Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Guide to Speaking Welsh

I can say

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerych-

wyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch


and so can you. Earlier on i spelt it this way talking to LeeAnne on msn, not knowing how to spell it properly, but it's spelt as it sounds so if you fancy learning how to say it, this is how it goes:

clanfarporgwyngygulgerychwyn
-droboclantisilliogulgulgoch

I learnt how to say this in P4 using a wee song that has stuck in my head all these years. I still need to sing the song to be able to pronounce the word!

And just in case you wondered whatever I was on about, that place above (i am NOT writing it again) is the longest railway station name in Britain. Read about it below...

This Welsh town on the island of Anglesey is only known due to the fact that it has a very long name, and is the longest railway station name in Britain, and probably the longest domain name in the world.
The name translates as 'St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave'.
Originally called Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, which means 'The Mary church by the pool near the white hazels' the village was renamed in the 19th Century.
This was around the time when the railway was built between Chester and Holyhead at the beginning of the 1850s. A local committee was put together to try and encourage trains, travellers and 19th Century tourists to stop at the village in order to help develop the village as a commercial and tourist centre. It is believed that the name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch was invented by a cobbler from Menai Bridge; little did he know that he had implemented one of the most successful tourist marketing plans of all time. Today the village is signposted as Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and is known to locals as Llanfairpwll or Llanfair.
(from bbc.co.uk)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi! Interested to read about Llanfair-pg, as I visited this very place when I was 19 years old! It was great to be reminded of the history behind it's name.