Zulu’ and yes it is a good one. I watch every once in awhile. How maney Victoria Cross’s were awarded for that battle? Look it up.
Paul
Gogla earth it, you can find it there!
The rapid application of a sack of snooker balls to the temple??? Wouldn’t that hurt?
Oh, I see.
Snicker… I mean snooker.
Cerftainly was a lot of movie licence for that film…and as for the singing of Men of Harlech.
Battle of Isandlwana ( 22 January 1879)…Despite a vast disadvantage in weapons technology, the numerically superior Zulus ultimately overwhelmed the poorly led and badly deployed British, killing over 1,300 troops, including all those out on the forward firing line. The Zulu army suffered around a thousand killed.
Near the end of the battle, about 4,000 Zulu warriors of the unengaged reserve Undi impi, after cutting off the retreat of the survivors to the Buffalo River southwest of Isandlwana, crossed the river and attacked the fortified mission station at Rorke’s Drift.
The station was defended by only 139 British soldiers, who nonetheless inflicted considerable casualties and repelled the attack
Rorkes Drift earned 11 VC’s.
Isandlwana…None
Ahem. Proven fact, as demonstrated in practical terms in Custer-V-United First Nations in 1876 -
a. Widely spread-out deployed troops = massacre of the defenders.
b. Closely packed troops = massacre of the attackers.
Also, AFA Custer was concerned - never take a single-shot rifle to a shooting match where the opposition have repeaters.
tac
The only REAL omission from the film ‘Zulu’ was Tom Cruise as the Zulu king Ketshwayo.
Oddly enough, the part was played by Ketshwayo’s grandson. It must have given him a bit ofa shiver to lose out for the second time to a bunch of Rooineks.
See - Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi (born 27 August 1928) is the former prime minister of Zululand and South African Zulu politician who founded the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in 1975. His praise name is Shenge.
In 1964 he played King Cetshwayo kaMpande (his own maternal great-grandfather) in the film Zulu.
tac
tac said:
Ahem. Proven fact, as demonstrated in practical terms in Custer-V-United First Nations in 1876 -a. Widely spread-out deployed troops = massacre of the defenders.
b. Closely packed troops = massacre of the attackers.
Also, AFA Custer was concerned - never take a single-shot rifle to a shooting match where the opposition have repeaters.
tac
Now that I think of it, arrogance was probably his biggest mistake.
Steve Featherkile said:His joining the Army in the first place wasn't such a smooth move either... :rolleyes:
... Now that I think of it, arrogance was probably his biggest mistake.
John Le Forestier said:Truth is, every language in modern Europe makes the Roman alphabet do things that would confuse the hell out of Iulius Caesar. Damn barbarians ...
Odd people, the Welsh.... to take a perfectly adequate alphabet and turn it into scrambled eggs like that. 'Course, then there's Polish... :lol:
Let’s not be TOO scathing about the Welsh, please.
Remember that -
Wales has no less than TWELVE active and ever-improving narrow-gauge rail lines in operation, including one with more operational Beyer-Garratt locos than anywhere else on earth, and
FAR more important, Mrs tac is Welsh, and I have to live with her under the terms of the contract we drew up together in September of 1971.
tax
You must spend a lot of time laughing… :P;)
Sure do, Sir, ask anyone who’s met me.
tac
That’s cause he’s ticklish and Ig knows the right spots…
Mrs TAC Welsh…News to me.
