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Terrain signatures in Welsh settlement names

arXiv · AI, language, vision and robotics · article · Aug 27, 2026 · UTC

Landscapes are named, but whether names retain measurable environmental information beyond broad geographic structure is rarely tested. We analysed 3,757 Welsh settlements using a frozen, source-audited 24-element lexical framework, preregistered outcome-specific models and geographically structured validation. The central comparison contrasted 101 settlements carrying high-terrain elements (\textit{bryn} or \textit{mynydd}) with 139 carrying low-terrain elements (\textit{cwm} or \textit{pant}). High-terrain names occupied locations 24.4 m higher relative to their 2-km surroundings (95\% CI, 1

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