Welsh translation help: "y barnydd"?
January 16, 2017 8:01 PM Subscribe
In the context of a piece in the newspaper, specifically Y Drych from the 1880's-1900's, what does "Y Barnydd" mean? It's always followed by a person's name, for example, "Y Barnydd H. M. Edwards." Bonus question: where do I seek Welsh translation help that is not Google translate or helpful people on Metafilter?
Best answer: Here's a lovely old dictionary which tells me that Barnydd is "judge". Are you reading court reports, by chance? Judge Edwards?
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:08 PM on January 16, 2017
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:08 PM on January 16, 2017
Best answer: Oh and here is a reference to a Judge H M Edwards in Scranton at that time, attending an event run by Methodists ("St Brendan's Council), in the company people with names like Jones. So there's the Wales - Scranton connection for you.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:13 PM on January 16, 2017
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:13 PM on January 16, 2017
Response by poster: Thanks! You confirmed that the name I'm seeing is the person I'm looking for.
The Hon. H. M. Edwards was a (the?) Lackawanna County judge and lived in Scranton, PA. He's my great-great-grandfather. He was very active in the Welsh-American community and was an Archdruid at an Eisteddfod in Pittsburgh in 1915. We know very little about him except this, and that when he was very old, his accent would flip back and forth between Welsh and American without warning. I've been idly googling to keep my mind off my troubles.
Y Drych has several mentions of Y Barnydd H. M. Edwards and I'm gradually trying to piece together what they mean, despite never learning any Welsh beyond popty-ping.
That old dictionary will come in handy when I try to parse the poem he either selected for the paper, or wrote, which is here if you're wanting to see it.
posted by blnkfrnk at 8:23 PM on January 16, 2017 [3 favorites]
The Hon. H. M. Edwards was a (the?) Lackawanna County judge and lived in Scranton, PA. He's my great-great-grandfather. He was very active in the Welsh-American community and was an Archdruid at an Eisteddfod in Pittsburgh in 1915. We know very little about him except this, and that when he was very old, his accent would flip back and forth between Welsh and American without warning. I've been idly googling to keep my mind off my troubles.
Y Drych has several mentions of Y Barnydd H. M. Edwards and I'm gradually trying to piece together what they mean, despite never learning any Welsh beyond popty-ping.
That old dictionary will come in handy when I try to parse the poem he either selected for the paper, or wrote, which is here if you're wanting to see it.
posted by blnkfrnk at 8:23 PM on January 16, 2017 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Bonus question: where do I seek Welsh translation help that is not Google translate or helpful people on Metafilter?
I was going to recommend Bing Translate, which has a Welsh option, but it didn't know barnydd, so ...
Instead, try the University of Wales's GPC online (Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, aka Welsh Dictionary). Here's the entry for barnydd. The meaning in English is in italics.
supreme judge (of God); judge, magistrate, justice; one who forms an opinion, one who judges, critic, judge, adjudicator (of competition), also fig.
posted by zippy at 10:53 PM on January 16, 2017 [3 favorites]
I was going to recommend Bing Translate, which has a Welsh option, but it didn't know barnydd, so ...
Instead, try the University of Wales's GPC online (Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, aka Welsh Dictionary). Here's the entry for barnydd. The meaning in English is in italics.
supreme judge (of God); judge, magistrate, justice; one who forms an opinion, one who judges, critic, judge, adjudicator (of competition), also fig.
posted by zippy at 10:53 PM on January 16, 2017 [3 favorites]
> Instead, try the University of Wales's GPC online (Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru, aka Welsh Dictionary). Here's the entry for barnydd.
I'm not getting anything at those links but the GPC logo. Is this a region-restricted thing?
posted by languagehat at 6:18 AM on January 17, 2017
I'm not getting anything at those links but the GPC logo. Is this a region-restricted thing?
posted by languagehat at 6:18 AM on January 17, 2017
The link works fine for me (US/Firefox/Windows 10).
posted by Short Attention Sp at 8:13 AM on January 17, 2017
posted by Short Attention Sp at 8:13 AM on January 17, 2017
Best answer: seconding the (completely non-region restricted) GPC over ancient online geiriaduron. The old dictionaries were simple lexicons, so you'd need a grasp of the language and a willingness to check your translation for sense to use them.
posted by scruss at 8:45 AM on January 17, 2017
posted by scruss at 8:45 AM on January 17, 2017
Huh—I just tried it in Chrome and it worked fine. For some reason my Firefox has problems with it.
posted by languagehat at 8:57 AM on January 17, 2017
posted by languagehat at 8:57 AM on January 17, 2017
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