Complex sentence: An unusual feature of the name of the town is that Afrikaners customarily attach the definite article to it: people say (in Afrikaans), "I live in the Pearl" (in die Paarl), rather than "I live in Pearl".
Split into simpler sentences: An unusual feature of the name of the town is that it is customarily referred to with the definite article attached to it. So, people say (in Afrikaans) "I live in the Pearl" (in die Paarl), rather than "I live in Pearl".