Meredydd Evans talks to David Parry-Jones
From the collection of
Ray Gravell talks to David Parry-Jones
- Mynyddygarreg
- 2000
Meredydd Evans talks to David Parry-Jones
Meredydd Evans, a towering figue in the Welsh cultural landscape, shares a lifetime of memories and the steps that shaped his career and academic pursuits.
Interview with Dr Meredydd Evans - academic, broadcaster and collector, historian and performer of Welsh folk music. He talks of growing up with eleven siblings, the early death of his quarryman father from the effects of ‘slate dust’, and his own conscientious objecting to WWII. He recalls the evolution and control of Plaid Cymru, and his own career in journalism, his USA lectureships, and period as BBC Wales Head of Light Entertainment. His retirement and continuing academic research in Mid Wales are alluded to, as is the pivotal role of his American wife, Phyllis Kinney, in researching the history of Welsh folk music. His total commitment to the Welsh culture and language shines through.
Tags
Our Language - Ein Hiaith
The Welsh language - Cymraeg - is an endangered tongue that survives against all odds, thanks to multiple campaigns and its daily speakers.
Welsh is one of the oldest languages in Europe, spoken today by over 800,000 people. It has survived attempts to snuff it out, for example with the use in Victorian schools of the infamous 'Welsh not', and is still the butt of many a tired cliché and ignorant jokes.
But it has many less well-known claims to fame - such as the fact that Wales was one of the first countries to create laws using its own language - and in 2020 singer and language campaigner Dafydd Iwan's rousing hit 'Yma o Hyd' (Still Here) reached number one in the UK iTunes chart, and has since been adopted by the Welsh national football team and its 'red wall' of fans as its anthem.
This collection includes works both in and about the Welsh language, the tone varying from serious and sobering to witty and light-hearted. Topics range from speakers' feelings about the state of their mother tongue (we hear from children and young people, writers and artists), to the challenges and frustrations of keeping a fragile language alive in the shadow of a dominant, global one.
14 videos in this collection
1
Ray Gravell talks to David Parry-Jones
2
Meredydd Evans talks to David Parry-Jones
3
John Roberts Williams talks to Gwyn Llewelyn
4
Lwmp o Jaman!
5
Fosia's Story
6
Deg Milltir o'r Ffin
7
Y Wyddor Animeiddiedig
8
Cymdeithas yr Iaith - Part 1
9
Cymdeithas yr Iaith - Part 2
10
Cymdeithas yr Iaith - Dewi Pws yn Ffonio
11
Cymdeithas yr Iaith - Conference and Welsh Office Demo
12
Tape 1 - Cymdeithas yr Iaith
13
UB40
14