I would guess it's because people don't realise that 'O' is the (masculine singular) definite article in Portuguese and Galician Spanish and assume it should be connected to the word that follows.
I do’nt kn’ow
Probably because we are not all linguists and make mistakes.That has to be the explanation! Thank you! But notice that the name is given correctly where the height of the mountain is given. I bet he copied and pasted it. I don't have Brierley – did he get O Pedrouzo wrong, too?
Must be a nod towards his Irish background
No, it's just called Pedrouzo in my 2015 edition of Brierley. I've read that O Pedrouzo is the Galician name and Pedrouzo is the standard Spanish name.
In Franco's time the official name was El Cebrero and Piedrafita del Cebrero.From a contemporary English Style Guide that is used by people who have been made aware of the political sensitivities of foreign geographical names in English:
Write Seville. Otherwise use native spellings, e.g. Córdoba, Irún. Use the Catalan names Girona and Lleida, and the Galician names A Coruña and Ourense, as these are now the official Spanish names for the cities and provinces also known as Gerona, Lerida, La Coruña and Orense (see Ley 2/1992, de 28 de febrero, por la que pasan a denominarse oficialmente Girona y Lleida las provincias de Gerona y Lérida and Ley 2/1998, de 3 de marzo, sobre el cambio de denominación de las provincias de La Coruña y Orense).And early 20th century authors like Georgiana King and Walter Starkie referred to Cebrero, no i, no O and no apostrophe.
Because it's the Camin'O de Santiag'O of course !!!
A few pilgrims last Wednesday in O Cebreiro, around 15 per day according to the woman in Venta Celta.
It must be so peaceful! And it looks like you have fantastic weather at the moment?
Yes the weather is very good these days (cold at night ). The pilgrims must be very happy.
Custom and historical usage. There is no rhyme or reason. In recent years, we have much strength of opinion suggesting that we use the local name (watch the sparks when one says Bombay rather than Mumbai) but this does get to be problematic when there is more than one version. Years ago I was stomping through the woods out of Markina (or perhaps I was gently gliding out of Marquina) when I was invited to join a party of workshopping drama teachers at a lunch at roadside asador-- when I told them that I would be stopping in San Sebastian, I was corrected quite firmly that it was Donostia. After some discussion they told me that I perhaps should call it Saint Sébastien if speaking French (our common language at the table) or Saint Sebastian in English, for using San Sebastian would suggest that I supported Castilian centralization, but nobody would understand me if used Donostia.
That sounds very familiar. Back in 1990 on my first Camino there was very little official recognition of minority languages or provincial autonomy in Spain. Government was still very centralised and authoritarian. Road signs were almost all in Castellano without the Basque or Gallego equivalents which are common today. You could plot your position on the map fairly well from the graffiti on road signs: which language had been used in the hand-painted text replacing the Castellano words that had been obliterated, or by which part of "Castilla y Leon" had been blanked out
The are still some hand painted corrections in the Galician language area of Leon: Veiga (Vega) de Valcarce, Perexe (Pereje).That sounds very familiar. Back in 1990 on my first Camino there was very little official recognition of minority languages or provincial autonomy in Spain. Government was still very centralised and authoritarian. Road signs were almost all in Castellano without the Basque or Gallego equivalents which are common today. You could plot your position on the map fairly well from the graffiti on road signs: which language had been used in the hand-painted text replacing the Castellano words that had been obliterated, or by which part of "Castilla y Leon" had been blanked out
that we all feel a wee bit Irish.