{"id":12003,"date":"2016-01-12T17:29:39","date_gmt":"2016-01-12T17:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/blog\/?p=12003"},"modified":"2016-01-12T17:29:39","modified_gmt":"2016-01-12T17:29:39","slug":"flan-cupboards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=12003","title":{"rendered":"Flan cupboards"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Welsh plygain<\/a> song I’ve been learning recently with some friends (Carol y Swper) features the word fflangell<\/strong> in the line “Ein Meichiau a’n Meddyg dan fflangell Iddweig”.<\/p>\n

We weren’t sure what it meant at first, and guessed that it was some kind of container for a flan or a flan cupboard. A fflan<\/em> is a flan, and cell<\/em> means cell or bower, and in compound words can mean a container or building. For example oergell<\/em> (cold cell) is a fridge, rhewgell<\/em> (frost\/ice cell) is a freezer, and llyfrgell<\/em> (book cell) is a library.<\/p>\n

So we thought the line meant something like “Our arms and doctor under the Jewish flan cupboard.” Hilarity ensued. It actually means “Our Surety and Healer under the Jewish scourge.”<\/p>\n

You can hear the whole song at:<\/p>\n