random question

[chickadee2212]

how is it spelt?

Caernavon(shire), Caernarfon(shire)?

[Shirley Sweetland]

Hi Chickadee I've just looked in my Road Atlas for Britain and the spelling is the second one you've listed.

Regards
SS

[trystan]

It's actually could be both....

This is confusing.

There is no "v" in the Welsh alphabet.

Caernarfon

and

Carnarvon

are both spellings of the same place.

The first one, is the Welsh way of spelling it (notice the "Caer" (with the "e") and the "f"). ("Caer" actually means a "roman place" in Welsh)

The second is the Anglicised version - (dropping the "e" in "Caer" to Car, and using a "v").

In Welsh you would say "Sir Gaernarfon" (there's a circumflex "^" over the "i" in Sir, and the "C" changes to a "G" due to a thing called "mutation" in the Welsh language), and in English, I suppose one would say "Carnarvonshire", but then again others spell it as Caernarfonshire...

Now I'm not too sure either!! Caernarfonshire is now "Gwynedd" by the way.

Trystan

[chickadee2212]

thanks guys

my ancestor claims to have been born there about 1850, and i was having a adebate on how to spell it LOL
Thanks again

[D ap D]

To add a little to Trystans explanation, the word Caernarfon is a compound literally meaning "Fort in Arfon" - Arfon being the district around Caernarfon and also the river on which the town is built. Arfon literally means "opposite Anglesey". Anglesey being Mon in Welsh, mutated to Fon.

D ap D