There are very few things in life the Welsh enjoy more than a good cup of tea. In fact, it is estimated that the entire British population drinks more than 60 billion cups of tea a year – that’s an astonishing 900 cups per person!
The word for tea in Welsh is, unsurprisingly, te and there are two different ways of saying “cup of tea” depending on where you live in Wales.
In the north, you will tend to hear paned o de, with paned being the abbreviation of cwpaned / cwpanaid meaning cupful. The reason te soft-mutates to de is because it is followed by the preposition o (of). An alternative spelling of paned is panad since this is how it is pronounced in the far north.
Dach chi eisiau paned o de tra dach chi’n aros?
Do you want a cup of tea while you wait?
The south has a different expression for cup of tea which is dishgled o de. (It can also be spelt as disgled or dished.) It derives from the word dysgl for dish or bowl, so the original meaning would have been a bowlful of tea.
Nawr ‘te, beth am ddishgled o de neu goffi?
Now then, how about a cup of tea or coffee?
In the case of paned and dishgled, there is no need to follow up with o de because, just like the English word cuppa, the meaning is implied. You would only be more specific if another hot drink, such as coffee (coffi), were also on offer.
Ti eisiau paned? / Ti moyn disgled?
Do you want a cuppa?
Many Welsh people also use the word te to describe their evening meal, just as much of England uses the word tea. Those who use te in this way tend to use swper (supper) in reference to the snack had before bed.
The light refreshment taken in the late morning at around 10 o’clock is called te deg. It is also known as te ddeg or paned deg.
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