Here's the story behind the 58-letter town name in Wales that everyone is talking about
Wikimedia
Yes, it's 58 letters long, though you can also call it Llanfairpwll, or Llanfair PG for short.
The tiny town on the island of Anglesey in Wales recently made headlines when Liam Dutton, a UK weatherman, pronounced it during a live report without skipping a beat.
It is the longest town name in Europe - and second only to an 85 letter-long place in New Zealand.
The Welsh village has around 3,100 inhabitants, of which around 70% speak Welsh - a language is said to be dying out, as only around 19% of Wales residents speak the language. They probably have to, just to say where they're from.
The tongue-twisting name actually only has 51 letters in Welsh, as "ch" and "ll" are are considered single letters in the language.
Either way, the name is pretty descriptive - it basically tells you the town's exact location, standing for Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio of the red cave.
Wikimedia
Let's break that down: Parish [church] of [St.] Mary (Llanfair) [in] Hollow (pwll) of the White Hazel [township] (gwyn gyll) near (go ger) the rapid whirlpool (y chwyrn drobwll) [and] the parish [church] of [St.] Tysilio (Llantysilio) with a red cave ([a]g ogo[f] goch).
Apparently, the town originally had a shorter name (and dates back to the Neolithic period; 4,000-2,000BC), but added a ton of syllables to attract tourists.
However, there's not really a whole lot to do in Llanfairpwll - which only has a few places to stay and eat - apart from gawking at the train station, which features the town's name in all its glory.
Flickr/smlp.co.uk
Another fun fact: Actress Naomi Watts briefly lived their with her grandfather, and can pronounce the name of the town perfectly.
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