>> >Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogogoch >> > >> > ... >> llan church (or village) >> tysilio (of St) Tysilio >> gogo ? (cave = ogof) >> goch red (s.m. of coch) >I have a dispute with the above translation. First of all, "gogo" does not >mean "cave". "ogof" means "cave", and f's are easily dropped. Therefore, the >"g" must belong to "tysiliog". Secondly, I submit that "tysiliog" is actually >"ty Siliog", and "llantysiliog" is "the church of the house of Siliog". One >source I've seen identifies Suliac with this saint. Why the house? A llan >was not what we would call a church. It was a mud-and-wattle hut where a >hermit, missionary, or other such "saint" lived. Compare "Tyddewi", the Welsh >name for St. David's. Pan oeddwn i yng Nghymru y mis diwethaf, treuliais i rwy amser efo un o fy nghyfeillion sy'n byw yn Llanfair PG yn trafod y pwnct hwn yn fanwl. Dwedodd o yr oedd sant ag enw 'Tysilio' (heb 'g') yn bendant. Ein hesboniad gorau am y 'g' oedd tuedd yr iaith i osod cytsain 'g' i rannu llafariaid (er enghraifft, 'ag enw', 'tuag ato', ayyb), yn y cytdestun hwn i osgoi 'tysilio.ogogoch'. Translation: When I was in Wales last month, I spent some time with a friend of mine who lives in Llanfair PG discussing exactly this point. He said that the was definitely a St. Tysilio (with no g). Our best explanation for where the 'g' came from is the tendency of the language to insert the consonant 'g' to separate consecutive vowels (for example, 'ag enw', 'tuag ato', and so forth), in this context to avoid 'tysilio.ogogoch'. --Mark