Four posts ago we had a look at a few words from an ancient Welsh dictionary. For some reason or other, the compiler had made a point of showing us where these particular words cropped up in the bible ... and I was wondering ... why those ?
Here they are, in case ,for some reason I can't envisage, you might possibly have forgotten them....
gwarthle n, pudenda ( Isiah. iii.17)
gwelediad , n, seeing, perception, appearance ( Ezekiel i,26)
gwerthydd , n, seller ( Isiah, xxiv, 2 )
gwlanog, a, woolly ( 2 Kings iii, 4)
gwryf, n, press ( Joel iii, 13)
gogyhyd, a, of equal length ( Proverbs, xxvi, 7)
Hey ... wouldn't it be brilliant to get them all into a single sentence ... but that's for another day..
Anyhow, I said I would show you the actual bits in the Welsh bible where they appeared... it sounded pretty exciting and I know a lot of you have been waiting with baited breath, gripping the arms of your mobility aids tightly with anticipation, knuckles white, teeth ( if any) bared, eyed gleaming at the prospect.... so here they are ... and really they are very interesting, because I'm going to uncover various gaffes and gormless oversights made way in the past by dictionary-ist who wrote. That's always fun ......
(a) gwarthle
Am hynny y clafra yr ARGLWYDD gorynnau merched Sïon; a'r ARGLWYDD a ddinoetha eu gwarthle hwynt.
Well there's a turn-up ! Did he really ? Briwsion !!
[b] gwelediad
"Ac oddi ar y ffurfafen yr hon oedd ar eu pennau hwynt, yr oedd cyffelybrwydd gorseddfaingc, fel gwelediad maen saphir; ac ar gyffelybrwydd yr orseddfaingc yr oedd oddi arnodd arno ef gyffellybrwydd megis gwelediad dyn."
Hmm. for a start, what's all this "orseddfaingc" business ? In his dictionary it's just "gorseddfainc" without the penultimate g. And anyway, was it a sapphire ? Or not ? Well, I'm assuming it's a sapphire ... because "saphir" isn't actually in his dictionary either. Huh ! In Y Geiriadur Mawr (YGM) sapphire = saffir. Grrr. .
[c] gwerthydd (hey, this passage includes that "gwas/°was" I wrote about last time ! )
"Yna bydd yr un ffunud i'r bobl ac i'r offeiriad, i'r gwas ac i'w feistr, i'r llaw-forwyn ac i'w maestres, i'r prynydd ac i'r gwerthydd, i'r hwn a roddo ac i'r hwn a gymmero echwyn, i'r hwn a gymmero lôg ac i'r hwn a dalo lôg iddo. "
Well ,there you go ... the bible loves a list doesn't it ! And yet again, his much-vaunted dictionary won't tell you what the hell gymmero/cymmero is either. It's a pretty duff deal when he gets you to look up these passages in the bible and his very own dictionary doesn't tell you how to translate the blasted thing. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Moving on ...
[d] gwlanog
" A Mesa brenhin Moab oedd berchen defaid, as a dalai i frenhin Israel gan mil o ŵyn, a chan mil o mil o hyrddod gwlanog."
Blimey ... he's led us to one of the most boring things in the bible. Pam ? Dwbl-Pam !!
[e] gwryf
" Rhowch i mewn y crymman ; canys addfedodd y cynhauaf : deuwch , ewch i waered ; o herwydd y gwrŷf a lanwodd, a'r gwasg-gafnau a aethant trosodd, am amlhâu eu drygioni
hwynt. "
First off, is it gwryf or gwrŷf ? And does cryman have one m or two ... his own dictionary says 1, the bible says 2. Well, for the first one, YGM says gwrŷf and The Dictionary Man says otherwise , while for cryman YGM agrees with him. 50% isn't too good though is it.
[f] gogyhyd
"Nid goghyd esgeiriau y cloff : felly dammeg y'ngenau ffyliaid. "
Again, the "double-m thing crops up in "dammeg" .And once again, his own dictionary says just the one. And interestingly, once again, "esgeiriau" isn't in his dictionary. Not again !!! Mind you, chwarae teg, he does tell us that "esgairnoeth" means bare-legged, which is a clue I suppose. Luckily, YGM tells us it means "legs." Phew !
So we've still no idea why on earth he put these bible references in there, and why he chose those particular passages to illustrate them. If he wanted to illustrate " seller" for example, there's two other bible verses that feature it ... so why pick that one. And if you want to show "press", there's several other choices.
Even worse, why has he sent students (?) to these passages in the bible and then his very own dictionary doesn't define several of the words in that verse so they won't be able to translate it fully. That's ridiculous ! And weird !!
Well, I was going to put "drygioni" on here, for obvious reasons, but it's not to be found, so here's a rather odd version of SFA's " Nythod Cacwn" instead ......
These would be the words, if he was singing them ... which he mostly isn't ...
Tynnu nythod ar fy mhen trwy'r dydd
Pryd ddaw hyn I ben?
Tynnu clychod ar fy mhen trwy'r dydd
Pigo, pigo, pigo, pigo ar fy mhen trwy'r dydd
Paid dweud y drefn
Nyth cacwn
Tynnu nythod cacwn ar fy mhen pob awr or dydd
Tynnu nythod cacwn ar fy mhen pob awr or nos
Tynnu nythod cacwn ar fy mhen aca r ben fyffrindiau
Tynnu nythod cacwn ar fy mhen ac ar ben fy nheulu I gyd
Paid dweud y drefn
Nyth cacwn
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