Learning Welsh

Three of our Welsh speaking ladies, Edwina Evans, Gwenda Jones and Gwenda Griffiths have agreed to teach us some Welsh and from now on they will be posting some topical phrases in Welsh, English and spelt as its spoken to help the English speaking ladies learn the language.

What is the Welsh language?

Welsh is one of the few Celtic languages still spoken today. It is spoken in Wales, USA, Australia, New Zealand and Patagonia (a province in Argentina)

The English names of the Welsh language (in Welsh, y Gymraeg) and the Welsh people (y Cymry) and Wales (Cymru) derive from a Germanic name for foreigners that crops up elsewhere in Europe in the same way, and which comes from a Latin name for a lost Celtic people, the Volcae.

It is a living language with a dialect with a distinct older pedigree.

A brief history

The most recent Welsh Language Board census in 2001presented indicated that 582,400 (20.8% of the population of Wales in households or communal establishments) were able to speak Welsh and 457,946 (16.3%) can speak, read and write it. This is a down turn in numbers since the census of 1991. Since the introduction of the Welsh Language Act 1993 which gave Welsh equal status with English in the public sector in Wales, the down turn has slowed.

Mongolots (only Welsh speakers) are now virtually non existent as English has been taught in the schools for some years now.

Welsh as a first language is largely concentrated in the less urban north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, Anglesey, Carmarthenshire, north Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, parts of west Glamorgan, north-west and extreme south-west Powys, although first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales.

Since 2000 Welsh has been compulsory in all Welsh schools for up to 16 year olds.

Tutorial 1- Greetings

Tutorial 2 – Animals

Tutorial 3 – Numbers