Something amazing happened for Channel 4 News' weather segment earlier today. Weatherman Liam Dutton was reporting an everyday story about temperature differences, only to be faced with pronouncing a 58-letter town in Wales. And, seeing as he is Welsh, Dutton pronounced it flawlessly.
"Just up the road from Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, the temperature got to 21 Celsius," he says 11 seconds into the clip, like it's no big deal.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is a town in north west Wales, on an island called Anglesey. According to BBC, the name means "St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St Tysilio of the red cave," and was renamed in the 19th century as a marketing stunt. The town's previous name? A much more simple Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll.
With 58 characters in its name, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch has the longest name in Britain, and the town proudly says it owns the "undisputable LONGEST VALID DOMAIN NAME IN THE WORLD."
It is not, however, the longest name in the world; that distinction goes to a hill in New Zealand, Taumata whakatangi hangakoauau o tamatea turi pukakapiki maunga horo nuku pokai whenua kitanatahu. It roughly translates to "the place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as 'landeater’, played his flute to his loved one," New Zealand travel site 100% Pure New Zealand says. Colloquially, it's just known as Taumata Hill.