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SpursRiot2012

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On 3/2/2020 at 11:11 PM, Carbomb said:

TIL that the prefix "Llan-" in Welsh means "saint" because somebody's translated the entire Tube map's stations into Welsh. He's gone into the etymology of the names in detail. The only one that confused me is that he's translated "Westminster" into the area's old name "St. Stephen's", and that's "San Steffan". 

San Steffan is the Welsh word for Westminster though. Always been thus on news bulletins etc. 

https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palas_San_Steffan

I live and grew up on Ynys Mon (Anglesey) where there are a total of 46 parishes starting with 'Llan.'

Of course there had to be one village which did, and to this day, when you ask its inhabitants where they're from, they'll refer to their village (Llannerch-y-Medd) as "Llan."

Helpful.

 

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19 hours ago, garynysmon said:

San Steffan is the Welsh word for Westminster though. Always been thus on news bulletins etc. 

https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palas_San_Steffan

I live and grew up on Ynys Mon (Anglesey) where there are a total of 46 parishes starting with 'Llan.'

Of course there had to be one village which did, and to this day, when you ask its inhabitants where they're from, they'll refer to their village (Llannerch-y-Medd) as "Llan."

Helpful.

 

Thanks, for that, man. Always like to learn new stuff. Cultural quirks in particular fascinate me, like the fact that you and your community know exactly which village they're talking about when they say "Llan". 

Thinking about it, the area now known as Westminster is one of the oldest parts of London, so I guess it makes sense it would be known by its older name in the language of a culture geographically close enough and old enough to have recorded it as that. It is interesting, though, that the change to "Westminster" from "St. Stephen's" wasn't recorded. 

Edited by Carbomb
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So today I learned in Richmond, VA in the 1980's there was an Association for Retarded Citizens.  I've been watching a fair bit of 1984 Jim Crockett Promotions over the past couple of days (thank god for Buzz Sawyer showing up and saving me from tedious eight minute squash matches) and usually fast forward through the adverts, although for some reason didn't this time.  Imagine my surprise to hear an advert from the Richmond Association for Retarded Citizens advertising an upcoming family picnic!  Crazy how in this day and age that word is a complete no no, yet here it is back in 1984 not only being used and said in an advert but being used in the name of an actual association to describe a group of people.  How times have changed.  

Retarded-citizens.jpg

 

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Such is our civilised society, any word used for such groups eventually has to be replaced, because they all become widely used as insults and therefore take on a negative connotation even when used properly. The most obvious example probably being The Spastics Society feeling the need to change its name to Scope.

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However some words not used in the UK because they are insensitive can be commonplace in the US and are used in the mainstream.  Two specific examples of the are the aforementioned "Spaz" and the "Special" Olympics.  No mainstream outlet would use those phrases here but I have heard both used on US TV in the last month or so.

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