Google Maps is keen to show place names in the local language, which is why it will say “Deutschland” instead of “Germany” and “Italia” instead of “Italy”.
Which is all fine and well, but they have made a slight faux pas with Wales. Along the border with England, Wales is written as “An Bhreatain Bheag” as opposed to the more usual “Cymru”. Turns out that An Bhreatain Bheag is Gaelic for Wales!
he he,
does ‘An bhreatain bheag’ translate as little britain?
dont quote me on that my gaelic is v. poor but sounds like it does
i have lived in glogledd cymru for almost 50 years and this is a new one on me!!!
I’ve noticed this, too and think it’s ridiculous! The local language of Wales is Welsh in which - as you rightly say - “Wales” is “Cymru”. I’m a Welsh-speaker and had never heard of An Bheatain Bheag. Is there a way to contact google to correct this.
Incidently, I have noticed another error with the labelling of google maps. I was living on Calle Castellar in Seville and it was listed as Calle Castelar. Might seem like a small error but Calle del Castelar is a different street!
hey lads. in ireland (well us Irish speakers) refer to wales as An Bhreatain Beag, and yes it does mean Britain, but more Briton in ancient celtic sense.
could have some connection to the area Bretagne (in Irish an Briotáin) in north france which speak a similar brythonic language to ye Welsh.
Slán!
It is great that Google wants to use local names for countries, but in Wales that is NOT ‘An breatain bheag’! I did a poll of over a dozen Welsh speaking neighbours, not one of whom identified it as ‘Wales’.
This error has been displayed for a very long time now. Come on Google a correction to ‘Cymru’, which is recognised by non Welsh speaking residents in Wales, is long overdue.
Report Google Maps bug here:-
http://maps.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=mbug
Hwyl
phil