Thought it was to do with naming a mountain after a person or place to differentiate it from someone or some where. ie mount Kenya in Kenya. Or "mount" snowden in snowdonia.
Could be wrong.
Yr Wyddfa is the mountains correct name, but then I am sensitive to the how it should be called (being Welsh and all)....
Its a bit like Denali which tourists and the naive still call Mount McKinley (for our American friends) or Uluru which was called formally referred to as Ayers Rock (for our Australian friends).
I personally don't know anyone that stills refers to Mount McKinley or Ayers Rock anymore, we have moved on in this post colonial age and show respect to the indigonus peoples who first named them. I thinks its about time we all started calling Yr Wyddfa by its correct name and not some imported foreign name..
* And to answer the question: Mount Snowdon was given it English colonial name as a version of the old english Snow-Hill - the mount part being adorned by the Victorians as a way of drawing in tourists.
NorwayCalling wrote:Yr Wyddfa is the mountains correct name, but then I am sensitive to the how it should be called (being Welsh and all)....
Its a bit like Denali which tourists and the naive still call Mount McKinley (for our American friends) or Uluru which was called formally referred to as Ayers Rock (for our Australian friends).
I personally don't know anyone that stills refers to Mount McKinley or Ayers Rock anymore, we have moved on in this post colonial age and show respect to the indigonus peoples who first named them. I thinks its about time we all started calling Yr Wyddfa by its correct name and not some imported foreign name..
* And to answer the question: Mount Snowdon was given it English colonial name as a version of the old english Snow-Hill - the mount part being adorned by the Victorians as a way of drawing in tourists.
Not being Welsh at all. What does it mean in Welsh? (is Welsh called Gaelic or is it of the Gaelic language and differ hugely from other Gaelic languages?, almost afraid to ask, in order to be banned from this forum )
Yr Wyddfa means the burial mound or tomb. Supposedly it's the burial place of a giant - Rhitta Fawr
Welsh is one of the Celtic languages as are both Scottish and Irish Gaelic. There are quite a few words that have similar pronunciations and meanings if different spellings. Bugail/buachaille both mean shepherd for example.
Better weight than wisdom, a traveller cannot carry
whitestone wrote:Yr Wyddfa means the burial mound or tomb. Supposedly it's the burial place of a giant - Rhitta Fawr
Welsh is one of the Celtic languages as are both Scottish and Irish Gaelic. There are quite a few words that have similar pronunciations and meanings if different spellings. Bugail/buachaille both mean shepherd for example.
Thanks. I do like the old stories and tales from years past/folklore
And apperently marketing tricks isn't confined to your part of the world. We have a hill in in Denmark, they branded it back in the 1700 something Himmelbjerget (Himmel=Sky Bjerget=The Mountain) so The Skymountain. height is 147 m, yes one,four,seven Way overselling the product
NorwayCalling wrote:Yr Wyddfa is the mountains correct name, but then I am sensitive to the how it should be called (being Welsh and all)....
Its a bit like Denali which tourists and the naive still call Mount McKinley (for our American friends) or Uluru which was called formally referred to as Ayers Rock (for our Australian friends).
I personally don't know anyone that stills refers to Mount McKinley or Ayers Rock anymore, we have moved on in this post colonial age and show respect to the indigonus peoples who first named them. I thinks its about time we all started calling Yr Wyddfa by its correct name and not some imported foreign name..
* And to answer the question: Mount Snowdon was given it English colonial name as a version of the old english Snow-Hill - the mount part being adorned by the Victorians as a way of drawing in tourists.
Not being Welsh at all. What does it mean in Welsh? (is Welsh called Gaelic or is it of the Gaelic language and differ hugely from other Gaelic languages?, almost afraid to ask, in order to be banned from this forum )
It's funny, there's me getting upset with the added 'Mount' part and I miss the bigger picture if it's true identity/name!
Sadly not being very au fait with Australia and their place names, I still call Ayer Rock that Although the recent bike race to it used that name but I'm guessing that's the marketing side of it.
The Cairngorms is all wrong. There's one hill called Cairn Gorm (Gorms being a shade of blue in Scots Gaelic) but the name of the range was always the Monadh Ruadh (Ruadh being a shade of red and reflected the predominant rock colour). It was those bloody Victorians wot renamed them.
ScotRoutes wrote:While we're on mountain linguistic trivia....
The Cairngorms is all wrong. There's one hill called Cairn Gorm (Gorms being a shade of blue in Scots Gaelic) but the name of the range was always the Monadh Ruadh (Ruadh being a shade of red and reflected the predominant rock colour). It was those bloody Victorians wot renamed them.
Next you'll be telling Ben Nevis wasn't a real person, and the Highlands aren't.
ScotRoutes wrote:While we're on mountain linguistic trivia....
The Cairngorms is all wrong. There's one hill called Cairn Gorm (Gorms being a shade of blue in Scots Gaelic) but the name of the range was always the Monadh Ruadh (Ruadh being a shade of red and reflected the predominant rock colour). It was those bloody Victorians wot renamed them.
Next you'll be telling Ben Nevis wasn't a real person, and the Highlands aren't.
Funnily enough, Everest should be pronounced as Eve-rest (as it was named after one of the Surveyors on the mountains but he would insist his name was prounced Eve-rest and not Everest)
Seems the 'bloody Victorians' along with OS are responsible for many wrong namings and spellings all over the place which end up being the, generally, accepted way.