Welsh (Cymraeg)
Croeso! "welcome"
Croeso! "welcome"
Introduction|
With the Germanic and Gaelic colonization of Great Britain, the Brythonic speakers in Wales were split off from those in other parts of England. As a result, the languages diverged and became Welsh, Cornish, and Cumbrian. The latter became extinct in the 11th century.
The U.K. government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect to Welsh. 20.5% of the Welsh population speak the language, and 33% are able to understand it. Although Welsh is a minority language, and thus threatened by the dominance of English, support for the language grew during the second half of t Welsh is compulsory in most Welsh schools up to age 16. According to 1999 data reported by Ethnologue, 525 Welsh primary and secondary schools provide Welsh-medium education to over 82,000 children. The language is widely used on the radio and TV. It is the language of daily communication in many parts of Wales. |
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic (or British) group of Celtic branch spoken by 
575,102 people mostly in Wales (Cymru), the rest of England, U.S., Canada, Australia, and 
Middle Welsh ( 12th to 14th centuries) is well-documented, since it is the language of the 
he 20th century, along with a rise of nationalism. There is a growing population of 5-14 year-olds who speak Welsh. An increasing number of parents choose Welsh-medium education for their children, and an overwhelming majority of the population believe that Welsh should have equal status with English. 
Dialects |
Dialects |
Structure
Sound System
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Phonology Vowels Welsh makes use of a number of diacritics but not consistently:
Stress Consonants
The full inventory of Welsh consonants is given below. The spelling of the sounds is shown in red.
* /th/ as in thin
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, a sound that does not exist in English but could be approximated by pronouncing /l/ and /h/ simultaneously;
*
**
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The grammar of Welsh shares many features with the grammar of other Celtic languages. Consonant mutation
Noun phrase Welsh has two systems of grammatical number. Noun plurals are unpredictable and formed either by adding the plural suffix -au to a singular stem, e.g., mam "mother - mamau "mothers," or the suffixes -yn/-en to the plural stem, e.g., plant "children," plentyn "a child." Adjectives Pronouns *ti familiar
*ti informal Verb phrase
Word order |
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While Welsh has borrowed some words from English, the bulk of its vocabulary is inherently Celtic. Below are a few common words in Welsh.
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Writing
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Welsh is written with an adapted version of the Latin alphabet. Take a look at Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Welsh. Do you see any unusual spelling patterns in the text.
Welsh literature is the oldest in Europe after Greek and Latin. The Welsh literary tradition goes back to the 6th century A.D. The earliest known examples of Welsh literature are the 6th century poems of Taliesin. His name is associated with a book of poems written down in the 10th century but which most scholars believe to date back to the 6th century. |
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Welsh words in English
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Resources |
Click here to find out where Welsh is taught in the U.S. Welsh language and culture study resources |
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