“PLACENAMES CAN BE DIFFICULT Here in the UK, the longest name of any place is the famous Welsh one, usually written as Lanfair PG:
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. There are many longer, including one in New Zealand with 92 letters. This week it was admitted officially that yet another long place name, of a lake near Worcester, Massachusetts, has been spelled wrongly on signs as Chargoggagoggmanchaoggagoggchaubunaguhgamaugg for some years. It should be Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. The locals call it Lake Webster”
Read more great wordy stuff here in worldwide words.
While back here in New Zealand
The longest place name in New Zealand is in Hawke’s Bay is a hill known as "Taumata whakatangi hangakoauau o tamatea turi pukakapiki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua kitanatahu", which translates into English as "the place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as 'landeater’, played his flute to his loved one." Locals simply call it Taumata Hill.
2 comments:
Nice comparison with the Welsh. I find myself wondering what the point of it all was though. Did they have more time 500 years ago, or was it the advent of print and the cost of ink that saw the demise of over-long place names.
either that or all talked faster and ran words together back then!
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