Gwaedu Idiotiaid

[davebro]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65274952

[bhg481]

I wonder what sort of person thinks that changing the name of a place people are familiar with to one they neither know nor can pronounce will help tourism.

[davebro]

A stupid person?

[davebro]

Many Welsh words are just bastardised English anyway. Pure Welsh isn't a language fit for modern usage.

[bhg481]

Let me ask another question. Without looking it up, how many people know the new name for the highest mountain in Wales? You know, the one they changed a little while ago.

[drmorgans]

Yr Wyddfa? Still Snowdon to me.

[bhg481]

Ah, but you've got "Morgan" in your username, which implies Welsh sympathies!

[ichkeria]

I think it’s a good idea.
At least, I can’t see it doing any harm.

Is it really that hard to pronounce?
Most non Welsh people I know can cope with things like Cymru and Ffestiniog …

[barry1010]

I don't have a problem with it, as far as I know that's what it was called up until around 70 years ago.
The non-Welsh speakers will still call in Brecon Beacons, just as we call Cymru Wales

[THECORBYLOON]

"Pure Welsh isn't a language fit for modern usage"

When they were invented, what pure English words were used to name "television", "telegram" and "telephone"?

[drmorgans]

Germans use fernsehen, "see far", for TV.

[barry1010]

Touché, corby :D

[barry1010]

And Germans call Germany 'Deutschland'. Doesn't stop us calling it Germany

[davebro]

what about AMBIWLANS - it's just ambulance isn't it, trying to look Welsh.

[barry1010]

The word 'ambulance' is derived from Latin ambulant (walking) and French hopital ambulant (mobile hospital)

[THECORBYLOON]

The OED shows that "ambulance" is from the French word, "ambulance" so the English couldn't even be bothered ro bastardize it...

[lady-janine]

Why still using National Park?

[barry1010]

Is the problem that the Welsh make up Welsh words for new inventions or that they tweak English words?

If I were Welsh I would try to learn the Welsh language. Sean Fletcher, the Countryfile presenter, had great fun in a small shop in Wales when everyone was gossiping about him in Welsh whilst he waited to served. On his way out, he spoke to them in Welsh making it very clear he had understood everything they said.

[ichkeria]

"what about AMBIWLANS - it's just ambulance isn't it, trying to look Welsh. "
It's a "borrowed" word. I don't know if words such as "television" are also "borrowed" (from "French?") but all languages have borrowed words: English has anglicised versions of foreign words too. There are probably likely to be more borrowed words in Welsh - and Irish also: the latter has only 18 letters in its alphablet, so borrowings can be problematic.

[THECORBYLOON]

I know some linguists were unhappy about "television" because "tele" has Greek origins, "vision" has Latin origins and they believed they should not be mixed.

[barry1010]

Television is a funny word, made from the Greek 'tele' meaning far and Latin Vis, to see.