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Welsh ( or ) is a
Celtic language
The Celtic languages (usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward ...
of the
Brittonic
Brittonic or Brythonic may refer to:
*Common Brittonic, or Brythonic, the Celtic language anciently spoken in Great Britain
*Brittonic languages, a branch of the Celtic languages descended from Common Brittonic
*Britons (Celtic people)
The Br ...
subgroup that is native to the
Welsh people
The Welsh ( cy, Cymry) are an ethnic group native to Wales. "Welsh people" applies to those who were born in Wales ( cy, Cymru) and to those who have Welsh ancestry, perceiving themselves or being perceived as sharing a cultural heritage and ...
. Welsh is spoken natively in
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
, by some in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, and in
Y Wladfa
Y Wladfa (, "The Colony"), also occasionally Y Wladychfa Gymreig (, "The Welsh Settlement"), refers to the establishment of settlements by Welsh immigrants in Patagonia, beginning in 1865, mainly along the coast of the lower Chubut Valley. I ...
(the Welsh colony in
Chubut Province
Chubut ( es, Provincia del Chubut, ; cy, Talaith Chubut) is a province in southern Argentina, situated between the 42nd parallel south (the border with Río Negro Province), the 46th parallel south (bordering Santa Cruz Province), the Andes rang ...
,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
). Historically, it has also been known in English as "British", "Cambrian", "Cambric" and "Cymric".
The
Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 Welsh language
2011 in Wales
Measures of the National Assembly for Wales
The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 made Welsh an official language of Wales and treated no less favourably than English. The Act allowed people to live their lives thro ...
gave the Welsh language official status in Wales. Both the Welsh and English languages are ''de jure'' official languages of the Welsh Parliament, the
Senedd.
According to the
2021 census, the
Welsh-speaking population of Wales aged three or older was 17.8% (538,300 people) and nearly three quarters of the population in Wales said they had no Welsh language skills. Other estimates suggest that 29.7% (899,500) of people aged three or older in Wales could speak Welsh in June 2022.
Almost half of all Welsh speakers consider themselves fluent Welsh speakers and 21 per cent are able to speak a fair amount of Welsh. The Welsh government plans to increase the number of Welsh language speakers to one million by 2050. Since 1980, the number of children attending
Welsh-medium schools has increased, and the number going to Welsh bilingual and dual-medium schools has decreased. Welsh is a vibrant Celtic language in terms of active speakers, and is the only Celtic language not considered
endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...
by
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
.
History
The language of the Welsh developed from the language of
Britons
British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mod ...
. The emergence of Welsh was not instantaneous and clearly identifiable. Instead, the shift occurred over a long period of time, with some historians claiming that it had happened by as late as the
9th century
The 9th century was a period from 801 ( DCCCI) through 900 ( CM) in accordance with the Julian calendar.
The Carolingian Renaissance and the Viking raids occurred within this period. In the Middle East, the House of Wisdom was founded in Abba ...
, with a watershed moment being that proposed by linguist
Kenneth H. Jackson
Prof Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson CBE FRSE FSA DLitt (1 November 1909 – 20 February 1991) was an English linguistics, linguist and a translator who specialised in the Celtic languages. He demonstrated how the text of the Ulster Cycle of tales, wr ...
, the
Battle of Dyrham
The Battle of Deorham (or Dyrham) is claimed as a decisive military encounter between the West Saxons and the Britons of the West Country in 577. The battle, which was a major victory for Wessex's forces led by Ceawlin and his son, Cuthwine, r ...
, a military battle between the
West Saxons
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
and the Britons in 577 AD,
which split the South Western British from direct overland contact with the Welsh.
Four periods are identified in the history of Welsh, with rather indistinct boundaries: Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh. The period immediately following the language's emergence is sometimes referred to as Primitive Welsh,
followed by the
Old Welsh period – which is generally considered to stretch from the beginning of the 9th century to sometime during the 12th century.
The
Middle Welsh
Middle Welsh ( cy, Cymraeg Canol, wlm, Kymraec) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 15th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed directly from Old Welsh ( cy, Hen G ...
period is considered to have lasted from then until the 14th century, when the
Modern Welsh
The history of the Welsh language (Welsh: ''Hanes yr iaith Gymraeg'') spans over 1400 years, encompassing the stages of the language known as Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh.
Origins
Welsh evolved from British, the C ...
period began, which in turn is divided into Early and Late Modern Welsh.
The word ''Welsh'' is a descendant, via Old English , of the
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic bran ...
word ''*
Walhaz
''Walhaz'' is a reconstructed Proto-Germanic word meaning 'foreigner', or more specifically 'Roman', 'Romance-speaker' or '(romanized) Celt', and survives in English as 'Welsh'. The term was used by the ancient Germanic peoples to describe inha ...
'', which was derived from the name of the
Celtic people
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
known to the Romans as
Volcae
The Volcae () were a Gallic tribal confederation constituted before the raid of combined Gauls that invaded Macedonia c. 270 BC and fought the assembled Greeks at the Battle of Thermopylae in 279 BC. Tribes known by the name Volcae were found si ...
and which came to refer to speakers of Celtic languages, and then indiscriminately to the people of the
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period ...
. In
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
the term went through
semantic narrowing, coming to refer to either Britons in particular or, in some contexts, slaves. The plural form evolved into the name for their territory, Wales.
[ Davies, John (1994) ' A History of Wales''. Penguin: p.71; .] The modern names for various
Romance-speaking people in
Continental Europe (e.g.
Walloons
Walloons (; french: Wallons ; wa, Walons) are a Gallo-Romance ethnic group living native to Wallonia and the immediate adjacent regions of France. Walloons primarily speak '' langues d'oïl'' such as Belgian French, Picard and Walloon. Wall ...
,
Valaisans,
Vlachs
"Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other E ...
/
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...
ns, and , the
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
name for Italians) have a similar etymology. The Welsh term for the language, , descends from the
Brythonic word ''combrogi'', meaning "compatriots" or "fellow countrymen".
Origins
![1588 First Welsh Bible](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/1588_First_Welsh_Bible.jpg)
Welsh evolved from
Common Brittonic, the Celtic language spoken by the ancient
Celtic Britons. Classified as
Insular Celtic, the British language probably arrived in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
during the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
or
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
and was probably spoken throughout the island south of the
Firth of Forth.
[Koch, pp. 291–292.] During the
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...
the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, thus evolving into Welsh and the other Brittonic languages. It is not clear when Welsh became distinct.
Linguist
Kenneth H. Jackson
Prof Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson CBE FRSE FSA DLitt (1 November 1909 – 20 February 1991) was an English linguistics, linguist and a translator who specialised in the Celtic languages. He demonstrated how the text of the Ulster Cycle of tales, wr ...
has suggested that the evolution in
syllabic
Syllabic may refer to:
*Syllable, a unit of speech sound, considered the building block of words
**Syllabic consonant, a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable
*Syllabary, writing system using symbols for syllables
*Abugida, writing system ...
structure and sound pattern was complete by around AD 550, and labelled the period between then and about AD 800 "Primitive Welsh".
[Koch, p. 1757.] This Primitive Welsh may have been spoken in both Wales and the
Hen Ogledd
Yr Hen Ogledd (), in English the Old North, is the historical region which is now Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands that was inhabited by the Brittonic people of sub-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages. Its population sp ...
("Old North") – the Brittonic-speaking areas of what are now northern England and southern
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
– and therefore may have been the ancestor of
Cumbric
Cumbric was a variety of the Common Brittonic language spoken during the Early Middle Ages in the ''Hen Ogledd'' or "Old North" in what is now the counties of Westmorland, Cumberland and northern Lancashire in Northern England and the souther ...
as well as Welsh. Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time.
[ The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the or "Early Poets" – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was supposedly composed in the Hen Ogledd, raising further questions about the dating of the material and language in which it was originally composed.][ This discretion stems from the fact that Cumbric was widely believed to have been the language used in Hen Ogledd. An 8th-century inscription in ]Tywyn
Tywyn (Welsh: ; in English often ), formerly spelled Towyn, is a town, community, and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay coast of southern Gwynedd, Wales. It was previously in the historic county of Merionethshire. It is famous as the lo ...
shows the language already dropping inflection
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and ...
s in the declension of nouns.
Janet Davies proposed that the origins of the Welsh language were much less definite; in ''The Welsh Language: A History'', she proposes that Welsh may have been around even earlier than 600 AD. This is evidenced by the dropping of final syllables from Brittonic: ''*bardos'' "poet" became ''bardd'', and ''*abona'' "river" became ''afon''. Though both Davies and Jackson cite minor changes in syllable structure and sounds as evidence for the creation of Old Welsh, Davies suggests it may be more appropriate to refer to this derivative language as rather than characterising it as a new language altogether.
Primitive Welsh
The argued dates for the period of "Primitive Welsh" are widely debated, with some historians' suggestions differing by hundreds of years.
Old Welsh
The next main period is Old Welsh (, 9th to 11th centuries); poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
from both Wales and Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
has been preserved in this form of the language. As Germanic and Gaelic colonisation of Britain proceeded, the Brittonic speakers in Wales were split off from those in northern England, speaking Cumbric, and those in the southwest, speaking what would become Cornish, and so the languages diverged. Both the works of Aneirin
Aneirin , Aneurin or Neirin was an early Medieval Brythonic war poet. He is believed to have been a bard or court poet in one of the Cumbric kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd, probably that of Gododdin at Edinburgh, in modern Scotland. From the 17th c ...
(, c. 600) and the '' Book of Taliesin'' () were written during this era.
Middle Welsh
Middle Welsh () is the label attached to the Welsh of the 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of nearly all surviving early manuscripts of the '' Mabinogion'', although the tales themselves are certainly much older. It is also the language of the existing Welsh law
Welsh law ( cy, Cyfraith Cymru) is an autonomous part of the English law system composed of legislation made by the Senedd.Law Society of England and Wales (2019)England and Wales: A World Jurisdiction of Choice eport(Link accessed: 16 March 20 ...
manuscripts. Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible to a modern-day Welsh speaker.
File:Map o ieithoedd Cymru (A map of the languages of Wales) - 1750.svg, 1750
File:Map o ieithoedd Cymru (A map of the languages of Wales) - 1800.svg, 1800
File:Map o ieithoedd Cymru (A map of the languages of Wales) - 1850.svg, 1850
File:Map o ieithoedd Cymru (A map of the languages of Wales) - 1900.svg, 1900
Modern Welsh
The Bible translations into Welsh helped maintain the use of Welsh in daily life. The New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...
was translated by William Salesbury
William Salesbury also Salusbury (c. 1520 – c. 1584) was the leading Welsh scholar of the Renaissance and the principal translator of the 1567 Welsh New Testament.
Early life
Salesbury was born some time before 1520 (possibly as early as 1 ...
in 1567, and the complete Bible by William Morgan in 1588. Modern Welsh is subdivided into Early Modern Welsh and Late Modern Welsh. Early Modern Welsh ran from the 15th century through to the end of the 16th century, and the Late Modern Welsh period roughly dates from the 16th century onwards. Contemporary Welsh differs greatly from the Welsh of the 16th century, but they are similar enough for a fluent Welsh speaker to have little trouble understanding it. During the Modern Welsh period there has been a decline in the popularity of the Welsh language: the number of Welsh speakers declined to the point at which there was concern that the language would become extinct. Welsh government processes and legislation have worked to increase the proliferation of the Welsh language, e.g. through education.
Geographic distribution
Wales
Welsh has been spoken continuously in Wales throughout history, but by 1911 it had become a minority language, spoken by 43.5 percent of the population. While this decline continued over the following decades, the language did not die out. By the start of the 21st century, numbers began to increase once more, at least partly as a result of the increase in Welsh-medium education
Education delivered through the medium of the Welsh language is known as Welsh-medium education ().
Welsh-medium education should be distinguished from the teaching of the Welsh language itself as an academic subject.
16% of pupils in Wales atte ...
.
The 2004 Welsh Language Use Survey showed that 21.7 percent of the population of Wales spoke Welsh, compared with 20.8 percent in the 2001 census, and 18.5 percent in the 1991 census
A nationwide census, commonly known as Census 1991, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday 21 April 1991. This was the 19th UK census.
''Census 1991'' was organised by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys in England and Wales, t ...
. The 2011 census, however, showed a slight decline to 562,000, or 19 per cent of the population. The census also showed a "big drop" in the number of speakers in the Welsh-speaking heartlands, with the number dropping to under 50 percent in and Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...
for the first time. However, according to the Welsh Language Use Survey in 2019–20, 22 percent of people aged three and over were able to speak Welsh.
The Annual Population Survey
The Annual Population Survey (APS) is a combined statistical survey of households in Great Britain which is conducted quarterly by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It combines results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the English, W ...
(APS) by the Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament.
Overview
The ONS is responsible for t ...
(ONS) estimated that as of June 2022, 899,500, or 29.7 percent of the population of Wales aged 3 and over, were able to speak the language. This could imply an increase in the prevalence of the Welsh language since the 2011 census. The APS estimates of Welsh language ability are historically higher than those produced by the census. In terms of usage, ONS also reported that 14.8% of people aged three or older in Wales reported that they spoke Welsh daily in June 2022, with 5.6% speaking it weekly and 7.6% less often. Approximately 1.7% reported that they never spoke Welsh despite being able to speak it, with the remaining 70.3% not being able to speak Welsh.
The National Survey for Wales, conducted by Welsh Government, has also tended to have a higher percentage of Welsh speakers than the census, with the most recent results for 2018–2019 suggesting that 22 percent of the population aged 3 and over were able to speak Welsh, with an additional 16 percent noting that they had some Welsh-speaking ability.
Historically, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh. Over the course of the 20th century this monolingual population all but disappeared, but a small percentage remained at the time of the 1981 census. Most Welsh-speaking people in Wales also speak English. However, many Welsh-speaking people are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain and the social context, even within a single discourse (known in linguistics as code-switching
In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingualis ...
).
Welsh speakers are largely concentrated in the north and west of Wales, principally , Conwy County Borough
Conwy County Borough ( cy, Bwrdeistref Sirol Conwy) is a county borough in Wales. It borders Gwynedd to the west and south, and Denbighshire to the east. Other settlements in the county borough include Abergele, Betws-y-Coed, Colwyn Bay, Conwy ...
, Denbighshire
Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...
, Anglesey
Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...
, Carmarthenshire, north Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion
Ceredigion ( , , ) is a county in the west of Wales, corresponding to the historic county of Cardiganshire. During the second half of the first millennium Ceredigion was a minor kingdom. It has been administered as a county since 1282. Cer ...
, parts of Glamorgan, and north-west and extreme south-west . However, first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales.
Outside Wales
The rest of the UK
Welsh-speaking communities persisted well into the modern period across the border in England. Archenfield
Archenfield (Old English: ''Ircingafeld'') is the historic English name for an area of southern and western Herefordshire in England. Since the Anglo-Saxons took over the region in the 8th century, it has stretched between the River Monnow and R ...
was still Welsh enough in the time of Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is ...
for the Bishop of Hereford to be made responsible, together with the four Welsh bishops, for the translation of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer
The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...
into Welsh. Welsh was still commonly spoken there in the first half of the 19th century, and churchwardens' notices were put up in both Welsh and English until about 1860. Alexander John Ellis in the 1880s identified a small part of Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...
as still then speaking Welsh, with the "Celtic Border" passing from Llanymynech through Oswestry to Chirk.
The number of Welsh-speaking people in the rest of Britain has not yet been counted for statistical purposes. In 1993, the Welsh-language television channel S4C published the results of a survey into the numbers of people who spoke or understood Welsh, which estimated that there were around 133,000 Welsh-speaking people living in England, about 50,000 of them in the Greater London area. The Welsh Language Board
The Welsh Language Board ( cy, Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg) was a statutory body set up by Her Majesty's Government under the Welsh Language Act 1993. It was an Assembly Sponsored Public Body. It began its life under John Walter Jones, and its last ...
, on the basis of an analysis of the Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament.
Overview
The ONS is responsible for t ...
Longitudinal Study, estimated there were 110,000 Welsh-speaking people in England, and another thousand in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In the 2011 census, 8,248 people in England gave Welsh in answer to the question "What is your main language?" The Office for National Statistics subsequently published a census glossary of terms to support the release of results from the census, including their definition of "main language" as referring to "first or preferred language" (though that wording was not in the census questionnaire itself). The wards in England with the most people giving Welsh as their main language were the Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
wards of Central and Greenbank; and Oswestry South in Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...
. The wards of Oswestry South (1.15%), Oswestry East (0.86%) and St Oswald (0.71%) had the highest percentage of residents giving Welsh as their main language. The census also revealed that 3,528 wards in England, or 46% of the total number, contained at least one resident whose main language is Welsh. In terms of the regions of England, North West England (1,945), London (1,310) and the West Midlands (1,265) had the highest number of people noting Welsh as their main language. According to the 2021 census, 7,349 people in England recorded Welsh to be their "main language".
In the 2011 census, 1,189 people aged three and over in Scotland noted that Welsh was a language (other than English) that they used at home.
Argentina
It is believed that there are as many as 5,000 speakers of Patagonian Welsh.
Australia
In response to the question 'Does the person speak a language other than English at home?' in the 2016 Australian census, 1,688 people noted that they spoke Welsh.
Canada
In the 2011 Canadian census, 3,885 people reported Welsh as their first language
A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...
. According to the 2021 Canadian census, 1,130 people noted that Welsh was their mother tongue.
New Zealand
The 2018 New Zealand census
Eighteen or 18 may refer to:
* 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19
* one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018
Film, television and entertainment
* ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sho ...
noted that 1,083 people in New Zealand spoke Welsh.
United States
The American Community Survey 2009–2013 noted that 2,235 people aged 5 years and over in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
spoke Welsh at home. The highest number of those (255) lived in Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
.
Status
Although Welsh is a minority language, support for it grew during the second half of the 20th century, along with the rise of organisations such as the nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
political party from 1925 and Welsh Language Society
The Welsh Language Society ( cy, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, often abbreviated to Cymdeithas yr Iaith or just Cymdeithas) is a direct action pressure group in Wales campaigning for the right of Welsh people to use the Welsh language in every as ...
from 1962. Of the six living Celtic languages (including two revived), Welsh has the most number of native speakers who use the language on a daily basis, and it is the only Celtic language which is not considered to be endangered by UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
.
The Welsh Language Act 1993
The Welsh Language Act 1993, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which put the Welsh language on an equal footing with the English language in Wales.
The Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 had made English the only language of publ ...
and the Government of Wales Act 1998
The Government of Wales Act 1998 (c. 38) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
It was passed in 1998 by the Labour government to create a Welsh Assembly, therefore granting Wales a degree of self-government. This legislative ...
provide that the Welsh and English languages be treated equally in the public sector, as far as is reasonable and practicable. Each public body is required to prepare for approval a Welsh Language Scheme, which indicates its commitment to the equality of treatment principle. This is sent out in draft form for public consultation for a three-month period, whereupon comments on it may be incorporated into a final version. It requires the final approval of the now defunct Welsh Language Board
The Welsh Language Board ( cy, Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg) was a statutory body set up by Her Majesty's Government under the Welsh Language Act 1993. It was an Assembly Sponsored Public Body. It began its life under John Walter Jones, and its last ...
(). Thereafter, the public body is charged with implementing and fulfilling its obligations under the Welsh Language Scheme. The list of other public bodies which have to prepare Schemes could be added to by initially the Secretary of State for Wales, from 1993 to 1997, by way of statutory instrument. Subsequent to the forming of the National Assembly for Wales
The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Go ...
in 1997, the Government Minister responsible for the Welsh language can and has passed statutory instruments naming public bodies who have to prepare Schemes. Neither the 1993 Act nor secondary legislation made under it covers the private sector, although some organisations, notably banks and some railway companies, provide some of their information in Welsh.
On 7 December 2010, the Welsh Assembly unanimously approved a set of measures to develop the use of the Welsh language within Wales. On 9 February 2011 this measure, the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 Welsh language
2011 in Wales
Measures of the National Assembly for Wales
The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 made Welsh an official language of Wales and treated no less favourably than English. The Act allowed people to live their lives thro ...
, was passed and received Royal Assent, thus making the Welsh language an officially recognised language within Wales. The measure:
* confirms the official status of the Welsh language
* creates a new system of placing duties on bodies to provide services through the medium of Welsh
* creates a Welsh Language Commissioner with strong enforcement powers to protect the rights of Welsh-speaking people to access services through the medium of Welsh
* establishes a Welsh Language Tribunal
* gives individuals and bodies the right to appeal decisions made in relation to the provision of services through the medium of Welsh
* creates a Welsh Language Partnership Council to advise Government on its strategy in relation to the Welsh language
* allows for an official investigation by the Welsh Language Commissioner of instances where there is an attempt to interfere with the freedom of Welsh-speaking people to use the language with one another
The measure requires public bodies and some private companies to provide services in Welsh. The Welsh government's Minister for Heritage at the time, Alun Ffred Jones, said, "The Welsh language is a source of great pride for the people of Wales, whether they speak it or not, and I am delighted that this measure has now become law. I am very proud to have steered legislation through the Assembly which confirms the official status of the Welsh language; which creates a strong advocate for Welsh speakers and will improve the quality and quantity of services available through the medium of Welsh. I believe that everyone who wants to access services in the Welsh language should be able to do so, and that is what this government has worked towards. This legislation is an important and historic step forward for the language, its speakers and for the nation." The measure was not welcomed warmly by all supporters: Bethan Williams, chairman of the Welsh Language Society, gave a mixed response to the move, saying, "Through this measure we have won official status for the language and that has been warmly welcomed. But there was a core principle missing in the law passed by the Assembly before Christmas. It doesn't give language rights to the people of Wales in every aspect of their lives. Despite that, an amendment to that effect was supported by 18 Assembly Members from three different parties, and that was a significant step forward."
On 5 October 2011, Meri Huws
Meri Huws (born September 1957) is a Welsh academic and public official and formerly the Welsh Language Commissioner. Born in Carmarthenshire, she was educated at Ysgol Bro Gwaun, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, where she studied law and politics ...
, Chair of the Welsh Language Board
The Welsh Language Board ( cy, Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg) was a statutory body set up by Her Majesty's Government under the Welsh Language Act 1993. It was an Assembly Sponsored Public Body. It began its life under John Walter Jones, and its last ...
, was appointed the new Welsh Language Commissioner. She released a statement that she was "delighted" to have been appointed to the "hugely important role", adding, "I look forward to working with the Welsh Government
, image =
, caption =
, date_established =
, country = Wales
, address =
, leader_title = First Minister ()
, appointed = First Minister approved by the Senedd, ceremonially appointed ...
and organisations in Wales in developing the new system of standards. I will look to build on the good work that has been done by the Welsh Language Board and others to strengthen the Welsh language and ensure that it continues to thrive." First Minister Carwyn Jones
Carwyn Howell Jones (born 21 March 1967) is a Welsh politician who served as First Minister of Wales and Leader of Welsh Labour from 2009 to 2018. He served as Counsel General for Wales from 2007 to 2009. Jones served as the Member of the S ...
said that Huws would act as a champion for the Welsh language, though some had concerns over her appointment: Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom.
Plaid wa ...
spokeswoman Bethan Jenkins said, "I have concerns about the transition from Meri Huws's role from the Welsh Language Board to the language commissioner, and I will be asking the Welsh government how this will be successfully managed. We must be sure that there is no conflict of interest, and that the Welsh Language Commissioner can demonstrate how she will offer the required fresh approach to this new role." Huws started her role as the Welsh Language Commissioner on 1 April 2012.
Local councils and the Senedd use Welsh, issuing Welsh versions of their literature, to varying degrees.
Road signs in Wales are in Welsh and English. Prior to 2016, the choice of which language to display first was the responsibility of the local council. Since then, as part of the Welsh Language alesMeasure 2011, all new signs have Welsh displayed first. There have been incidents of one of the languages being vandalised, which may be considered a hate crime.
Since 2000, the teaching of Welsh has been compulsory in all schools in Wales up to age 16; this has had an effect in stabilising and reversing the decline in the language.
Text on UK coins tends to be in English and Latin. However, a Welsh-language edge inscription was used on pound coins dated 1985, 1990 and 1995, which circulated in all parts of the UK prior to their 2017 withdrawal. The wording is , (), and derives from the national anthem of Wales, . UK banknotes are in English only.
Some shops employ bilingual signage. Welsh sometimes appears on product packaging or instructions.
The UK government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. However, th ...
in respect of Welsh.
The language has greatly increased its prominence since the creation of the television channel S4C in November 1982, which until digital switchover
The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is conv ...
in 2010 broadcast 70 per cent of Channel 4's programming along with a majority of Welsh language shows during peak viewing hours. The all-Welsh-language digital station S4C Digidol is available throughout Europe on satellite and online throughout the UK. Since the digital switchover was completed in South Wales on 31 March 2010, S4C Digidol became the main broadcasting channel and fully in Welsh. The main evening television news provided by the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
in Welsh is available for download. There is also a Welsh-language radio station,
BBC Radio Cymru
BBC Radio Cymru is a Welsh language radio network owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts on two stations across Wales on FM, DAB, digital TV and online.
The main network broadcasts for hours a day from ...
, which was launched in 1977.
The only Welsh-language national newspaper ''
Y Cymro
''Y Cymro'' (, 'The Welshman') is a Welsh-language newspaper, which was first published in 1932. It was founded in Wrexham, and succeeded other newspapers of the same name that had existed during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is Wales' ...
'' (''The Welshman'') was published weekly until 2017. There is no daily newspaper in Welsh. A daily newspaper called ''
Y Byd'' (''The World'') was scheduled to be launched on 3 March 2008, but was scrapped, owing to insufficient sales of subscriptions and the
Welsh Government
, image =
, caption =
, date_established =
, country = Wales
, address =
, leader_title = First Minister ()
, appointed = First Minister approved by the Senedd, ceremonially appointed ...
offering only one third of the £600,000 public funding it needed. There is a Welsh-language online news service which publishes news stories in Welsh called
Golwg360
() is a Welsh-language news website. It aims to provide a rolling news service from Wales and elsewhere, as well as sport and cultural news. Published by , it includes some content from the weekly Welsh-language magazine as well as web-only ...
("360
egreeview").
As of March 2021, there were 58 local Welsh language community newspapers, known as "Papurau Bro", in circulation.
In education
![Welshclass](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Welshclass.jpg)
The decade around 1840 was a period of great social upheaval in Wales, manifested in the
Chartist movement. In 1839, 20,000 people marched on
Newport, resulting in a riot when 20 people were killed by soldiers defending the Westgate Hotel, and the
Rebecca Riots
The Rebecca Riots (Welsh: ''Terfysgoedd Beca'') took place between 1839 and 1843 in West and Mid Wales. They were a series of protests undertaken by local farmers and agricultural workers in response to levels of taxation. The rioters, often me ...
where
tollbooth
A tollbooth (or toll booth) is an enclosure placed along a toll road that is used for the purpose of collecting a toll from passing traffic. A structure consisting of several tollbooths placed next to each other is called a toll plaza, tollga ...
s on
turnpikes were systematically destroyed.
This unrest brought the state of education in Wales to the attention of the British government since social reformers of the time considered education as a means of dealing with social ills. ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' newspaper was prominent among those who considered that the lack of education of the Welsh people was the root cause of most of the problems.
In July 1846, three commissioners,
R.R.W. Lingen, Jellynger C. Symons and H.R. Vaughan Johnson, were appointed to inquire into the state of education in Wales; the Commissioners were all
Anglicans
Anglicanism is a Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia ...
and thus presumed unsympathetic to the
nonconformist majority in Wales. The Commissioners presented
their report to the Government on 1 July 1847 in three large blue-bound volumes. This report quickly became known in Wales as the (''Treason of the Blue Books'') since, apart from documenting the state of education in Wales, the Commissioners were also free with their comments disparaging the language,
nonconformity, and the morals of the Welsh people in general. An immediate effect of the report was that ordinary Welsh people began to believe that the only way to get on in the world was through the medium of English, and an inferiority complex developed about the Welsh language whose effects have not yet been completely eradicated. The historian Professor
Kenneth O. Morgan
Kenneth Owen Morgan, Baron Morgan, (born 16 May 1934) is a Welsh historian and author, known especially for his writings on modern British history and politics and on Welsh history. He is a regular reviewer and broadcaster on radio and televisi ...
referred to the significance of the report and its consequences as "the
Glencoe and the
Amritsar of Welsh history".
In the later 19th century, virtually all teaching in the schools of Wales was in English, even in areas where the pupils barely understood English. Some schools used the
Welsh Not
The Welsh Not was a token used by teachers at some schools in Wales in the 19th century to discourage children from speaking Welsh at school, by marking out those who were heard speaking the language. Accounts suggest that its form and the natu ...
, a piece of wood, often bearing the letters "WN", which was hung around the neck of any pupil caught speaking Welsh. The pupil could pass it on to any schoolmate heard speaking Welsh, with the pupil wearing it at the end of the day being punished. One of the most famous Welsh-born pioneers of higher education in Wales was
Sir Hugh Owen. He made great progress in the cause of education, and more especially the
University College of Wales
, mottoeng = A world without knowledge is no world at all
, established = 1872 (as ''The University College of Wales'')
, former_names = University of Wales, Aberystwyth
, type = Public
, endowment = ...
at
Aberystwyth, of which he was chief founder. He has been credited with the
Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889
The Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict c 40) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Background
Elementary education had been compulsory in Wales, as in the rest of the United Kingdom, since the introduction of t ...
(52 & 53 Vict c 40), following which several new Welsh schools were built. The first was completed in 1894 and named
Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen
Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen is a bilingual Comprehensive school, comprehensive secondary school for pupils aged 11–18. The school is situated in Caernarfon, Gwynedd, Wales. The school was established in 1894, the first to be built under the ''Welsh Int ...
.
Towards the beginning of the 20th century this policy slowly began to change, partly owing to the efforts of
O.M. Edwards when he became chief inspector of schools for Wales in 1907.
The
Aberystwyth Welsh School () was founded in 1939 by
Sir Ifan ap Owen Edwards, the son of O.M. Edwards, as the first Welsh Primary School. The headteacher was
Norah Isaac. is still a very successful school, and now there are Welsh-language primary schools all over the country. was established in
Rhyl
Rhyl (; cy, Y Rhyl, ) is a seaside town and community in Denbighshire, Wales. The town lies within the historic boundaries of Flintshire, on the north-east coast of Wales at the mouth of the River Clwyd ( Welsh: ''Afon Clwyd'').
To the we ...
in 1956 as the first Welsh-medium secondary school.
![Defnyddiwch eich Cymraeg - Use your Welsh - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Defnyddiwch_eich_Cymraeg_-_Use_your_Welsh_-_geograph.org.uk_-_488577.jpg)
Welsh is now widely used in education, with 101,345 children and young people in Wales receiving their education in Welsh medium schools in 2014/15, 65,460 in primary and 35,885 in secondary. 26 per cent of all schools in Wales are defined as Welsh medium schools, with a further 7.3 per cent offering some Welsh-medium instruction to pupils. 22 per cent of pupils are in schools in which Welsh is the primary language of instruction. Under the
National Curriculum A national curriculum is a common programme of study in schools that is designed to ensure nationwide uniformity of content and standards in education. It is usually legislated by the national government, possibly in consultation with state or other ...
, it is compulsory that all students study Welsh up to the age of 16 as either a first or a second language. Some students choose to continue with their studies through the medium of Welsh for the completion of their A-levels as well as during their college years. All
local education authorities
Local education authorities (LEAs) were local councils in England that are responsible for education within their jurisdiction. The term was used to identify which council (district or county) is locally responsible for education in a system wit ...
in Wales have schools providing bilingual or Welsh-
medium
Medium may refer to:
Science and technology
Aviation
*Medium bomber, a class of war plane
*Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data
* Medium of ...
education. The remainder study Welsh as a second language in English-medium schools. Specialist teachers of Welsh called support the teaching of Welsh in the National Curriculum. Welsh is also taught in adult education classes. The Welsh Government has recently set up six centres of excellence in the teaching of Welsh for Adults, with centres in North Wales, Mid Wales, South West, Glamorgan, Gwent, and Cardiff.
The ability to speak Welsh or to have Welsh as a qualification is desirable for certain career choices in Wales, such as teaching or customer service. All universities in Wales teach courses in the language, with many undergraduate and post-graduate degree programmes offered in the medium of Welsh, ranging from law, modern languages, social sciences, and also other sciences such as biological sciences. Aberystwyth, Cardiff, Bangor, and Swansea have all had chairs in Welsh since their virtual establishment, and all their schools of Welsh are successful centres for the study of the Welsh language and its literature, offering a BA in Welsh as well as post-graduate courses. At all Welsh universities and the
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...
, students have the right to submit assessed work and sit exams in Welsh even if the course was taught in English (usually the only exception is where the course requires demonstrating proficiency in another language). Following a commitment made in the One Wales coalition government between Labour and Plaid Cymru, the
Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol
Before deleting any text please note that some of the text contained within this article has been authorised for use on a CC-BY-SA licence. An email has been received by Robin Owain (Wikimedia UK) from Ioan Matthews to that effect.
The (meaning: ...
(Welsh Language National College) was established. The purpose of the federal structured college, spread out between all the universities of Wales, is to provide and also advance Welsh medium courses and Welsh medium scholarship and research in Welsh universities. There is also a Welsh-medium academic journal called ''Gwerddon'' ("Oasis"), which is a platform for academic research in Welsh and is published quarterly. There have been calls for more teaching of Welsh in English-medium schools.
Use in professional engineering
When conducting applicants' professional reviews for
Chartered Engineer
Regulation and licensure in engineering is established by various jurisdictions of the world to encourage life, public welfare, safety, well-being, then environment and other interests of the general public and to define the licensure process thr ...
status, the
Institution of Engineering and Technology
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) is a multidisciplinary professional engineering institution. The IET was formed in 2006 from two separate institutions: the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), dating back to 1871, and ...
accepts applications in Welsh and will conduct face-to-face interviews in Welsh if requested to do so. One of the requirements for Chartered Engineer is also to be able to communicate effectively in English.
In information technology
Like many of the world's languages, the Welsh language has seen an increased use and presence on the internet, ranging from formal lists of terminology in a variety of fields to Welsh language interfaces for
Microsoft Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...
and up,
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketi ...
,
LibreOffice
LibreOffice () is a free and open-source office productivity software suite, a project of The Document Foundation (TDF). It was forked in 2010 from OpenOffice.org, an open-sourced version of the earlier StarOffice. The LibreOffice suite co ...
,
OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org (OOo), commonly known as OpenOffice, is a discontinued open-source office suite. Active successor projects include LibreOffice (the most actively developed), Apache OpenOffice, Collabora Online (enterprise ready LibreOffice) a ...
,
Mozilla Firefox and a variety of
Linux distributions, and on-line services to
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...
s kept in Welsh. Wikipedia has had a Welsh version since July 2003 and
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
since 2009.
Mobile phone technology
In 2006 the
Welsh Language Board
The Welsh Language Board ( cy, Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg) was a statutory body set up by Her Majesty's Government under the Welsh Language Act 1993. It was an Assembly Sponsored Public Body. It began its life under John Walter Jones, and its last ...
launched a free software pack which enabled the use of
SMS
Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...
predictive text
Predictive text is an input technology used where one key or button represents many letters, such as on the numeric keypads of mobile phones and in accessibility technologies. Each key press results in a ''prediction'' rather than repeatedly ...
in Welsh. At the
National Eisteddfod of Wales 2009, a further announcement was made by the Welsh Language Board that the mobile phone company
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
was to work with the network provider
Orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
to provide the first mobile phone in the Welsh language, with the interface and the T9 dictionary on the Samsung S5600 available in the Welsh language. The model, available with the Welsh language interface, has been available since 1 September 2009, with plans to introduce it on other networks.
On
Android devices, both the built-in
Google Keyboard and user-created keyboards can be used.
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
devices have fully supported the Welsh language since the release of iOS 8 in September 2014. Users can switch their device to Welsh to access apps that are available in Welsh. Date and time on iOS is also localised, as shown by the built-in Calendar application, as well as certain third-party apps that have been localised.
In warfare
Secure communications are often difficult to achieve in wartime. Just as
Navajo code talker
A code talker was a person employed by the military during wartime to use a little-known language as a means of secret communication. The term is now usually associated with United States service members during the world wars who used their k ...
s were used by the
United States military
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is th ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the a Welsh regiment serving in
Bosnia, used Welsh for emergency communications that needed to be secure.
Use within the British parliament
In 2017, parliamentary rules were amended to allow the use of Welsh when the Welsh Grand Committee meets at
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
. The change did not alter the rules about debates within the House of Commons, where only English can be used.
In February 2018, Welsh was first used when the Welsh Secretary,
Alun Cairns
Alun Hugh Cairns (born 30 July 1970) is a Welsh Conservative Party politician serving as the member of Parliament (MP) for Vale of Glamorgan since 2010. He served as Secretary of State for Wales from 2016 to 2019.
He was previously a membe ...
, delivered his welcoming speech at a sitting of the committee. He said, "I am proud to be using the language I grew up speaking, which is not only important to me, my family and the communities Welsh MPs represent, but is also an integral part of Welsh history and culture".
Use at the European Union
In November 2008, the Welsh language was used at a meeting of the European Union's
Council of Ministers
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...
for the first time. The Heritage Minister
Alun Ffred Jones addressed his audience in Welsh and his words were interpreted into the EU's 23 official languages. The official use of the language followed years of campaigning. Jones said "In the UK we have one of the world's major languages, English, as the mother tongue of many. But there is a diversity of languages within our islands. I am proud to be speaking to you in one of the oldest of these, Welsh, the language of Wales." He described the breakthrough as "more than
erelysymbolic" saying "Welsh might be one of the oldest languages to be used in the UK, but it remains one of the most vibrant. Our literature, our arts, our festivals, our great tradition of song all find expression through our language. And this is a powerful demonstration of how our culture, the very essence of who we are, is expressed through language."
Jill Evans
Jill Evans (born 8 May 1959) is a Plaid Cymru politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Wales from 1999 to 2020. She was the first person to use the Welsh language in debate at the European Parliament.
In June 199 ...
MEP used Welsh in a number of speeches in the European Parliament. In 2004, her using Welsh was the first use of the language in the European Parliament. The last time Welsh was spoken in the European Parliament was during Evans' last speech shortly before
Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...
.
Use by the Voyager programme
A greeting in Welsh is one of the
55 languages included on the
Voyager Golden Record
The Voyager Golden Records are two phonograph records that were included aboard both Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. The records contain sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, and are intended for ...
chosen to be representative of Earth in NASA's
Voyager program
The Voyager program is an American scientific program that employs two robotic interstellar probes, ''Voyager 1'' and ''Voyager 2''. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, to fly near t ...
me launched in 1977. The greetings are unique to each language, with the Welsh greeting being , which translates into English as "Good health to you now and forever".
Vocabulary
Welsh supplements its core Brittonic vocabulary (words such as "egg", "stone"), with hundreds of word
lemmas
Lemma may refer to:
Language and linguistics
* Lemma (morphology), the canonical, dictionary or citation form of a word
* Lemma (psycholinguistics), a mental abstraction of a word about to be uttered
Science and mathematics
* Lemma (botany), ...
borrowed
from Latin, such as ( "window" < Latin , "wine" < Latin ). It also borrows words from
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, such as ( "shelf", "gate").
Phonology
The
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
of Welsh includes a number of sounds that do not occur in English and are
typologically rare in
European languages
Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. Within Indo-European, the three largest phyla are Ro ...
. The
voiceless alveolar lateral fricative
The voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postalveolar lateral fricatives is , ...
, the
voiceless nasal
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...
s , and , and the
voiceless alveolar trill
The voiceless alveolar trill differs from the voiced alveolar trill only by the vibrations of the vocal cord. It occurs in a few languages, usually alongside the voiced version, as a similar phoneme or an allophone.
Proto-Indo-European develo ...
are distinctive features of the Welsh language.
Stress
Stress may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition
* Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
usually falls on the penultimate syllable in polysyllabic words, and the word-final unstressed syllable receives a higher
pitch than the stressed syllable.
Symbols in parentheses are either
allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...
s, or found only in
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...
s.
Orthography
Welsh is written in a
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...
of 29
letter
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
s, of which eight are
digraphs treated as separate letters for
collation
Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office filin ...
:
: a, b, c, ch, d, dd, e, f, ff, g, ng, h, i, j, l, ll, m, n, o, p, ph, r, rh, s, t, th, u, w, y
In contrast to English practice, and are considered vowel letters in Welsh along with .
was not used traditionally, but is now used in many everyday words borrowed from English, like ("jam"), ("joke") and ("garage"). are used in some technical terms, like ''kilogram'', ''volt'' and ''zero'', but in all cases can be, and often are, replaced by Welsh letters: ''cilogram'', ''folt'' and ''sero.'' was in common use until the 16th century, but was dropped at the time of the publication of the New Testament in Welsh, as
William Salesbury
William Salesbury also Salusbury (c. 1520 – c. 1584) was the leading Welsh scholar of the Renaissance and the principal translator of the 1567 Welsh New Testament.
Early life
Salesbury was born some time before 1520 (possibly as early as 1 ...
explained: " for , because the printers have not so many as the Welsh requireth". This change was not popular at the time.
The most common
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
is the
circumflex, which usually disambiguates
long vowels
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, ...
, most often in the case of
homograph
A homograph (from the el, ὁμός, ''homós'', "same" and γράφω, ''gráphō'', "write") is a word that shares the same written form as another word but has a different meaning. However, some dictionaries insist that the words must also ...
s, where the vowel is short in one word and long in the other: e.g. ("place") vs ("fine, small").
Morphology
Welsh
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
has much in common with that of the other modern
Insular Celtic languages
Insular Celtic languages are the group of Celtic languages of Brittany, Great Britain, Ireland, and the Isle of Man. All surviving Celtic languages are in the Insular group, including Breton, which is spoken on continental Europe in Brittany, ...
, such as the use of initial
consonant mutation
Consonant mutation is change in a consonant in a word according to its morphological or syntactic environment.
Mutation occurs in languages around the world. A prototypical example of consonant mutation is the initial consonant mutation of all ...
s and of so-called "
conjugated prepositions" (
prepositions that fuse with the
personal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...
s that are their
object
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an ...
). Welsh nouns belong to one of two
grammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all noun ...
s, masculine and feminine, but they are not inflected for
case. Welsh has a variety of different endings and other methods to indicate the plural, and two endings to indicate the
singular (technically the
singulative
In linguistics, singulative number and collective number (abbreviated and ) are terms used when the grammatical number for multiple items is the unmarked form of a noun, and the noun is specially marked to indicate a single item.
This is the ...
) of some nouns. In spoken Welsh, verbal features are indicated primarily by the use of
auxiliary verb
An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a ...
s rather than by the
inflection of the main verb. In literary Welsh, on the other hand, inflection of the main verb is usual.
Syntax
The canonical word order in Welsh is
verb–subject–object (VSO).
Colloquial Welsh inclines very strongly towards the use of auxiliaries with its verbs, as in English. The present tense is constructed with ("to be") as an
auxiliary verb
An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a ...
, with the main verb appearing as a
verbnoun In Celtic languages such as Welsh, a verb-noun (or verbnoun) is used to refer to the basic form of a verb and is the form usually listed in a dictionary (for example, in the 'Modern Welsh Dictionary').
In Welsh for example, it is frequently us ...
(used in a way loosely equivalent to an infinitive) after the particle ''yn'':
:
:Siân is going to Llanelli.
There, ''mae'' is a third-person singular present indicative form of ''bod'', and ''mynd'' is the verb-noun meaning "to go". The
imperfect
The imperfect ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was walking" or "used to ...
is constructed in a similar manner, as are the
periphrastic
In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one in ...
forms of the
future and
conditional tenses.
In the
preterite, future and conditional mood tenses, there are
inflected
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defi ...
forms of all verbs, which are used in the written language. However, speech now more commonly uses the verbnoun together with an inflected form of ("do"), so "I went" can be or ("I did go"). ''Mi'' is an example of a preverbal particle; such particles are common in Welsh, though less so in the spoken language.
Welsh lacks separate pronouns for constructing subordinate clauses; instead, special verb forms or relative pronouns that appear identical to some preverbal particles are used.
Possessives as direct objects of verbnouns
The Welsh for "I like Rhodri" is (word for word, "am I
heliking
fRhodri"), with ''Rhodri'' in a possessive relationship with ''hoffi''. With personal pronouns, the possessive form of the personal pronoun is used, as in "I like ''him''":
w i'n ''ei'' hoffi literally, "am I ''his'' liking" – "I like ''you''" is
w i'n ''dy'' hoffi("am I ''your'' liking"). Very informally, the pronouns are often heard in their normal subject/object form and aping English word order: ("Am I liking you").
Pronoun doubling
In colloquial Welsh, possessive pronouns, whether they are used to mean "my", "your", etc. or to indicate the direct object of a verbnoun, are commonly reinforced by the use of the corresponding personal pronoun after the noun or verbnoun: "his house" (literally "his house ''of him''"), "I like you" ("I am
ngaged in the action ofyour liking ''of you''"), etc. The "reinforcement" (or, simply, "redoubling") adds no emphasis in the colloquial register. While the possessive pronoun alone may be used, especially in more formal registers, as shown above, it is considered incorrect to use only the personal pronoun. Such usage is nevertheless sometimes heard in very colloquial speech, mainly among young speakers: ("Where are we going? Your house or my house?").
Grammar
Welsh is a moderately inflecting language. Verbs inflect at least for person, number and mood, whilst nouns do for number and there is a masculine feminine distinction, of which the latter is marked via consonant mutation.
Colloquial and literary grammar show more differences than in English.
Counting system
The traditional counting system used in the Welsh language is
vigesimal, i.e. it is based on twenties, as in standard French numbers 70 (, literally "sixty-ten") to 99 (, literally "four twenty nineteen"). Welsh numbers from 11 to 14 are "''x'' on ten" (e.g. : 11), 16 to 19 are "''x'' on fifteen" (e.g. : 16), though 18 is , "two nines"; numbers from 21 to 39 are "1–19 on twenty"(e.g. : 30), 40 is "two twenties", 60 is "three twenties", etc. This form continues to be used, especially by older people, and it is obligatory in certain circumstances (such as telling the time, and in ordinal numbers).
There is also a decimal counting system, which has become relatively widely used, though less so in giving the time, ages, and dates (it features no ordinal numbers). This system originated in Patagonian Welsh and was subsequently introduced to Wales in the 1940s. Whereas 39 in the vigesimal system is ("four on fifteen on twenty") or even ("two twenty minus one"), in the decimal system it is ("three tens nine").
Although there is only one word for "one" (), it triggers the
soft mutation
In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonority hierarchy, sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronic analysis, s ...
() of feminine nouns, where possible, other than those beginning with "ll" or "rh". There are separate masculine and feminine forms of the numbers "two" ( and ), "three" ( and ) and "four" ( and ), which must agree with the
grammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all noun ...
of the objects being counted. The objects being counted appear in the singular, not plural form.
Dialects
The differences between the dialects of modern colloquial Welsh are insignificant in comparison with the difference between the spoken and standard language. The latter is much more formal and is, among other things, the language of the Welsh translations of the Bible (but the "Beibl Cymraeg Newydd" – "New Welsh Bible" – is much less formal in language than the traditional 1588 Bible). Among the characteristics of the literary language, in comparison with the spoken language, are more frequent use of conjugated verb forms, a change in the use of certain tenses (for example, the literary imperfect in modern language has the meaning of the
subjunctive mood), a reduction in the frequency of the use of pronouns (since the information they convey is usually conveyed by forms of inflected verbs and prepositions) and a more pronounced tendency to replace English borrowings with native Welsh words.
For example: consider the question "Do you want a cuppa ''
cup of tea'?" In Gwynedd this would typically be while in the south of Dyfed one would be more likely to hear (though in other parts of the South one would not be surprised to hear as well, among other possibilities). An example of a pronunciation difference is the tendency in some southern dialects to palatalise the letter "s", e.g. (), usually pronounced , but as in parts of the south. This normally occurs next to a high front
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
like /i/, although exceptions include the pronunciation of "how" as in the southern dialects (compared with northern ).
The four traditional dialects
Although modern understanding often splits Welsh into northern (Gogledd) and southern (De) 'dialects', the traditional classification of four Welsh dialects remains the most academically useful:
*, the
Gwynedd dialect
*, the
Powys
Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain.
Geog ...
dialect
*, the
Dyfed
Dyfed () is a preserved county in southwestern Wales. It is a mostly rural area with a coastline on the Irish Sea and the Bristol Channel.
Between 1974 and 1996, Dyfed was also the name of the area's county council and the name remains in use f ...
dialect
*, the dialect of
Gwent and
Morgannwg
Morgannwg was a medieval Welsh kingdom formed via the merger of the kingdoms of the Kingdom of Glywysing and the Kingdom of Gwent.
Formation of Morgannwg
First under King Morgan the Generous (fl. ) until the end of the reign of his descendant ...
A fifth dialect is
Patagonian Welsh, which has developed since the start of (the Welsh settlement in Argentina) in 1865; it includes Spanish
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...
s and terms for local features, but a survey in the 1970s showed that the language in Patagonia is consistent throughout the lower
Chubut Valley and in the Andes.
Subdialects exist within the main dialects (such as the
Cofi dialect). The 1989 book () was accompanied by a cassette containing recordings of 14 different speakers demonstrating aspects of different regional dialects. The book also refers to the earlier ''Linguistic Geography of Wales'' (1973) as describing six different regions which could be identified as having words specific to those regions.
In the 1970s, there was an attempt to standardise the Welsh language by teaching ("Living Welsh") – a colloquially-based generic form of Welsh. But the attempt largely failed because it did not encompass the regional differences used by Welsh-speakers.
Registers
Modern Welsh can be considered to fall broadly into two main
registers—Colloquial Welsh () and Literary Welsh (). Colloquial Welsh is used in most speech and informal writing. Literary Welsh is closer to the form of Welsh standardised by the 1588 translation of the Bible and is found in official documents and other formal registers, including much literature. As a standardised form, literary Welsh shows little if any of the dialectal variation found in colloquial Welsh. Some differences include:
Amongst the characteristics of the literary, as against the spoken, language are a higher dependence on inflected verb forms, different usage of some of the tenses, less frequent use of pronouns (since the information is usually conveyed in the verb/preposition inflections) and a much lesser tendency to substitute English loanwords for native Welsh words. In addition, more archaic pronouns and forms of mutation may be observed in Literary Welsh.
Examples of sentences in literary and colloquial Welsh
The differences between dialects of modern spoken Welsh pale into insignificance compared to the difference between some forms of the spoken language and the most formal constructions of the literary language. The latter is considerably more conservative and is the language used in
Welsh translations of the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...
, amongst other things – although the 2004 () is significantly less formal than the traditional 1588 Bible. Gareth King, author of a popular Welsh grammar, observes that "The difference between these two is much greater than between the virtually identical colloquial and literary forms of English". A grammar of Literary Welsh can be found in ''A Grammar of Welsh'' by Stephen J. Williams or more completely in ''Gramadeg y Gymraeg'' by Peter Wynn Thomas. (No comprehensive grammar of formal literary Welsh exists in English.) An English-language guide to colloquial Welsh forms and register and dialect differences is by Ceri Jones.
Example text
Article 1 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, ...
in Welsh:
:
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:
:All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
See also
*
Association of Welsh Translators and Interpreters
The Association of Welsh Translators and Interpreters, which brands itself with its Welsh name Cymdeithas Cyfieithwyr Cymru, is a professional body representing English/Welsh translators and interpreters in Wales. The association has some 340 mem ...
*''
English and Welsh
"English and Welsh" is J. R. R. Tolkien's inaugural O'Donnell Memorial Lecture of 21 October 1955. The lecture sheds light on Tolkien's conceptions of the connections of race, ethnicity, and language.
Publication
It was first published in ''An ...
''
*
Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion
The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion ( cy, Anrhydeddus Gymdeithas y Cymmrodorion), often called simply the Cymmrodorion, is a London-based Welsh learned society, with membership open to all. It was first established in 1751 as a social, cultural ...
*
Languages in the United Kingdom
English, in various dialects, is the most widely spoken language of the United Kingdom, but a number of regional languages are also spoken. These are Scots and Ulster Scots and the Celtic languages, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and, as a revi ...
*
List of Welsh-language media
*
List of Welsh films
*
List of Welsh-language authors
For Welsh language poets prior to 1600, see List of Welsh language poets.
A
*Richard Ithamar Aaron (1901–1987)
*William Ambrose (Emrys) (1813–1873)
*Gwynn ap Gwilym (1950–2016)
*Charles Ashton (historian), Charles Ashton (1848–1898)
...
*
List of Welsh-language poets (6th century to c. 1600)
Much of Welsh language poetry has, until quite recently, been composed in various forms of strict metre (''canu caeth''), latterly with the encouragement of the eisteddfod movement. The following list is as inclusive as possible for the years pr ...
*
List of Welsh people
*
List of Welsh areas by percentage of Welsh-speakers
This is a list of subdivisions of Wales by the percentage of those professing some skills in the Welsh language in the 2011 UK census. The census did not record Welsh-speakers living outside Wales.
The census determined that 18.56% of the popula ...
*
Welsh literature
*
Dal Ati
*
St Benet's, Paul's Wharf
*
Welsh Language Board
The Welsh Language Board ( cy, Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg) was a statutory body set up by Her Majesty's Government under the Welsh Language Act 1993. It was an Assembly Sponsored Public Body. It began its life under John Walter Jones, and its last ...
*
Welsh placenames
The place-names of Wales derive in most cases from the Welsh language, but have also been influenced by linguistic contact with the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Anglo-Normans and modern English. Toponymy in Wales reveals significant features of ...
*
Welsh Tract
*
Sindarin (A language invented by J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...
for his legendarium
Tolkien's legendarium is the body of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic writing, unpublished in his lifetime, that forms the background to his ''The Lord of the Rings'', and which his son Christopher summarized in his compilation of ''The Silmaril ...
– a body of literary works, mostly set in Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the '' Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf''. Middle-earth is ...
. The language was strongly influenced by Welsh.)
Notes
References
*J.W. Aitchison and H. Carter. ''Language, Economy and Society. The changing fortunes of the Welsh Language in the Twentieth Century''. Cardiff. University of Wales Press. 2000.
*J.W. Aitchison and H. Carter. ''Spreading the Word. The Welsh Language 2001''. Y Lolfa. 2004
External links
* Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011: available i
Welshand
EnglishWelsh Language CommissionerWelsh Language Board: ''The Vitality of Welsh: A Statistical Balance Sheet'', August 2010Link for Welsh language statisticsfrom the Welsh Assembly Government (accessed 10 January 2009)
Example knowledge of Welsh (KS25) data(
Newport) from the Office for National Statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Welsh Language
Languages attested from the 6th century
Western Brittonic languages
Fusional languages
Languages of the United Kingdom
Spoken articles
Verb–subject–object languages
Languages of Argentina
Languages of Wales