Welsh Journals

In studying the placenames of a locality, the inhabitants of which, though they are Celts, have lost their Celtic speech for a couple of generations or more, by the inroads of English across their border, one is faced by a difficulty of a well-known kind. It is a general law in such things, that people will not continue long to use a name which conveys no meaning to their minds. They are bound soon to twist the name in such a way as to make it bear a meaning which they can understand-even though that meaning be utterly absurd and incongruous. Close to Plymouth is a place which was called Pen-y-cwm-coedwig, "the head of the wooded valley." The Cornish language died out there some 300 years ago, and the people now call the place Penny-come-quick," and have invented a funny story about an old woman who had a refreshment-stall there and did a good trade, so that the penny came quick-all to account for a name which required explanation. I am going to apply the above principles to certain placenames in the Cardiff district. And first, let me take the name of our river, the Taff. When we are speaking English, we double the last consonant and pronounce it hard. Why we should take this trouble, it would be difficult to say. The name was Welsh long before it was English, and in talking Welsh we pronounce the final consonant soft, making it a v-or, in modern Welsh spelling, a single f — Taf." Now, there are many rivers and streams in Britain-and doubtless on the Continent also-which bear a name more or less closely resembling this. We have, for instance, the Tawy at Swansea, the Teifi at Cardigan, the Dovey in Devonshire and at Aberdovey, the Dove in Derbyshire, the Tavey and the Tamar at Plymouth, and the Thames in London. These river-names are all formed from the same root. In French the Thames is Tamise, in Italian Tamigia, shewing plainly the root which we have in Tamar. The presence of the same root is less clear in Tav, Dovey, etc. but that is because the more primitive consonant m has in most cases become v in the modern Celtic tongues. We arrive, then, at the fact that the earliest known form of the river-name Taff was Tarn. One of the eleventh century documents copied in the Liber Landavensis calls this river the Tarn and the oldest extant Welsh manuscript copied in that book calls Llandaff Lantam." What language was Tam, and what did it mean ? I believe I am right in saying that the word is not Celtic-not Aryan at all, in fact-that it is a word of some lost and forgotten language spoken by one of the races which preceded the Celts in the occupation of Britain. If I am not mistaken, the rivers bearing this name under one or other of its existing forms are rapidly-flowing rivers; in which case it is to be presumed that the word Tarn meant swift" in that pre-Aryan tongue. But this is pure surmise. From the name of the river comes also that of our cathedral city, Llandaf, the church on the Tav." Most of the llannau are connected with the name of a saint, as Llandoch, Llanishen, Llandeilo, Llanedern. Only a small minority are otherwise formed, and Llandaff is one of