User talk:Glantawe

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Hello, Glantawe, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few links to pages you might find helpful:

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Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask for help on your talk page, and a volunteer should respond shortly. Again, welcome! Victuallers (talk) 09:37, 20 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Welsh placenames

To say that I'm not an expert on proper Welsh spellings would be to insult experts in Welsh spelling, but I find it odd that both this edit and this edit are correct. I recognize that "that's just the way it is" is an acceptable response and, if that's it, have no rejoinder, but I would love to be schooled on the matter if you'd care to take the time to do so. BTW, one of my ancestors here in Texas is of Welsh ancestry and had the surname "Taff" so besides being interested in bridges in general (hence my name), I was particularly pleased to write about a bridge over the River Taff. Best regards, TransporterMan (TALK) 22:49, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Glantawe (talk) 16:25, 30 July 2017 (UTC) The rules for spelling Welsh place names correctly are quite explicit, though non-Welsh-speakers are often reluctant to accept that certain spellings are faulty, being accustomed to the spelling they have always known. This is why there are sometimes two spellings which seem almost identical - the one used by English-speakers and the one used in modern Welsh. A brief list of the conventions is to be seen here. http://www.comisiynyddygymraeg.cymru/English/Publications%20List/20160222%20DG%20S%20Guidelines%20for%20Standardizing%20Place-names%20in%20Wales.pdf Another example of the dual nomenclature is precisely the name Taff - the river in Welsh is called Taf [ta:v], and it has been anglicised as Taff (with a short 'a', and [f] instead of [v]). In fact, there are two rivers called Taf in south Wales - it is the south-eastern one which has received an English name. Curiously the south-western one has not, and is Taf. On older maps mapmakers sometimes gave Taf a circumflex (Tâf) though it is not needed in Welsh, although to non-Welsh-speakers it is a useful reminder that the vowel is long..[reply]

Schooled and curiosity satisfied! Just a note: The convention here is to put your four-tilde signature at the end of talk page messages and to indent each subsequent message (as I'm doing here). It's not writ in stone, but it does make talkpages much easier to parse out. Just a word to the wise, however, and thank you for the education (and reference). Best regards, TransporterMan (TALK) 21:06, 30 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]