BS: Translation help- South Wales dialect

Subject: BS: Translation help- South Wales dialect
From: Bardford
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 12:12 AM

I am trying to transcribe a taped interview my great grandmother did with CBC radio in the early sixties. She was well into her eighties at the time, and even thought she'd been in Canada since 1906, she never quite surrendered the accent she grew up with in Pontycymmer, near Bridgend, South Wales.

The portion of the tape (well, sound file) I am working on now has her recounting a conversation between two women, and goes like this:

One day, a friend of his mother came to see her, and she said "Does (thee?) (or perhaps Dost'th) know where Tommy works?"
She said "In coal company office."
"No (abaint?)" she said. "works in the mines. "
"No," She said.
"(Yubiyed?), he washes up in the mines and goes home in his clean clothes."

The problem words are in brackets, and the spellings are obviously an approximation. I'm hoping some one closer to the source might be able to enlighten me.

Any Glamorganites still up on that side of the pond?

Thanks,
Bardford

Subject: RE: BS: Translation help- South Wales dialect
From: GUEST,Bardford
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 12:24 AM

And, I hasten to add, she was born in Amroth, Pembroke, and English was her native language.

Subject: RE: BS: Translation help- South Wales dialect
From: BanjoRay
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 07:26 AM

I'm from Loughor, a mining village about 30 miles East of Amroth. If you want you can send me the mp3 file and I'll try and transcribe it for you. I'm on broadband.
Send it to [e-mail]
Cheers
Ray

Subject: RE: BS: Translation help- South Wales dialect
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 07:42 AM

Try yousendit, perfect for large files.

Subject: RE: BS: Translation help- South Wales dialect
From: BanjoRay
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 07:44 AM

And I was about the same distance west of Pontycymer. The words in brackets ring no bells at all, but if I heard them it might be totally different.
Cheers
Ray

Subject: RE: BS: Translation help- South Wales dialect
From: Mr Red
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 10:56 AM

I have asked more than 12 people directly to help with my "FAQ Cymraeg" - some cite political minefields, some claim they can but haven't replied, some (like Welsh language organisations) deign to reply, but I got virus hits using their e-mail address (go figure). So good luck Bardford. If any Cymraigophones want to encourage my efforts to nod in the direction of cultural acceptance - please give it a go. Y Bonheddwr
Cochyn FAQ's
The website that I used for my feeble efforts was http://www.cs.brown.edu/fun/welsh/LexiconForms.html

Subject: RE: BS: Translation help- South Wales dialect
From: GUEST,Bardford
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 11:48 AM

Thanks to all for your replies. Mr. Red - I wish you well with your project. Banjoray, I've sent a sound clip along. The original interview runs about 30 min, so I just copied the bit in question.
Regards,
Bardford

Subject: RE: BS: Translation help- South Wales dialect
From: BanjoRay
Date: 21 Aug 05 - 07:43 PM

For general interest, here's what I emailed to Bardford while the cat was napping.

Hi Brad - Mudcat's died on me, but here's my reply:

Well - I've listened to it, and it's fascinating. Her accent is very
much old Pembrokeshire with a little Canadian but very little if any
Pontycymer, which would be broad valleys Welsh. The dialect then used in Amroth used much old English, I think very similar to the old Gower dialect, which is why Pembrokeshire used to be known as "Little England beyond Wales". I'm not aware that these dialect words are used anywhere in South Wales today.
Here's my attempt at a transcription, with my own spelling of the
dialect words:

< "No" she said.
"Yeah a-bid (yes he does) he washes up in the mines and goes home in his clean clothes." and that was a great surprise to his mother, and when he came home his mother said "What did you do that for?"
He said "Well they get more money in the mines than in the coal company office.">>

I'm wondering if she was talking about the small coal industry around Amroth, rather than the much bigger setup around Pontycymer.

Hope this helps
Ray