johnfowles
03-20-2014, 12:51 PM
One of the more obscure things about the United Kingdom is the weird Welsh language
which is more "Double Dutch" than even Dutch IMHO
as exemplified in the world's longest place name 58 characters that is often shortened to a simpler Llanfair
but is actually in full
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch
and an approximation of what that means in English is shown on this graphic helpfuly uploaded to its wikipedia page
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Llanfair_PG.png/800px-Llanfair_PG.png
and see
http://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A403642
I was mindful of this when I thought of another UK location to revisit using Google's awesome StreetView facility
Many years ago my company won a small contract to install a small metal flue at the RAF base and airfield at St Athen in the area of Cardiff in Old South Wales.I duly made my way there and was highly amused indeed dumbfounded at the main entrance to find that obviously just to make it easy for foreigners somebody had thoughtfully erected a translation of the obligatory Welsh name into English.
(It appears that the Welsh for Saint really is "Sain")!!
Fortunately it did not escape the attention of the roving Google camera
http://johnfowles.org.uk/funthings/images/St_Athan.jpg
which is more "Double Dutch" than even Dutch IMHO
as exemplified in the world's longest place name 58 characters that is often shortened to a simpler Llanfair
but is actually in full
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch
and an approximation of what that means in English is shown on this graphic helpfuly uploaded to its wikipedia page
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Llanfair_PG.png/800px-Llanfair_PG.png
and see
http://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A403642
I was mindful of this when I thought of another UK location to revisit using Google's awesome StreetView facility
Many years ago my company won a small contract to install a small metal flue at the RAF base and airfield at St Athen in the area of Cardiff in Old South Wales.I duly made my way there and was highly amused indeed dumbfounded at the main entrance to find that obviously just to make it easy for foreigners somebody had thoughtfully erected a translation of the obligatory Welsh name into English.
(It appears that the Welsh for Saint really is "Sain")!!
Fortunately it did not escape the attention of the roving Google camera
http://johnfowles.org.uk/funthings/images/St_Athan.jpg