achyfi

[Mark A. Mandel]

"Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> writes:

>>>>>
Anybody recognize the word 'achyfi'?

This turns up as an 'English' word in one Japanese/English dictionary,
where it seems to mean something like "Yuck!" or "Disgusting!" or
"Annoying!"

A Web search returns two hits for 'achyfi'. In one it is given as a Welsh
word meaning 'repulsive' -- but this is found in a very dubious or
unreliable context (a quotation from a German article about the
relationship between the Welsh and Mandan languages). The other hit is as
an unexplained entry in a huge word list.

I can't find it in any English (or Welsh) dictionary immediately available
to me.
<<<<<

I have seen "ach y fi" (spaced thus) in Welsh dialogue in, iirc, Susan
Cooper's prize-winning YA fantasy novel (in English) _The Grey King_. I
don't know just what it means, but I suspect it's literally something like
'woe is me' (with mutation on the /m/?), idiomatically perhaps an
exclamation of surprise and/or dismay; like "oy gevalt!", which should not
be translated as 'oh, violence!'. I will try to remember to check in the
text at home (unless it's still packed away), where I also have _Teach
Yourself Welsh_. But by the time I read tomorrow's ADS-L digest, hopefully
someone more knowledgeable will have replied.

If it is lexicalized as an idiom it might be sometimes written without
spaces. IMHO it is plausible -- no more than that, but no less, pending
further data -- that a Japanese-speaker might have seen it so in a similar
context and made a half-correct inference.

I believe the pronunciation would be approximately [ax at vi] (x = voiceless
velar fricative, @ = schwa, rest as IPA; stressed, I guess, on first or
third syllable].

   Mark A. Mandel : Dragon Systems, a Lernout & Hauspie company
          Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Senior Linguist
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com
                     (speaking for myself)