THE MEANING AND DERIVATION OF PLACE-NAMES<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n BRO MORGANNWG – VALE OF GLAMORGAN<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n There are two patterns in English which convey a Welsh place-name such as Bro Morgannwg <\/strong>– namely \u2018Vale of Glamorgan<\/strong>\u2019 and \u2018Glamorgan Vale<\/strong>\u2019 (cf Ogmore Vale, Ebbw Vale, Merthyr Vale etc). This second pattern is the exact equivalent of the Welsh name though you\u2019ll notice that the English word order differs from that of Welsh. Those of you who speak Welsh or have some knowledge of the language will know also that adjectives follow the noun in Welsh – as they do in Italian, Spanish and French (with some exceptions). English, like German, being a member of the Germanic family of languages, follows a different pattern in that the adjective precedes the noun.<\/p>\n The Welsh word \u2018bro\u2019 <\/strong>has no exact equivalent in English and numerous words are used to convey the meaning – depending on the context – words such as \u2018land\u2019, \u2018area\u2019, \u2018district\u2019, \u2018locality\u2019, \u2018neighbourhood\u2019, \u2018native haunt\u2019. In the case of Bro Morgannwg, the word chosen in English is \u2018Vale\u2019<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The second part of our place-name is Morgannwg. This consists of two elements – Morgan + wg<\/strong>. The Old Welsh ending \u2018-wg\u2019 <\/strong>means \u2018territory of\u2019 <\/strong>or \u2018land belonging to\u2019. <\/strong>And the person to whom the land belonged was Morgan Mwynfawr – Morgan the Wealthy – who was King of south east Wales in the eighth century. Some scholars maintain that it was after a tenth century king – Morgan Hen – Morgan the Aged – that the area was named. Either way, the name was Morgan! So Bro Morgannwg <\/strong>means something like \u2018the district of Morgan\u2019s land\u2019<\/strong>. (Don’t worry about the double \u2018n\u2019 – it is merely something that happens to the spelling when the consonant \u2018n\u2019 falls under the main accent.)<\/p>\n In the English version, we\u2019ve seen that \u2018Vale\u2019 is the equivalent of \u2018Bro\u2019 – and this is followed by the seemingly English name Glamorgan. But on further inspection we see that \u2018Glamorgan\u2019 is made up of two elements – \u2018Gla<\/strong>-\u2018 and \u2018Morgan\u2019<\/strong>. The second element, Morgan, has been explained above. The first element \u2018gla<\/strong>-\u2018 is a contraction of the Welsh word \u2018gwlad\u2019 <\/strong>which means \u2018land\u2019 <\/strong>or \u2018country\u2019<\/strong>. So the name Glamorgan isn\u2019t an English word at all – and I\u2019m sure that has surprised many people! \u2018Morgan-wg\u2019 <\/strong>and \u2018Gwlad-Morgan\u2019 <\/strong>are two Welsh names which mean exactly the same thing – \u2018Morgan\u2019s land<\/strong>\u2019.<\/p>\n Next month – Y Barri, Cold Knap and Colcot.<\/p>\n Ann M. Jones<\/p>\n THE MEANING AND DERIVATION OF PLACE-NAMES BRO MORGANNWG – VALE OF GLAMORGAN There are two patterns in English which convey a Welsh place-name such as Bro Morgannwg – namely \u2018Vale of Glamorgan\u2019 and \u2018Glamorgan Vale\u2019 (cf Ogmore Vale, Ebbw Vale, Merthyr Vale etc). This second pattern is the exact equivalent of the Welsh name though you\u2019ll notice that the English […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[334,228],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-37U","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11844,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=11844","url_meta":{"origin":12022,"position":0},"title":"The Meaning And Derivation Of Place-Names","author":"Alan Williams","date":"7th July 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"THE MEANING AND DERIVATION OF PLACE-NAMES Many people are fascinated by the meaning and derivation of place-names - so we\u2019ll look at the names that are local to us in this area - before moving on to look at some further afield. The obvious place to start is at our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6036,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6036","url_meta":{"origin":12022,"position":1},"title":"National Urdd Eisteddfod – Congratulations","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th June 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The What\u2019s On Team were delighted to receive this letter of congratulation from Ann M. Jones: \u2018Very many congratulations to Brennig Davies who won the Crown at this year\u2019s National Urdd Eisteddfod - the largest Youth Festival in Europe - which was held in Cardiff last month. The adjudicators were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Congratulations"","block_context":{"text":"Congratulations","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=36"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Picture1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3492,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=3492","url_meta":{"origin":12022,"position":2},"title":"Wenvoe Statistics","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th July 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 Some interesting facts: Wenvoe Residents \u00a0 From time-to-time the Vale of Glamorgan (like all local authorities and governments) will collect information to inform planning decisions on schools, roads, housing, business and other strategic developments. The information used here is taken from the most recent UK National Survey (published\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General News"","block_context":{"text":"General News","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=276"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6961,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=6961","url_meta":{"origin":12022,"position":3},"title":"December Activities Report","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st December 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 December Report Our final speaker for this session was Helen Joy who has entertained us in the past and her talk on the Vale of Glamorgan Show proved equally entertaining. The Vale show was set up so that farmers could meet and compete against each other in a variety\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Coming Up"","block_context":{"text":"Coming Up","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/tuesday-group.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/tuesday-group.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/tuesday-group.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/tuesday-group.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5018,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5018","url_meta":{"origin":12022,"position":4},"title":"WELSH CLASS IN WENVOE","author":"Alan Williams","date":"29th September 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Do you speak some Welsh? Perhaps you learned years ago and need an update\/refresher course? We are a small friendly group just beginning the second year of our Foundation (Sylfaen) course in Welsh as a second language. Our course would suit anyone who has some of the basics, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Coming Up"","block_context":{"text":"Coming Up","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5718,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5718","url_meta":{"origin":12022,"position":5},"title":"Your Local Welsh Medium School","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st April 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 YSGOL GYMRAEG GWAUN Y NANT Your Local Welsh Medium School Eich Ysgol Gymraeg Lleol Ysgol Gymraeg Gwaun y Nant in Barry is your nearest Welsh medium school. It is about 10 minutes by car. The Vale of Glamorgan Local Authority will provide free school transport for those living beyond\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Event Notices"","block_context":{"text":"Event Notices","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=237"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12022"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12022"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12141,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12022\/revisions\/12141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"