Cylchgronau Cymru

Often no generic is used. With such names in English speech the article appears, e.g. the Brogan, the Brochan and the Mule. The article is not required in Welsh with a stream name and its use is condemned. Where y/yr does appear it is either not the article but a sonantal development as in y Fyrnwy from Efyrnwy or is the result of adopting the English practice, e.g. yr Hafren,13 y Banw, y Trannon. There does not seem to be any hard and fast practice as to the absence or presence of the generic in Welsh stream names. In S.E.'s list there are more names without than with a generic; the numbers being 116 and 55 respectively. On checking the names of these streams with the names of the County sheets (published in 1903 but surveyed soon after S.E.'s list was pub- lished), I found that nearly all of them were entered as afon or nant. The names have mostly been listed according to their forms on recent O.S. maps. I have departed from this method only when forms which are patently more accurate or more commonly accepted present themselves. When a name has only been seen in a document it is listed with its spelling modernised where that is necessary. Here and there forms are attributed to local informants: the relative paucity of such refer- ences is an indication of the incompleteness of this study. My plea in mitigation is that this shortcoming can be somewhat overcome if readers with local knowledge are prepared to point out errors and omissions so that errata and addenda can be published later. The list, nevertheless, should serve as a convenient source of information for those people, natives or newcomers, who wish to know the names of streams, their location and the meanings of the names. I also hope that it will have some effect, to a small and modest extent, in two other ways. The first expectation is that it will prompt some readers to study local place names. In Montgomeryshire we have a wealth of material, material which is made more fascinating still through our being situated in a linguistic borderland. The other expectation is that this List will cause the reader to feel that he is the recipient of a rich inheritance enshrined in the place names around us. THANKS Many persons in many ways have helped me in the preparation of the List of stream-names. I am extremely grateful to the staffs at the Area Library in Newtown, at the Area offices of the Powys Highways Department and at the National Library of Wales, especially in the Maps Department, for their friendly and valuable services. Amongst those who have provided me with information about their localities or their fields of study and saved me from making many more inaccurate statements than I would have made without their assistance are Cr Edfryn Breese, Carno; Mr Arnold V. Davies, Newtown; Major E. H. C. Davies, Llangadfan; Cr D. T. Ellis, Meifod; Mr Arthur Hughes, Guilsfield; Mr Richard Morgan, Shrewsbury; Mr R. V. Pidgeon, Montgomery Civic Society; Mr John Roberts, Foel; Mr Douglas Smith, Berriew; Cr Francis Thomas, Carno, and Mr Graham Thomas, National Library of Wales. Diolch o galon iddynt i gyd am eu cymwynasau parod. 'in a speech, quoted in Gwyl Gwalia. (H. Teifi Edwards, Llandysul, 1980, 183) Ceiriog speaks of "yr Hafren."