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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: *** English pronunciation ***
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References: <Pine.BSF.3.91.960424142815.28754E@studenti.ing.unipi.it> <830901188snz@harmony.demon.co.uk> <4m6h74$36n@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>
Date: Sat, 4 May 1996 17:01:37 GMT
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In article <4m6h74$36n@mtinsc01-mgt.ops.worldnet.att.net>,
Jon Robert Crofoot  <Bob.Crofoot@postoffice.worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>William Gould <william@harmony.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>>-- 
>>           |===== Gweddw crefft heb ei dawn=========|
>>           | (Bereft is craft with no inborn gift)  |
>>           |==================== university motto ==|
>
>   Which university?  What language is it?  Welsh?  How is 
>it pronounced?  It looks like 'crefft' is a loan-word from 
>English; what do the other words mean?

It's Welsh.  I would say it ['gweDU khrEft heb i'dawn], but I'm
hardly a native speaker.  (Note that the [r] is an aveolar trill,
like in Spanish.)

Y Geiriadur Mawr (literally, "The Big Dictionary") defines
the other words as follows:

gweddw "single, solitary, widowed; widow, spinster"
heb "without"
ei "her"
dawn "talent, gift" [specifically, an inborn as opposed to acquired 
	talent]

'crefft' is feminine, so I suppose 'ei' refers back to it.  A more 
literal translation would be:
	"Craft a widow without her talent"

But this is so telescopic as to be nearly nonsense.  I would imagine 
it's the motto of Y Prifysgol Cymru, but I couldn't say for sure.

-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
