WELSH OF NORTH AND SOUTH

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11509, 4 October 1915, Page 4

WELSH OF NORTH AND SOUTH

The "Manchester O.nardhm " recently had' an intoivstiii"' ai'tieio on the Welsh tongue. •' While colloquial Welsh varies in different counties even .nsure than is the case with English,'' said the writer, " literary Welsh forms a .standard that, is recognised everywhere. Literary Welsh is not spoken, howovw —the. nearest approach to it is in the pu'.pit.---but at the same time it forms a, basis for what may be termed platform Welsh, and it is only the foreigner in Wales, he it north or south, who i-j not able, to follow a sermon in the accepted .stylo, whether from a south or a north Welsh man." " A northern speaker seldom has a difficulty in making himself understood on a southern plat-form It nru.t ho remembered that, the greater part of the literature of Wales is produced in the north, and ha« as many if not wor-i rmdexs than tbo south. The papers and magazines. ■ especially, are to a large extent northern productions, and | there is consequently in the south some familiarity with northern idioms. Still greater influence in the mot tor of bridging the difference of speech has been and is exercised by what may bo termed the denominational unity of north and south. 'J'lio southern pulpits are as frequently filled by men of the north as by the preachers of the south, and vice versa.. So it happens that whilst in ordinary conversation the men of Carmarthen and of AngJes'cy cling . . . to their own particular forms of speech, they can listen with contentment to their favourite preacher or public spealvr. v,bother ho '»ai! from »v I've iu Cii-diilV'