Llan (placename element)

Llan or Lan is a common place name element in Brythonic languages such as Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Cumbric, and possibly Pictish. In Wales there are over 630 place names beginning with 'Llan', pronounced [ɬan]. In Cornwall and Brittany the element is usually spelled 'Lan' or 'Lann', occasionally 'Laun'.

The original meaning of llan in Welsh is "an enclosed piece of land", but it later evolved to mean the parish surrounding a church. Most places beginning with Llan have some connection to a saint, usually of the Celtic church. The element following 'Llan' is usually the name of the saint, for example Llandewi 'Enclosure or Church of Saint David'.The English word Lawn may derive from an unusual adoption of the original Brythonic meaning of 'grassed enclosure', as distinct from a 'field'. [1]

However a number of place names beginning with Llan evolved from other Welsh words like 'Glan' ('river bank') or 'Nant' ('stream' or 'small valley'), for example Llanbradach (from Nant Bradach, 'valley of the River Bradach'). In Cornish as well, some place names beginning with 'Lan' derive from Cornish 'Nans' ('valley'), such as Lanteglos from Nanseglos ('valley of the church').

It is believed that the term "llan" originated not just for an enclosure, but more importantly the 'tribal enclosure' and possibly just 'tribe'; when the original peoples arriving after the last Ice Age, were nomadic. With the coming of the first Celtic Christian missionaries, these early Christians sought to place their centres of worship in an area of some security. With the conversions of the tribes, this obviously fell within the tribal compound, the llan. With the disintegration of the tribal boundaries, all that remained of most of these enclosures was the church, or at best a walled village or town. The original meaning of 'llan' with its tribal connotations disappeared.

Contents

Place names in Wales

Places named after saints

Place names with religious connections other than a saint

Place names without a religious connection

Llandybie , Carmarthenshire Llandeilo , Carmarthenshire Llangenech, Carmarthenshire

Place names in England

Cornwall and Devon

Cumbria

The Cumbric language was spoken in Cumbria up to the Early Middle Ages, and so some place names in Cumbria have a Celtic origin.

English counties bordering Wales

Place names in Brittany

Place names in Scotland

Some place names in Scotland have Pictish elements such as Aber and Lhan that are cognate with other Brythonic languages such as Welsh.

In fiction

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=lawn&searchmode=none

External links