English isn’t the only language of Britain

THE letter from Chris Madoc-Jones about anglicising Welsh placenames is a bit silly. Many people from all parts of the UK have travelled and settled in other countries, particularly Spain and France, and they don’t require these countries to change placenames to suit them- they’d soon be told where to go if they did! Why should Wales change its placenames to suit English (or any other) preferences?

The problem goes back to the schoolroom, which should acknowledge and address the fact that in Britain there are several other languages and dialects in use within these shores, from Gaelic, Irish, Welsh and Cornish, as well as English. It would not take much out of the curriculum to point out some differences in word values and sounds so that pupils outside these areas do not grow up totally mystified when they come across the Welsh Y and W as vowel sounds and not consonants, to take an example, or the DD and LL sounds of Welsh and the DGH and BH sounds of Gaelic.

On a wider scene, now that colonialism is loosening in the old ‘Empire,’ we see Burma reverting to Myanmar, Madras to Chennai, Bombay to Mumbai to name a few, so if Wales wants to revert to its precolonial names, so be it. However, many countries in Europe have placenames listed on signposts in several languages, some, like the Languedoc region of the South of France have four- Catalan, French, Oc, and often English, and in Belgium there are French, Flemish, German and English versions of their placenames. Therefore, nothing wrong with a bi-lingual signpost pointing out Yr Wyddfa and Snowdon on the same signs. People in England (and Wales), should stop moaning about bi-lingualism.

As for the English, or any other nationality, buying properties in Wales, we all know it is because people fleeing the expensive areas of urban England have loads of cash and can afford to buy whatever they want. The result is that local people are pushed out of being able to live in the places they were brought up in, and where they want to live out their lives- just see what has happened in Cornwall! This presents a much wider problem in the loss of cultural identity than would be the case by arguing over placenames for tourist attractions.

Jean Fowlds Blaengarw, Bridgend