your comments
David, East Side Massive
When will people understand that GLC are a mickey-take (well done lads) and that no one really does speak like that, well not to any great extent. I've lived in the Port for 5 years now and when I go and visit the family I get gently laughed at for saying things like "where is that too?" and "taaa-raaaa". Gotta say, living in the Port has been an experience...but a hugely positive one.
Jay, Newport
I think some people are getting accents mixed up with slang. The accent is the same in Newport - it hasn't changed in the 30 years i have known it, but now, like everywhere else it contains slang that appears all over, it just sounds different coming from us!!!
Gaer Girl, Newport
I'm an eighteen year old who's lived in Newport all my life. Yeah, I reckon GLC to put it on a bit but what is that American bloke on about? Me nor none of my mates talk like 'black American rappers'. Have you ever been to Wales, love? Just cos your grandparents or whatever came from Wales doesn't mean you can sit in your meetings and take the mick out of the way we all talk. If you were really proud to be 'Welsh' as you claim, you'd be proud of us all. By the way, whenever I go somewhere out of Newport I get the mick taken for saying 'I'll do it now in a minute' too!
William Mancini-Conca, originally Newport, now Pon
I was born in Newport to a Bracchi family who live in Pill. Plenty of people added 's' to their verbs regardless of whether they were referring to something in the third person singular or not (look at the Classicist...) and said 'dough boys', 'where to', 'E've gone to Cwmbran, look'. Despite growing up in London and then the Valleys, I have still retained part of my Newport accent, especially if I got angry. My ancestors came to Newport back when it was still industrial town and relatively prosperous. I think stuff like 'The Port' is stupid and I actually agree with American Dave that it is bad that Newportonians are trying to act the same way the rude boys and wiggas in London behave and subsequently imitate a bunch of homophobic, illiterate, mysoginistic blacks in America. I am Italo-Welsh and proud, it doesn't mean that I say 'capisce' or 'cazzato' all the time and speak like an extra in the Godfather.
Lisa Blackwood
I just hate the way people from Newport talk - does my head right in. Now me, I'm Welsh and I speak really Welshy. Most people don't like it but at end of day I'm WELSH and PROUD of it. WALES FOREVER.
Sarah from Llanelli
I don't think that the way teenagers speak in Wales is anything to do with rappers. My English boyfriend can't understand half the things I say but that's because of the slang I've picked up from growing up. Most of it comes from the parents anyway.
Carrie, Newport/Cardiff
The GLC don't really talk like that anyway, it's all very embellished. I've met a one or two of them off duty and what you hear on TV is put on a bit. But it's all for fun, even though there are people to talk like that, bless.
One more thing, is it Newport to say "I'll do it now in a minute!" (which makes no sense when you really think about it) because when I left home for uni, all the English people thought it was hysterical!
Damian, Brizzle
Newport - the nineteen eighties called, they want their words back. In Bristol, Brum & London Black people stopped saying safe Nuff & Laters in the late eighties. Weird the way it resurfaced over the bridge in a town with a virtually non existent black community. But is Safe anyway, Laterz.
Vision from Blackwood
I am a rapper from Blackwood and I use my accent in my rhymes as I speak on the street and how I have spoken my whole life. So why is everyone saying that I’m trying be like a Black American rapper? Being mixed race half Black half White, people tend to think I’m trying be something that I'm not. I'm true to myself and my country and hip hop is my life. Nobody has heard rap music like mine before, with my accent and lyrical structure, but still people think I’m trying be something I’m not, What’s up with that?
Natport
I know one of the guys... has it not occured to anyone that they are taking the mickey? Yes, the gangster wannabes in "the port" do talk like that, and they are what GLC are making fun of. And all you people are jumpin on the bandwagon now with the way you talk, cause you think GLC are serious, and are copying them...!
G ex Newport
The best one I know is when meeting/greeting someone in the port this is pronounced as 'eye' as in alright. This colloquialism has always been evident in the port since I was strolling around in my dappers pre run DMC. Don't be offended David, language is always changing and developing. You only need to check out the Oxford dictionary to see that a lot of new slang has been entered into it. Get over it clart. This is part of the Newport/south welsh culture, so don't get strange notions about stuff innit!!!
Tilly and Beth
i'm in the 'port' every day and they really do talk like the glc. they don't wana be black americans whatsoever. so what if they say 'chuck us 50p' and 'safe' and i think it's awesome. the glc are amazing! people who have said they think the newport accent has changed - i'm sorry but if you no longer live here you don't know. it has changed since your day but it doesn't mean we should be stereotyped as trying to be something we're not. people in america don't sound anything like us, so how are we 'trying to be them' and who said that rappers have to be black and from the ghetto, what's with that?
that welsh/american dude really should learn his 'real welsh' from his 'storybook imagination'!
Anne from Newport
what is up with you people? do you all think it makes you look 'ard and 'solid', saying things like the port? whats up with that? why not just say newport? its just as easy, you sad people! you all make newport people sound like a bunch of scruffy gangster wannabes, innit clart!
Gareth Jones from the Valleys
I love the Welshy accent!
Mrs o'donnel
how very dare you! i am from the roughest part of pill and I am very posh actually.
Gareth, Newport
Well David, you're kind of generalising there. Not all of Wales's youth want to be rappers or pretend to be. However, I must object to people either labelling Newport as having an "English side and Welsh side". It's Welsh and always will be. The only reason why Monmouthshire was a debatable part of Wales was namely due to the English Government further encroaching into Wales*. Let's also remember that we owned several parts of England at one time, but I guess some don't remember that since most Welsh youth are not even taught Welsh history of our Welsh patriots and heroes, because the education system in Wales is solely bent on an English curriculum, which has resulted in the Welsh losing (to some extent) their national identity. I speak with a Newport accent (I drag my "O's" over-pronounce my "T's", but I don't say "Innit".)Click here for an explanation of the ambiguous status of the old county of Monmouthshire
Paul, ex Newportonian
I was always told before 1971 Newport was in Monmouthshire which is fact but was it in England or Wales. Over the years the Newport accent has changed sounding more Welsh.
Ben Cole from Newport
wasapnin man? i'm a 13 year old from newport and the accent is safe. Why do all u dis it, u sound like snobs.
Amanda Berry, Cardiff
I don't think the Newport accent has ever sounded particularly Welsh, and I don’t suppose one could see it as a typically Welsh town either. Of course up until sometime in the 1970s it wasn’t entirely clear whether Monmouthshire was actually in Wales, though some parts of Monmouthshire were perhaps always more in Wales than others. I was born in Newport myself and brought up in Cwmbran, though have lived in Cardiff for the past 14 years. I find my own accent can be difficult for some people to place. I have met people in London who had no idea I come from Wales, yet I have met other people who say I do have a slight Welsh accent, I suppose I must do, though as I child I was brought up in a Fundamentalist Church mostly run by Americans from the Southern States, Texas, Louisiana, etc and later went to Art College. So I doubt my cultural background and absorbed influences are entirely typical. But I guess we all get fairly broad multi-cultural influences these days from all over the place, and personally I have always felt Welsh Culture a bit of a sentimental fantasy invented by the Victorians. I have certainly never felt part of it and think it’s more of an embarrassment than anything else, and has grown into a nepotistic racist club to disenfranchise non Welsh speakers from a part in Society. There are some aspects of Wales I hate with a venom and find truly pathetic. And as an Artist I have been far more sucessful outside Wales than in Wales, because people spend far to much money preserving the past, and forget that Welsh culture is about the present, Why waste so much on what is long dead.
Charlene Adams, Newport
Your comment was out of order dave think before u say something and get all the facts, as im 16 and dont talk like that, u dont realise how many people you have annoyed and offended, next time go out and meet real people in south wales instead of judging them as u obviously know nothing so cant make a fair opinion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ryan from Newport
"arlf a laager", "down town", "round the roundabout", "taraaaa", "olite luv", "in i", "where to...", "I wants 'i cos I likes 'i", "no i ain 'o", "I finks so" - beautiful
julie-anne yates
Being a 16 year old teenager from Newport, I would like to say to Dave that not all teenagers and young adults speak like that. I know quite a few youngsters who do not speak like they are from "a suburb of New York". Yes there are youngters who speak like that but it's not all of us and it's up to them how they speak.
Steve from Cardiff
My favourite bit of 'port/'diff slang is the perennial: "'ow's yer aaaerse fer black'eds?"
As a polite greeting, it always brings a warm smile to my face.
2bob - from Pill, in the 'port
Wha' is it with the oldsters coming on 'ere and dissin' us? They need to show the kids respec', innit?
As for ravey davey from the US of A - perhaps him and his clarts need to get a life in their country rather than gobbing off about 'ow they reckon standards 'ave gone downhill and all that - 'cos he is talking pants and showing 'ow out of touch they really is.
And GLC produce bangin' tunes with inventive lyrics, and the culture they big up is their own - if Ravey Davey had been back to Wales sometime since the 2nd world war he would knows it.
Shout going out to all the crews of the 'port....YOU KNOWS IT!
Dave of Newport
My, how things change. The accent I hear from the younger people of Newport does not reflect Newport - more like a suburb of New York. We are front line Welsh, let's keep it that way.
Andy from Newport
Having lived all my life on an estate in South Newport, I know that very few people speak in the same accent. My dad has a mild Newport accent, saying things like sospan, which I don't. I guess this is just the outside influence on our accents. A lot of people in Newport speak with quite a yokelish accent. What's happening to Newport accents is happening to all British accents. You do tend to hear innit, bra, safe, bro, bruv, righ, mate, aight and such on the end of sentences, sometimes you will hear extra s's as well. GLC just speak in an exaggerated Newport accent, bernie cliftons, havn't got a clue what that is. People are saying these Welsh words that I've never even heard of, although by yer is still common. Yes, we do go into town, I think that's said everywhere. I don't think anyone wears dappers anymore, but I get ya, we did say that in primary school.
SheepOnMintSauce, Blackwood.
I usually class people who speak like GLC as idiots from Newport. I can tell when someone is from Newport by the more subtle things they say (like calling Newport 'town'.) Being from the valleys this is odd to me, since 'town' actually refers to the town you live in, unless you're from about Crosskeys onward. Also, the people I do know who speak like GLC usually go in and out of that way of speaking, depending on who they're speaking to. Much like when people put on a posh telephone voice when speaking to the people from the catalogue. =)
Jay from the-port.co.uk
The language is typical of the way we in the rough areas of Newport Speak (which is most of it, in it) we got our own identity an we don't need to nick some one else' thats why people say "are you from Newport? I can tell by the way you speak in it", where as they would say "wow are you a rapper from New York" safe en. Lets all be straight on one thing, saying rapping is for one culture is not very PC, and not so (take Vanilla Ice, Mooohahahaaa).
Same things happnin here as in the states, we all just naive, cos all you straights dont wanna believe.
I don't think anyone would get anywhere singing Welsh songs on TOTP, thats probably why we taken so long to make our mark in da world.
Come to Newport if ya don't believe, maybe take a walk or run through Ringland or Alway...
What is ridiculous is pretending you are Welsh, get your own identity, you aint Welsh, you are an American of Welsh descent and you pledge to the US, if you actually knew how we speak yer, you would be feeling all stupid an all, cos we dont sound ne fin like black rappers blu.
Splott Boy
This one is for David in the USA who question's our dialect, theres a few things I'd like to say, firstly, at least we live in Wales, not all rappers are black, language is about communication and this is how we communicate, I can imagine your 'Meetings' a bunch of grey haired middle aged, middle class republicans taking about the youth of today. Chill out bra. SAFE
James, Japan
Hi all... I am writing a novel where the princile character spends a lot of time in Cardiff and Newport. Does anybody know of a website where I can find a comprehensive list of Cardiff and Newort dialect or does anyone have a book of it that they no longer need. I did my degree in Cardiff and post grad in Newport but can't remember as much as I want to. If anyone can help, please email learnenglish@japan.com
Jono from Pill, Newport.
The Welsh accent is just the new gangsta way of how people here talk and thats all there is to it. It's the Port way. Knows it bre.
Sue, Magor (between Newport/Caldicot
Newport actually has two accents. I'm from the Welsh side of Newport and my husband is from English side and we speak quite differently. I have much more of a Welsh accent. I also work in Bristol and sometimes catch my self saying 'arright'!!
As Paul mentions above, some of the old words do seem to be going. I was bought up with cwtsh, gibbon, ych a fi, sospan, twp, by yer and by there.
I also say 'you'll need a Wynns Crane to get up from there' if someone needs help to get off the floor. Is anyone else familar with this saying??
As for GLC well they're making an ass out of Newport.
A J Wilcox from Barry and Greece
Rhodhri Williams has surely got it right when he places the glc way of speaking in "Cardiff, Newport, Barry and Penarth", at least as far as accent is concerned. The speech of glc reminds me of my grandfather (Cardiff/Penarth, born 1905), and of the accent that was all around me, growing up in Barry forty-odd years ago.
roger ex Maindee
Everybdy spoke like GLC when I lived in da house in maindee between the wars
Naomi Cardiff
I am 14, and yeh this is how we talk. Its nothing to do with colour of skin or location. Its evrything to do with the music were listnin to and the things we're seeing. We are no different to youths anywhere else in the world. I like rap, so yes, thats how I'm guna talk. Its jus natural.safe
lora, south wales
k, my message is for Dai from penn, i am a welsh teenager and i would like to ask you what makes you 'Welsh-American', did you have welsh family members a few generations ago or is it because of your welsh name? have you ever been to wales? I am a welsh youth i do not try to be a 'black rapper from the ghetto' you may discuss us in your 'meetings' but all i can say is check your facts first mate and don't judge us, you don't know us.
Mr Pineapples - England
I am from Newport and I miss the unique accent we all spoke in school. I live in Dorset now and most people here speak in a bland South England non descript way.
The Newport acccent is incredibly humourous and the GLC are so typical of the accent and way of speaking I used to know.
My kids love it too, apart from the swearing.
Paul originally from Newport
The lads in GLC don't speak with a Newport accent as I know it. I heard the BBC4 interview and was amused by it although I didn't recognise my home city by the concrete drug infested jungle description.
When I was younger, I didn't realise there was a Newport accent, until I was away in university in England. Somebody I didn't know walked into the room and said something - I immediately knew he was a Newportonian and I asked hime which part he came from.
As I got older, I began to realise the differences between Newport and surrounding areas of Gwent. The accent is distinctive and totally different from Cardiff down the road. Newport words are sometimes different - as an example we wear dappers, not daps as they wear a few miles away.
Some of the words are disappearing now - you rarely hear anybody talking about to coopy down now - it means to squat.
Other words are the more usual south Welsh terms like cwtsh, gibbon, ych a fi, baard as the opposite to good, sospan, twp, by yer and by there.
Rhodri Williams from Cardiff
In response to the correspondent from Baden, Penn, this not a case of the youth of south east Wales copying words from rappers in LA or New York. This is how kids from Cardiff, Newport, Barry and Penarth have spoken for at least twenty years.
Glyn from Caldicot
Accent and dialect a mixture of Newport and Gloucestershire.
David Llewellyn Morgan, Baden, Pennsylvania, USA
Why on earth do the Welsh youth want to be like Black rappers from the ghettos of the USA? We Welsh-Americans are appalled at this. And we have discussed this many times in our meetings. Why the youth of Wales wish to act like this is beyond us. They act like they are from Watts in LA OR Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. Why, we Welsh Americans ask. Are they not proud of their Welshness? We don't get it here. I mean to hear a young Welsh lad sing a rap song and act like he is from a different culture is absolutely ridiculous!
Rob from Portishead
Safe, bra'!
Mingum, Pontypridd
Thanks to my Geordie father, clart to me is mud. Hmmmmmm...
