To think that if it was France & French no one would care about a name change but because it’s Welsh…

[Letshaveablackcelebration2022]

Welsh is trending on Twitter because a lot of people don’t like the fact that the Brecon Beacons will revert to its Welsh name https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/17/brecon-beacons-relaunches-with-welsh-name-bannau-brycheiniog-as-picture-of-hope-for-future

People also kicked off when Snowdon also reverted to its Welsh name Yr Wyddfa

Aibu to really not understand the issue. I am Welsh and a Welsh speaker. It makes sense to me to call place names by their Welsh names and not by their anglicised versions if you want to protect a language and culture. Which we do.

Noone would bat an eyelid if in France their decided to only use French names. We drive in France and get by without English alternatives. So what exactly is the problem with Wales doing the same?

OP, what do you think about the reason they gave though? The burning/carbon/netzero reason?

Welsh speakers appear to be on the decline despite all children learning some Welsh at school.

https://www.bangor.ac.uk/news/2022-12-16-number-of-welsh-speakers-has-declined-pandemic-disruption-to-education-may-be-a

Down to just under 18%.

Twitter and politicians looking to get cheap attention are all a lot of hot air.

It’s not what most normal sane people think. And no one minds at all about the name change!

Don’t amplify the extreme shouty people on twitter!

I’m with you op! Welsh is the only language to have to continually justify its existence.

I honestly don’t know what people are getting their knickers in a twist about though. It’s not like we’re going to throw them in Cardiff prison because they’ve called it Brecon Beacons.
Its just being called officially by its proper name going forward.

I’m Welsh and live in North Wales. It’s still Snowdon as far I’m concerned. I’ve never heard anyone call it Yr Wyddfa. People still say they are climbing Snowdon, can see Snowdon etc. I doubt this will change with the Brecon Beacons either.

You're disagreeing with multiple respected professional and acadenic sources on 'sut' not just a random person on Mumsnet.

My main point was, as there are substantial differences in dialect, saying Welsh is always phoenetic isn't really true - unless you only want to consider North Walian Welsh as Welsh. Which is possible given your user name ;) but as I am not from the Gogledd I like to embrace the diffetences and use the local dialect.

Well yes, that’s generally how it goes when a place name changes anywhere. Most people use the name that they grew up with, which will be the Welsh version for future generations.

I’m pretty sure this is currently changing as most of the children are educated in Welsh and that’s the whole point of the movement. Those stats were from 2019 weren’t they? There’s obviously been delay in improvement from covid too since then. I’m in Wales but am from London, my ds is at a Welsh school (dd will be in Welsh speaking nursery) and people speak Welsh on the street. It’s area dependent too. In our area, there are lots of native fluent Welsh speakers and plenty of people opt for Welsh at the doctors or similar. I’m not sure there’s a huge number of direct comparisons in other countries, but I could be wrong. The only ones I can think of still have very serious and dangerous issues around the countries who had power over them, so can’t really be used as it’s a different situation despite the language being highly reduced and then gradually returned to. I have no issue with the change, but it will take time to filter into main society as it’s the younger generations that are more likely to use it, I think.

Colonist mindset so deeply ingrained. Most English people have no idea about the history of Britain, oppression of the Welsh and Irish etc etc. It's not taught in schools for a reason. Just the world wars where we can be painted in a good light, and the Romans so we can glory in empire.

They don’t ‘learn some Welsh’, they’re taught in Welsh if they’re at a Welsh speaking school. Everything is in Welsh, the spoken teaching, the papers, the written work, the reading books, the school shows - it’s all done in Welsh.

I’m pretty sure this is currently changing as most of the children are educated in Welsh and that’s the whole point of the movement.

Are most children in Wales educated in Welsh medium schools? As opposed to learning Welsh as a subject?

@FofD I think it’s valid and forward looking. There are a lot of issues in the national park that need addressing (I have family that live on the edge of it) - this seems to be their way of shifting focus - as much as people scream woke, they can’t ignore the climate change & biodiversity issues they are facing

@EscapeRoomToTheSun yes indeed- colonialism is deeply ingrained - it’s shown on some of the posts on here that disregard Welsh identity

Because English uses a word derived from the Latin word for Greece which was Graecia. :-)

It's great that name is back to original Welsh name but I wonder if it will be counter productive for tourism. New name is a combination of 2 long words unlike Eifel Tower or Taj Mahal (even those two names of contain of well known words like tower and Mahal), so I think one issue could be the new name will be hard to remember.

OP, you said....
Welsh is trending on Twitter because a lot of people don’t like the fact that the Brecon Beacons will revert to its Welsh name www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/apr/17/brecon-beacons-relaunches-with-welsh-name-bannau-brycheiniog-as-picture-of-hope-for-future

People also kicked off when Snowdon also reverted to its Welsh name Yr Wyddfa.

I would just question how do you know "a lot people don't like " it . I live in Wales.
It seems to me,that there is an assumption that English people don't like it but it's just an assumption.
Personally ,I'm all for everything written in welsh but equally there should be a open to all welcome for everyone to learn welsh .

@Letshaveablackcelebration2022 - it's ironic because these same antiwoke types bang on about British traditions... Well, the Welsh language is extremely traditional within these isles!

It is really odd how some people really would seem to prefer to see Welsh die out.

Wales isn't a Welsh speaking country though, is it? It's a country where some people speak Welsh. France is a French speaking country, so your statement doesn't really bear scrutiny. What I don't understand is why, when you currently translate everything, do you not also translate this? Why balk at two names for this?

And just to be clear, I don't care either way, as an English person, why would I ? Totally indifferent. But I think your argument is a load of rubbish.

@darjeelingrose well maybe read this https://www.visitwales.com/info/language/poetry-motion-discover-language-wales and learn a bit about the history of the Welsh language and how it has been historically oppressed and then try to understand why it’s important

I'm wondering the same considering that the historical evidence for the reference to Beacon coming from lighting fires rather than referring to a particular peak in the range seems to be tenuous at best.

I suspect the area will continue to be referred to as a the Brecon Beacons for a long time to come.

I'm English and I think it's good that it's reverting to its Welsh name. The distinctive identities of the UK countries should be cherished. Nothing to stop English people using the translated name.

It's Wenglish. An englishman is a sais, englishwoman saesnes, more than one english person/speaker' saeson, and the English language is saesneg. Saes is not a Welsh word.

@GogLais Jesus, as I said, I grew up on the Welsh borders so that’s probably why. Is it an issue? It’s what I grew up with - am sure there are lots of regional variations 🙄