Disappearing Welsh Names
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- If you understand what's in a name, you may just think twice about re-naming a place... and if you're going to rename a place, you should at least understand the value of what you're thinking of replacing first.
Credit: Wales Live, 2018 (BBC).
Could not agree more. I am English, but I lived in Wales for five years. ( had a great time, thanks!) It didn't take me long to realise that once you get the system down, Welsh is not difficult to pronounce at all. Definitely more logical than English with all its exceptions. All it needs is a bit of effort ( really, just a bit ) and the rest follows. Replacing local names with spurious English ones seems to make no sense at all.
Pontcariodwr anyone. Maybe use the word the English use....
English speakers are so used to their illogical spelling system that anything as regular and sensible as Welsh is complete nonsense to them
Hi Christopher, Likewise, coming from the opposite side of this island and spending a little over six years in Wales between late 2011 and early 2018, I couldn't agree more. This may sound daft, but it still jars with my expectations hearing the automated lift/elevator announcements just in English.
@@frankklein4872 what's so difficult about pronouncing Pont-Carry-odd-oorr???
Please don’t replace ANY of these names, Welsh is beautiful and the language/names should be preserved!
I'm English. Keep the names ... we'll make the effort.
Some will make the effort. Invite them to dinner! Ask them to bring a friend who might be interested if introduced to the idea.
Good to hear because these words were ours and a part of our culture before the English tried to rob us of them.
@@colleendavis4225 We didn't try to rob you of anything. We dragged you along with us through an industrial revolution and YOU stopped speaking your own language as English became the language of trade and commerce. Easy to blame the English for everything, isn't it, but without us you'd still be running around in animal skins chucking spears at things.
@@mrscreamer379 that really is a stupid thing to say. England never dragged Wales into anything that brought much if any benefit, just the opposite. As to the decline of the Welsh language you can put that down to English dominance and immigration during the Industrial revolution. There are many instances of laws aimed at suppressing the language and Welshness in general, starting after the conquest of Edward 1 but continuing down the centuries. The fact that the Welsh language has survived at all is amazing considering the political and economic power of England.
This is not an anti English polemic, it is just fact.
I very much doubt that you know anything about the history of Wales.
@@colleendavis4225 no need to alienate by bringing backwards old politics into it. yes, it was bad, but things are changing.
I'm Welsh and living in Finland and learning Finnish. I can see why Tolkien was enamored with both Welsh and Finnish. Once my finnish language skills are good enough to gain Finnish citizenship, I will focus on learning Welsh, the beautiful language of my land. I've unfortunately forgotten most of the Welsh that I learned in school. I'm going to make so much more of an effort to use Welsh placenames from here on out!
Tolkein was a scholar of Anglo Saxon, and loved Beowulf and all the old Danish sagas
You should go for Basque or Hungarian to get a hat trick of difficult European languages
@@jontalbot1 as cool as both those languages are, I feel that it would be a crime for me not to try to relearn what should be my mother tongue. I do speak some Chinese and Spanish. So I'll have reached the computing capacity for my little tumbleweed brain once I've mastered Finnish,and Welsh to good enough levels 😅
The Welsh language has a fascinating and romantic back story. Keep fighting for your cultural history. I am an American with no Welsh heritage, but I have seen what has happened to our Native American cultures, and it saddens me.
I am a native English speaker and Welsh is one of the most beautiful languages I have ever heard. There is so much about Wales to appreciate. I wish I were younger bc Wales would be on my bucket list. Don't let go of your culture in exchange for the shallow, trendy words & names to please tourists. If people can't pronounce these words - I can't - too bad.
Welsh people! Resist the English, keep using your ancient and beautiful language! Greetings from Italy!
Written in English well done you learn our language.I see you are resisting it , racial comment anti English no one stopping them use there language .....
@@jerrysummers5971 What kind of weed have you smoked lately? My comment was not anti-anyone. I just like to see how ancient languages are still spoken despite the overbearing presence of the dominant language. And since it is English, I cannot say Portuguese. Would have been that the dominant language I'd have said so, or German or Chinese. Or maybe it is the Euro Cup final that still burns...
@@lucmanzoni6265 It's good the Welsh try and keep their place names language and traditions.
You were condescending about the English just a put down really,silly response to say I smoke drugs never have.Dont judge ppl by your low standards .As far as the football Italy won on penalties good luck to them it just a game ,you seem to have a problem with it 😉
@@jerrysummers5971 Hey lad, it seems you don't follow the narrative here... I was not condescending about English per se, as I've already explained above. About drugs, it was just hyperbole, I don't even know who you are... Finally, I don't see how could I possibly have a problem winning the Euro Cup, quite the opposite. And England played well, so good for them, too: I consider second-place to be a very good achievement as well.
@@lucmanzoni6265 I know you are Italian probably live in England 🤔 Obviously you are glad Italy won the cup; on penalties better managed team won on the night well done 👍
Keep the Welsh names! Especially since the English ones aren't even trying to translate the meaning!!
He’s so right. It would be such a shame to have any country littered with fake, phoney names when beautiful ones already exist. Keep the Welsh names, you don’t need the ‘translations’ for those who can’t be bothered. It’s lazy to insist on English pseudonames and if they are introduced almost everyone will rely on the lowest common denominator to communicate because it’s easier. But express your country’s history, culture, topography, people and language(s) in your beautiful place names and we’ll learn them
Celtic countries all continue to speak their own languages keeping the history of place names for generations to come.
I am a brazilian guy passionate about Cymru and Cymraeg. One of the most fascinating and beautiful stories among any other nation. A rich and living heritage that needs to be held, must be saved. Love you guys, keep your story and your beautiful language with all the pride you have. Every place in your land is a bless. Greetings from Brazil
That is so disrespectful. I was born in Brazil, I am learning Welsh and love Welsh place names. They make so much sense and adds a great feel to the place.
Please, anglophones, be sensible. You have so much to gain and learn.
I'm learning Welsh and I ended up actually looking at why local places have their names. Every name tells a story. It's so interesting, even names for plants in Welsh some have stories connected to them. learning a new language really does open another door and another world. Let's not lose it. Dysgu cymru :)
Da iawn - pob lwc gyda dysgu'r Gymraeg.
Im definitely going to start iv wanted to but life keeps on getting in the way stopped learning when I was about 8 years old and totally regret it French and German where the two that welsh schools seem to favour in the 90s regret that I did not have this drive to learn then
The is one man that has given Welsh names to, and written nature / wildlife books and his name is Twm Elias!!
How are u learning it, I really want to cause I’m a duel citizen of the United Kingdom and United States. I’m welsh and I want to learn my language but don’t know how
@@tteee7241 Welsh is my first language, but there is a intense learning course called 'Say Something in Welsh' or Duo Lingo??
I am the American granddaughter of a Welshman, and proud to be so. I always wanted to learn Welsh. Do NOT give up the Welsh names. Help us learn to pronounce it.
Learn Welsh on Duolingo!
As an English person I say hold on to, and cherish your beautiful Welsh language! I have spent many happy times in west Wales and miss it a lot.
Keep your Welsh names. English speakers should not have it easy when we visit other places. Please don't give in to lazy visitors.
Sincerely, an American with Welsh ancestry.
i'm English with African ancestry you have to go back 60,000 years but it still counts right?
@@dominichills3594 this comment oml😂😂😂
You ain't African, you self loathing woke culturally appropriated Lib. Be proud be Neanderthal
@@frankklein4872 wtf is your problem? Nobody claimed to be African.
YES!
There's no bloody way should any compromise what so ever be given regarding anything Welsh.. this is our country our language our heritage...this is Wales.. why is this being allowed to happen? This isn't eng.. what's happening in eng with the self loathing has no place in Wales
We should tax london for the water they need & steal from us...and back tax them at that.
As an Australian of Scottish heritage, I am so sorry for the Welsh for having ‘Lake Australia’ imposed on you.
If you are Scottish will you act to preserve the Scots language? Aye laddie?
Yeah, I thought that sounded… I don’t know, not poetic, maybe? The story behind the name is a beautiful tradition vs naming something because it looks like another place.
Walkers’ Wood is also a poem that i had to study at TGAU Cymraeg, whilst reading the poem tells the story of a son and his grandfather. His grandfather explained why it was called Walkers’ Wood and how it used to be Coed Llugwy. Hearing these worts of things just fills me with emotion and national pride for our language, to take a rubber to hunderds upon hunderds of year of history would be o so tradgic and just be an insult to all the poeple in our history that have faught fo us to be able to speak Cymraeg. Dw i mor balch o’n hiaith a mor browd y fedrai ei siarad hi.
I'm English but I definitely support the keeping of the original Welsh names anywhere in Wales because replacing them with English names that have absolutely no link to the history of the Welsh names just mean the culture and history of the area just gets deleted and Welsh just slowly loses prominence as a language in the area. If places like Caernarfon, Conwy and Llanelli all reversed the attempted anglicisation of their names (from Caernarvon, Conway and Llanelly respectively), there is no reason why the Welsh names for other places can't be retained or even the meaningless English names being removed entirely from them.
I do believe in any case it is hypocritical to expect people to get names like Derby, Leicester, Norwich and Worcester in England correct yet disregard names outside England in other parts of the UK (whether it be Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland) just because they are hard to pronounce or look weird. Even if names are hard to pronounce, it is still worth attempting them anyway even if the attempt is not accurate to the Welsh pronunciation because at least when keeping the original name, the history is still kept along with the culture, which is one reason why over the last two years, I made an effort to improve my pronunciation of Welsh place names so that they match the Welsh pronunciation as much as possible.
It’s never ok to try and purposely erase or destroy a whole culture. Keep your language and everything else about your culture, it’s what makes you unique. Please tell your history don’t let it disappear.
Keep Welsh! Keep the story, keep the past, and when you die, look at your ancestors with pride!
My family are originally from Wales the language was never taught to me.
Keep the place names ! I should be taught in all schools
Snapsies
Genedl heb iaith genedl heb calon - A nation without a language is a nation without a heart.
ie....(Cenedl dwi'n credu, nid Genedl)
So what does that make Belgium or Switzerland? You racist
@@frankklein4872
I've only in the last few years begun to really connect with my Welsh heritage, I was born and raised in Wales and it's only when I moved away did I start to realise what I left behind. So I started to learn Welsh and dive into our folklore and ancient history, it's been amazing learning so much and I feel closer to the home I miss so much.
I was never one for patriotism but seeing things like this do make me angry, the blatant laziness and arrogance of just erasing something because you have trouble saying it makes my blood boil.
You don't have to say it if you can't but don't try to change it. Like the gentleman said, try, give it a go, make a mess of it. There's so much history in a name, no matter where you go.
I agree totally with this. There are historical houses near me that have had there names changed by developers. If you wanted to put UPVC windows and paint the house purple you'd be stopped. Changing the name that means something and relates to the landscape isn't protected. It should be.
Martin Hughes definitely mate, names of places like these need to be protected, hoping something like that gets passed!
Can I ask you how long did it take you to learn Welsh, I myself am Welsh but speak only English
sambo still learning! Only the very basic conversation stuff so far, just practicing a little on Duolingo each day, I find watching Welsh programs (Hansh on CZcams is good for it) helps too, even if I can't understand most of it, parroting the sounds helps with pronounciation and flow, pob lwc on your journey! I've heard the 'Say Something in Welsh' is really good too!
I'm the same got to an age where u regret that u didn't get to learn welsh properly Im probably at the level of a five year old because I stopped when I went to a comprehensive school in the early 90s u where told its a pointless language in school and best to learn French of German. I totally regret that welsh was not mandatory it should be my teachers where mostly old English that where constantly say u are saying things wrong
We used to go on family holidays to Wales when I was very young (starting when I was about 5 or 6 I think) and I loved it. We returned to the same place a number of times and I can still remember exactly how to pronounce it, despite being so young at the time. No idea on the spelling but I now feel inspired to try and find out so I can learn the story behind it! Please keep using the real names. Don't lose your beautiful language or the history of your homeland.
Here in Australia, there is a movement in the opposite direction, where indigenous names of geographical features are being restored and are either replacing English ones, or both names are being used side by side.
As someone who is half Welsh and spent his first 6 years in Swansea, I can make a reasonable go of pronouncing Welsh place names. I sometimes trip up on which way to pronounce Y, but I think that I've got the rules right now.
In Ireland, we have almost all roadsigns in English and Gaelic on each sign. Even on public transport we have Gaelic and then the English version or translation on the intercom, one after the other. We’re the Celts!, come on Wales! 🏴.
You Do REALISE that Welsh and Irish DNA is utterly different. You invaded our land, or are you ignorant of history as well as people's dna?
@@frankklein4872 No its not, go away. You're German
@@frankklein4872 After the Scots and Manx, the Welsh, Cornish and Bretons, and some in northern Spain, are our second closest relatives.
Aye I mean theirs bin a bit and back an fourth of piracy here and their irish v britons a bit and trible rivalries and I hear the irish may o attacked the picts but as far as our heritage we are all of a proto celtic atlantic people.
Cofiwch dryweryn✊🏼
Makes me sooo homesick, I left at aged 11 I live inAustralia, there’s no place like home ... def keep the old names, lake Australia how ridiculous 😡 grrrrr so wrong all this I didn’t know this was happening 😭
ozzie masons are tamer than their counterparts elsewhere
but you can still reverse over them a good couple of times and make the car bump up and down
My heritage is Czech. Under the Habsburg Austrian Empire the Czech language was almost wiped out under German hegemony. Only thanks to the vigorous efforts of a small group of patriots do We have a Country & language today. Keep up your good work preserving Welsh
By the end of the 16th century Czech culture was predominantly "protestant" or at least separated from the Catholic Church. It was the Jesuit - inspired Catholicism of the Austrian-German Emperor in whose territory the Czech lands lay that not only virtually wiped out the Czech language but also the specifically Czech forms of Christianity.
@@giovanniacuto2688 Thank you Giovanni, That was a very accurate explanation of the history of that period. Earlier the reformer Jan Hus was tricked by German bishops with an offer of safe passage to a conference to discuss his proposed reforms & was killed. After that his followers cut themselves off from the Roman church & fighting began. As you said by the 16th century things came to a head & the Czechs were overwhelmed.
@@dougr.2245 After the Catholic "reconquest" small groups of radical Hussites, Bohemian Brethren, survived clandestinely particularly in Moravia. The descendants of one of these groups went into exile in neighbouring Saxony where they were given land by a Lutheran nobleman. They became known as the Moravian Brethren. Some later migrated to what became the USA, founding settlements like Winston-Salem in North Carolina. One group influenced an Anglican clergyman called John Wesley who went on to found what became the Methodist Church. I was brought up as a Methodist and I would describe our church as derived from Anglicanism heavily influenced by Moravianism. Bila hora is in my cultural DNA
@@giovanniacuto2688 Giovanni, You are very well informed. Thank you for your clear & informative expansion of our discussion. I was raised Catholic, but always identified with the freedom fighting spirit of the Hussites. Czechia was 0ppressed by Communist Russia when I was growing up & I saw a parallel between 16th to 19th century Austrian oppression & 20th century Russian Oppression. I also admire Moravian open minded & egalitarian perspective. It's a pleasure corresponding with you. Doug R.
I love a land that has its cultures, to tell to recall and to live proudly!
I was genuinely getting annoyed at Jam Pot Hill and Australia Lake
i was pretty miffed about freemasonry
but nobody else seems to mind filling their head with scummy dogshit constantly
I don't care who complains, Anglesey will always be Ynys Mon to me. Same with Abertawe/Swansea.
perhaps we should offer non-welsh speakers a phonetic pronunciation of place names, it might help encourage the attempt to use the real names?
Lake Australia! How crass.
Cymru am byth! ✌
We had a similar problem here in Ireland in the 19th century, Irish placenames tell stories going back thousands of years. English cartographers replaced these names, for example "Dubh Linn" became Dublin, but fortunately most are easy to translate back, however some have been lost forever and now we only have English gobbledygook
Too right !
@@williamq934 so I've said about too many languages including Celtic ones becoming far too Anglicised. I'm neither a native Welsh or Irish speaker because I wasn't raised to learn the native tongues of my ancestry but I proudly identify as a Irish-Welsh-Australian Coleen t'b'sure, my accent is mixed and fluctuates with words and feelings anger and calm between an Irish Birmingham London Australian haven't got a Welsh accent, although some words can drop into the sing song Welsh sometimes. I'm learning Gaelic and Welsh both are hard but so worth it. Manx and Cornish are seriously in trouble of being lost forever.
This is terrific! Thanks so much for this. Keep the Welsh names!
Lovely well presented video - diolch
It’s not an accident, our mountain names have been taken off the Ordinance survey maps since 1982 approximately.
WHAT!!!!!!??😕
Ry'n ni yma o hyd!
Cymru am byth! 🏴
Welsh sound so cool! Teach it in all Welsh schools.
I live in a settlement at the edge of the Great North Wood. It was called Pen Coed. The English occupied it centuries ago, like before A.D. 1000. Not knowing that the original name meant "the head of the wood", they mangled it initially into Penceat which eventually became Penge. It's located in that part of Prydain now called South East London.
Excellent Tudur Owen!! Our history is literally written in the landscape. If we lose the names our much derided and abused ancient history will be forgotten....and that cannot happen.
And now the name of Mynydd Baedan (where the Welsh King Arthur had his great victory over the Saxons) is being erased from maps.
King Arthur never stepped foot in wales, he was an ulsterman during Roman times
@@frankklein4872 Haha. Hilarious. Read the Llandaff Charters , where he is referred to for land grants to the church in South Wales as both King Arthrwys and King Arthur. No other church record exits which refer to him.
I am Dutch and for keeping the Welsh names . With a bit of thought one comes to understand
its meaning and it is wonderful , an eye opener sometimes . Lets take for instance :
Llanfiangel ar arth : Church of the Arthur's Angel ( King Arthur 2 ) . It speaks of an History not
taught in schools any more .
Will your frisian languages and dialects survive?
Are you sure that is what it means?
Fihangel is welsh for Michael (it’s mutated after Llan)
Llan refers not just to the church but also it’s grounds up until the wall… in this case, the church and graveyard. (Google it)
It’s the church of st Michael.
Arth is not short for Arthur. It’s either “bear” as in the animal. Or, as it follows the word “ar” meaning on, Arth is a actually Garth.
The church of St Michael on the Garth. Garth being a word that itself describing the local landscape.
try looking at - Britain's Hidden History Ross..you tube for more history King Arthur 2 etc
Plenty of examples around here (Wrexham) of anglicising pronunciation of Welsh names by locals. The thing which gets my goat is housebuilders giving estate and street names which they think evokes a rural idyll. There is one near me called ‘Fern Meadow’. Grrrr!
What is the DNA of Wrexham though?
@@frankklein4872 I think you are trying to imply people in Wrexham are not Welsh. I would not recommend advancing that line of argument in Wrexham, unless you are from Brighton or maybe a scouser. Brighton are exempt because their fans were fantastic when it looked as if the Racecourse was going to be sold off by the owner. Scousers are generally liked in North Wales, if nowhere else
Welsh needs to be saved and taught much more than it is same goes for all the Celtic Languages. This video I fully agree with far too many languages become Anglicised. It's getting harder to learn.
As an American, your message touched me deeply. Whether a story perceived as good or bad, erasing history must be put in check! Words are monuments as are the statues and place names being neutralized or removed here.
I don’t care if Welsh spelling is Lllllooonng: phonetic pronunciations can easily be added in parentheses under the word.
Afalau ac orenau
They have even taken mountain names from the Ordinance survey maps, why?
...long live our Welsh names, history and culture...Greetings from Louisiana, USA 🇺🇸 ’OWENS’ bloodline...
Just north of the town of Usk in Monmouthshire, near the Usk/Abergavenny road, property developers established a small, up-market, rural housing development, which is overlooked by a wooded hill. At the entrance to this community, the newly installed, perhaps aspirational, middle class residents placed a sign. It said, "Woody Grove, formerly known as Coed yr Allt" Welsh history wiped out by snobbery and ignorance.
I just found out I’m half welsh living in Canada and now I’m very interested in the history and language it’s very fascinating
Whoever thought "lake Australia" was a better name for that lake deserves a kick in the bollocks!
Le gach dea guí ó Éireann -- with every good wish from Ireland, keep the Cymraeg names. We have similar problems today in Ireland when local authorities and or developers ignore the history, the heritage of townland names, we also had a problem with our next door neighbours LOL Anglicising names from Gaeilge to meaningless Anglish, like Abhainn Mór = Big River and you might see a sign saying Owenmore river which in fact sounds like " the big river river " to a Gaeilgeóir ( Gaelic speaker) keep the beautiful language of my great-grandmother alive, she hailed from Wrecsam . Rwy'n siarad Gaeleg Gwyddeleg fel fy ail iaith, ac rwy'n falch o fy ngwaed Cymraeg hefyd.
If you accommodate foreigners you will loose your language, Welsh names are being omitted from maps made in England, English scholars in Oxford and Cambridge were under orders from the Church of England to get rid of welsh history because it was an embarrassment to them and the English monarchy, welsh history was stopped being taught in welsh schools in 1924 this is one example I’m talking about, the first church in Britain was in wales in Glamorgan Llanilid, imagine what an embarrassment that is to the Church of England .
Excellent
yn bendant!
Yep... People seem to forget that Wales has so much History. In favour of biting their tongue to a void being stripped of posistion.
Yma O Hyd!
and the teachings of Yeshua/Jesus are based on humility not pride
I love my Welsh brothers and sisters!
As an Australian of Welsh-64%- and English descent I would ask you to get rid of the name, Lake Australia, and throw out the English names substituted for the Welsh ones. In Australia we have many towns named after early settlers and their home towns. These include Welsh names such as Griffith, Carnarvon, Welshpool, Swansea, Llanelly, Welshman's Creek, Llandeilo and more. We even have the State of New South Wales here. However, many of our place names come from the indigenous/aboriginals /first peoples of our land. Examples of the hundreds, if not thousands, of such names are Mooloolaba, Oombulgurri, Kooweerup, Mudginberri, Kerang, Indoorpilly, Woolongong, Gundagai, Coonabarabran, Warnambool, Noojee, Minyip, Badaginni etc. As well there also names of tribal areas/country such as Dja Dja Wurrung, Kurnai, Ngunnawal, Woiworung etc. We have learnt to pronounce them correctly, sometimes with a little help of breaking up the words into syllables and emphasis. The English Government could pay for signs which have the Welsh name and then it's pronunciation and syllable emphasis in brackets underneath.
My great grandfather spoke Welsh. My parents could not due to the Welsh Not at school. Your language is the true, ancient British one. Is is beautiful and melodious. When holidaying in Wales I would often just stop and listen to people when they spoke in Welsh. Please guard and fight for your treasure and don't let others take it away from you.
Absolutely agree - Welsh is impossible to know how to pronounce ! And that is one good reason for keeping the Welsh names, so that not everything in the world is anglicised. Plus, Welsh is an ancient British language, with its history and therefore, the names must remain original. We must preserve the history and the legends within the names. Don't allow Google Maps or anyone else to change them.
Wrong all British legends must be deleted to make way for Somali culture
Not impossible, just different. I'm trying to learn it now and yes it's bloody hard for a 60 something Englishman who never bothered to learn a foreign language before but I can say hello and introduce myself. I can even order a drink. My accent is atrocious but if you don't try, you will never know
Welsh words are pronounced exactly how they are spelled, it's impossible not to know how they are pronounced. Certainly there are sounds that are not found in many other languages, and definitely not in English but that's not the same thing. The "Ll" sound is only found in a few other languages and is one that English speakers seem to find particularly difficult.
Our Scots and Irish cousins win the prize for spelling words in a way that is almost, but not quite totally differen to how they are pronounced, I offer you Dún Laoghaire, Tadgh, Saoirse...
;)
I was saddened to see that the sign on 'Yr Ych Du' public house in Abergwili just outside Caerfyrddin (Carmarthen) now only has the name in English.
It's so sad I didn't even realised how many of our names have been replaced already how did we let this happen. Why can't we have bilingual and Welsh should be priority it's our country. It's saddened me.
I know of two places called "Fairy Glen" - one at the end of the Sychnant Pass (near Conwy) , another Ffos Noddum (near Betws-y-Coed). Furthermore there is Horseshoe pass near LLangollen - real name Bwlch Oernant. The OS maps even use the Anglicised version....... how rude.
Since moving to Wales, I was confused by Kidwelly because there is no 'K' in Welsh, It's Cidweli. Yet every sign, map and anywhere you look it is Kidwelly. I think that the Welsh names should remain as they are and people should at least make an effort, even if it is wrong.
There used to be a "K" in the Welsh alphabet, but as there is no soft "C" in Welsh it fell into disuse with the advent of the printing press iirc
My Great, Great Grandfather was Welch. Thee most beautiful place I've ever been to. The cultural aspects alone make Wales #1 the richest country on Earth. Money doesn't always make a country rich. Names alone carry SO MUCH!. People, Places, and things. Please respect this beautiful land. Maybe a bumper sticker "Respect Our Names, We Respect Yours", "Make The Effort, Try Welsh" or "Welsh, Is Fun (Clap Clap) For Everyone". What I mean is, maybe a big "Let's Keep Our Names" media campaign?
*Welsh
There is literally no reason to have English spellings of Welsh towns.
Why change Wrecsam to Wrexham or Yr Wyddgrug to Mold.
English names for Welsh towns need to be scrapped
You do realise Wrecsam is Wrexham written in the Welsh alphabet? Wrexham is its original name.
Isn't it difficult for the Welsh people who don't speak Welsh ? . Why is not okay to have both spellings on road sounds etc as they currently have and as they do in Europe ? .I do agree that Welsh Names should not be lost.. I am confused as I felt they were not .
@@carolanquinn9204 I’m Welsh!I now live in England!Why isn’t there any Welsh spellings on your road signs?Are you so elitist that you think Wales should have English road signed in Wales?Listen to yourself Nazi!
@@carolanquinn9204 people should make an effort to learn the names/words, even if they can’t understand them there is no need to Anglicize our culture.
@@markjones336 LOL Why would we ? That's just daft.. We have more French people living here than Welsh. :Do you know how many different nations live in this country.. ? Hoe many bleedin' signs do you want ! LOL . And this is England so why not find a common language that everyone can speak ,, if you are living in that Country,learn that language .. If you go to Spain you should learn to speak Spanish.. However You wouldn't choose to learn Catalonian . Like Spain and other countries , Wales has Two languages.. Your argument is nuts !. and pretty selfish .
I am American with Welsh ancestry. I couldn’t agree more with this narrator. We can’t rely on schools anymore to teach history, and therefore impart a proud and passionate connection to our past. So, parents! Please rise to the task and impress upon the children to never forget their true heritage!!
Welsh is the British language before english. I think the 'Welsh' have given up enough to them. They are foreigners after all.
Why are English foreign and yet Irish are not? You hypocrite woke moron
@@frankklein4872 Well Frank the Irish did not rape pillage and kill . They are still in Wales to day. Jest do some reading before you call me a moron
I'll give you the same argument we get in New Zealand and trying to preserve Maori place names;
"Ohhh you need to move on from the past"
"Yeah but we can't pronounce them. *pronounces it wrong* Well I've always said it this way so that's what it is" - turning the Maori name into an English sounding "attempt" that erases all meaning behind it.
"This is creating division!"
So much more, so much pushback when in reality it's respecting the people of the land and the immense history they bring with their language. Gotta keep up the good fight for the sake of our ancestors and heritage
The gaslighting is real! It's so frustrating. Good luck to you.
Would be heartbreaking and an embarrassing loss for the world, if the Welsh language was lost like this. Stand up and fight back Wales!
Keep the welsh names. I walk around with Angharad as my RL first name in Australia I've always loved it. I've never wanted to change it. I do have a nickname but my real close family and friends say Angharad. I love it. My family don't speak Welsh so I don't know it. I can hear the accent a mile away I adore it. Wtf Lake Australia? Nope keep the real name. I actually live near Ebbw Vale in qld my husband says it the right way cos I told him but the news people can't.
Glyn Ebwy, I think, is the proper name, Ebbw Vale should be deleted
Ebbw vale!!! You hypocrite. Never wanna southie for pronunciation. Listen to South based biased Welsh news or that idiot fake South Walian woman Sally Boazman
Please upload more videos and let's keep a digital record of these place names as well as in our memories! Great video!
I'm not 100% sure but I think that the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth is doing that exact thing but may be not on CZcams.
I am partly Welsh and fondly remember visiting relatives in Northern Wales as a child. Though I have never lived in Wales, I loved it there.
If you loose your language you loose your culture and become a footnote to history. Keep the Welsh, teach the Welsh... heck why not require bilingualism! Here in Canada everything is in French and English for that reason.
So many people here are blaming the English. You are being silly and not using your brains. Porth Trecastell only becomes Cable Bay if Welsh people call it that and put up signs saying that. The Welsh language is no longer repressed by pressure from Westminster. Welsh will grow if the people of Wales encourage each other to learn and use it. If they're not arsed it will whither.
I would DESTROY a road sign like Cable Bay, if the original name i Porth Tregastell (sounds so much like our placenames here in Brittany (Porzh Tregastell)
@@benjaminpitre4670 You understand this better than many Welsh people. Welsh is only attacked by neglect and apathy. However Brezhoneg is still repressed and discriminated against by the French Republic's laws and government. Many people in Wales don't know what real repression is.
@@simongreaves9465 Wales had mass migration from England during the industrial revolution (Wales' population doubled during this era) and most didn't learn Welsh and carried with them anti-Welsh attitudes that still exist in Wales today. There was and still is lot of hostility towards Welsh in Wales.
The name changes are happening because of (recent) English migrants moving to Wales and giving the places English names.
It was called 'Cable Bay' by English migrants who moved to Wales, NOT by Welsh speaking Welsh people!! Eryri was officially changed to Snowdonia by the English! Not by Welsh people!
Welsh speakers (who are of Welsh descent) have been campaigning for years about this issue, but Welsh speakers are in the minority.
The Welsh government isn't devolved and so Wales is still under British rule, so the Welsh governent didn't have the powers to make these changes.
Maybe you should learn about Wales' history before throwing blame around!
@@paperflowers-ks6vv to be fair I can't disagree with anything you post bar the last line. I know and appreciate Wales, having lived there. But I don't place any blame. Now we understand how languages are replaced if their status is too diminished. This happened to 'Welsh' across England, Scotland and Cornwall and continues in Wales and Brittany. My post comes over glibly but this medium is glib. To defend Welsh all you have to do is use it and hold to it... Of course that sounds trivial, but it is not in slightest. It's a perpetual fight that occurs every single time you choose a Welsh word for an English. Every time you greet or announce or make statement. Every time you use a place name... you say Llangollen not Langolen/Clangofflen... you say Porth Trecastell
I was really surprised to find that this is happening, and can't understand why any author if a guidebook would ever want to do it.
No need for doom and gloom though:
Welsh place-names in general have mutated much less than English ones, and still bear their original meanings: What English speaker understands Marstow (St Martin's meeting-place), or realises the meanings of worth (estate) or wick (dairy-farm), and cop and hope are the same (secluded valley)? English place-names use otherwise defunct words.
And Welsh place-names are durable in another way:
In South Herefordshire they are still in use despite the extinction of Welsh as a local language in the time of Henry VIII. The farms, hills, streams and villages mostly have Brythonic origins - sometimes recognisably Welsh (Hendre, or Mynydd Ferddyn), sometimes anglicised (Doward, or Ross), sometimes mistranslated (Whitchurch), sometimes repeated in English and Welsh (Wormelow Tump), and sometimes garbled by passing through Norman French and Mediaeval Latin records (Garway, and Llangarron) - but they are still here, just like the rabbits along Conigree Lane.
As Australian Aboriginal i hope the Welsh remember that even though the English conquered and claimed the land as theirs. They have never fully won while you still maintain that link to your past. Conquerors know this. That's why just as with the Aboriginals, they have worked so hard to destroy the links to your past, My great great Grandfather was Welsh. And he told my father how if he was caught talking Welsh at school, he would get a canned by the teachers. The same things my Aboriginal grand parents went through. It will be a complete shame if the modern Welshman was to give up that last link because a few entitled foreigners had trouble with a few place names.
It SHOULD NOT be a choice to replace Welsh place names and insult our culture.
Brilliant report. So true that the history, the culture and the language must not disappear - it would truly be a tragedy to Cymru.
Rhaid i ni ddim colli yr hanes neu’r iaith 🏴
Absolutely keep your original Welsh names. With the language goes the culture, preserve the language and preserve the culture.
I’m from llandudno … I moved away when I was 16 .!… this just made me book a flight for GO HOME XX
I do not agree with the changes. I believe Wales should stand its ground on this matter. Our heritage, including original place names, should remain unchanged. It's a matter of respect.
We have to keep them
Great video. Well done. Very important message.
Welsh is a beautiful language.
I completely agree that the Welsh names should always be used and not be renamed just because folks are too lazy to make an effort….. that is ludicrous!
I was born , raised and still live in Boston, MA, though my parents immigrated here from Poland. I live in a melting pot of cultural diversity, most people here are very used to hearing many different languages and many public places such hospitals and government buildings post signs in multiple languages. No one should have to completely assimilate. The US had made grave mistakes in its infancy, after the revolution, in what they did to the Indigenous tribes that had been flourishing here for centuries. The way the land was just overtaken by the growing government over the years, and the atrocities that occurred along the way are very much glossed over when learning US history in our own public schools. I often feel embarrassed to be an “American“, especially during these polarizing and crazy political times.
My point here is (after all that, yes, I have a deliberate point to make….lol), when I came upon your video here by happenstance, it truly lit my fire that the UK government, or whomever, is still trying to anglicize its own cultural heritage! No offense, UK, but you, and my own US, are quite renowned, in past history, of taking over control of many foreign lands, but I digress.
Now, I’m sure some of these lands may have been willing to compromise, but I do not live in those areas, so I do not know the truth of these matters. If anyone who has actually read this dissertation of mine (thank you btw!), and, has any input or better knowledge of this, please comment ! I mean no disrespect to anyone or anyplace in particular , just a passionate student of local cultures and histories. 😊❤️ Cheers!
Yma O Hyd!!! /|\
Well, you know. We had a tearing down of the English street names back in the day and it resulted in the bi-lingual system Wales has today with most signs being in Welsh and English.
Half Welsh & proud !
Sylvester would be just another angry cat without his lisp.
More of the British wiping (or trying) to wipe out original names as they did in Éire - the Gaeltacht exists because they have not managed to do it!
same thing in Kernow (Cornwall), Eire and Alba (Scotland), keep the original place names (Gallimh, not "Galway")
Using the term Alba is racist to the Welsh and English you moron
I am Canadian of Welsh descent, I am on a journey to learn more about my family roots in the UK. and beyond
ISLWYN - Very Irish, very Welsh name "confusing? Isn't it Dutchy..." . ☘🏴
?
Wales does not need a Lake Australia and this is an Aussie saying it .
Here in Australia may place names are being replaced with those of the original inhabitants. The famous Ayers Rock was reverted to Uluru years ago .
This is what it is - Welsh place names have hundreds of years of history and cultural significance, whereas English place names often don't. They see the ease as the most important factor.
We still speak abit of Welsh in the Scottish Borders Hills named Pen is common and White Coomb has Welsh origin like Cwmbran the Valley of the ravens
Indeed. Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh all come from Welsh. It shows how the Britons may have held power for longer in what would become Scotland than is suggested.
@@taffyducks544 forever a bit of our blood lines will be Cymbrian,here in the Scottish Borders places like Ancrum, Lauder archildun (Earlston) can trace their origins to old Briton.
Nothing to Do With holding power. Weird comment you write. A name such as Pen y Ghent in Lakeland will never change. As the Englishbloke pointed at it and the Welsh bloke said it. How it was then handed down and is written with different alphabet is another thing and natural slight change
The word Edinburgh comes from English as the lowland Scots are English by DNA
@@frankklein4872 very few are .in your dreams pal,
Brilliant video!!! We keep our Welsh Place Names, reverse the English versions by reinstating the old Welsh Names. Not only have we lost much of our history, we have an untold history until Alan Wilson and Baram Blackett.
Keep the names, teach the history, and make them normal and part of every day life.🥰 This makes me want to find out what the ancient native names are where I live. I know some but they didn't really have a written language (that I know of) until more recently (2 or 3 hundred years). A visit to rural Wales is definitely on my bucket list.
I’m an American who has Welsh blood in my veins. I’m very proud of my heritage and hope Wales keeps her identity intact.
When I lived in London in my 20s some decades ago, many English workmates would ask me what my Christian name meant. Of course what they really meant was--what is it in English? But I would fix them all with a steely eye and told them it translated as 'Vladimir.' Deathly hush , then a change of subject. I swear they all knew they'd just been made a fool of, but I'm equally sure that not a single one of them got the point.
Wow you hero of communism
Good one!
Spot on
Names just change, either good or bad. Cable Bay replaced the Welsh place name but it was called something else even before that Welsh place name.
Proud welsh native here... it's absolutely disgraceful and heartbreaking to see our beautiful and magical history being deleted and removed! Each place name tells a story, each place name holds memories of the past that paved the way for our present day.
The idea is to remove the unique identities and mould us all into one culture, erase the individual soul of a place and change it to be anonymous and soulless.
I will always be proud of my heritage and culture, it's a land steeped in myths, legends, poetry, magic and enchantment.
If people aren't happy with the welsh names then that's their choice but why should we erase them? We need to protect our valuable heritage so we can pass it on to the next generation and keep the connection to our rich and varied past alive.
It's vital that the next generation of children feel a connection to the land that they inhabit, to feel the whispers of the past calling their name as the wind blows, the passionate ignition of the fiery Welsh spirit and the Divine inspiration of Awen. Cymru am byth 🏴🏹🗝