Snowdon to be known by it's Welsh name Yr Wyddfa | Hacker News Reader

Snowdon to be known by it's Welsh name Yr Wyddfa

bbc.co.uk

38 pointsjimnotgym27 comments

I'm all for using the Welsh names, but I don't think it makes sense to remove the English equivalents. Although about 60% of people in Gwynedd speak Welsh, most Welsh people can't and approximately no one who isn't Welsh can.

Unfortunately the 20% who speak Welsh dominate the institutions of power in Wales, in gross disproportion to thier number, and moves like this are more about power than making any kind of practical sense. See also the recently announced plans for the Welsh football team to be known as Cymru, even when referred to in English. This sort of parochial nonsense goes on at every level and really holds Wales back.

If the Welsh Government isn't going to champion Welsh, who is?

It's a question of approach. Ramming it down people's throats is not Championing. Making it compulsory up to the age of 16, to the detriment of other subjects, so that it's almost universally resented in my children's school, for example, is not the way to go about it.

FYI, Gaeilge is compulsory all the way up to the end of secondary school in Ireland (17/18yo).

It certainly had its naysayers, but learning a second language is shown to improve empathy and cognitive abilities in children.

Certainly there's an argument to learn something more practical, but at least Gaeilge acts as a bulwark to the onslaught of English language media from US/UK that could easily drown out a small open country like Ireland's indigenous material.

> Making it compulsory up to the age of 16, to the detriment of other subjects (...)

Which subject do you believe should have a higher priority than defending the cultural identity of a nation?

Maths, science.

How is it prioritised over these subjects? Surely a student can take math, science and Welsh and still have time for a few more subjects.

Opportunity cost. By having to study it at all, those students lose the opportunity to study something else that might have more value or merit to them personally. In that way, it definitely is a forced priority.

> Maths, science.

But those are already taught as the central subjects, aren't they? They are far from being ignored or neglected.

Again, which subjects should be prioritized offer cultural identity?

The Welsh language isn't part of the cultural identity of most English-speakers in Wales. That's why they find it annoying when their children are forced to learn it. It's like forcing every child in Brittany to learn Breton when most of the population speaks French and has no desire to speak Breton.

> The Welsh language isn't part of the cultural identity of most English-speakers in Wales.

Do you understand what "protecting the culturage identity" means? From your comment, it looks like you didn't manage to connect the dots.

Are you being deliberately obtuse? If you're capable, try expressing an opinion in clear and comprehensible language. The vague waffle and irrelevant rhetorical questions make you look dim-witted.

I think it’s good. Antiracism.

Actual title: Snowdon: Park to use mountain's Welsh name Yr Wyddfa

If you'd kept that, you'd not have misused that apostrophe on it's

I thought this was about the whistleblower - it's about the name of a welsh mountain. :)

Same here. But also I got confused because I remember it being spelled with an "e" near the end.

"... the park already included the Welsh names on English-language documents followed by the English names in parentheses. However, the name Snowdonia is set in law, therefore the authority has the legal requirement to also use it in official statutory documents. Some Welsh-language campaigners have stated they would want the names to be scrapped entirely. The authority announced they are to conduct a review of the authority's branding in 2023 taking into account the new approach to Welsh place names."[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowdonia#:~:text=the%20park%2...

I'm just loving the fact that this news article from the BBC provides no instruction about how to pronounce either Yr Wyddfa or Eryri. If only there were a way for the BBC to include audio on the page!

They give pronunciation in the picture toward the bottom of the article.

It’s badly done - but it is there. Text overlay in the mountain image. Er-with-va - Snowdon Eh-ruh-re - Snowdonia

In retaliation, the Yorkshire Dales national park are proposing to rename Pen-y-ghent to something more English.

(this is a joke; the point is that there are lots of places in Britain with unexpected, non-local-seeming language roots)

Well, no-longer-local-seeming language roots. I don't know about ghent, but pen y is pretty Welsh. The locals who don't recognize it have mostly just forgotten it.

The area around Yr Wyddfa/Snowden is breathtakingly beautiful. The hike to the summit is not too difficult (there is a more challenging route for those so inclined) and there is the option of riding a train.

The hardest bit about climbing it is dealing with the crowds. There is literally a long queue for the peak, and people leave rubbish everywhere. But, yeah, it’s beautiful and I was one of the crowd so I shouldn’t complain.

Oh great, the one single thing in Wales that I could actually pronounce...

Off-topic but definitely go there if you have a chance. Very beautiful, take the slow train up. On-topic: go Welsh people, lovely people.

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