What is the English translation of the Welsh word FFERAMWLLD, please. 

The deceased owner is believed to have been employed as either a
Gamekeeper or Shepherd on an estate in the Isle of Anglesey, North
Wales, UK, in the early to mid 20th Century. I believe that Fferm
-which has a similar spelling to Fferam- is Welsh for Farm. This may
be related.

This word is inscribed on a family heirloom, a horn snuff box (no
picture available) from a relative named William Evan Williams of
Anglesey, Wales, 1890-1972.

The only other significant characteristic known about William, that
may be related, is that apparently he was very talented intellectually
and was awarded the prize of a Bardic Chair for poetry, at an
Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales during his adult life. An Eisteddfod
is a major artistic event in Wales and one of Europe's largest and
oldest cultural festivals.

Thank you.

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Request for Question Clarification by rainbow-ga on 04 Oct 2006 14:53 PDT

Hi rickfwilliams,

I have sent this inquiry to my stepdaughter who lives in Wales. I will
let you know as soon as I hear back from her.

Best regards,
Rainbow

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Clarification of Question by rickfwilliams-ga on 04 Oct 2006 23:55 PDT

Thankyou very much for that, Rainbow.

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 05 Oct 2006 22:28 PDT

Can you confirm the spelling of the word?  Does it begin with "Fferam"
or "Fferm"?  Does the rest of the word begin "wll" or "llw"?  Is there
one "d" or two?  Are there other letters in the word?  Is it one word
or two?

Also, have you seen variations of the word?  If so, what are they?

This is a question for which I believe spelling is significant.

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Request for Question Clarification by rainbow-ga on 06 Oct 2006 02:08 PDT

Hi rickfwilliams,

I have received this reply from my stepdaughter:

"I have asked a number of Welsh speakers who think maybe the spelling
is incorrect. If it is meant to be FFERM WYLLT this would mean "wild
farm" therefore making reference to the man being a game keeper. Also
it could be a local dialect just known to the local area."

Please let me know if this suffices as an answer to your question.

Best regards,
Rainbow

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Clarification of Question by rickfwilliams-ga on 06 Oct 2006 06:28 PDT

To "Just Ask Scott":

The spelling is shown correctly.

The full inscription on the snuff box is "JOHN WILLIAMS FFERAMWLLD".

(The relative is actually named John Williams and not as I previously mentioned.)

Thank you.

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Clarification of Question by rickfwilliams-ga on 06 Oct 2006 06:58 PDT

To "Rainbow",

The full inscription on the snuff box is "JOHN WILLIAMS FFERAMWLLD".
(The relative is actually named John Williams and not as I previously
mentioned.)

From what you say, the snuff box may have been a gift or have been
presented to him with the local dialect message of "JOHN WILLIAMS -
WILD FARMER" or there was a local farm called WLLD FARM and so it
simply said "JOHN WILLIAMS - WLLD FARM".

I looked on Google and found that Wyllt is a rarer spelling of Wild
which is usually Gwyllt (which gets ten times more hits than Wyllt).

So, from your answer, I must consider if a local craftsman would have
inscribed "WLLD" instead of "WYLLT" or I must consider if Wlld is in
fact the local dialect version of Gwyllt (or Wyllt) which means Wild.

As both leave me feeling uncertain at the moment, I will leave the
Question open a while longer until I make a decision.

Thank you for your efforts so far.      :o)

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Request for Question Clarification by rainbow-ga on 06 Oct 2006 07:00 PDT

I just received this from a friend of my stepdaughter who also lives in Wales:

"I couldn?t find the meaning of ?Fferamwlld?. The nearest to it was
the name of a farm and two other dwellings which are located in the
area known as Llanfaelog on Ynys Mon (Anglesey). The Farm is
?Fferamfawr, and the dwellings are Fferam Isaf and Fferam Uchaf. In
South Wales we refer to a farm as Fferm but judging by these names in
the North they add the letter ?a?, perhaps when referring to a place
name. Possible the name you have originate from this area. Can?t find
anything else, but if by any chance the spelling is even slightly
different to what we have then this would obviously give other
possibilities."

Looking forward to hearing your views.

Best regards,
Rainbow

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Clarification of Question by rickfwilliams-ga on 06 Oct 2006 08:19 PDT

To "Rainbow": This is another big step to the answer. While I continue
to watch the replies, I shall see if I can find more evidence of a
local dialect word WLLD -probably related to game or sheep- and even a
property named WLLD FARM. The hamlet where John Williams lived was
Llanfairynghornwy, still there today, in Anglesey. (As I live in
South-East England, I cannot visit there again for a long while.)
Thank you very much!


To "Tutuz Dad": This is a very useful reply indeed. While I continue
to watch the replies, I shall investigate a bit more as described to
Rainbow above. Thank you very much!

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 06 Oct 2006 10:05 PDT

I, for one, would like to see and closeup, detailed image of the
inscription. In the meantime let me throw this at you:

Perhaps you might consider this usage of the word "WLLD" as
confirmation of it's meaning as the word "wild". In the Celtic book,
"The Book of the Dun Cow", a fragmentary manuscript, dated to the 11th
or 12th centuries (making it the oldest surviving miscellaneous
manuscript in Irish literature), the text speaks of "wlld" animals
such as the "wlld boar".

You can read commentary about the book here including at least two of
the "wlld" references:

INTERNET SACRED TEXT ARCHIVES
Chapter XI
Folklore Philosophy
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/cfwm/cf205.htm
 
THE BOOK OF THE DUN COW can be read here in it's entirety, inasmuch as
the some of the fragile document did not surive, therefore it's
restoration in total was not possible.

http://www.maryjones.us/jce/duncow.html

I believe this confirms the use of the word "wlld" in the region in
the same context of the word "wild".

tutuzdad-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by tutuzdad-ga on 06 Oct 2006 10:19 PDT

Here is another usage to consider. There is an old English book that
dates to the mid 1680's entitled, "The Bellowings of a vvild-bull, or,
Scroggs's roaring lamentation for being impeached of high-treason".

http://205.247.101.11:90/kids/5/search/dGreat+Britain+--+Politics+and+government+--+1660-1/dgreat+britain+politics+and+government+1660+1688/-2%2C-1%2C0%2CE/frameset&FF=dgreat+britain+politics+and+government+1660+1688+anecdotes&1%2C4%2C

Note the spelling (which I have intentionally extended here for
clarity sake): "wild" = " V V I L D "

tutuzdad-ga

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Clarification of Question by rickfwilliams-ga on 07 Oct 2006 10:49 PDT

To TutuzDad:   I have been looking at instances of WLLD and VVILD and
with my uneducated hat on, I wonder if Character Recognition software
has created mispellings of WILD; so these may not be dialect or
ancient variations. Also, unfortunately, the inscription on the snuff
box is being passed around the family without a photo and it may take
a few weeks to get a photo. Thanks!

To MyOarIn:  After looking at online photos of Welsh snuff boxes and
inscription trends on Welsh Miners' snuff boxes, I agree with you that
inscriptions are not always professionally done and so there is a
chance of an error creeping in. With my uneducated hat on again, as
the horn boxes seem rare, it makes me also think that the quality of
the inscriptions may be generally high. Thanks!

Are you sure that you have spelled this correctly? It doesn't look
like an accurate Welsh spelling.
'ffwrwm' is the Welsh for 'forum'. Here's a link to a centre in
Caerleon with that name.
(the link isn't clickable, so you'll need to paste it into your browser.)

http://www.caerleon.net/intro/ffwrwm.htm

I agree with Rainbow-ga. The word "fferam" (sometimes "feram") means
"farm. The Welsh language has been greatly affected over the centuries
and many of the words are spelled as a matter of convenience as
opposed to a formal language with conventional rules of grammar. It is
not uncommon then to find words that are "borrowed", partially
borrowed or improvised from words in other languages (British English
being the most common. The word "wild" is occassionally seen spelled
"wlld", a kind of shorthand that conveys a message but is not
necessarily grammaticaly correct. While most languages would view such
a liberty and entirely inicorrect if not illiterate, this was not so
in the Welsh languages.

Farms in Wales were often described according to their production or
purpose. For example:

fferm bysgod = fish farm
fferm ieir = chicken farm
fferm foch = pig farm
ffferm laeth = dairy farm
fferm faco = tobacco farm

A person then was also known by his work, such as John the Carpenter
might have become known as John Carpenter, etc. With that in mind,
JOHN WILLIAMS FFERAMWLLD would probably tranlate literally as JOHN
WILLIAMS, GAME KEEPER or (more speculatively perhaps) JOHN WILLIAMS,
GAME WARDEN.

http://www.theuniversityofjoandeserrallonga.com/kimro/amryw/1_vortaroy/geiriadur_cymraeg_saesneg_BAEDD_f_1077e.htm

tutuzdad-ga

These are National Archive references to FFERAM which may help.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search/quick_search.aspx?search_text=FFERAMWLLD&SearchButton.x=27&SearchButton.y=13

Sorry,
this is the correct link.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search/quick_search.aspx?search_text=FFERAM&SearchButton.x=27&SearchButton.y=13

I'm getting a whole new image of Tutuzdad.  :-)

I agree that at a good image of the carving could be helpful, but from
what has been said about Welsh spelling, maybe not.  Also, the person
who did the carving may not have been so careful about the spelling,
and  - as will happen when doing lettering -  an error may have crept
in inadvertantly.

Thanks (I think). Perhaps I could use a new image.

Dad

Tutuzdad, 
No, you certainly do not need a new image; your posting just exposed
an unexpected facet and gives rise to speculation that your real name
may be Llewellyn, William, Dafydd, Dylan, ...

Just don't welsh on any promises to Tutz.  (My apologies to all the
people between Cardiff and Anglesey, and elsewhere.  :-)

Myo

Sorry. No Welsh blood here. I do have another possible answer for the
inscription though. Perhaps it is an attempt to form a date. There is
no "W" in Roman numerology but VVLLD would translate into
5-5-50-50-500 (or maybe an illiterate 10-100-500, or even
610...perhaps an attempt at the date 1610). While the "numbers" do not
form a sensible date in themselves, the intent might have been there.
It's a bit far fetched but it is a possibility, albeit remote.