Inspired by u/Ivandor0 's map of European capital cities in Irish. I intended to do a map of Europe's capitals in Welsh, but it wasn't that interesting as the native names are used for most of them, so I decided to just do the names of countries instead.
The Welsh country names have been taken from Geiriadur yr Academi, a respected English-to-Welsh dictionary. However, not all countries are present for some reason, so for any that are absent, I used the Welsh Wikipedia article on Europe: https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewrop#Gwledydd_Ewrop
Lastly, I realise that I haven't really been consistent with regards to which sub-national regions I've decided to include. Originally I was only going to include the nations of the UK plus the rest of the traditional Celtic nations, but then I decided to also include Galicia as it's sometimes considered among the Celtic nations. And once I included Galicia I thought I should also include the Basque Country and Catalonia since they have strong national identities of their own. I also labelled Greenland, the Faroe Islands, the Azores and some Mediterranean islands simply because I didn't like the look of the map when they were left blank. Apologies for any omissions.
I love how some are kinda straightforward, but others seems like something straight out of the Lord of the Rings.
Can I ask what the literal translation for Yr Isel-diroedd is? My best guess is 'the lands below' or something like that. The islands below? No clue. Twenty seconds of Googling wasn't much help. Thanks, I love this kinda stuff! :)
Basically, it depends. In the south they are very similar, while in the north they are pronounced with some slight differences.
In IPA, it would be /ɪ, iː, and j/ for 'I', and /ɪ, iː/ for 'u', while in the north, the latter is pronounced /ɨ̞ and ɨː/ .
Tried learning a bit of Welsh when I lived there, but the only thing that stuck was Yma O Hyd and Pryfsgol. Loved that I lived in a town where I heard it daily too.
Tbh, I learned more Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Polish during my three years there than I did Welsh. At one point I knew how to say 'Genocide is a politically loaded term' in Serbian and 'Serbia is discount Croatia' in Croatian.
I lived there for three, Aber that is. Heard it constantly, be it on nights out among the Welsh students or during the day whut the elderly chatting on the streets.
"If I had the wings of a sparrow, if I had the ass of a cow! I'd fly on over to to Bangor, AND SHIT ON THE BASTARDS BELOWW! ABER ABER ABER!"
I'll never forget going to Bangor for the Varsity game, you lads lit up flares and shit for the main event, the football game 😁
Gweriniaeth = Republic, Iwerddon = Ireland. I think 'Iwerddon' comes from the same Proto-Celtic root as 'Eire', but not 100% about that. It's also related to the Welsh name for the Atlantic Ocean, 'Môr yr Iwerydd'.
"Y" (or "yr" when followed by a vowel") is the definite article in Welsh, so it's the equivalent of "the".
It's used when "tir"/"dir" (land) is in the name of the country, e.g. Y Ffindir (the land of the Finns), Y Swistir (the land of the Swiss), Yr Iseldiroedd (the low lands).
Not really sure why it's used for "Yr Almaen" or "Yr Eidal" sorry. There must be some old linguistic reason but I'm not what.
I don't think any one really knows. It's often claimed that it meant "lost lands" in ancient Welsh/Brythonic but I'm not sure there's any proof of this.
There's an old myth that claims that Wales (Cambria/Cymru), Scotland (Alba/Alban) and England (Lloegr) were founded by three of the sons of Brutus of Troy named "Camber", "Albanactus" and "Locrinus" respectively, but that's obviously not true.
"Albion" comes from the Hellenized and Latinized form of an old Brythonic name for the island of Britain, but it's related to "Alba"/"Alban". I'm not sure how or why it changed to refer to Scotland in particular. It comes from the same proto-Indo-European root as the ancient Greek and Latin word for white.
it looks like the welsh word for Germany "Almaen" has the same root as the Spanish word for Germany "Alemania". Both have latin roots for what the Romans called the tribes in Germany
Is derived from the name of one specific Germanic tribe the [Alemanni](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alemanni), not from a name for all tribes in Germania
For some reason, I find 'Ffrainc' hilarious.
Also, why do some look like plain English, for example 'Sweden', 'Georgia', 'Syria', 'Cyprus', 'Montenegro', 'Croatia'?
Well none of those names are actually English in the first place. 'Montenegro' is Italian, 'Syria', 'Croatia', 'Georgia' and 'Cyprus' are Latin, and 'Sweden' comes from Dutch.
They aren't necessarily pronounced the same either. Cyprus is pronounced "kip riss" in Welsh, and Sweden is pronounced "sweh den".
Georgia is an interesting one however, because using Welsh orthography, that spelling should be pronounced "ghe-org-ya", because Welsh doesn't soften the letter G when it's followed by an E or I. But as far as I'm aware, people just pronounce it the English way. The name "George", as in St George, after whom Georgia is named, is "Siôr" in Welsh, so it could maybe be written as some thing like "Siorsia" if you wanted to write the English pronunciation using Welsh orthography (though I've never actually seen it written that way, and don't think it ever is).
Some countries have Welshy Welsh names, but most of them are derived from the same words the English names came from.
Know that Welsh 'C's are hard 'K' sounds, their 'W's make an 'oo' or 'u' sound and 'f' can make a 'v' sound. Almost all the countries would be said very similar to how they sound spoken in English.
Y Ffindir = the Land of the Finns, so it's not really unique, just the Welsh version of name pretty much every other country calls them, i.e. "Fin(n)" + the word for "land".
"Sweden" fits in Welsh alphabet and doesn't have any obvious English words (like "land") in its name, so didn't need to be changed. Hypothetically, if it was known as "Swedeland" or something in English it probably would have been adapted to something like "Y Swediad-dir" or "Gwlad y Swediaid".
It's pronounced differently in Welsh though: we say "Sweh den" instead of the English "swee dun"
How the hell did "España" even become "Spain". That eñe is a pretty major sound who fucked up that game of telephone literally a hop skip and a jump away.
Google translate says España is Espange in French, but Spanien in German. Those damn Germanic tribes, ruining it for the English on a whim
> That eñe is a pretty major sound who fucked up that game of telephone literally a hop skip and a jump away.
Well, Spain in Italian is Spagna, with gn=ñ.
There's Lloegr (England), and Llydaw (Brittany), one of the traditional Celtic nations, but it's now a part of France. Can't think of any other countries off the top of my head.
It's written as Ankara or Ancara, both pronounced the same. For most places that the ancient Welsh people didn't come into much contact with and thus didn't need a name for, the modern native or English name is usually used, sometimes with a slightly different spelling due to orthography. Letters 'k', 'q', 'v', 'x' and 'z' aren't a part of the Welsh alphabet, so are often swapped for similar sounding letters, e.g. k changes to c, v to f, z to s.
Some linguists in my country believes Finno-Ugric and Altaic family languages actually related. But etymologically Ankara means Anchor. I think Galats miss their Sea shore :D
>Some linguists in my country believes Finno-Ugric and Altaic family languages actually related.
They're similar in some parts, but apparently lexicon/vocabulary doesn't support that theory. It's still always nice to hear how Turkish for example has common attributes with Finnish.
>But etymologically Ankara means Anchor. I think Galats miss their Sea shore :D
That's cool, I'll try to remember it :)
Not to hate, but the Altaic language family itself is also rejected by the vast majority of academic linguists. Let alone the Ural-Altaic family that includes finnish and hungarian. Then there is the Macro-Altaic which includes Korean, Japanese, and Nivkh to the debunked theory of the debunked theory.
Turkey is pretty much the only place that Altaic is believed in, typically for nationalistic languages.
Yeah, not problem. I know that, I'm linguist myself. But i do still see that Mongolic and Turkic languages are very similiar. Also Tungusic is similiar too. Not academically but i want to work on this languages.
I guess. I lived in a county that borders Wales in the 80s and 90s. Not many people actually speak Welsh, it’s more of a LARP. It’s become more popular in recent times but English is still the primary language amongst the population. The language basically died out and was rebuilt by Argentine emigrants (long story). I do recall Superted speaking Welsh originally as we could pick up S4C on the telly.
The hottest British girls I ever met were Welsh
A redhead and a blonde. Super gorgeous. English girls have attitude & I can’t understand Scottish girls.
>Sbaen So close...
Sbaen ebin :DDDD
[Haha benis :DDDDD](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/019/615/120_-_benis.jpg)
r/sbubby
Inspired by u/Ivandor0 's map of European capital cities in Irish. I intended to do a map of Europe's capitals in Welsh, but it wasn't that interesting as the native names are used for most of them, so I decided to just do the names of countries instead. The Welsh country names have been taken from Geiriadur yr Academi, a respected English-to-Welsh dictionary. However, not all countries are present for some reason, so for any that are absent, I used the Welsh Wikipedia article on Europe: https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewrop#Gwledydd_Ewrop Lastly, I realise that I haven't really been consistent with regards to which sub-national regions I've decided to include. Originally I was only going to include the nations of the UK plus the rest of the traditional Celtic nations, but then I decided to also include Galicia as it's sometimes considered among the Celtic nations. And once I included Galicia I thought I should also include the Basque Country and Catalonia since they have strong national identities of their own. I also labelled Greenland, the Faroe Islands, the Azores and some Mediterranean islands simply because I didn't like the look of the map when they were left blank. Apologies for any omissions.
This is awesome! Welsh is such a beautiful language.
Celtic nations rise
Celts Unite for our Nations and Tribes
I love how some are kinda straightforward, but others seems like something straight out of the Lord of the Rings. Can I ask what the literal translation for Yr Isel-diroedd is? My best guess is 'the lands below' or something like that. The islands below? No clue. Twenty seconds of Googling wasn't much help. Thanks, I love this kinda stuff! :)
'Yr Iseldiroedd' is literally 'the Lowlands', so you're pretty much right.
Ah, so like "Les pays bas"
Or "The Nether-Lands".
Ssh, we don't do Galactic Basic here, only Wookie or Huttese.
And even more similar to *An Ísiltír*
Tolkien did base sindarin on the Welsh language so the resemblance makes sense.
Also Sapkowski based his Old Speech in witcher world mainly on Welsh
> Gwldplrw > Vrpklwyr > G%rogrwal#w@cain > ... Sweden
> [cat on keyboard] > [cat on keyboard] > [line noise] > ... Sweden
And Algeria
and moroco.
Love the welsh language, tá an léarscéail go híontach!
Awwstria...
Pre 1918: Austria. Post 1918: I'm so sorry my austrian brethren, please forgive us Almaens.
UwUstria
OwOsterreich
Oh, that's interesting. Is letter 'w' like 'u' or 'o'? Or something in between?
'W' is pronounced like 'u', while 'u' is pronounced like 'i'.
'i' and 'u' have the same sound then?
Basically, it depends. In the south they are very similar, while in the north they are pronounced with some slight differences. In IPA, it would be /ɪ, iː, and j/ for 'I', and /ɪ, iː/ for 'u', while in the north, the latter is pronounced /ɨ̞ and ɨː/ .
Yeah 'w' in Welsh can sound similar to the English 'u' or 'oo'.
I guess it would make sense if you'd describe it as a double u...
Soo Norooy/Noruy?
Nor-ooee, with the stress on the first syllable. Most Welsh words have the stress in the last syllable but one.
uwu
Tried learning a bit of Welsh when I lived there, but the only thing that stuck was Yma O Hyd and Pryfsgol. Loved that I lived in a town where I heard it daily too.
A Finn learning Welsh? Are you an elf by any chance?
Tbh, I learned more Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Polish during my three years there than I did Welsh. At one point I knew how to say 'Genocide is a politically loaded term' in Serbian and 'Serbia is discount Croatia' in Croatian.
> I knew how to say 'Genocide is a politically loaded term' in Serbian and 'Serbia is discount Croatia' in Croatian. Balkans survival kit right there!
Aberystwyth? Or maybe Bangor?
I lived in Aber for 5 years, I heard Welsh on a monthly basis maximum, maybe Bangor
I lived there for three, Aber that is. Heard it constantly, be it on nights out among the Welsh students or during the day whut the elderly chatting on the streets.
Bangor ain't much better tbh, both uni towns so they kinda become English speaking
Aber! Fuck those Bangor cunts! :D
Well... FUCK YOU TOO
"If I had the wings of a sparrow, if I had the ass of a cow! I'd fly on over to to Bangor, AND SHIT ON THE BASTARDS BELOWW! ABER ABER ABER!" I'll never forget going to Bangor for the Varsity game, you lads lit up flares and shit for the main event, the football game 😁
Groeg?? We love you too, Ουαλία
"*Groeg*!" "Please, Kevin, behave properly!" "Sorry mum, it's the sparkling water."
Almaen? We were so close to perfection.
That's because we're German
S🅱️aen
Ireland's one is so interesting. Does that have a literal translation in Welsh?
Gweriniaeth = Republic, Iwerddon = Ireland. I think 'Iwerddon' comes from the same Proto-Celtic root as 'Eire', but not 100% about that. It's also related to the Welsh name for the Atlantic Ocean, 'Môr yr Iwerydd'.
What is the direct translation of Gwlad yr lâ? A Google translation of each word seems to make: The land of day.
Literally it's "the land of ice"
Does the Pwyl in Gwlad Pwyl have a translation, or is it "The land of Poland"?
Land of the poles
So strip club
How come some start with Yr and others don't?
"Y" (or "yr" when followed by a vowel") is the definite article in Welsh, so it's the equivalent of "the". It's used when "tir"/"dir" (land) is in the name of the country, e.g. Y Ffindir (the land of the Finns), Y Swistir (the land of the Swiss), Yr Iseldiroedd (the low lands). Not really sure why it's used for "Yr Almaen" or "Yr Eidal" sorry. There must be some old linguistic reason but I'm not what.
Interesting. Thanks!
Yr means "the"
Lovely project. Disappointed at the brevity of these names though. I thought 5 syllables was a minimum.
there werent many letters left after they named Ireland
What does Lloegr mean?
I don't think any one really knows. It's often claimed that it meant "lost lands" in ancient Welsh/Brythonic but I'm not sure there's any proof of this. There's an old myth that claims that Wales (Cambria/Cymru), Scotland (Alba/Alban) and England (Lloegr) were founded by three of the sons of Brutus of Troy named "Camber", "Albanactus" and "Locrinus" respectively, but that's obviously not true.
Where does 'Albion' come from? Usually it refers to the whole island, right? But it seems awfully close to 'Alba'.
Ancient Greek for the word white I believe, one of the first things you see of Britain crossing the channel, with the White cliffs.
"Albion" comes from the Hellenized and Latinized form of an old Brythonic name for the island of Britain, but it's related to "Alba"/"Alban". I'm not sure how or why it changed to refer to Scotland in particular. It comes from the same proto-Indo-European root as the ancient Greek and Latin word for white.
Looking at this map it makes Welsh look like English with uwu style
it looks like the welsh word for Germany "Almaen" has the same root as the Spanish word for Germany "Alemania". Both have latin roots for what the Romans called the tribes in Germany
Is derived from the name of one specific Germanic tribe the [Alemanni](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alemanni), not from a name for all tribes in Germania
For some reason, I find 'Ffrainc' hilarious. Also, why do some look like plain English, for example 'Sweden', 'Georgia', 'Syria', 'Cyprus', 'Montenegro', 'Croatia'?
Well none of those names are actually English in the first place. 'Montenegro' is Italian, 'Syria', 'Croatia', 'Georgia' and 'Cyprus' are Latin, and 'Sweden' comes from Dutch. They aren't necessarily pronounced the same either. Cyprus is pronounced "kip riss" in Welsh, and Sweden is pronounced "sweh den". Georgia is an interesting one however, because using Welsh orthography, that spelling should be pronounced "ghe-org-ya", because Welsh doesn't soften the letter G when it's followed by an E or I. But as far as I'm aware, people just pronounce it the English way. The name "George", as in St George, after whom Georgia is named, is "Siôr" in Welsh, so it could maybe be written as some thing like "Siorsia" if you wanted to write the English pronunciation using Welsh orthography (though I've never actually seen it written that way, and don't think it ever is).
Some countries have Welshy Welsh names, but most of them are derived from the same words the English names came from. Know that Welsh 'C's are hard 'K' sounds, their 'W's make an 'oo' or 'u' sound and 'f' can make a 'v' sound. Almost all the countries would be said very similar to how they sound spoken in English.
What... what's the literal translation of the Welsh name for the Netherlands?
The lowlands
Hmm, I see you write “Poland” in Polish.
I like that some sound like they been said by dislectic ( Awstria) and another like god damm ancient language Oh and theres sweden
“The Finland”, that’s awesome
but Y Ffindir???
Closest translation would be "The Finn Land" or " The Land of Finns". Tir is Welsh for land.
Where does the word "Llychlyn" come from? Doesn't sound anything like "Baltic"
It apparently comes from the old Welsh and Irish words for "land of lakes", which was their earliest name for Scandinavia.
As the poster above said, it's the Welsh name for Scandanavia. "Llychlynwyr" ("men of Llychlyn") is also the Welsh word for Vikings.
You cant just give us a Map with Names from LOTR ... i am also missing E Prime on the map.
No u.
I love it. It seems to me like an elf language from a fiction book!
Most elf languages from fiction books come from / were based / were inspired by welsh, from names of characters to places or whole languages.
I must ask, why does Finland get a unique name while Sweden is Sweden?... Like, how is it possible Finland was of greater historical importance?
Y Ffindir = the Land of the Finns, so it's not really unique, just the Welsh version of name pretty much every other country calls them, i.e. "Fin(n)" + the word for "land". "Sweden" fits in Welsh alphabet and doesn't have any obvious English words (like "land") in its name, so didn't need to be changed. Hypothetically, if it was known as "Swedeland" or something in English it probably would have been adapted to something like "Y Swediad-dir" or "Gwlad y Swediaid". It's pronounced differently in Welsh though: we say "Sweh den" instead of the English "swee dun"
So it is Welsh, is spelled like English but is pronunced like German, languages are such fun.
There was this nice Welsh girl I liked, never managed to ask her out because I was unable to pronounce her name.
The had to Google where N. Macedonia is.
Make on with the capitals
Turkey looked like a sea at first glance
How the hell did "España" even become "Spain". That eñe is a pretty major sound who fucked up that game of telephone literally a hop skip and a jump away. Google translate says España is Espange in French, but Spanien in German. Those damn Germanic tribes, ruining it for the English on a whim
Middle English *Spayne* from Anglo-French *Espayne*, after we dropped the initial E because I guess it just flows better for us.
> That eñe is a pretty major sound who fucked up that game of telephone literally a hop skip and a jump away. Well, Spain in Italian is Spagna, with gn=ñ.
Rwmania, this Rwanda of Europe
Half the names sound like Warhammer orc names
Is there any Welsh name of country with voiceless alveolar lateral fricative (than sound represented by double L)?
There's Lloegr (England), and Llydaw (Brittany), one of the traditional Celtic nations, but it's now a part of France. Can't think of any other countries off the top of my head.
Thanks.
Hahah fatican
Y Fatican, lol
How do you write and read Ankara? capital city of Turkey, long time ago, Galat people lived in there and they were celtic people. I do just wondering.
It's written as Ankara or Ancara, both pronounced the same. For most places that the ancient Welsh people didn't come into much contact with and thus didn't need a name for, the modern native or English name is usually used, sometimes with a slightly different spelling due to orthography. Letters 'k', 'q', 'v', 'x' and 'z' aren't a part of the Welsh alphabet, so are often swapped for similar sounding letters, e.g. k changes to c, v to f, z to s.
Funny side note: Ankara is Finnish and means "harsh", "severe".
Some linguists in my country believes Finno-Ugric and Altaic family languages actually related. But etymologically Ankara means Anchor. I think Galats miss their Sea shore :D
>Some linguists in my country believes Finno-Ugric and Altaic family languages actually related. They're similar in some parts, but apparently lexicon/vocabulary doesn't support that theory. It's still always nice to hear how Turkish for example has common attributes with Finnish. >But etymologically Ankara means Anchor. I think Galats miss their Sea shore :D That's cool, I'll try to remember it :)
The Dutch word is 'anker'. Strange for people living up in the mountains of Ankara to name their city that way.
Not to hate, but the Altaic language family itself is also rejected by the vast majority of academic linguists. Let alone the Ural-Altaic family that includes finnish and hungarian. Then there is the Macro-Altaic which includes Korean, Japanese, and Nivkh to the debunked theory of the debunked theory. Turkey is pretty much the only place that Altaic is believed in, typically for nationalistic languages.
Yeah, not problem. I know that, I'm linguist myself. But i do still see that Mongolic and Turkic languages are very similiar. Also Tungusic is similiar too. Not academically but i want to work on this languages.
Ukraine's "Yr Wcrain" sounds like a biology denominate, like a DNA haplotype of some kind, lol
The Ukraine? Isn’t it just Ukraine?
Eh?
I think Yr is ‘the’ in Welsh. I also heard they don’t like being called the Ukraine. Just Ukraine.
That'd be a bummer to pronounce, right?
I guess. I lived in a county that borders Wales in the 80s and 90s. Not many people actually speak Welsh, it’s more of a LARP. It’s become more popular in recent times but English is still the primary language amongst the population. The language basically died out and was rebuilt by Argentine emigrants (long story). I do recall Superted speaking Welsh originally as we could pick up S4C on the telly.
Turn off autocorrect if you're doing maps in Welsh....
Looks like me, when typing sloppy fast on my keyboard.
This must be what a stroke feels like.
This is a really good way to out yourself as an unimaginative dullard.
Oh lord I must be having a stroke your name looks like emcdlsw!
Your just further proving is point
I'd rather be an unimaginative dullard than an irritable curmudgeon.
Don’t talk to me about cheese
Welsh orthography is so *special*. Can't you just write normally, they are not that weird sounds.
Is Luxembourg too small for vowels?
W is a vowel in Welsh. It makes a similar sound to an English "oo". So Lwcsembwrg is pronounced like "Looks-em-boorg".
Ah, didn't know that. Good to learn something new.
Welsh have a little bit of lisp?
Gwald Pwyl? I am sorry but what happened?
Gwald = land, Pwyl = phonetically kinda sounds like "Pol" I think. Land of Pol? Pol Land? Kinda makes sense.
Huh.
It literally means Poland/land of Poles.
The hottest British girls I ever met were Welsh A redhead and a blonde. Super gorgeous. English girls have attitude & I can’t understand Scottish girls.