Wales Calls on Public to Save Endangered Place Names
The Welsh government has launched an ambitious new initiative to preserve traditional Welsh place names that are at risk of disappearing. Through a newly created online platform, native speakers are being encouraged to submit geographical names they use for mountains, rivers, fields, forests, houses, bridges, ruins, and mills.
Digital Preservation Effort
The project, accessible via a dedicated website, allows contributors to pinpoint locations on a digital map and upload supporting evidence for local names. The collected data will be made available to public mapping services including Wikipedia and Open Street Map.
"You can help preserve these local names for future generations, whether it's the name your grandfather used for a local field, the Welsh name for a nearby hill, or the historical name of your street or house," explains the Welsh government in their official statement.
Cultural Heritage at Risk
According to project organizers, many of these names have never been centrally recorded. The initiative comes as research shows that during property transfers, names are three times more likely to change from Welsh to English than the reverse.
"Place names tell the story of who we are and where we come from," says Welsh Language Secretary Mark Drakeford. "This way, our names are protected for the future."
Pronunciation Preservation
The project also includes an audio component, asking contributors to submit recordings of spoken place names. These recordings will be used on platforms like Wikipedia to provide pronunciation examples for the notoriously difficult Welsh place names.
Welsh is a Celtic language currently spoken by approximately 26% of Wales' population - over 800,000 people. About one in seven people in Wales use the language daily. The language features unique characteristics uncommon in other European languages, including a distinctive double-L sound and a remarkable rolling R.
Historical Context
For centuries, the British government actively suppressed the Welsh language, leading to declining numbers of speakers. However, recent years have seen increased preservation efforts, and the number of Welsh speakers has stabilized. The Welsh government aims to increase Welsh speakers to one million by 2050.
Place names in Wales are often displayed bilingually, such as Cardiff/Caerdydd, Swansea/Abertawe, and Wrexham/Wrecsam. The most famous example remains Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, one of the longest place names in the world.