> > I felt insulted when first someone from the south called me a > "hogyn". (I wondered whether it was related to "mochyn". When very young I > was often called a "mochyn budr"! a phrase of endearment of course) It was > never "hogyn" in the north, but, "bachgen" or "gwas". > It was always "genneth" and not "merch". We all understood "merch" to mean > "daughter". > One of our favourate pieces of verse as children in the wilds of Snowdonia was : Hogia Cymru hefo caib a rhaw wnaith gladdu y saeson yn y baw. I deduce from this great piece of Welsh Literature that the use of hogyn is common in the North. Although I've never heard anybody referred to as "gwas" (servant) it is quite common for a male child to be referred to as "was" (said quickly), or more commonly "washi", which is an abbreviated form of "fy ngwas i" (my servant). I suppose the use of "gwas" when referring to a boy must be similar to the use of "garcon" in French. cofion Iwan. +-----------+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------+ | /| /| | Iwan Roberts B.Sc. M.Sc. | Tel : +44 232 669500 | | / |/ | | Senior Software Engineer | | | / // / | MARI (Northern Ireland) Limited | Fax : +44 232 669800 | | / // //| | Bridgewood House, Newforge Lane | | | / // /| | | Belfast | EMail : roberts@mari.co.uk | | |/ |/ |_| | BT9 5NW | | +-----------+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------+