Born in England from Welsh stock the country called me far before I understood the politics, one visit to family was all it took, like meeting your true love it grew in my heart, this land were I now live is in my soul and will always be. My grandchildren are all Welsh who speak the old language, soon maybe my remains will be buried under Welsh soil and I will be part of the country again, I will rest easy of that I am sure.
As an Englishman currently studying in Wales, I have mad respect for the Welsh. The fact the language has stood against the test of time to the modern day is remarkable.
@@keiraaaaaaaaaaaaaa Too cute! Irish American here, not Celtic, rather Gaelic, (County Kerry Lineage), we are of Basque origin. Welsh too, I think. (Some Irish have Germanic Influence through the invasions)
I will require you to bow down now. I am, in some way related, to a Prince form the North of Wales. I do not have the name as the family tree is with my grandmother. I hope to return to reclaim what is mine in the near future.
As a Welsh descendent in Canada I’ve always wanted to know more about our roots as it was made clear by my Grandpa that we were “Welsh” folk. I have a great admiration for our forefathers tenacity, endurance and preservation of our culture against great odds - As was noted they withstood the Germanic tribes while Rome itself fell to them. And the bards, singers and great epics! Culture is a beautiful thing that is indeed worth preserving and protecting. Thanks for helping keep it alive for us far-flung Cymru 🏴 One day I look forward to seeing it with my own eyes
@@TwpsynMawr cymru am byth! It does look like God's country from what I've seen in pictures and videos of those beautiful mountains and valleys and rugged coastlines. I have no doubt they don't do the real thing any justice!
Centuries ago my ancestors were forced to renounce their traditional Welsh names and adopt the name ‘Roberts’ as a more formal, more proper English surname. That all ended on October 12th, 2003. The day I was born, Christened as Meilir Ap Emrys, son of Emrys Roberts. There is nothing in this world I will ever be more thankful for than my name, no matter how hard people may find it to pronounce, because it represents the tenacity and endurance of my people, and how we have overcome everything thrown at us. Thank you for sharing the history of my cyndeidiau so eloquently and with so many people. Our history is one that has inspired countless world-famous works of fiction, and the truth is worth telling and sharing. Diolch yn fawr, fawr iawn, gyfaill. Cymru am byth.
My ancestors are welsh, from Llandudno area and my last name is Roberts. Does this mean originally we weren't Roberts also. I've never heard if the Welsh having to change names before until I saw this comment. Any information you have I'll be thankful for! X
@@suzanneself7037 so every Welsh person would’ve had either ‘Ap’ (if they were male) or ‘Ach’ (if they were female) preceding their father’s name as what would today be called a surname. Very similar to Mac/Mc in Scottish and O’ in Irish. The reason that the change for us was so widespread was because at one point in time Wales was considered to be a part of England. We had to adopt surnames to fit in with English culture, but weren’t allowed English surnames as we were deemed to be second class citizens so they made up some new ones for us (how considerate of them). So although both our families are from north Wales (I live on Anglesey, as have both sides of my family for thousands of years) and have the same last name, I would highly doubt that we would be related simply due to the fact that every Welsh person got given the choice of a handful of surnames (Jones, Hughes, Evans, Williams, Roberts and a few others I’m forgetting). I hope that’s been informative!
Wow, I had no idea! Makes sense why it's so hard doing your family tree as everyone has these names! So we can't find our original names I'm guessing then? I'd love to read more about the original culture as I'm English I don't know much. Thank you for your reply❤
We can keep alive our ancestors stories, our family name has changes only 3 times in 723 years and goes back 700 years prior in Spain, I see it awesome that you have retained your heritage, traces back to Franks in Spain, wear your name proud.
@@meilir.ap.emrys420 Very Interesting. My 4th great grandad was John Evans born in 1807 near Llanerchymedd, Anglesey, Wales. He had several children there and then uprooted the whole family and immigrated to New York in the US in 1839. They settled in Remsen, Oneida which apparently had/has a substantial Welsh population and descendants. I was born in Central America and had no idea about any of this until recently when I did a DNA test and discovered 17% Welsh ancestry. Thank you so much for the insight into the Evans name.
Fantastic oration and content! As a person of Welsh descent I am impressed by how you have arranged the massive amount of content. The Welsh never gave in, never gave up, and were able to preserve language and cultures where others were completely overwhelmed and lost. Thank you
I entirely agree with one honus remarc: author has absolutely perfect pronunciation of the Welsh Celtic tongue; one can tell immediately0 that he is deeply involved in linguistics, philology, ethimology.....let alone history and mythology.
I spent more than 20 years living and working in the Orient. During my time there, I was engaged in conversation with an elderly gentleman from the USA. The pronunciation of just one word informed me, in the blink of an eye, that this American gentleman had an association with Wales, the Land of my Fathers. How so, I hear you ask? He was recounting a recent visit to a local dentist and pronounced the singular of the plural noun teeth as "tuth", not the more familiar sounding "two-th" (tooth). I paused the conversation and asked him if he had a connection with South Wales. He was struck dumb for a few seconds and then blurted out, "Yes, I was born in Bridgend (near Cardiff), but my parents emigrated to the US when I was a baby and have never been back. How do you know?" The answer, of course, is that he was brought up in the US by Welsh parents from Glamorgan, who never lost their accent and its quirky pronunciation of certain words.
My maternal family always spoke about being Welsh..cousin and I doing family history could never find a welsh birth any where. Then my cousins dna came back 23% welsh which added to our confusion. Both maternal and paternal grandparents were born in UK..one Suffolk the other Hereford. Me being an avid reader of medieval historic fiction found one series of books regularly including Hereford as in Wales on the Marches.. I decided to look up Hereford history and found it had been welsh and welsh was spoken there well into the 1800s. I looked up the origins of the surname Baynham and found it was Welsh but the maiden name of the ggranny was Evans..a clear give way. So you never can tell where one's ancestry can trip you up.
Whilst I’m English my grandfather was from Abersoch so I spent much of my childhood growing up in Wales, and it is so underrated. Proud of my Welsh heritage and absolutely love the country.
As a Yorkshireman I love god's own county but I must admit Wales is just as beautiful. Iv been to Pembrokeshire and many places in north wales including Anglesey. I was in Llandudno not long back and really enjoyed it. The northern Welsh folk were nice aswell
Everyone needs to read up on Wilson & Blackett's research. Wales is an incredible place, and has the most amazing history. The true history of the Welsh is a problem for the British Establishment.
Well, that and the unfortunate truth of their ancestors being essentially just mercenaries who took advantage of a power vacuum and the fragility of a still very new British state of Wales. [AKA they are the bad guys] But, mostly the pronunciation thing. [I'm terrified of it too... and I'm Welsh]
Just have to say, as a Cymro living in Wales, I congratulate the heck out of your pronunciation. It was very accurate with very few exceptions and you handled the extra vowels and unfamiliar consonants well. An unfortunate majority of modern Britons lack the exposure or interest to try, and at worst, make fun of the language.
I'm visiting North Wales soon for the first time so enjoying this look at its impressive history. I'm no linguist but hope to make a good effort at please and thank you by the time I go.🙂
@@mikimeadows tbh i agree, his attempt is very admirable but his pronunciation of welsh is way too breathy and overdone in the case of things like caernarfon
Fantastic to hear such a well put together history. I've lived in North Wales my whole life, speak the language and my family tree is rooted deep here. I still struggle to put dates to names and people in places. I pass castles and ancient tumulus just to go to the supermaket and it breaks my heart to be powerless as I watch and feel Wales turn into something it shouldn't be.
@@somniumisdreaming I believe everything is just being capitalized on so heavily. Politics plays a big role as well. I’d say the people are changing. Wants and concerns are beginning to rule over necessity and logic.
@@Rabbelrauser the difference here in Wales is that we have had to fight to this very moment in time to keep our language and culture alive. The Westminster government in England has done their best to destroy our culture and language. We still face issues, even recently our language, one of the oldest on the island was listed as a foreign language and English as the native language which is wrong. We have had our education controlled to hide our history. When I was growing up our parents were told NOT to educate us in Welsh as it will retard us - I'm not kidding. That was the stigma we grew up with. So despite having my roots in Wales for hundreds of years on both sides, we were bullied out of speaking it. I did my best to learn it I school but one else's every 2 weeks does not allow for any skills. As OP said we barely know our history, in my school we learned about the English, the Romans and the Normans etc. But NOT our own people and land as Westminster government controlled that. Things have recently changed in the last year or so and now all children will be educated on our history. Hopefully, we will regain our language and culture, just like the Finn's did from the russians and Swedish, and everyone will speak Welsh and English fluently. There's a reason why Wales has the most castles per km of any country - we fought hard to defend our ways of life and still are. 🏴
@@LumiSisuSusi those castles were built by the conquering english, superior cultur ealways wins, the english vikings crushed the celts, the muslims will crush the europeans
As a welsh woman, living in Wales, studying to teach in Wales, the more i am learning about our history the more i want to add History on top of my Physics education choice
Wow that was an amazing history lesson..as a native born English from Scottish/Irish parents..I'd never heard Welsh history before and always wanted to.. thank you so much what a gorgeous language..and amazing history poetry x
Hello from the Welsh American Channel. Just want to let you know that we Welsh Americans are also interested in what is going on in Wales and its rich history. Cymru am byth!
I'd been checking your channel every other day just hoping for a new video, you have really piqued my interest in my Irish ancestry. As a Californian as distant as currently possible from the emerald isle, something about the clawing back bit by bit of Pre-roman/pre-christian Gaelic/Welsh/etc really speaks to me. I've always been absolutely enthralled by history. As a kid instead of Saturday morning cartoons I'd watch history channel documentaries (when they still had credibility) and I've never dropped it as a passion, but I never studied my own people's heritage. Funny isnt it? Much love from California
No...I understand Cymraeg, but I don't u derstand a lick of Hebrew...The reason being, they are not related at all, and biblical geneologies are bunk.@@MaacMaliceMMA
I am Welsh born and bred, Welsh to my core, and proud to be. For those of you reading this who are not Welsh it's easy to understand us once you accept that we are a proud nation, loyal to our heritage; many have tried to oppress us and beat us down. It will NEVER happen. As the great Bill Beaumont said when playing rugby against the Welsh 'Wales have never lost a match, we just score points against them'. However I am not a rabid Plaid Cymru supporter. Wales and the Welsh nation is well able to survive without creating aggression and division. It will go on regardless of fanatics who do not serve Wales well.
Well said. I'm Welsh and I love our English, Scottish and Irish brothers and sisters, the last thing we need right now is more aggression and division.
Susan , agree with your comment , i left wales (gwent) at 7 years of age went to africa with parents on copper mines then in 1980 they emigrated to Australia now im 57 , i too am welsh to the core , never have i forgot the land of my fathers , i fly the welsh flag here in Australia in my shed proudly and never will i consider my self any thing else other than welsh (Celtic) you can take the boy out of the valleys , but you can never take the valleys out of the boy , its in or DNA you can feel it , 45 years in Australia and i always felt like i dont belong here , plan on visiting home soon ❤👍
Brilliant vid! We Cymry definitely deserve more love in the history space. On the subject of Arthur being Abrosius' nephew, this is surprisingly plausible. In Medieval Wales, a king's nephew the was the most common/ideal relation to be the "Penteulu" (commander of the Royal Household troops and chief military advisor). This could explain Ambrosius' victories being attributed to Arthur also. That said, I understand it is complicated and Arthur may just be a god figure rather than a real human. Edit: The earliest Arthur source, Nennius, says that though he was not a king, he was Dux Bellorum (war leader) of the Kings of Britain.
In Michael Wood's "In Search of Arthur" he speaks with a man who found very old burial stones on his land and one of them was for someone named Arthur. There was a story that he and his brother were sons of a local king, and Arthur was killed in battle but he fought bravely. The stones were from the right time period, but there were probably other people with that name. Michael Wood said it could have been part of many pieces woven into the legend.
@@ellen4956 it more of less is the legend. Funny thing is that when I grew up Arthur was not a common name, although one of my uncles was one and we were not told or taught that Arthur was Welsh. "Knights" to us were the Norman invaders.
@leekenyon8705 True. But we beat the Romans in one great battle in South Wales and we kept our language alive and spread it to Brittany in what is now France. We have a devolved Welsh parliament and increasingly aspire to Independence.
@leekenyon8705 I'm not expert. I'll look into it later. But perhaps a real person who resisted the incomers from the continent,. Oral history usually has a kernel of truth.
It’s so nice to hear proper Welsh pronunciation from outside of wales. I never knew people found ‘ll’ hard to pronounce, it just seems so easy and natural for me. I suppose it’s like rolling your ‘r’s, some people can do it naturally and some people can’t.
It's not "doing it naturally" it's whether you grew up needing to use that sound. And Amber, a combination of L, G and H is the best way to describe it. It's pronounced in the video a lot at the start of Lleu and Llewellyn in particular.
@@amberkat8147 uh… the easiest way to describe it is to grit your teeth, and open your mouth so you kind of look like this emoji 😬 and push the tip of your tongue against your teeth. Then, open your teeth slightly as if you were about to just say the letter ‘L’ but don’t let your tongue slip through. Then lastly, push air through the side of your teeth, and you’ve got it! The easiest way to practice would be to do those steps and at the end add an ‘oo’ sound, just doing it as you would as if you said ‘you’ but replacing the ‘y’ with that ‘LL’ sound. Oh, and keep the back of your tongue off the roof of your mouth, the sound won’t work if it’s there.
Am currently learning the Welsh language. Grew up reading Welsh mythology, history, etc, despite my family being German/Irish because i was a huge fan of Arthurian legends and expanded from there... also learning those languages... but spent a day in Wales during a TDY to Endland, and found it enchanting. Theres something... magical... about Wales, which inspired me to want to learn the language and want to name my first son after Myrddin Wyllt. That being said, Welsh is a rather difficult language for someone unfamiliar with it, especially someone who has grown up speaking American English. But its a beautiful language that i enjoy learning and hope to one day speak well enough to be understood by a native speaker.
What a great video. I was born in Yorkshire but my great grandfather came from Merthyr Tydfil, I spent most of WW2 as a child in Aberdare and I've lived in the Vale of Glamorgan for fiflty years but your Welsh pronounciaton knocks spots off mine. You might be interested to know that there is a legend that the Normans, like the Saxons in England, were invited in to fight for one of the Welsh princes and then did a 'hostile' takeover. When he died the soul of the man who made the deal, Einion ap Colwyn, was sent into the body of a fox for his great sin which meant that the fox could speak (Welsh I assume). Hundreds of years later someone who had come into the Vale to buy cattle was 'benighted' in Porthkerry Woods (near where I live). Sitting in the rain by a smoky fire he heard a fox talking in a nearby bush. He spoke to the fox which told him the story saying he was the lineal descendent of the original fox so he too could talk. (Source is Marie Trevelyan's book of Welsh legends)
I remember my mum going off to the Rheigos plant to make sten gun bullets and seeing the Yanks training on Ogmore Beach when we went on holiday there - presumably 1944@@Sielffo1
I recently found I am 100% Welsh on my mothers side. Her mother and fathers side both came to Canada from Wales and then went down into Idaho where my grandparents met in college at Ricks College. I love this video, thank you. I am trying to learn more of my ancestry to pass onto my children.
It's nice to see the Nation of Wales get some attention of late! It's weird I was born in Brum (Birmingham, England) but my family on both sides go Welsh going back like! I think the story of my heritage is just following the river Severn Lol
i live on the boarder with wales love the mountains and the fact that most still speak the language,(daily) i go to wales all the time,you can just feel the ancient vibe in the land, i love meditating right up in the mountains by a beautiful stream river, its such a special/spiritual place to me, im a luck guy,xxTao,xx
My Grandmother was a pioneer in the US State of Montana. She was the oldest of five. Her father was killed by her brother in a hunting accident and the following year 1917 her mother died in the great flu pandemic. When I was growing up (from 1948 on) she would say “Now, don’t put on airs we are just Welsh miners.” When I’ve visited Wales I can’t say that I found a pronunciation gene. One interesting happening for me was my first trip to Wales was with my son Colburn(Colby). We were so interested and happy to see how much his beam appeared as place names. His Dad and I had no idea.
Well done! 😀❤ Welsh on the paternal side and - mostly - French Celt on the maternal side. I did enjoy my trip to Wales a few years ago - well worth the visit!
In the early 1880s a Welsh miner took his wife and three children and move to the United States they had four more children one of whom was named Samuel born in 1889 who became a pipe fitter in the Steelmill married a young woman born In Germany the same year and who had moved to Ohio in 1898 , they had seven children the youngest son name Charles who in turn married a young woman who is half Irish and half northwestern Scottish, they had four sons whom I am the third born .
Thank you for your Exquisitely detailed documentary. I Love every moment of your beautifully worded presentation. It was wonderful hearing these ancient words pronounced perfectly ❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉
Outstanding, non partisan, erudite and objective analysis of us Welsh. The English are prone to subtle forms of mockery, biasness and faint undermining and discrediting of anything Welsh, so it's good to hear an outsider be so thorough and use facts to describe my wonderful country. Superbly put together thank you so much. ❤
Great to see the Welsh resurgence in music, football, and the arts generally. Ever since hearing Dylan Thomas poems, I've been interested in the Welsh culture, with it's amazing castles and wooded valleys and ancient language.
This is remarkably good. Excellent visuals. Not just maps and video game clips. The narrator is clear, precise, and sympathetic to pronunciation and language. The history is very grounded and a fair and logical interpretation of what might have happened.
As me and my father and my grandfather ancestry were born in Wales and as a WelshMan, I thank you very much for this education video! Cymru Am Byth 🏴 🏴
In German the word "welsch" means "non-germanic" In Switzerland the German speaking call the french, Italian, and rheto-roman speaking parts of the country "die welsche Schweiz"
I spent 6 months in the UK and a large part of it in Wales. It was beautiful. A little over 40 years ago. Great memories. Interesting to know about ' Cambria, the county I live in is named Cambria.
Very well presented video production, If not for Welsh folklore, the Mabinogion, the Druids, and the extensive writings of Tacitus, we would hardly know anything of their origin. For years now ihave been fascinated by the extreme north west of Wales. Dinas Dinlle , Tres Ceri , many hill forts and burial mounds all across Wales. There is the remnants of an old roman/ celtic road called Sarn Helen in Snowdonia, which leads to the coast,, where there is rumored to be a sunken castle, Caer Arianhrod , roughly off the coast west of Caernarfon. Very plausible story indeed, since the area is a almost shallow sea across the Menai Straits to Anglesey and Holy Island, the last hold out of the Druids. I look forward to seeing more of your channel, Diolch, c;👌
I live on the west coast of Ceredigion and at certain beaches during low tide, you can see an ancient petrified forest. The land would have stretched further out to sea, makes it easy to imagine the myths of places like Cantre’r Gwaelod and Caer Arianhorhod coming to life
I visited North Wales January 2020 before all the lockdowns. The Welsh are very nice people. I've done a deep dive into my Y-DNA. My ancestors originated from this beautiful land. Anglesey is very nice. I spend a few days exploring the island. I wish more Welsh men would do their Y-DNA. I have several other Griffith men that we have a common ancestor in Wales in the early 1600s. Maybe one day we will figure out who he was.
My maiden name is Griffiths, my great great grandfather, grandfather was born in Anglesey, possibly a great, grandfather on my mother's side. ( Still searching ). Had my DNA tested, am 96% Welsh, ( North, West. South). 2% Cornish, Devon, 2%, Scots.West.) Cymru am Byth.🏴
@@iriscollins7583 My Hughes branch is probably from there but I haven't figured out exactly where. They came to America (early 1700s) and in Pennsylvania founded a town called Gwynedd. It's still there.
No way! I was traveling North Wales in January of 2020 as well! Came to Liverpool from Canada for my father's wedding and decided to spend a week doing a circuit from Llandudno to Betws-y-Coed to Porthmadog to Caernarfon. First time I heard about covid spreading in Wuhan was actually when I was sitting at the bar at the Black Boy Inn in Caernarfon. I still remember thinking at the time that it was a whole lot of fuss about nothing and would blow over within a month lol.
@@ellen4956 My father's side immigrated from Wales just after the US Civil War and settled in Pennsylvania for a while. Apparently my ancestor did some mining there, as he'd done back in Wales. Later they joined with a Welsh immigration society which bought railroad land in Kansas to form a town they named Bala - it's long a ghost town now. The two sons of my American patriarch participated in the big land run into Oklahoma - the one covered in the Tom Cruise movie "Far and Away" in 1992 - and homesteaded there. I don't know from where in Wales my great-great-grandparents came, but they left at a time when the mining business was suffering.
I am a Welsh descendent from Canada, my last maiden name Roberts. I've always been interested in my family roots. My mother was adopted in Scotland, and I don't know much about either my fathers side or mothers. My two eldest took the plunge and did the ancestry dna test. My mother asked me before she passed to find her biological family. To let them know Thank you, it was a hard decision and I have done alright. etc. you get the point. Well covid hit and my mother and my sister 47 passed away in 2021 just 12 hrs apart. So my husband and I took the plunge and took the test. married name McCrae-Gibson. My goal now is to write a book of our family history for our children.This video helps a lot, thank you for sharing .
God I miss my homeland I moved to New Zealand three years ago but there are no oeople on earth like the Welsh I miss you Wales 🏴🏴Cumry am byth🏴🏴
Such an informative and excellent video! I also subscribed to your channel! I have some Welsh DNA 🧬 and my husband has perhaps as much as 50% Welsh! I’ve never heard of anyone giving this much time and serious attention to the People of Wales! Thank you ❤
There is a linguistic nitpick I'd like to point out - if one looks up the origin of Welsh words online, there are an awful lot of Latin origin words alongside the decidedly Celtic ones with the asterisks. as well as most of the earliest figures of Welsh history. For example: "Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru" comes from *Gario iator Prim- Schol- Com- *mrog(i)(a) with "gario" and "mrogi/brogi" being the Celtic words -One name example: Padarn Beisrudd ap Tegid > Patern Peis-Rut map Tacit > Patern(us) Pexa- *roud(os) *makw(os/i) Tacit(us) -Juvencus Three manuscript example: niguorcosam nemheunaur henoid >> *ni (=non, no) *wor- (=super, uber) cons(eo) nem(os) medio(n) (h)ora sen(ior)-noct(em) mitelu nit gurmaur >> Mi(hi) *tego- *-slougos nit *wiros *magros mi am [franc] dam ancalaur >> Mi(hi) am(bi) "(a) Frank" *do-ambi ante-caldar(ia) ...cet iben med nouel *Cit(u) *? med(ia) (=mead) novel(la) mi amfranc dam anpatel (My Frank) *do-ambi ante-patel(la) seems like "Romano-British" and "Welsh" may functionally be the same thing.
I'm from North Wales and I compare aspects of our history and geography to that of Afghanistan. A colourful tribal culture prone to internal squabbling, only ever united by a common enemy. Resistance to powerful invaders made possible by reckless bravery, a capacity for exceptional endurance and suffering, and a harsh, mountainous terrain affording opportunities for refuge and ambush. However, our love for the arts and the (relative) freedom enjoyed by women are probably points of departure. Good film, and a very fair assessment imo.
Really excellent piece and the research was breathtaking. I am English with Scottish background but think that our intrinsic celtic origins, not least from Wales, are an important asset to a sense of national unity. This cultural and artistic inheritance from Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Cornwall is of major importance and is the source of Britains cultural wealth.
My Grandma came with her brother by horse and cart ,from Carnarvon in the 30s to Leicester, to look for work as their family's wealth diminished due to the Great depression. Her life became hard as she married my Grandad and was left looking after 4 son's as he fought in WW2. She knew no people much here. I always felt I was like her , and she had 6th sense , sadly she passed when I was 13. I feel very Welsh and not like an English, though my other Grandad was Scottish.
I suspect you are actually me! My grandma came from Abernant to Manchester in the 30s. She died when I was 13. I loved her. I always felt welsh, married a half-welshman and my children feel welsh and support the rugby. I did an ancestry thing and found that somehow I'm over 60% welsh.
It’s Caernarfon not Carnarvon. Not much difference in pronunciation but if you want to embrace being Welsh more then use the proper Cymraeg spelling. Phob dymuniad da.
There was an arthur, but it was a nickname that warlords often had. His was the bear art in early welsh yr for artyr the bear. Gildas mentions him as die ursa. He was based in Wroxeter if this is true. His father's war name was the terrible head dragon- urthur pen dragon
@Lee Kenyon The celtic culture of course or at least the la tenne, not sure of the exact pronunciation originated in switzerland. There are Arthurian cycles- Siegfried in German, Roland in France, it's entirely possible that the whole thing may be part of some romantic original story that has been modified over time by different populaces. Fascinating speculation though. Die ursa met his end fighting his nephew according to the welsh annals and was buried in Baschurch, who knows the truth?
11:39 I went to Caerleon (pronounced Ki-er-leon) for comp, as we call high school in Cymru. And the one block we had was called the Isca block or block I. This was due to the Roman fortress, baths and the amphitheater that remain to this day within the village. Isca was the name of the camp which held the fortress' guards, and the village was renamed to it's resident fort, Isca... Btw, I used to have my lunch on both the amphitheater AND the baths, it was tranquil and serene almost always.
I love Caerleon! As a south Walian I have many fond memories of the place from my childhood. What a great place to go to school! unfortunately, I have not been since 2016 when I went there for my birthday as I adore the place. I now live in Finland so I miss Cymru so badly. The hiraeth is strong 🏴
Im 5 minutes up the road went to St.Julians (pronounced SayntJew-leons) for comp. Btw, I used to mooch off school to snog and finger the girls over the Dingle, smoking all.sorts ,sniffing tippex , gas, fishing stickelbacks over beechwood or making rope swings and bon fires over pernells farm .
@@DJ-Brownie-UK My cousin went there, said it was mental himself, mind u Caerleon was no less mental. I remember my mam giving me n all my m8's sherbet... And we when n snorted the fuckin' stuff!! One lad had to go to the hospital bc he burst a blood vessel in his eye 😭😭
@@3vo338 😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣haahhaahhahha , made my day that hahahaha those where the best times I can recall me and my mate smoking "mixed herbs" in that thin paper from those cheap bibles you get in the 1st year of comp 😁hehheh
Absolutley brilliant. An English accent speaking good Welsh. I had a London accent speaking Welsh. The small town of Porthcawl, where I was born, had Viking settlements (Sker house), Medeival settlements (Kenfig) Norman churches and more. I shared this to my page, tagged my familey and the histoirans and fellow Archaeolgists 🙂Subscribed !
This was absolutely fantastic. Very well put together sir, your pronunciations are spot on which is not easy for many, especially an American! I loved the work you did.🏴
Despite my welsh ancestry being distant, and the recent discovery that I may be more Breton than Welsh or even Scottish, Welsh language, culture and history will forever hold a special place in my heart. The most beautiful stories and songs that make me feel hiraeth very strong, and to this day I hang a welsh flag in my home, under the constitution; the culmination of the ideas written by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. As he too was of Welsh ancestry, and he was the one who declared that humans rights were life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
@@somniumisdreaming the true tragedy is that he could have helped steer the country onto the right path instead of slavery leading ultimately to empire and the American Civil War with the failure of the Constitution, which Mr Trump seems to be a reminder of that fact even now...what if Jefferson had actually acted on his words rather than making them only a partial truth and the country based on that fraudulent beginning...admitting the truth now can finally set us free...?
@@somniumisdreaming I know it is futile arguing against that point, but context is needed before judging people of the past. He inherited his slaves, and certainly saw it as a terrible and hypocritical thing that he had them, and yet he would not have had the money to be able to do the political work he did without that which he gained through his plantation. A hypocrite? Maybe, someone engaged in what today would be considered a grave human rights abuse? Certainly. A self conscious person who was ahead of his time for understanding that the position he inherited was terrible? Also certainly.
Liked and subbed, thank you. As my last name suggests, my ancestors (a few anyway) were dubbed "foreigners" or literally "from Wales", though that surname was given to any who followed Strongbow and his army west to Ireland, regardless of where they actually originated. Fascinating subject. Thank you for the hard work to produce this excellent content.
Cymru am byth ❤.. As a native Welsh speaker and resident of this amazing country, this literally brought tears to my eyes. Slowly the Welsh language is being removed from our schools. Only Welsh schools now truly teach our native tongue, and those schools are few and far between. With massive rises in housing costs in England, due to over saturated immigration, people are moving over the boarder to Wales. This is a huge strain on such a tiny country, further diluting and eradicating our language and culture. I am afraid that my generation and possibly the next will see our language die with us. This utterly breaks my heart, anyone who is Welsh will absolutely understand what I mean. Thank you for this wonderful video. ❤
I'm Welsh and live in Swansea. Your post is barking mad. The Welsh language has been relentlessly pushed for decades and the Welsh speaker rates have climbed steadily as a result. When I was in school hardly anyone spoke Welsh ,now it's very common, even down here in the South. Welsh schools are VERY common and have even become trendy. Your post bears absolutely no resemblance to reality and is frankly drivel.
as a welsh born person, aged 73. i found the video very good, a lot of it i already know, through the celtic tradition of the oral way of passing on our history. this video will help a lot of people ,who are not from the british isles, become better educated about my ancestors. it still makes me gringe, when many years that an american , refered to us as wales england.
I have enjoyed this Video so very much I have discovered that I am a Welsh descendent in USA and it just so happens your video popped up and I laughed, must be my PSYIC ABILITIES kicking in. I look forward to many more of your Videos.
Great video and fantastic pronunciation of some tricky Welsh words and names! Lovely to see this recognition of little old Wales from across the pond. All the best from a modern day Cymru 👍🏴
Interesting possibility is Caradog is in a likeness to a very ancient wording , Middle Eastern Karduch- to words of today even Kurd- .. just a little idea .
I am Maddock from Madoc / Madog 🙌🏼 A couple of years back I randomly become obsessed with Arthurian myth and completed a diploma in it. Then I came across Madoc and was like 😮
Very interesting & informative presentation. The American narrator’s (or AI’s) pronunciation of Welsh words is quite good. A lot of effort has been put into this video, thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn 🙏
Great video! Thanks! I'll be going to Wales in April from Norway to see the Norwegian sailors church in Cardiff where my great grandfather went from Norway to work as a diacon at the beginning of the 19-hundreds. I'll be looking out for King Arthur as well!
Jeff Roberts, My Paternal Grandparents came to Canada from Swansea, Victor and Ida May Begy. There Son, Burton Clark Begy was my Dad. I am Sotts/Irish on my Mom's side😁
After the war we used to get a lot of French ( from Brittany) onion sellers who would spend the summer cycling around the U.K. selling strings of French onions.Many of them only spoke a little English but coped quite well withWelsh speakers when working in Wales.A friend of my parents ,whose first language was Welsh had the same chap turn up with his onions for several years and they conversed quite easily in Breton/Welsh.
My great, great ,great Grandfather came to America From Martleswy in 1820 and was a mining foreman in Plymouth Pennsylvania. My Great, Great Grandfather died in a mine collapse trying to rescue 12 men. All 13 perished on Friday The 13th. Through an awesome Gentleman in England , Brian Picton Swann, I am able to trace my family history in Wales to the year 1275. I know it sounds unbelievable, but this man did a 50 year long Genome project on The Picton Family. His work is nothing short of a masterpiece.
As a Welshman living near Swansea,.south Wales, diolch, thank you for this video. It's very accurate and was a very interesting watch. I thoroughly enjoyed it 🏴
Alas, I have not yet been to Wales. However, my maternal grandmother was a Cardiff lass. She was marvelous. I do hope to visit in the next few years. I enjoy learning more about her homeland and thank you for sharing.
Wales is a very significant part of Our UK which arguably it pioneered c/ o Henry Twdwr’summarily ending the ‘Wars of the Roses’- much welcomed by the English let alone the Welsh!
What a fantastic video dude, thoroughly enjoyed it. Good effort on the pronunciation of our words, some were a little off but overall, gotta commend the effort. Great video.
We in the Scottish Borders are well aware of our Welsh bloodlines and proud of it,names like peebles, Lee pen ,white coomb,Ettrick pen, Ancrum, lauder still survive today . Both lands are proud of 🏉 rugby and if Scotland is no playing we back the boyos.
Yes. It was the Hen Ogledd (Old North) were names still reflect this (pen - top or head) Glas (Green /Blue) Aber (estuary) Lanark ( Llanerch - glade) . The area spoke Cumbric which was a derivative of Old Welsh or Cymraeg. All very interesting as a history and shows we have more in common than we are led to believe.
Born in England from Welsh stock the country called me far before I understood the politics, one visit to family was all it took, like meeting your true love it grew in my heart, this land were I now live is in my soul and will always be. My grandchildren are all Welsh who speak the old language, soon maybe my remains will be buried under Welsh soil and I will be part of the country again, I will rest easy of that I am sure.
I Love your beautiful statement. God bless you and your Family ❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉
How wonderful!
That was how I felt on my first visit to wales,from America.
@@V.T.1989of course you did 😂 Americans lol
Well said I'm d same in my little corner good health to you❤
As an Englishman currently studying in Wales, I have mad respect for the Welsh. The fact the language has stood against the test of time to the modern day is remarkable.
respect englishman from a south whillian
do you respect the somalis?@@BobAlong-l5y
Thank you, diolch. It's refreshing to read something positive about Cymraeg for once. 😎🏴
What's Welsh for television?
@@mikemines2931 teledu
Good to see you covering this.
We do like to get a mention, us Welsh.
Welsh is much older than Roman era. ua-cam.com/video/u2DPlfpk2ps/v-deo.html
me, a Welsh person who knows a lot about Welsh history about to watch another video on Welsh history due to the fact it's Welsh:
@@keiraaaaaaaaaaaaaa yep, you sound like a typical welsh individual
@@keiraaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Too cute!
Irish American here, not Celtic, rather Gaelic, (County Kerry Lineage), we are of Basque origin. Welsh too, I think.
(Some Irish have Germanic Influence through the invasions)
I will require you to bow down now. I am, in some way related, to a Prince form the North of Wales. I do not have the name as the family tree is with my grandmother. I hope to return to reclaim what is mine in the near future.
As a Welsh descendent in Canada I’ve always wanted to know more about our roots as it was made clear by my Grandpa that we were “Welsh” folk. I have a great admiration for our forefathers tenacity, endurance and preservation of our culture against great odds - As was noted they withstood the Germanic tribes while Rome itself fell to them. And the bards, singers and great epics! Culture is a beautiful thing that is indeed worth preserving and protecting. Thanks for helping keep it alive for us far-flung Cymru 🏴 One day I look forward to seeing it with my own eyes
Croeso Jay
Cymru am Byth! You would love it here mate.. most beautiful country on earth. God's country! 💙
@@rhiAction.diolch i chi berthnasau!
@@TwpsynMawr cymru am byth! It does look like God's country from what I've seen in pictures and videos of those beautiful mountains and valleys and rugged coastlines. I have no doubt they don't do the real thing any justice!
You can move away but you will always be part of us ....
Centuries ago my ancestors were forced to renounce their traditional Welsh names and adopt the name ‘Roberts’ as a more formal, more proper English surname. That all ended on October 12th, 2003. The day I was born, Christened as Meilir Ap Emrys, son of Emrys Roberts. There is nothing in this world I will ever be more thankful for than my name, no matter how hard people may find it to pronounce, because it represents the tenacity and endurance of my people, and how we have overcome everything thrown at us. Thank you for sharing the history of my cyndeidiau so eloquently and with so many people. Our history is one that has inspired countless world-famous works of fiction, and the truth is worth telling and sharing. Diolch yn fawr, fawr iawn, gyfaill. Cymru am byth.
My ancestors are welsh, from Llandudno area and my last name is Roberts. Does this mean originally we weren't Roberts also. I've never heard if the Welsh having to change names before until I saw this comment. Any information you have I'll be thankful for! X
@@suzanneself7037 so every Welsh person would’ve had either ‘Ap’ (if they were male) or ‘Ach’ (if they were female) preceding their father’s name as what would today be called a surname. Very similar to Mac/Mc in Scottish and O’ in Irish. The reason that the change for us was so widespread was because at one point in time Wales was considered to be a part of England. We had to adopt surnames to fit in with English culture, but weren’t allowed English surnames as we were deemed to be second class citizens so they made up some new ones for us (how considerate of them). So although both our families are from north Wales (I live on Anglesey, as have both sides of my family for thousands of years) and have the same last name, I would highly doubt that we would be related simply due to the fact that every Welsh person got given the choice of a handful of surnames (Jones, Hughes, Evans, Williams, Roberts and a few others I’m forgetting). I hope that’s been informative!
Wow, I had no idea! Makes sense why it's so hard doing your family tree as everyone has these names! So we can't find our original names I'm guessing then? I'd love to read more about the original culture as I'm English I don't know much. Thank you for your reply❤
We can keep alive our ancestors stories, our family name has changes only 3 times in 723 years and goes back 700 years prior in Spain, I see it awesome that you have retained your heritage, traces back to Franks in Spain, wear your name proud.
@@meilir.ap.emrys420
Very Interesting. My 4th great grandad was John Evans born in 1807 near Llanerchymedd, Anglesey, Wales. He had several children there and then uprooted the whole family and immigrated to New York in the US in 1839. They settled in Remsen, Oneida which apparently had/has a substantial Welsh population and descendants. I was born in Central America and had no idea about any of this until recently when I did a DNA test and discovered 17% Welsh ancestry. Thank you so much for the insight into the Evans name.
Fantastic oration and content! As a person of Welsh descent I am impressed by how you have arranged the massive amount of content. The Welsh never gave in, never gave up, and were able to preserve language and cultures where others were completely overwhelmed and lost.
Thank you
I entirely agree with one honus remarc: author has absolutely perfect pronunciation of the Welsh Celtic tongue; one can tell immediately0 that he is deeply involved in linguistics, philology, ethimology.....let alone history and mythology.
I spent more than 20 years living and working in the Orient. During my time there, I was engaged in conversation with an elderly gentleman from the USA. The pronunciation of just one word informed me, in the blink of an eye, that this American gentleman had an association with Wales, the Land of my Fathers. How so, I hear you ask? He was recounting a recent visit to a local dentist and pronounced the singular of the plural noun teeth as "tuth", not the more familiar sounding "two-th" (tooth). I paused the conversation and asked him if he had a connection with South Wales. He was struck dumb for a few seconds and then blurted out, "Yes, I was born in Bridgend (near Cardiff), but my parents emigrated to the US when I was a baby and have never been back. How do you know?" The answer, of course, is that he was brought up in the US by Welsh parents from Glamorgan, who never lost their accent and its quirky pronunciation of certain words.
Nobody asked that
@@MechanicalMooCowI enjoyed the story because it sounds like my own grandfather. Please don’t be so rude.
@@Carma123 me too, such a sweet comment
My maternal family always spoke about being Welsh..cousin and I doing family history could never find a welsh birth any where. Then my cousins dna came back 23% welsh which added to our confusion. Both maternal and paternal grandparents were born in UK..one Suffolk the other Hereford. Me being an avid reader of medieval historic fiction found one series of books regularly including Hereford as in Wales on the Marches.. I decided to look up Hereford history and found it had been welsh and welsh was spoken there well into the 1800s. I looked up the origins of the surname Baynham and found it was Welsh but the maiden name of the ggranny was Evans..a clear give way. So you never can tell where one's ancestry can trip you up.
Nice! Brummies also do that ‘tuth’ thing.
Whilst I’m English my grandfather was from Abersoch so I spent much of my childhood growing up in Wales, and it is so underrated. Proud of my Welsh heritage and absolutely love the country.
As a Yorkshireman I love god's own county but I must admit Wales is just as beautiful. Iv been to Pembrokeshire and many places in north wales including Anglesey. I was in Llandudno not long back and really enjoyed it. The northern Welsh folk were nice aswell
Everyone needs to read up on Wilson & Blackett's research. Wales is an incredible place, and has the most amazing history. The true history of the Welsh is a problem for the British Establishment.
They fear us still so our history in school stays away from English v Wales conflicts. First I heard of it was in books as a young adult.
In reality the English establishment. Wales and the Welsh need to reclaim their Britishness.
@@WalesTheTrueBritons In reality the Hanoverian establishment.
Tribes of Israel bullshit
I can assure you as a English man living in England it’s really not 😂😂
I’m convinced that the main reason more English speaking UA-camrs don’t cover Welsh history is that they’re terrified of the pronunciation 😂.
Yep
All those extra vowels
😂❗
They also number a tiny 3m people and very few emigrated to the new world or Australasia.
Well, that and the unfortunate truth of their ancestors being essentially just mercenaries who took advantage of a power vacuum and the fragility of a still very new British state of Wales. [AKA they are the bad guys]
But, mostly the pronunciation thing. [I'm terrified of it too... and I'm Welsh]
Just have to say, as a Cymro living in Wales, I congratulate the heck out of your pronunciation. It was very accurate with very few exceptions and you handled the extra vowels and unfamiliar consonants well. An unfortunate majority of modern Britons lack the exposure or interest to try, and at worst, make fun of the language.
I'm visiting North Wales soon for the first time so enjoying this look at its impressive history. I'm no linguist but hope to make a good effort at please and thank you by the time I go.🙂
His Welsh sounds like he has a bad lisp
@@mikimeadows tbh i agree, his attempt is very admirable but his pronunciation of welsh is way too breathy and overdone in the case of things like caernarfon
Fantastic to hear such a well put together history. I've lived in North Wales my whole life, speak the language and my family tree is rooted deep here. I still struggle to put dates to names and people in places. I pass castles and ancient tumulus just to go to the supermaket and it breaks my heart to be powerless as I watch and feel Wales turn into something it shouldn't be.
@@Rabbelrauser How so?
@@somniumisdreaming I believe everything is just being capitalized on so heavily. Politics plays a big role as well. I’d say the people are changing. Wants and concerns are beginning to rule over necessity and logic.
@@Rabbelrauser the difference here in Wales is that we have had to fight to this very moment in time to keep our language and culture alive. The Westminster government in England has done their best to destroy our culture and language. We still face issues, even recently our language, one of the oldest on the island was listed as a foreign language and English as the native language which is wrong. We have had our education controlled to hide our history. When I was growing up our parents were told NOT to educate us in Welsh as it will retard us - I'm not kidding. That was the stigma we grew up with. So despite having my roots in Wales for hundreds of years on both sides, we were bullied out of speaking it. I did my best to learn it I school but one else's every 2 weeks does not allow for any skills. As OP said we barely know our history, in my school we learned about the English, the Romans and the Normans etc. But NOT our own people and land as Westminster government controlled that. Things have recently changed in the last year or so and now all children will be educated on our history. Hopefully, we will regain our language and culture, just like the Finn's did from the russians and Swedish, and everyone will speak Welsh and English fluently. There's a reason why Wales has the most castles per km of any country - we fought hard to defend our ways of life and still are. 🏴
@@LumiSisuSusi youll be speaking pashtun or somali soon haha
@@LumiSisuSusi those castles were built by the conquering english, superior cultur ealways wins, the english vikings crushed the celts, the muslims will crush the europeans
As a welsh woman, living in Wales, studying to teach in Wales, the more i am learning about our history the more i want to add History on top of my Physics education choice
Wow that was an amazing history lesson..as a native born English from Scottish/Irish parents..I'd never heard Welsh history before and always wanted to.. thank you so much what a gorgeous language..and amazing history poetry x
Could someone please explain the me the utility of ‘native’ in the phrase "native born English from Scottish/Irish parents?"
Hello from the Welsh American Channel. Just want to let you know that we Welsh Americans are also interested in what is going on in Wales and its rich history. Cymru am byth!
I'd been checking your channel every other day just hoping for a new video, you have really piqued my interest in my Irish ancestry. As a Californian as distant as currently possible from the emerald isle, something about the clawing back bit by bit of Pre-roman/pre-christian Gaelic/Welsh/etc really speaks to me. I've always been absolutely enthralled by history. As a kid instead of Saturday morning cartoons I'd watch history channel documentaries (when they still had credibility) and I've never dropped it as a passion, but I never studied my own people's heritage. Funny isnt it? Much love from California
My Grandmother spoke Welsh, taught to her by her grandfather who told her to remember she was Cymry.
It is actually pronounced Cumry, but you always write it as Cymru.
@@timbayliss4153they are using Cymry which is the people of Wales in Welsh, Cymru is the country.
@@-._A2._- Diolch fawr am dy hoffech. I am used to seeing Cymraeg or the word Nheulu for people, you see.
Amen ❤🏴
No...I understand Cymraeg, but I don't u derstand a lick of Hebrew...The reason being, they are not related at all, and biblical geneologies are bunk.@@MaacMaliceMMA
I am Welsh born and bred, Welsh to my core, and proud to be. For those of you reading this who are not Welsh it's easy to understand us once you accept that we are a proud nation, loyal to our heritage; many have tried to oppress us and beat us down. It will NEVER happen. As the great Bill Beaumont said when playing rugby against the Welsh 'Wales have never lost a match, we just score points against them'. However I am not a rabid Plaid Cymru supporter. Wales and the Welsh nation is well able to survive without creating aggression and division. It will go on regardless of fanatics who do not serve Wales well.
as Englishman from Cumbria well said , you can be proud of your heritage without causing more division
Well said. I'm Welsh and I love our English, Scottish and Irish brothers and sisters, the last thing we need right now is more aggression and division.
Of corse being welsh born and bred I totally agree
@@Chris-ve8xw Very true. I have some misgivings about where Britain is going.
Susan , agree with your comment , i left wales (gwent) at 7 years of age went to africa with parents on copper mines then in 1980 they emigrated to Australia now im 57 , i too am welsh to the core , never have i forgot the land of my fathers , i fly the welsh flag here in Australia in my shed proudly and never will i consider my self any thing else other than welsh (Celtic) you can take the boy out of the valleys , but you can never take the valleys out of the boy , its in or DNA you can feel it , 45 years in Australia and i always felt like i dont belong here , plan on visiting home soon ❤👍
Thank you (Diolch), it's great to see non- british people acknowledging my beautiful country and your pronunciations were bloody marvellous! 🏴
Brilliant vid! We Cymry definitely deserve more love in the history space.
On the subject of Arthur being Abrosius' nephew, this is surprisingly plausible. In Medieval Wales, a king's nephew the was the most common/ideal relation to be the "Penteulu" (commander of the Royal Household troops and chief military advisor). This could explain Ambrosius' victories being attributed to Arthur also. That said, I understand it is complicated and Arthur may just be a god figure rather than a real human.
Edit: The earliest Arthur source, Nennius, says that though he was not a king, he was Dux Bellorum (war leader) of the Kings of Britain.
In Michael Wood's "In Search of Arthur" he speaks with a man who found very old burial stones on his land and one of them was for someone named Arthur. There was a story that he and his brother were sons of a local king, and Arthur was killed in battle but he fought bravely. The stones were from the right time period, but there were probably other people with that name. Michael Wood said it could have been part of many pieces woven into the legend.
@@ellen4956 it more of less is the legend. Funny thing is that when I grew up Arthur was not a common name, although one of my uncles was one and we were not told or taught that Arthur was Welsh. "Knights" to us were the Norman invaders.
@leekenyon8705 True. But we beat the Romans in one great battle in South Wales and we kept our language alive and spread it to Brittany in what is now France. We have a devolved Welsh parliament and increasingly aspire to Independence.
Preedieval do you think? Iron Age ?
@leekenyon8705 I'm not expert. I'll look into it later. But perhaps a real person who resisted the incomers from the continent,. Oral history usually has a kernel of truth.
Wow that last couple of sentences have me unexpectedly tearing up. Thank you for all this history!
Team Cymru👇❤and the way he pronounced Llanfair PG is AMAZING!
It’s so nice to hear proper Welsh pronunciation from outside of wales. I never knew people found ‘ll’ hard to pronounce, it just seems so easy and natural for me. I suppose it’s like rolling your ‘r’s, some people can do it naturally and some people can’t.
How is it supposed to be pronounced? I don't even know. I assume it's not the y sound of romance languages or it would be easy.
It's not "doing it naturally" it's whether you grew up needing to use that sound. And Amber, a combination of L, G and H is the best way to describe it. It's pronounced in the video a lot at the start of Lleu and Llewellyn in particular.
@@amberkat8147 uh… the easiest way to describe it is to grit your teeth, and open your mouth so you kind of look like this emoji 😬 and push the tip of your tongue against your teeth. Then, open your teeth slightly as if you were about to just say the letter ‘L’ but don’t let your tongue slip through. Then lastly, push air through the side of your teeth, and you’ve got it! The easiest way to practice would be to do those steps and at the end add an ‘oo’ sound, just doing it as you would as if you said ‘you’ but replacing the ‘y’ with that ‘LL’ sound.
Oh, and keep the back of your tongue off the roof of your mouth, the sound won’t work if it’s there.
Am currently learning the Welsh language. Grew up reading Welsh mythology, history, etc, despite my family being German/Irish because i was a huge fan of Arthurian legends and expanded from there... also learning those languages... but spent a day in Wales during a TDY to Endland, and found it enchanting. Theres something... magical... about Wales, which inspired me to want to learn the language and want to name my first son after Myrddin Wyllt. That being said, Welsh is a rather difficult language for someone unfamiliar with it, especially someone who has grown up speaking American English. But its a beautiful language that i enjoy learning and hope to one day speak well enough to be understood by a native speaker.
@@goodsoup301that's an awful description
Absolutely great video.I love to learn more about history. This one was fascinating .Thank you for sharing it.
What a great video. I was born in Yorkshire but my great grandfather came from Merthyr Tydfil, I spent most of WW2 as a child in Aberdare and I've lived in the Vale of Glamorgan for fiflty years but your Welsh pronounciaton knocks spots off mine. You might be interested to know that there is a legend that the Normans, like the Saxons in England, were invited in to fight for one of the Welsh princes and then did a 'hostile' takeover. When he died the soul of the man who made the deal, Einion ap Colwyn, was sent into the body of a fox for his great sin which meant that the fox could speak (Welsh I assume). Hundreds of years later someone who had come into the Vale to buy cattle was 'benighted' in Porthkerry Woods (near where I live). Sitting in the rain by a smoky fire he heard a fox talking in a nearby bush. He spoke to the fox which told him the story saying he was the lineal descendent of the original fox so he too could talk. (Source is Marie Trevelyan's book of Welsh legends)
.....you've been in Wales far,far too long, time to pack up and go home lad.
Aberdare too
I remember my mum going off to the Rheigos plant to make sten gun bullets and seeing the Yanks training on Ogmore Beach when we went on holiday there - presumably 1944@@Sielffo1
I recently found I am 100% Welsh on my mothers side. Her mother and fathers side both came to Canada from Wales and then went down into Idaho where my grandparents met in college at Ricks College. I love this video, thank you. I am trying to learn more of my ancestry to pass onto my children.
I can't remember what channel I seen it on but Pennsylvania was almost named new Wales and same parts still has Welsh street names.
It's nice to see the Nation of Wales get some attention of late! It's weird I was born in Brum (Birmingham, England) but my family on both sides go Welsh going back like! I think the story of my heritage is just following the river Severn Lol
i live on the boarder with wales love the mountains and the fact that most still speak the language,(daily) i go to wales all the time,you can just feel the ancient vibe in the land, i love meditating right up in the mountains by a beautiful stream river, its such a special/spiritual place to me, im a luck guy,xxTao,xx
My Grandmother was a pioneer in the US State of Montana. She was the oldest of five. Her father was killed by her brother in a hunting accident and the following year 1917 her mother died in the great flu pandemic.
When I was growing up (from 1948 on) she would say “Now, don’t put on airs we are just Welsh miners.” When I’ve visited Wales I can’t say that I found a pronunciation gene.
One interesting happening for me was my first trip to Wales was with my son Colburn(Colby). We were so interested and happy to see how much his beam appeared as place names. His Dad and I had no idea.
My mum said exactly this too ❤
What a sweet, wonderful lady!
My daughter's boyfriend is from Cwmbran, his surname is Colburn.
@@kellyhawkes3191I don't think Colburn or Coburn are Welsh.
Well done! 😀❤
Welsh on the paternal side and - mostly - French Celt on the maternal side.
I did enjoy my trip to Wales a few years ago - well worth the visit!
Thank you for this documentary, a good watch. Love from Wales.
In the early 1880s a Welsh miner took his wife and three children and move to the United States they had four more children one of whom was named Samuel born in 1889 who became a pipe fitter in the Steelmill married a young woman born In Germany the same year and who had moved to Ohio in 1898 , they had seven children the youngest son name Charles who in turn married a young woman who is half Irish and half northwestern Scottish, they had four sons whom I am the third born .
Well done for keeping track of your ancestors.
visit wales
@David Jones
Heretige / Ancestory.
How beautiful !!
You got book and verse inscribed on that ?
I have a red car.
Thank you for your Exquisitely detailed documentary. I Love every moment of your beautifully worded presentation.
It was wonderful hearing these ancient words pronounced perfectly ❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉
Outstanding, non partisan, erudite and objective analysis of us Welsh. The English are prone to subtle forms of mockery, biasness and faint undermining and discrediting of anything Welsh, so it's good to hear an outsider be so thorough and use facts to describe my wonderful country. Superbly put together thank you so much. ❤
Great video! As an English man, I love the Welsh landscape and language.
Your not allowed too boooo 😂
No
Great to see the Welsh resurgence in music, football, and the arts generally. Ever since hearing Dylan Thomas poems, I've been interested in the Welsh culture, with it's amazing castles and wooded valleys and ancient language.
I’m so happy to see another of your videos ❤
This is remarkably good.
Excellent visuals. Not just maps and video game clips.
The narrator is clear, precise, and sympathetic to pronunciation and language.
The history is very grounded and a fair and logical interpretation of what might have happened.
As me and my father and my grandfather ancestry were born in Wales and as a WelshMan,
I thank you very much for this education video!
Cymru Am Byth 🏴 🏴
In German the word "welsch" means "non-germanic"
In Switzerland the German speaking call the french, Italian, and rheto-roman speaking parts of the country "die welsche Schweiz"
Interesting! The name Welsh came from the invading Anglo Saxons' name for foreigners. The Germanic connection seems obvious.
It does. Although modern Welsh are themselves 1/3 Anglo-Saxon. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5784891/
It does. Although the Welsh are themselves 1/3 Anglo-Saxon. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5784891/
@@mjograus8800😅
Good work sir. Your narrative skill, both written and oral, is excellent.
I spent 6 months in the UK and a large part of it in Wales. It was beautiful. A little over 40 years ago. Great memories. Interesting to know about ' Cambria, the county I live in is named Cambria.
Very well presented video production, If not for Welsh folklore, the Mabinogion, the Druids, and the extensive writings of Tacitus, we would hardly know anything of their origin. For years now ihave been fascinated by the extreme north west of Wales. Dinas Dinlle ,
Tres Ceri , many hill forts and burial mounds all across Wales. There is the remnants of an old roman/ celtic road called Sarn Helen in Snowdonia, which leads to the coast,, where there is rumored to be a sunken castle, Caer Arianhrod , roughly off the coast west of Caernarfon. Very plausible story indeed, since the area is a almost shallow sea across the Menai Straits to Anglesey and Holy Island, the last hold out of the Druids. I look forward to seeing more of your channel, Diolch, c;👌
I live on the west coast of Ceredigion and at certain beaches during low tide, you can see an ancient petrified forest. The land would have stretched further out to sea, makes it easy to imagine the myths of places like Cantre’r Gwaelod and Caer Arianhorhod coming to life
I visited North Wales January 2020 before all the lockdowns. The Welsh are very nice people. I've done a deep dive into my Y-DNA. My ancestors originated from this beautiful land. Anglesey is very nice. I spend a few days exploring the island. I wish more Welsh men would do their Y-DNA. I have several other Griffith men that we have a common ancestor in Wales in the early 1600s. Maybe one day we will figure out who he was.
Someone named Griffith in Wales? No way!
My maiden name is Griffiths, my great great grandfather, grandfather was born in Anglesey, possibly a great, grandfather on my mother's side. ( Still searching ). Had my DNA tested, am 96% Welsh, ( North, West. South). 2% Cornish, Devon, 2%, Scots.West.) Cymru am Byth.🏴
@@iriscollins7583 My Hughes branch is probably from there but I haven't figured out exactly where. They came to America (early 1700s) and in Pennsylvania founded a town called Gwynedd. It's still there.
No way! I was traveling North Wales in January of 2020 as well! Came to Liverpool from Canada for my father's wedding and decided to spend a week doing a circuit from Llandudno to Betws-y-Coed to Porthmadog to Caernarfon.
First time I heard about covid spreading in Wuhan was actually when I was sitting at the bar at the Black Boy Inn in Caernarfon.
I still remember thinking at the time that it was a whole lot of fuss about nothing and would blow over within a month lol.
@@ellen4956 My father's side immigrated from Wales just after the US Civil War and settled in Pennsylvania for a while. Apparently my ancestor did some mining there, as he'd done back in Wales. Later they joined with a Welsh immigration society which bought railroad land in Kansas to form a town they named Bala - it's long a ghost town now. The two sons of my American patriarch participated in the big land run into Oklahoma - the one covered in the Tom Cruise movie "Far and Away" in 1992 - and homesteaded there.
I don't know from where in Wales my great-great-grandparents came, but they left at a time when the mining business was suffering.
I am a Welsh descendent from Canada, my last maiden name Roberts. I've always been interested in my family roots. My mother was adopted in Scotland, and I don't know much about either my fathers side or mothers. My two eldest took the plunge and did the ancestry dna test. My mother asked me before she passed to find her biological family. To let them know Thank you, it was a hard decision and I have done alright. etc. you get the point. Well covid hit and my mother and my sister 47 passed away in 2021 just 12 hrs apart. So my husband and I took the plunge and took the test. married name McCrae-Gibson. My goal now is to write a book of our family history for our children.This video helps a lot, thank you for sharing .
The Roberts name has its highest concentration in the Conwy Valley in North Wales , which is where my fathers side of the family are from.
God I miss my homeland I moved to New Zealand three years ago but there are no oeople on earth like the Welsh I miss you Wales
🏴🏴Cumry am byth🏴🏴
I hope that this channel grows big and you get the subscribers and views you deserve! These are some really good videos!
i second that, Agen 5 :)
Such an informative and excellent video! I also subscribed to your channel! I have some Welsh DNA 🧬 and my husband has perhaps as much as 50% Welsh! I’ve never heard of anyone giving this much time and serious attention to the People of Wales! Thank you ❤
There is a linguistic nitpick I'd like to point out - if one looks up the origin of Welsh words online, there are an awful lot of Latin origin words alongside the decidedly Celtic ones with the asterisks. as well as most of the earliest figures of Welsh history.
For example: "Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru" comes from *Gario iator Prim- Schol- Com- *mrog(i)(a) with "gario" and "mrogi/brogi" being the Celtic words
-One name example:
Padarn Beisrudd ap Tegid > Patern Peis-Rut map Tacit > Patern(us) Pexa- *roud(os) *makw(os/i) Tacit(us)
-Juvencus Three manuscript example:
niguorcosam nemheunaur henoid >> *ni (=non, no) *wor- (=super, uber) cons(eo) nem(os) medio(n) (h)ora sen(ior)-noct(em)
mitelu nit gurmaur >> Mi(hi) *tego- *-slougos nit *wiros *magros
mi am [franc] dam ancalaur >> Mi(hi) am(bi) "(a) Frank" *do-ambi ante-caldar(ia)
...cet iben med nouel *Cit(u) *? med(ia) (=mead) novel(la)
mi amfranc dam anpatel (My Frank) *do-ambi ante-patel(la)
seems like "Romano-British" and "Welsh" may functionally be the same thing.
Loved this. Have you read Alan Wilson and Baram Blacket - Arthur King of Glamorgan. It's very interesting.
I'm from North Wales and I compare aspects of our history and geography to that of Afghanistan. A colourful tribal culture prone to internal squabbling, only ever united by a common enemy. Resistance to powerful invaders made possible by reckless bravery, a capacity for exceptional endurance and suffering, and a harsh, mountainous terrain affording opportunities for refuge and ambush. However, our love for the arts and the (relative) freedom enjoyed by women are probably points of departure.
Good film, and a very fair assessment imo.
Really excellent piece and the research was breathtaking. I am English with Scottish background but think that our intrinsic celtic origins, not least from Wales, are an important asset to a sense of national unity. This cultural and artistic inheritance from Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Cornwall is of major importance and is the source of Britains cultural wealth.
My Grandma came with her brother by horse and cart ,from Carnarvon in the 30s to Leicester, to look for work as their family's wealth diminished due to the Great depression.
Her life became hard as she married my Grandad and was left looking after 4 son's as he fought in WW2. She knew no people much here. I always felt I was like her , and she had 6th sense , sadly she passed when I was 13. I feel very Welsh and not like an English, though my other Grandad was Scottish.
I suspect you are actually me! My grandma came from Abernant to Manchester in the 30s. She died when I was 13. I loved her. I always felt welsh, married a half-welshman and my children feel welsh and support the rugby. I did an ancestry thing and found that somehow I'm over 60% welsh.
It’s Caernarfon not Carnarvon. Not much difference in pronunciation but if you want to embrace being Welsh more then use the proper Cymraeg spelling. Phob dymuniad da.
There was an arthur, but it was a nickname that warlords often had. His was the bear art in early welsh yr for artyr the bear. Gildas mentions him as die ursa. He was based in Wroxeter if this is true. His father's war name was the terrible head dragon- urthur pen dragon
@Lee Kenyon The celtic culture of course or at least the la tenne, not sure of the exact pronunciation originated in switzerland. There are Arthurian cycles- Siegfried in German, Roland in France, it's entirely possible that the whole thing may be part of some romantic original story that has been modified over time by different populaces. Fascinating speculation though. Die ursa met his end fighting his nephew according to the welsh annals and was buried in Baschurch, who knows the truth?
Most excellent video! Thank you for sharing this with us 😊
Why? They weak a weak assed race. We bruthas knock y'all on yo' asses in every boxin' ring in the world.
I am a quarter welsh and dead proud of my heritage. I love Wales, to me it always feels like home. Thank you for uploading this. iechyd da
11:39 I went to Caerleon (pronounced Ki-er-leon) for comp, as we call high school in Cymru. And the one block we had was called the Isca block or block I. This was due to the Roman fortress, baths and the amphitheater that remain to this day within the village. Isca was the name of the camp which held the fortress' guards, and the village was renamed to it's resident fort, Isca...
Btw, I used to have my lunch on both the amphitheater AND the baths, it was tranquil and serene almost always.
I love Caerleon! As a south Walian I have many fond memories of the place from my childhood. What a great place to go to school! unfortunately, I have not been since 2016 when I went there for my birthday as I adore the place. I now live in Finland so I miss Cymru so badly. The hiraeth is strong 🏴
@@LumiSisuSusi May the Hireath be strong with you, Cyru Am Byth a Yma O Hyd!!
Im 5 minutes up the road went to St.Julians (pronounced SayntJew-leons) for comp. Btw, I used to mooch off school to snog and finger the girls over the Dingle, smoking all.sorts ,sniffing tippex , gas, fishing stickelbacks over beechwood or making rope swings and bon fires over pernells farm .
@@DJ-Brownie-UK My cousin went there, said it was mental himself, mind u Caerleon was no less mental. I remember my mam giving me n all my m8's sherbet... And we when n snorted the fuckin' stuff!! One lad had to go to the hospital bc he burst a blood vessel in his eye 😭😭
@@3vo338 😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣haahhaahhahha , made my day that hahahaha those where the best times I can recall me and my mate smoking "mixed herbs" in that thin paper from those cheap bibles you get in the 1st year of comp 😁hehheh
Fantastic video. Thanks for making. Cymru Am Byth!
Absolutley brilliant. An English accent speaking good Welsh. I had a London accent speaking Welsh. The small town of Porthcawl, where I was born, had Viking settlements (Sker house), Medeival settlements (Kenfig) Norman churches and more. I shared this to my page, tagged my familey and the histoirans and fellow Archaeolgists 🙂Subscribed !
This was absolutely fantastic.
Very well put together sir, your pronunciations are spot on which is not easy for many, especially an American!
I loved the work you did.🏴
Despite my welsh ancestry being distant, and the recent discovery that I may be more Breton than Welsh or even Scottish, Welsh language, culture and history will forever hold a special place in my heart.
The most beautiful stories and songs that make me feel hiraeth very strong, and to this day I hang a welsh flag in my home, under the constitution; the culmination of the ideas written by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.
As he too was of Welsh ancestry, and he was the one who declared that humans rights were life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
We love our Breton cousins though
Oh that wonderful slave owner Thomas Jefferson, what a load of bs he wrote.
@@somniumisdreaming the true tragedy is that he could have helped steer the country onto the right path instead of slavery leading ultimately to empire and the American Civil War with the failure of the Constitution, which Mr Trump seems to be a reminder of that fact even now...what if Jefferson had actually acted on his words rather than making them only a partial truth and the country based on that fraudulent beginning...admitting the truth now can finally set us free...?
@@somniumisdreaming I know it is futile arguing against that point, but context is needed before judging people of the past. He inherited his slaves, and certainly saw it as a terrible and hypocritical thing that he had them, and yet he would not have had the money to be able to do the political work he did without that which he gained through his plantation.
A hypocrite? Maybe, someone engaged in what today would be considered a grave human rights abuse? Certainly. A self conscious person who was ahead of his time for understanding that the position he inherited was terrible? Also certainly.
But Bretons are just the people who were isolated from the Briton (Welsh) their roots are the same.
Liked and subbed, thank you. As my last name suggests, my ancestors (a few anyway) were dubbed "foreigners" or literally "from Wales", though that surname was given to any who followed Strongbow and his army west to Ireland, regardless of where they actually originated. Fascinating subject. Thank you for the hard work to produce this excellent content.
Cymru am byth ❤.. As a native Welsh speaker and resident of this amazing country, this literally brought tears to my eyes.
Slowly the Welsh language is being removed from our schools. Only Welsh schools now truly teach our native tongue, and those schools are few and far between.
With massive rises in housing costs in England, due to over saturated immigration, people are moving over the boarder to Wales. This is a huge strain on such a tiny country, further diluting and eradicating our language and culture.
I am afraid that my generation and possibly the next will see our language die with us. This utterly breaks my heart, anyone who is Welsh will absolutely understand what I mean.
Thank you for this wonderful video. ❤
I'm Welsh and live in Swansea. Your post is barking mad. The Welsh language has been relentlessly pushed for decades and the Welsh speaker rates have climbed steadily as a result. When I was in school hardly anyone spoke Welsh ,now it's very common, even down here in the South. Welsh schools are VERY common and have even become trendy. Your post bears absolutely no resemblance to reality and is frankly drivel.
TY for this video. Very informative.
I am Welsh. Living on Anglesey. Loved seeing all the video clips of the different locations.
Interesting. I'm a Welsh man from Swansea in South Wales. 🏴
as a welsh born person, aged 73. i found the video very good, a lot of it i already know, through the celtic tradition of the oral way of passing on our history. this video will help a lot of people ,who are not from the british isles, become better educated about my ancestors. it still makes me gringe, when many years that an american , refered to us as wales england.
I have enjoyed this Video so very much I have discovered that I am a Welsh descendent in USA and it just so happens your video popped up and I laughed, must be my PSYIC ABILITIES kicking in. I look forward to many more of your Videos.
Excellent video and your pronunciation though not perfect, was pretty good. The attempt is always appreciated at any rate.
Good job, subscribed :)
amazing pronunciation and good video thanks for covering the history
My grandmother was Welsh. She moved to Canada in 45/46 after marrying my grandfather in ww2
Great video and fantastic pronunciation of some tricky Welsh words and names! Lovely to see this recognition of little old Wales from across the pond. All the best from a modern day Cymru 👍🏴
I'm proud of my Welsh ancestry. I have the dragon tattooed on my arm and I got to visit Wales when I was a kid. It's beautiful and green.
Yeah most welsh people have the dragon tattooed on them all my brothers do also
great video! thank you for your work FoL.
Remarkably put together the history of Wales . Thank you for retelling their story.
Really appreciate the effort put in to pronounce the welsh words.
I learned our family immigrated from Wales in the mid 18th century .. so cool to learn more, hope to visit one day
My last name (Craddock) is derived from the Welsh name Caradog. Im proud to have Welsh heritage!
Interesting possibility is Caradog is in a likeness to a very ancient wording , Middle Eastern Karduch- to words of today even Kurd- .. just a little idea .
@ CC Smooth
Interesting. Craddock is a burrough in city of Chesapeake VA
I am Maddock from Madoc / Madog 🙌🏼
A couple of years back I randomly become obsessed with Arthurian myth and completed a diploma in it. Then I came across Madoc and was like 😮
@@The_Welsh_Jordanian reading your response thanking you .
Thank you for your video. I am from Hong Kong and have been to UK before. Now it's help me to understand more about Wales. 😊
Great deep dive on the Welsh. Well done.
Very interesting & informative presentation. The American narrator’s (or AI’s) pronunciation of Welsh words is quite good. A lot of effort has been put into this video, thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn 🙏
Great video! Thanks! I'll be going to Wales in April from Norway to see the Norwegian sailors church in Cardiff where my great grandfather went from Norway to work as a diacon at the beginning of the 19-hundreds. I'll be looking out for King Arthur as well!
I'm very proud mum's family from Welsh stock And my Dad's family from a proud Prussian family 👍 cheers Stephen ✌️✌️✌️✌️
Well done thank you for your support
I have been researching my heritage over the past few months, my paternal grandfather came to Canada from Flintshire, this video was vert well done!
Jeff Roberts, My Paternal Grandparents came to Canada from Swansea, Victor and Ida May Begy. There Son, Burton Clark Begy was my Dad. I am Sotts/Irish on my Mom's side😁
Flintshire is not far from were I come from Denbighshire. Flint is a
Nice place..
@@GaryOzbourne-mp7yv Flintshire /Wales/Cymru is first on my bucket list!
Amazing video thank you 🏴🏴
As a Welsh Draig can I also just point out we by far have the best flag too date.
Absolutely agree
Mozambique have an AK47 on there's, pretty badass.
AK cannot fly, dragon wins
As a rule, I like symmetry for flags, but dragons are terrific.
Yes we bloody well done 👍
After the war we used to get a lot of French ( from Brittany) onion sellers who would spend the summer cycling around the U.K. selling strings of French onions.Many of them only spoke a little English but coped quite well withWelsh speakers when working in Wales.A friend of my parents ,whose first language was Welsh had the same chap turn up with his onions for several years and they conversed quite easily in Breton/Welsh.
Have you seen he film, Johnny Frenchman? An easy going British film about a Cornish/Breton rivalry.
There is no better channel when it comes to in-depth research and the display of language angles.
Good work, good effort, nice job at history telling.
My great, great ,great Grandfather came to America From Martleswy in 1820 and was a mining foreman in Plymouth Pennsylvania. My Great, Great Grandfather died in a mine collapse trying to rescue 12 men. All 13 perished on Friday The 13th. Through an awesome Gentleman in England , Brian Picton Swann, I am able to trace my family history in Wales to the year 1275. I know it sounds unbelievable, but this man did a 50 year long Genome project on The Picton Family. His work is nothing short of a masterpiece.
Like the video you earned a sub, my Welsh ancestors came mostly from North Wales some of them came from Mid Wales, and South Wales.
Learning about your ancestors is always fun
Really enjoyed this- thank you from Caerphilly
Fair play mate you did much better than most with the pronunciation of Llanfair!
As a Welshman living near Swansea,.south Wales, diolch, thank you for this video. It's very accurate and was a very interesting watch. I thoroughly enjoyed it 🏴
I have mostly scottish heritage but I have a good part of welsh in me too and this was very interesting
Alas, I have not yet been to Wales. However, my maternal grandmother was a Cardiff lass. She was marvelous. I do hope to visit in the next few years. I enjoy learning more about her homeland and thank you for sharing.
The French call Wales, Land of the Gaul's, Gales and Wales may have the same root, a Germanic name to describe the Welsh as Gaul's.
Wales is a very significant part of Our UK which arguably it pioneered c/ o Henry Twdwr’summarily ending the ‘Wars of the Roses’- much welcomed by the English let alone the Welsh!
What a fantastic video dude, thoroughly enjoyed it. Good effort on the pronunciation of our words, some were a little off but overall, gotta commend the effort. Great video.
We in the Scottish Borders are well aware of our Welsh bloodlines and proud of it,names like peebles, Lee pen ,white coomb,Ettrick pen, Ancrum, lauder still survive today .
Both lands are proud of 🏉 rugby and if Scotland is no playing we back the boyos.
Yes. It was the Hen Ogledd (Old North) were names still reflect this (pen - top or head) Glas (Green /Blue) Aber (estuary) Lanark ( Llanerch - glade) . The area spoke Cumbric which was a derivative of Old Welsh or Cymraeg. All very interesting as a history and shows we have more in common than we are led to believe.
@@garrywynne1218 in England it extends to Carlisle from the Welsh and gaelic too for seat,the pen ines and penrith, to everyday penquins
@@grahamfleming8139 I never thought of Penguins to be honest ? Thanks
Brecon and Brechin?
@@philhawley1219 in gaelic breac is a trout or spotted, connected?brock is a badger
loved this. My son is Owain, now i have the vid to show him why