Thank god for my time in Ireland

**beloitpiper** · 1st October 10, 12:02 PM

This is my last week at the cheesemongers I've been at for the last year. This is also the week of the International Dairy Expo here in Madison. Needless to say, we've had a lot of dairy industry people from all over the world come visit the shop to try to artisan Wisconsin cheese. Funny story:

Yesterday, I was working with the new guy, Nick, who will be replacing me as the cheesebuyer for the store. A man, wearing a Dairy Expo baseball hat, walks in and starts perusing our selection. Nick greets him and asks the man if there's anything he'd like a sample of. The man starts asking questions but poor Nick can't understand him and asks him to repeat himself. The man asks again, but Nick can't make out what the guy was saying. I come over and ask if they need any help and the man asks "Do you have any British cheese?" I start laughing--the man was Welsh! And not just kinda Welsh. Really Welsh. Welsh, as in, his first language was Welsh. Welsh to the point that Nick could not understand a word the guy was saying, but I really didn't have any difficultly. I guess spending all that time with the accents in western Ireland has really paid off!

**Pleater** · 1st October 10, 12:14 PM

Oh I love the Welsh accent.

I used to go boating on the Llangollen canal, and even learned a bit of Welsh, enough to go shopping and order a drink in a pub.

My Yorkshire accent was still evident, however, and I am sure I caused a few people to come close to tears when they heard me mangling their lovely singing language with my blunt Yorkshire vowels.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

**McClef** · 1st October 10, 02:02 PM

I wouldn't have said that Welsh and Western Irish accents were that similar and I live in Wales and have friends in Co, Galway!

I did have problems with the accent of a guy from Glasgow though!

**Paul Henry** · 1st October 10, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by McClef

I wouldn't have said that Welsh and Western Irish accents were that similar and I live in Wales and have friends in Co, Galway!

I'm a bit perlexed as well, it's great that you could understand him, but the accents and indeed the languages of Ireland and Wales are not even related.

**beloitpiper** · 1st October 10, 02:14 PM

Originally Posted by McClef

I wouldn't have said that Welsh and Western Irish accents were that similar and I live in Wales and have friends in Co, Galway!

I did have problems with the accent of a guy from Glasgow though!

Originally Posted by paulhenry

I'm a bit perlexed as well, it's great that you could understand him, but the accents and indeed the languages of Ireland and Wales are not even related.

Let me clarify: spending time around the thick accents found in the British Isles prepared me for speaking with a southern-Wales dairy farmer. I did not mean to say that they were similar, only that the accent in western Ireland loosened my ear and made it easier to comprehend other accents...like the Welsh.

**Arlen** · 1st October 10, 02:17 PM

Glad to hear you were able to talk to him!

Where are you going from here?

**ohiopiper** · 4th October 10, 10:43 PM

My advice is to keep exposing yourself to various accents and languages, it is a perishable skill. I used to travel a lot for my former employer, Uncle Sam. I quit counting at twenty countries. Exposure to varied accents and languages made it very easy for me to understand people. Nearly 20 years later i find that I sometimes struggle now.

**castledangerous** · 5th October 10, 07:28 AM

Originally Posted by paulhenry

I'm a bit perlexed as well, it's great that you could understand him, but the accents and indeed the languages of Ireland and Wales are not even related.

Not related? Well that is certainly incorrect. Both are on the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language tree. Obviously, Welsh is on the Brythonic sub-branch, while Irish is on the Godelic, but saying they aren't related is a massive overstatement...

http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/...stics/pie2.gif

**Paul Henry** · 5th October 10, 07:52 AM

I think you are over simplfying the relatedness of the two languages,a speaker of either would not understand each other, whereas, say , a speaker of Irish Gallic and a Scots Gallic would have some similarities , and might just manage to understand a little of each, the same is not true of Welsh with any of the those Gaelic tongues.

Lallans and English, although from different lines, share enough similar words to make comprehensibility possible, even if not absolutely fluent.

Having worked in North Wales in a strongly Welsh speaking area, and having grown up in Northern Ireland, I can say that they are completley different.

Related of course they are becuse they are languages, but so are roses and apples because they are plants .

**castledangerous** · 5th October 10, 08:02 AM

Originally Posted by paulhenry

I think you are over simplfying the relatedness of the two languages,a speaker of either would not understand each other, whereas, say , a speaker of Irish Gallic and a Scots Gallic would have some similarities , and might just manage to understand a little of each, the same is not true of Welsh with any of the those Gaelic tongues.

Lallans and English, although from different lines, share enough similar words to make comprehensibility possible, even if not absolutely fluent.

Having worked in North Wales in a strongly Welsh speaking area, and having grown up in Northern Ireland, I can say that they are completley different.

Related of course they are becuse they are languages, but so are roses and apples because they are plants .

You said they weren't related. It was that to which I was responding