• Llyn Bochlwyd (lake gray cheek)
• Foel Fawr
• Coed Llugwy
• Cwm Cneifion

Erasure of culture

Memory and place names

"A nation which forgets its past has no future." - Winston Churchill (check quote and provenance)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLQ6XlG0MQ4

https://en.forum.saysomethingin.com/t/hills-and-mountains-in-welsh/36923

• twyn - hill(ock), mound, knoll, hummock, heap, peak, dune, molehill
• tyle - hill(ock) (with a suggestion of steepness)
• allt - hill(side), steep gradient, cliff, wooded slope
• bryn - hill, hillock, mountain
• gallt - slope, hill, cliff, rock, wooded hillside
• garth - mountain ridge, promontory hill, wooded slope
• rhiw - steep slope, hill(side) (more commonly used in the SW)
• bryncyn - hillock, knoll, tump, mound, heap
• poncen/ponc/poncyn - hillock, tump, knoll, rising ground (more commonly used in the N)
• trip - steep hill (relating to a road or path) (more commonly used in SE)
• banc - rising ground, hillock, ridge, slope
• moel - bare mountain, treeless hill, summit, rounded mountain
• mynydd - mountain, large hill
• ban (pl. bannau) - top, tip, summit, crest, peak, beacon, hill, mountain, bare hill

Here's the video version of this article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLQ6XlG0MQ4

Place names and songlines together reminds me of a great BBC segment "Disappearing Welsh Names" I saw recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLQ6XlG0MQ4

It highlights by analogy the value of indigenous culture, knowledge, and creativity which the survival of songlines also provides us with. (It also saddens me because it starkly reminds me of all the knowledge and languages we've lost already.)

I've been learning Welsh since the pandemic started and just a few simple words of Welsh has given me a far greater appreciation of places in the UK and what they mean. It's helped not only to expand my vocabulary, but increased my creativity in creating local songlines. It's also made it much easier to learn to say and remember the town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

<table> <thead><tr> <th>Cymraeg</th> <th>Meaning</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Aber</td> <td>Where one river flows into another body of water (example: Aberystwyth)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Ban, Bannau</td> <td>Peak(s), beacon(s)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Bron</td> <td>Breast of a hill</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Bryn</td> <td>Hill</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Caer</td> <td>Fort</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cas</td> <td>Castle</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Crug</td> <td>Hill, tump</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cwm</td> <td>Valley</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Derw, Deri</td> <td>Oaks</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Dinas</td> <td>Hill-fort</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Dyffryn</td> <td>Valley, vale</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Ffin</td> <td>Border, boundary</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Isaf</td> <td>Lower, lowest</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Llan</td> <td>Church, church land (often followed by the name of the saint to whom the church was dedicated, eg, Llangatwg - a place with a church dedicated to St Catwg)</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Morfa</td> <td>Salt-marsh</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Nant</td> <td>Brook, dingle</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Pont</td> <td>Bridge</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Porth</td> <td>Gate</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Rhos</td> <td>Moor</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Tyle</td> <td>Hill-side, ascent</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Uchaf</td> <td>Upper, highest</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Ystrad</td> <td>Vale</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

It also uncovers quirks of place names like Breedon on the Hill which translates from Brythonic, Saxon, and Modern English to "Hill Hill on the Hill" and crystalizes, as if in amber, the fact that Brythonic, Saxon, and English speakers all conjoined for a time on a hill in England. Similarly there's also Barnack Hills in England which translates from old Celtic (barr), Scottish Gaelic (cnoc) and English as "flat topped hill hill hills". It's almost hillarious.

Article about the renaming of Welsh place names into English which erases culture and history.

This place name in Welsh translates to "peat moorland"