1070: Welsh Names of English Places Nov 13, 2017

The Welsh city Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is known for having the longest name of any city in Europe (though not the world) at 58 letters, but this is not the only reason that Welsh [1] names for cities should be notable. Celtic languages used to be the dominant language family of the British Isles, and indeed most of Europe, and there are still trances of this. The city ‘Dover’ in southern England comes from ‘Dwfr’ or ‘Dŵr’ meaning 'water', even though English has been the dominant language there for a considerable amount of time. As well, somewhat redundantly, since 'afon' means 'river', the River Avon would simply mean 'river river' when considering its Celtic origin.