[Orwn Acra]

There's a river or waterfall in Wales with an onomatopoeic name like Boblobolobolob or something. Kisses to anyone who can identify the body of water and give me its correct name. It's for a "poem."

[Ann Drysdale]

Well, I'm on the case. Meanwhile, this one has rather a nice name:

Pwll Annie

Pwll Annie is one of the large Fforest Fawr waterfalls, but far away from Waterfall Country, and virtually unknown. It is located right by Merthyr Tydfil, beside the A465 road to Hirwaun. The waterfall is guarded by tall, overhanging cliffs, muddy tops, and trees that barely hold onto the edges. There is no good viewpoint, and there is no proper access route. Do not expect to get a good view, and do not visit it at all if you don't have experience with these conditions. Above all, do not trust the maps for this area, which fail to show most of the hazards.

[i]From: http://www.cavinguk.co.uk/holidays/RoughWithSmooth2010/

[Martin Rocek]

Cwmwbwb (pronounced coomooboob, I believe) is a little valley near Caerphilly; I believe the name means "noisy valley" and refers to a brook running through it.

BTW, pwll, bwll, phwll, all mean pool, puddle, or tarn, and the "ll" is pronounced something like "sh" or "zh". Ffrwd means stream and is pronounced (approximately) "frood".
"Ffrwd Fawr" is another waterfall.

p.s. Following Ann's fascinating link, I found "Pwll Ffrwd", pronounced roughly "Push Frood"; it seems to be another waterfall--see: http://www.cavinguk.co.uk/holidays/w...ls/LocationMap

p.p.s. You might enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BXKsQ2nbno

[Ann Drysdale]

Martin, we have had this "conversation" before somewhere online. Walter, might that be where you "heard" it?

[Chris O'Carroll]

Welsh is one of the many languages I don’t speak, so Ann or somebody else may need to set me straight on some of the details here.

Anthony Burgess, I believe, spoke all the languages on the planet. His book A Mouthful of Air includes the best pronunciation advice I’ve encountered concerning the Welsh ll. That sound, he explains, is the unvoiced version of the l that English speakers know. With the tip of your tongue against the back of your upper teeth, you push air out between slightly parted lips, but without any rumble in your throat.

Once you know what to listen for, you can hear how the two sounds -- ll and l -- are the same and how they’re different, just as you can compare and contrast the unvoiced and voiced th sounds in bath and father or the unvoiced and voiced sh sounds in trash and treasure.

Cwm, like crwth, is one of the Scrabble words you can play with no vowel. (In “The Oxen,” Thomas Hardy uses coomb to mean valley. I’ve always assumed that word is more or less identical to cwm, or at least has the same ancestry.)

Do not expect to get a good view, and do not visit it at all if you don't have experience with these conditions.

That may be the most charmingly straightforward piece of tourism advice I've ever encountered. Our countryside has many distinctive features. Please stay away.

[Nicholas F.]

There's this one, complete with odd fauna:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

No idea if that link will work.

Anyway, the north of Wales is so beautiful. Even if Tryfan tried to kill me and strange horsey things gave me odd looks in Anglesey.

Nick

[Raul Puzon]

Now I know where my favorite winning last word in Scrabble comes from--"cwm".

How about Lake Titicaca--"ti ti" (water dripping) and "ca ca" (rock breaking)? Oh, poetry, were you not invented also for the deaf?



Raul

[Jerome Betts]

Chris, combe is ubiquitous in place-names as you go west in England (e.g. Babbacombe just up the road from here) and the COD gives the unbound form as coomb as in Hardy. From OE cumb 'from Celtic', presumably proto-Welsh. COD gives meaning 2 as 'short valley running up from the coast' but I have a feeling it occurs inland a lot as well. Usual explanation for the adoption of Celtic word is that the Continental homelands didn't have such features, or tors either.

Nick, you must have encountered the wrong type of Welsh girl!

[David Anthony]

Cwm Cynfal and the Ceunant...?

[Orwn Acra]

Thanks, everyone. Martin, Cwmwbwb, which seems to have bubbled more in my memory, must have been what I was thinking. I recall vaguely some conversation about a noisy valley.

Annie, Pwll Annie is one of those magical waterfalls that only exist in imaginations or Wales. And there is something wonderful about forest being spelled Fforest. I feel lost in it already.