British Geography

ok, so this is just silly.

Officially the largest town name in the whole world is in Wales.....wait for it:


Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

 

That the biggest load of bull... that can't be possible... witch are you trying call the Welsh silly? Is this a cheap shot at them?

This what I found on a short non thorough googling of this ridiculous but also @$#^%@ truth...

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch means; "St. Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave."

In the 1860s, more syllables were added to attract more visitors to the town. It is believed the name was officially conjured up by the village council, intentionally for the privilege and reputation of having the longest railway station name in Great Britain.

Originally the town had a shorter, easier to pronounce name: Llanfairpwllgwyngyll.

Did you know that Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is not the longest town name in the world? Thailand has a town whose name has 163 letters:

Krungthepmahanakornamornratanakosinmahintarayutthayamahadilokphopnop- paratrajathaniburiromudomrajaniwesmahasatharnamornphimarnavatarnsathit- sakkattiyavisanukamprasit.

 

The Welsh language looks daunting to English speakers, largely because of its obsession with the letters L and W. But all words are spelled phonetically ? pronounced exactly as they are spelled. Once you learn how to pronounce each letter, it's not so bad:

? A single Welsh F is pronounced like an English letter V.

? A double F (as in the town of Ffestiniog) is pronounced like an English F.

? A single L is pronounced like an English L.

? A double L (as in Llanfair) is pronounced like an English L, but you blow air out along the sides of your tongue as you say it.

? CH is a heavily aspirated H, pronounced with the tongue back in the throat, similar to the German CH.

? The letter Y is an "uh" sound unless it is at the end of the word. Then it's an "ee" sound.

? In Welsh, W is a vowel with an "oo" sound. The Welsh word for "bus" is "bws" (pronounced "boos"). The word for "beer" is "cwrw" (pronounced "cooroo").

 

i'm impressed smokin' !! and yes, i know loads of welsh people and they are ALL silly!!

 

the only word i know in welsh is
BAAAAAAAH.
which means run sheep run!!
p.s my other half is part taffy

 

Ah! Generations... that Welsh place name used to be a common game show/ trivia question a few decades ago.

Way to make me feel OLD.

 

HAHAHAAHHAAHAHA :3d funny:

 

the only welsh word i know is bore da, or hello!! i'm sitting opposite a silly welsh person as we speak

 

I'm still confused as to where this welsch language came from... whether its indigenous or if its some for of Gaelic or not.

 

i think that the welsh only made it up to confuse the rest of the nation

 

.. or the Romans..

 

yup, they sat there taking the mick out of the english in their own language and we had no idea!

 

Yankeeland doesnt take a back seat to anyone in place name weirdness:

What's in a name

 

Willacoochee....that's where i want to live!!

They neglected to mention also that in Cornwall there are 2 places on bodmin moor called cheeswring and brown willy...look it up on a map if you don't believe me....didn't go down to well when i mentioned to my mates in the pub that i had climbed brown willy!

 

The Welsh language predates the arrival of the English in Britain(circa 450 AD).It is a Brythonic Celtic language closely related to Cornish and Breton,and also to Gaelic.The word Welsh is from the Old English word 'wealas' meaning stranger or foreigner.The invading English drove the Welsh (whom the Romans called the British) out of the area that became England into the western highland zone that we now call Wales,and the Welsh call Cymru.The Welsh call England Lloegr,or 'lost land'.Thats why the names are so weird there.

 

now cornwall is the bestest place to live in Britain. I was lucky enough to live there for about 6 months. They still have a regional dialect and the name 'cornwall' is spelt 'Kernow' there. What a fantastic place in this country

 

i spent half my youth in cornwall, but thankfully didnt pick up the accent! two of my brother's still live there, (cambourne, redruth) the latter has a 32foot yacht in falmouth harbour, rich git! for some reason the 'yocals dont like londoners, my bro's, they our the last outpost for fulhamdom

 

I'm still trying to figure out how I could place Brit's by accent BEFORE I spent 4 months in London, but not since... at least I thought I could....

so confused! Can still usually tell a Yorkshireman, though.. I think.

 

you can always tell a yorkshireman...they're never wrong!