Your view on calls to end use of 'offensive' English names for quarry sites

With an upcoming event at Llyn Padarn aiming to honour the history of workers in Welsh quarries and promote the preservation of original place names, North Wales Live readers have been having their say over the "silly and insulting" English names for quarry sites.

The event, at Llyn Padarn’s sword monument on Sunday, June 23, will see speeches, poetry, songs, choirs and bands. It will mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of the North Wales Quarrymen’s Union.

The debate over the original Welsh names was a hot topic and one our readers relished. One reader, Ysgawen said: "Original Welsh names should be promoted in the relevant climbing guides, to which this is a reference, as this is the way to make a change. I think the author misses the fact that modern guidebooks have reverted to using Welsh names for traditionally named features all over Eryri, and historical naming is explained.

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Thefarqueue said: "We ALL know Welsh IS the original & oldest spoken native tongue since before Brittania was Britain. The Brythonic has an uninterrupted line from thousands of years ago, to today's Modern Welsh.

"The Romans wiped the rest from the map - yet, like the last place invaded by them... Dy ni yma o hyd. Despite everything & everyone. The Welsh language IS the original language of these Isles...& still remains. Must be tough for the visitors to handle.. lots of jealousy i can see. With the WELSH language being a pedigree, not a mongrel."

Jjbb1985 added: "I don’t see the big deal, they aren't signposted or official names, just use the Welsh names when visiting with kids or grandkids and those names will stick in their minds and be passed on, it’s really that simple… the English names are ridiculous, no one with sense will use them… I’ll be honest I still call Eryri Snowdon, it’s the name I’ve used since a child and it’s not that I don’t respect the new name it’s just that habit won’t allow me to change it… I love how patriotic the Welsh people are, their love for their country and culture is fantastic but this is a little silly… there are so many bigger issues this country faces that don’t receive half of much fanfare as this."

Redheadboi said: "Parch is the Welsh word for respect but then these inconsiderate colonists don’t know that do they? Move to a country, change the local names that they cannot be bothered to pronounce to some nonsensical nickname forget the history and culture. Job done. Parch."

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Mrrogerdodger said: "I don't understand why English, being an imported Germanic tongue, is given priority over the native languages of the United Kingdom. It beggars belief."

Hollyhead said: "What difference does it make? You can revert to their original names, but people who only know them by their modern equivalent will always call them by those names."

Vaux08hall said: "Sadly a lot of Welsh born and bred like me want to live in the past not the now or future. We are a multicultural society, not Welsh and to survive in the modern world we need to be more multicultural and diverse."

Robert J Davies commented: "The staggering irony about this ongoing name-change obsession is that very many Welsh speakers - probably the majority - cheerfully pepper their Welsh conversation with English loan words. I speak some Welsh as a second language and can understand far more on top. It saddens me to hear English mixed into Welsh when there are perfectly good Welsh words available. Even with my rudimentary Welsh, I often use Welsh words where a native speaker would switch to the English equivalent. And yet, here we are, once again, seeking to force native English speakers who don't speak Welsh and don't know how to pronounce or spell Welsh words properly, to pepper their English conversation with Welsh!"

Robert continued with: "What is the point of a native Welsh speaker throwing up his/her hands in horror at English folk saying "Snowdonia" rather than "Eryri" then proceeding to talk Welsh using English numbers and saying "car park" instead of "maes parcio" etc. How many people, when talking in fluent Welsh, actually say "Bannau Brycheiniog" instead of Brecon Beacons, for instance? Come on, be honest! And I'm sorry but when using English, the appropriate word for "quarry" is "quarry". Do you seriously think any English speaker is going to start saying "chwarel Dinorwic"? It's all so maddeningly hypocritical, totally illogical and will do nothing for the future of the Welsh language."

1259 added: "A hundred years ago our relatives fought for what was right and fair and decent, went hungry, lost their tied housing, hauled rocks from fields to grow a few extra vegetables, constructed their own pathways across the mountain to get to work that bit easier. That history is lost when the names of those fields, rockfaces, quarries, mountains are forgotten."

So what are your feelings on the changing of the Welsh names to English? Let us know in the comments below or HERE.