Talk:Blaenau Ffestiniog

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[edit] Pronunciation

All variants are variants and therefore to a degree erroneous. This entry despite the BBC Miller tag is POV or otherwise unsubstantiated and prejudicial at that. It is also quite unhelpful. This is an English language Wiki and most people genuinely trying to pronounce Welsh names have even more difficulty trying to understand IPA, which is really a tool for linguists.

My 92 year old neighbour and dear friend, a war time bomber pilot and squadron leader, who was born in Bangor, spoke no English until he was ten - a fact of which he is very proud - He says learning English was the hardest thing he ever did. He likes to speak the language of his home whenever he can, but in my presence, he was told by young waitresses at a cafe in Blaenau "You speak Welsh like a Londoner" (his translation)!

I have deleted the reference to variant pronunciation by English folk, erroneous or otherwise. NoelWalley 09:56, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Good. Glad to see the whole sentence go. I only added the word "erroneous" to validate it. Predudicial it is not, nor unsubstantiated. Any Welsh speaker can tell you that rhyming Blaenau with the English word "now" is simply not an option, nor even a viable variant. Sorry, but it is incorrect, and as such does not therefore need a mention! It is, I suspect, based on people's knowledge of the German "au" dipthong. The newsreader on ITV was pronouncing it thus today when referring to Blaenau Gwent, and I'm sure it caused a lot of gnashing of teeth. Hogyn Lleol 15:16, 30 June 2006 (UTC)