National park authority told to ditch name of Snowdon for Welsh language version
A national park authority has been told to ditch the name of Snowdon for the Welsh language version.
Councillor John Roberts has put forward a motion that urges park authorities to only refer to the highest mountain in Wales mountain at 3,560ft, by its Welsh name, Yr Wyddfa.
The motion, put forward ahead of a council meeting taking place tomorrow, also suggests that Snowdonia National Park Authority only refer to itself as Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri.
Roberts, who represents Corris and Mawddwy, believes ”all down to respect” for the Welsh language and Wales.
He said that he hopes a decision will be made at the meeting ”and that they don’t kick the can down the road.”
The motion, brought by Councillor John Roberts states: “That the authority hereafter uses only the authority’s Welsh name for the authority and that this becomes relevant in any language i.e. ‘Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri’ and never uses ‘Snowdonia National Park’ again.
“The same should apply to ‘Yr Wyddfa’ – never to use the name ‘Snowdon’ for it again.”
Councillor Roberts said: “Members of the authority complain about people coming here and changing house names to English ones.
“I say we should lead by example. I’m proud of being a Welshman and it’s my first language so I say we should respect it.
“If you go to France or Italy or any other country they respect their language and we should do the same.”
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Why not seems like a fair idea
Dw i’n cytuno efo fo cant y cant.
Use both, always using Cymraeg first. That would be respectful to both language speakers, and teach those who aren’t familiar with Yr Wyddfa.
I didn’t know the Welsh name! Diolch.
Well said I was going to suggest that 👏 im in the Welsh valleys and all our street names and sign posts have welsh first English below
Time to take back the vast majority of place names. Nothing difficult about Abertawe is there? Perhaps road signs should have pronunciation hints rather than english names!
Exactly from Llandybie
The BBC and other media will still call it Snowdon..with their difficul:ties with
saying any Welsh place names.
Tes, they cant even pronounce Rhondda.
True. Every time I hear them mispronouncing an easy Welsh name I want to scream (and also beat them round the head with a brick)
As an Englishman living in Wales I feel the same. Now, if it was a French name …
Wow beating people about the head for mispronouncing something, you need mental health help pronto before you kill someone
Why would you be so angry when English people aren’t educated in Welsh spelling conventions. That seems an extreme reaction.
Yes it drives me insane ystrad Mynach is a great one people can’t pronounce
What could make a real difference would be for the National Park to adopt ‘Parc Eryri’ as its only official name. This would force all official bodies – including the BBC – to use Eryri. It would also send a clear message that we are serious about defending our heritage, culture and environment.
Seems like a logical thing to do. Hope you achieve this soon.
About time for it to happen
A few missing facts here, like *which* council, for example (presumably Gwynedd) and whether the unnamed council has any control over what the Park Authority does anyway. Shouldn’t everything already be in Welsh?
Da iawn John. Dim ond y dechreuad i wyrdroi’r anghyfiawnder hwn yw hyn.
Absolutely the right thing to do. In NZ a lot of the name places have been reverted back to their original Maori.
Even though I can only speak Welsh typyn bach, this is a fantastic idea.
Cytuno yn llwyr!
Is that all we have to worry about during the pandemic. Well done.
100% support Wales’s language, but I don’t see any issue in a country that’s bilingual using a name in either language for different things. I speak Irish and English, but I’m never gonna call Dublin “Baile Atha Cliadh” it’s just Dublin to me. Both terms have a different etymology, it’s not simply an anglicisation. I think Snowdonia is an absolutely epic name for a place. However if the inhabitants want it only known by the Welsh name then nobody should say otherwise, all support to celtic languages.
Of course you should use the Welsh name – when you’re speaking Welsh. Ironic that he referred to Italy by its English name and not the Italian.
Some forgotten Welshnames:
Strathcyde – Ystrad Clud
Edinburgh – Caeredin
Northern England – Yr Hen Ogledd
Catterick (N. Yorkshire) – Catraeth
Welsh (or Briton) was spoken throughout Northern England, Lake District, Strathclyde
Dwin cytuno yn llwyr. 🏴
So it originally got its name from the Saxons “Snow Dun”
Is it true that Snowden in Welsh
Yr Wyddfa Fawr translates to great throne or great tomb?
The Prince of North Wales didn’t have a issue being called Lord of Snowdonia.
I’m all for countries to keep their mother tongue going and changing names of places where needed. More facts and transparency though.
Don’t be doing a tRump on us just to get your name in lights.
Bilingual with Welsh always first is just as good
The Welsh name ‘Yr Wyddfa’ means grave and it is believed that the giant Rhita Gawr was buried on the mountain. ‘Snowdon’ comes from Saxon “snow dune” meaning “snow hill”.
(https://www.eryri.llyw.cymru/addysg-education/primary-education/snowdonia/snowdon)
What’s wrong with calling it ERYRI NATIONAL PARK?
It never was Snowden! its Snowdon
I’m all for this, it’s not hard to say Yr Wyddda phonetically – ‘err withva’. We don’t refer to the highest peak in Europe as ‘white mountain’ after all
Thanks for the phonetic pronunciation. I try very hard but am making very slow progress . Writing down this way as well always helps . Diolch
We know too well that historically speaking the English have tried and tried to turn us into little copies of themselves by depriving us of the elements of nationhood. Fel y dyweda Dafydd Iwan, ” Er gwaethaf pawb a phopeth ry’ni yma o hyd. Heb iaith heb obaith. Does dim angen enwau Saesneg o gwbl yng Nghymru.
Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Why should everything be anglicised? Keep the Welsh language alive. Just for the record; I’m English.
Cytuno’n llwyr
It will remain as Snowdon even if changed..
Some forgotten Welshnames:
Strathcyde – Ystrad Clud
Edinburgh – Caeredin
Northern England – Yr Hen Ogledd
Catterick (N. Yorkshire) – Catraeth
Welsh (or Briton) was spoken throughout Northern England, Lake District, Strathclyde
Absolutely ridiculous. It has been and still is known the world over as Snowden. There is no need to go overboard with this absurd idea of changing the names of everything. Next you will be insisting we all change our names to a Welsh one!😡
Yes I agree, it about time that they spent time and money on doing urgent things!!, like bringing Caernarfon to what it used to be, and spend money over the Aber, the Foryd, and othe other surrunding places, and like scraping Snowden for y Wyddfa, what for!! It ridiculous!!
By the way, I’m welsh born, and very proud of my welsh, but wasting time and money, come on!!! It will always be Snowden.
I bet you can’t even speak your own language and have made no effort to learn it! Yeah let’s just change all welsh names into English.
But that’s exactly what’s happened to Wales over the centuries. They changed the names everywhere! And as for changing our own names to Welsh names, that’s a really good idea!
What a stupid comment! People like yourself are so ignorant and disrepectful!
It never was Snowden! its Snowdon
The anglicisation of Cymru is an insidious poison to be resisted at every turn. This proposal is to universally supported.
Drop “Wales” too based on its supposed origin but then we couldn’t enjoy that Catatonia song 🙂
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/wales/articles/find-out-how-wales-got-its-name/
Also I’d suggest getting rid of the word “Cardiff” because it’s just an anglosised noise! similar to Caerdydd and keep Caerdydd as the name of the main city of Cymru…. Which opens up the option for every other village, town, city etc to restore and display only the Original Cymraeg title…
Mae deddf yr iaith Gymraeg yn rhoi cydraddoldeb i’r ddwy iaith ond yw e? Felly na ddylai’r ddwy iaith fod yn gyfartal? Pwy sy’n mynd i dalu busnesau sy’n gorfod newid eu cynnyrch/ gwaith papur/ pamffledi? Does dim ots gyda fi’n bersonol os ydy’r Gymraeg yn unig yn cael ei ddefnyddio ond man a man gofyn y cwestiwn. Tase rhywun yn mynnu Saesneg yn unig fase ddigon o ffys a ffwdan. Does dim eisiau safonau dwbl oes e.
Ond mea’n bwysig cadw enwau Cymraeg a dyle yr enw Cymraeg for yn gynta. Ac yn Saesneg dyle’r enw fod yn ‘ERYRI National Park’
As a Welsh person wo as lived in England, I can honestly say that if you think more than 2% of the English would notice te change, you are sady mistaken.
Your probably true ,that being though 55 million people in England compared to 3.1 in Wales .. so no surprise there …
We don’t think this. We just want to keep Welsh names. What’s the big deal? It’s important for us. We don’t care what the 98% think.
Snowflakes at again.
As someone who seriously struggles learning Welsh…
Why is there even a debate? Be proud of your heritage, culture and language- and defend it.
There is a tendency to translate other languages- let the BBC do that if they feel like it.
For me it will always be Köln and München and no derivative of it.
Totally ridiculous when the majority of the population of Wales 1st language is English and don’t see Welsh as being there language , pandering to the minority yet again !!!!!
Before commenting on other’s language, please learn your own language correctly first. ‘there language’ has no meaning. This is no pandering to the minority you ignorant fool.
That’s fine but I don’t see what all the fuss is about. I tried learning the language when I moved there, but everytime I tried to use it in shops where people clearly spoke Welsh, they switched to English, and looked at me funny. Seems the Welsh don’t want anyone else learning their language
‘switched to English and looked at me funny’ If you are so insecure, maybe learning another language isn’t for you. Be confident and show them you are trying.
About time ,let’s stop the anglicisation of Welsh names in our country. Cytuno’n llwyr.
It’s hard for people to imagine a mountain as sad, but l think this one will be happy again now
All for Wales reverting back to Welsh (about time) but, is this all they have to worry about at this time. Why not use Welsh first then English (like many signs in Wales are) and everyone will be happy.
Its about time as a proud Welsh woman I feel we should have our language recognised did you know in the UK the Welsh language is classes as a foreign language the Welsh language dates back thousands of years its a compulsory subject in schools around Wales it should be recognised as a British language
Some forgotten Welshnames:
Strathcyde – Ystrad Clud
Edinburgh – Caeredin
Northern England – Yr Hen Ogledd
Catterick (N. Yorkshire) – Catraeth
Welsh (or Briton) was spoken throughout Northern England, Lake District, Strathclyde
‘The name Snowden should never be used again…’ ? Just use both eh ? Welsh speakers can address it in Welsh and the far greater number of english speaking Welsh and English people can call it Snowdon. I am Welsh by birth but not Welsh speaking and do not believe a culture is ever exclusively defined by just its language. Millions of pounds spent in Wales on sending out all governmrnt forms in both welsh and english so double the amount of paper and half of which is wasted and simply to politically appease a tiny percentage ( – 15%)… Read more »
So you are advocating no written document in Welsh. Oh! Yeah great idea…
Why the disdain for your own language & culture?
It will still be called Snowdon by 90% of visitors.
But people in the US have started calling Mt McKinley Denali for some time. So what’s your point?
What are you going to call Mt Everest
Chomolungma of course.