Oh bugger! The taffs are at it again…
This week’s lunacy from the country that bottled a full parliament in favour of an assembly with bugger all to do except make up damn silly laws, concerns Welsh place names that nobody – including most welshmen – can pronounce.
It all started with a row where the Grade I-listed Plas Glynllifon near Caernarfon was referred to as Wynnborn Mansion in online marketing material. Basically this was because nobody could pronounce or spell the welsh version so the owners decided to market it under a rather less tongue twisting name.
Then enter Faerdre Fach. Nobody could remember, pronounce or spell that either so the owner markets it as Happy Donkey Hill B&B – quite logical as it actually houses a donkey sanctuary and, to be fair, it still maintains the original name as well. It’s on a sign outside the entrance.
But this simply won’t do! Meri Huws, the Welsh Language Commissioner, says certain names should be recorded and then placed on a “statutory register”. Such names should be protected by law! She reckons that the Historic Environment Bill progressing through the assembly provided “a real opportunity for us to protect names through a statutory register and that is done in other places in the world”.
Personally, I think it’s a fucking waste of time and money. Money which, of course, is given to them by the government because as I have said before, the Welsh at at their best pissing English money up a Welsh wall.
And, in my view, if you have to enshrine such things in law, then this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Welsh really is a dead language…
Insult me directly by eMail
Dioclese 
I lived in Wales during the seventies. Lovely place. This nonsense was kicking off back then. Burning down English owned holiday homes was deemed de rigour. So, at least they aren't doing that, eh?
Ah, are, typos like “as I have said before, the Welsh at at their best pissing ” won't win you any friends…
The Welsh aren't real.
French culture itself is not intrinsically as democratic as culture based on British traditions. In Quebec, Canada, for instance, a restaurateur who places a blackboard outside her bistro with the words, “Today's Special / Specialité du jour” can be fined thousands of dollars.(1) A vile case of totalitarian impulse I dare say. Quebec is a nasty, bureaucratic, statist and intolerant place indeed.
(1) Why?
The French must be listed first, in a more prominent position and in larger letters than the English. It is actually preferable not to use English at all. The Quebec Fascists also have 'Language Police' who roam about enforcing these rules.
http://sterculianrhetoric.blogspot.ca/2013/06/f-y-cn-rd-ths-y-mst-b-wlsh.html
Frank Davis (Banging on about the smoking ban) cult leader encourages daily speaking in tongues chanting or as he calls it praying in the spirit to God to help amend the smoking ban
https://youtu.be/vsrwgd7rnR0 (5.50 mins the chanting starts)…an example.
Michaeljmcfadden, Harleyrider1978, Rose practice this, others on the blog claim to have not got round to doing it yet cos they are too busy.
Frank hopes one day to start a thread in speaking in tongues to see how it goes.
Rickie
The irony being that Canadians don't speak proper French and would fall foul of language protection zealots in France. Heh!
Thanks for pointing that out. I'll ignore your extraneous comma between 'are' and 'typos'.
I may not be able to type, but I do understand punctuation 😉
Years ago, I was a PhD student at Aberystwyth University. During a school visit I noted that although the teachers made a special point of always speaking Welsh to the kids (who understood perfectly), the kids never spoke Welsh when chatting amongst themselves. Up there, right next to Gog-land, the kids preferred English amongst themselves.
Welsh is basically doomed as a language. The linguistic zealots tend to forget that the purpose of a language is to communicate, and to do that everybody has to speak the same language. Trying to force people not to communicate is a complete and utter waste of time and money.
I know!
I speak Parisian French with an aristocratic accent – or so I've been told. I delight in silencing the French speaking Canadian Caucasoids with, “Your vile basilectal Quebecois joual hurts my ears. Either speak proper French or speak English: bastardizing that vile tongue doesn't offend me.” I say the first sentence in pure, aristocratic Parisian French and the second in English. Result? They usually swear in frog at me and walk away.
I live within 8km of the Quebec border with Ontario. I don't go there because I haven't had my shots.
I hate pedants too Dioclese, but I hate cunts who employ punctuation happy-faces even more Semi-colon : Hyphen : Close-bracket☻