{"id":10635,"date":"2024-02-21T11:01:16","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T11:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/?p=10635"},"modified":"2024-10-09T09:03:34","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T09:03:34","slug":"be-sy-mewn-enw-whats-in-a-name-handy-welsh-language-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/be-sy-mewn-enw-whats-in-a-name-handy-welsh-language-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Be\u2019 sy\u2019 mewn enw? What\u2019s in a name?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Well as it turns out, quite a lot actually. Whilst most people may visit Wales to enjoy the rugged mountains, stunning coastline and a hearty slice of Bara Brith, those with an interest in history and heritage may also be keen to discover more about Welsh place names. Not only do they tell us about the landscape of Wales, but they allow us to understand the history and topography of any given location. This is true of rivers and valleys as well as towns, villages and individual house names. Here is a handy Welsh language guide for your next visit to Wales.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2017, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales has been compiling and managing a database of historic place names on behalf of the Welsh Government. There are now about 700,000 names in the List of Historic Place Names<\/a> and the Commission are continually adding new records when more are identified. The information is not only used to improve the way we understand our environment, but it also helps to preserve historic names that have been lost or are threatened with change as well as offering advice when new developments need to be named.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So whether you are visiting Eryri (from the word Eryr<\/em> or eagle; previously also known as Snowdonia<\/a>) or Bannau Brycheiniog (which translates to the Peaks of the kingdom of King Brychan<\/em>; formerly also known as Brecon Beacons<\/a>) there are a lot of great place names to delve into. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve picked out a few place names that we think visitors to Wales will be interested in, to give a flavour of the hidden histories found in them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Conwy<\/a> comes from the word cawn <\/em>meaning rushes, and the suffix -wy <\/em>which can either mean divine, giving the meaning divine<\/em> river full of rushes, <\/em>or denote a territory, thus meaning place full of rushes<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barmouth<\/a> is derived from Abermaw <\/em>meaning mouth of the river Mawddach (small drowning river<\/em>). Abermaw <\/em>then evolved to Bermo <\/em>due to a change in syllable stress, and Bermo<\/em> was then subsequently anglicised to Barmouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pembrokeshire<\/a> is anglicised from Welsh Penfro <\/em>meaning land\u2019s end.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tenby<\/a> is the anglicised pronunciation of Dinbych<\/em> meaning small fort. <\/em>The full Welsh name of the town is Dinbych y Pysgod <\/em>meaning small fort of the fish<\/em>, to distinguish it from Dinbych <\/em>(Denbigh).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caernarfon<\/a> means fort in Arfon. Arfon <\/em>is a compound of ar <\/em>and M\u00f4n, <\/em>which gives the meaning of land facing Anglesey<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Betws y Coed<\/a> is made of Old English bed-hus<\/em>, literally bead house<\/em>, meaning a chapel of ease or subordinate church, and the Welsh word coed<\/em>, meaning a wood, <\/em>thus giving church in the wood.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aberystwyth <\/a>comes from the word Aber<\/em> meaning mouth of a river <\/em>and ystwyth <\/em>meaning twisty or flexible, which is a reference to the way that the Afon Ystwyth meanders along its course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carmarthen<\/a> is Caerfyrddin in Welsh, which looks like it should mean Merlin’s Fort<\/em> (which is the popular explanation), but actually comes from the Latin Moridunum<\/em>, meaning sea fort<\/em>. It’s Wales’ oldest town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Hello in Welsh<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Other useful Welsh phrases and common welsh expressions include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hel\u00f4<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pronounced: hell-oh. Meaning hello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diolch<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pronounced: Dee-ol-ch. Meaning thank you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Croeso <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pronounced: Croe-soe. Meaning you\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bore da\/Prynhawn da<\/strong>\/Nos da<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pronounced: bore-ray-dah\/Prin-how\u2019n-dah\/Nohs-dah. Meaning good morning\/good afternoon\/good night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sut wyt ti? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pronounced: Soot-wut-tee. Meaning how are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sglodion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pronoubced: Sglod-yon. Meaning chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is one thing translating and understanding Welsh place names but another to actually say them! This handy sound byte here<\/a> can help you learn basic Welsh and to pronounce some of the more challenging names too. Now it is time to book your next holiday to Wales<\/a> to test your newfound Welsh language skills!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well as it turns out, quite a lot actually. Whilst most people may visit Wales to enjoy the rugged mountains, stunning coastline and a hearty slice of Bara Brith, those with an interest in history and heritage may also be keen to discover more about Welsh place names. Not only do they tell us about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[73,76],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10635"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10796,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10635\/revisions\/10796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}