Re: The British Empire

[raybrown@macline.co.uk (Raymond A. Brown)]

At 22:57 14/4/98, John Cowan wrote:
>Padrig Bryn yscrifef:
[.......]
>> But there may not even _be_ a famine.  I got the impression that Comro
>> interests were strongest in Ulladh,
>
>Weakest.  Ulster became British *Here* because it was so strongly Irish;

Yep - and some parts still are!  One of the places where Gaelic continued &
continues to be spoken is Donegal which is certainly part of Ulster, being
one of the three counties of Ulster that is in the Irish Republic.

>the English decided to encourage Scots to move there (the first English
>territory called a colony).

Yep - and the more troublesome Scots at that!  The English were trying to
solve two problems at the same time: deal with the more radical Scots
Protestants & with the recalcitrant Irish Catholics.  It may've solved
their problems then, but it sure piled up quite a few for the next 300
years or so.

[.....]
>> Its bad with me; it was a joke?  please to explain-it.
>
>The Welsh phrase "ach y fi", beloved of our Rhaifun, is some kind of
>mild expletive: I don't know how it translates exactly.  But in
>Brithenig that spells "HIF" or "HIV".

'Ach y fi' also spelt 'Ych y fi' is just an expression of disgust. The 'fi'
is mutated 'mi' = I/me.  It's like the somewhat archaic "Ah, me!"  I
believe similar expressions occur in other langs. The 'ach' or 'ych' is
just an expression of disgust like the Scots 'ach!', English 'ugh', 'yuck'
etc.

'Ach y fi' is one of the few Welsh expressions which has found its way into
the English of monoglot English inhabitants of south Wales.

Ray.

PS - I got the joke first time.  ;-)



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Written in Net English        Humor not necessarily marked

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