Rhigos

Rhigos (rˈigɒs) is a small village on the saddle of higher ground between the Vale of Neath and the Cynon Valley. It was part of the old Neath Rural district Council under Glamorgan until 1974. The village then came under the jurisdiction of The Cynon Valley Borough which subsequently became Rhondda Cynon Taf, South Wales in 1996. It lies just off the old Aberdare road that was the main link between Aberdare and Glynneath, before the A465 road was extended in the 1960s. The hamlets of Cefn Rhigos and Cwm-Hwnt lie to the west of the main village. The population of the community in the 2011 census was noted as 894. For postal purposes it comes under the town of Aberdare, although it is some from Aberdare town centre, and from Glynneath. It was noted as a township in the parish of Ystradyfodwg in several historical references and people moved to this rural area to work in local industries. Today, the village is a quiet place to live with views of the Brecon Beacons National Park to the north and is within walking distance of Waterfall Country. The name Rhigos is an erroneous standardisation of the local dialect form of Rucos or Ricos (same pronunciation). A rule of thumb for writing Welsh place names is that they should be spelled according to the standard language and not the local dialect form (though there are many instances of names showing local traits) rather than a standard version - Machynlleth for Machynllaith, Caerdydd for Caerdyf etc. An initial 'c' in a final syllable in the Gwentian - Gwenhwyseg dialect is often a devoiced form of 'g', and such is the case here. An initial 'r' is generally a deaspirated 'rh' in the dialect, but this is not the case here. Since in South Wales 'u' and 'i' no longer represent different vowel sounds (though in North Wales these spellings DO show different vowels) in spelling 'i' might be used instead of the historically correct spelling with 'u'.