Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION
however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time.[21] The earliest Welsh poetry that attributed to the Cynfeirdd 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.[21]
1.2
Old Welsh
1.3
Middle Welsh
Middle Welsh (Cymraeg Canol) is the label attached to lated by William Salesbury in 1567 followed by the comthe Welsh of the 12th to 14th centuries, of which much plete Bible by William Morgan in 1588.
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
2 Geographic distribution
much older. It is also the language of the existing Welsh
law manuscripts. Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible,
albeit with some work, to a modern-day Welsh speaker. Welsh has been spoken continuously in Wales throughout
recorded history, but by 1911 it had become a minority
The famous cleric Gerald of Wales tells a story of King language, spoken by 43.5% of the population.[23] While
Henry II of England. During one of the Kings many raids this decline continued over the following decades, the lanin the 12th century, Henry asked an old man of Pencader, guage did not die out. By the start of the twenty-rst cenCarmarthenshire, whether he thought the Welsh language tury, numbers had begun to increase again. The 2004
had any chance:
Welsh Language Use Survey showed 21.7% of the population of Wales spoke Welsh,[24] compared with 20.8% in
Never will it be destroyed by the wrath of man,
the 2001 census, and 18.5% in 1991. The 2011 census,
unless the wrath of God be added, nor do I
however, showed a slight decline to 562,000, or 19% of
think that any other nation than this of Wales,
the population.[25] The census also showed a big drop in
or any other tongue, whatever may hereafter
the number of speakers in the Welsh-speaking heartlands,
come to pass, shall on the day of the great reckwith the number dropping to under 50% in Ceredigion
oning before the Most High Judge, answer for
and Carmarthenshire for the rst time.[26]
this corner of the Earth.[22]
The number of Welsh-speaking people in the rest of
Britain has not yet been compiled for statistical purposes.
In 1993, the Welsh-language television channel S4C pub1.4 Welsh Bible
lished the results of a survey into the numbers of peoThe Bible translations into Welsh helped to maintain the ple who spoke or understood Welsh, which estimated that
use of Welsh in daily life. The New Testament was trans- there were around 133,000 Welsh-speaking people living
3
north-west and extreme south-west Powys, although rstlanguage and other uent speakers can be found throughout Wales.
3 Current status
3.1 Ocial status
in England, about 50,000 of them in the Greater London Trilingual (Spanish, Welsh and English) sign in Argentina
area.[27] The Welsh Language Board, on the basis of an
analysis of the Oce for National Statistics Longitudinal Study, estimated there were 110,000 Welsh-speaking
people in England, and another thousand in Scotland and
Northern Ireland.[28]
Welsh-speaking communities persisted well on into
the modern period across the border with England.
Archeneld was still Welsh enough in the time of
Elizabeth I 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
into Welsh. Welsh was still commonly spoken here in the
rst half of the nineteenth century, and churchwardens
notices were put up in both Welsh and English until about
1860.[29]
Historically, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only
Welsh.[30] Over the course of the twentieth century this
monolingual population all but disappeared, but a small
percentage remained at the time of the 1981 census.[31]
Most Welsh-speaking people in Wales also speak English
(while in Chubut Province, Argentina, most speakers can
speak Spanish see Y Wladfa). However, many Welshspeaking people are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. A speakers 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).
Welsh as a rst language is largely concentrated in the
north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd, Conwy,
Denbighshire (Sir Ddinbych), Anglesey (Ynys Mn), Carmarthenshire (Sir Gr), north Pembrokeshire (Sir Benfro), Ceredigion, parts of Glamorgan (Morgannwg), and
3 CURRENT STATUS
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 nal version. It requires the
nal approval of the now defunct Welsh Language Board
(Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg). Thereafter, the public body
is charged with implementing and fullling 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
19931997, by way of Statutory Instrument. Subsequent
to the forming of the National Assembly for Wales 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
1993 Act nor secondary legislation made under it cover
the private sector, although some organisations, notably
banks and some railway companies, provide some of their
literature through the medium of Welsh.
3.2
Welsh in education
to have both an understanding of life in the UK and sufeither the Welsh language, English
Although most road signs throughout Wales are bilingual, cient knowledge of
[42]
or
Scottish
Gaelic.
the wording on currency is in English only. The one exception is the legend on Welsh pound coins dated 1985,
1990 and 1995 (which are legal tender in all parts of the 3.2 Welsh in education
UK): Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad, which means True am I
to my country) and derives from the national anthem of Main article: Welsh medium education
Wales, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau. The new British coinage The decade around 1840 was a period of great social upfrom 2008 will not bear any Welsh language at all, despite
being designed by a resident of North Wales and being
minted at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, South Wales. Although many shops employ bilingual signage, Welsh still
rarely appears on product packaging or instructions.
The UK government has ratied the European Charter for
Regional or Minority Languages in respect of Welsh.[38]
3 CURRENT STATUS
7
blogs kept in Welsh.[50] A variety of websites are also
available in Welsh: the social networking site Facebook
has oered a Welsh version since 2009, and Wikipedia
since July 2003.[51]
3.4
In 2006 the Welsh Language Board launched a free software pack which enabled the use of SMS predictive text
in Welsh.[52] At the National Eisteddfod of Wales 2009,
a further announcement was made by the Welsh Language Board that the mobile phone company Samsung
was to work with the network provider Orange to provide the rst mobile phone in the Welsh language,[53]
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.[54]
On Android devices, user-created keyboards can be
used.[55] iOS 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 localized, as shown by the built-in Calendar application, as well as certain third party apps that have been
localized.[56]
3.5
Welsh in warfare
3.6
Welsh, the language of Wales. He described the breakthrough as more than [merely] symbolic 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
nd 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.[58]
4 Vocabulary
Welsh vocabulary draws mainly from original Brittonic
words (wy egg, carreg stone), with some loans from
Latin (enestr window < Latin fenestra, gwin wine <
Latin vinum), and English (sil shelf, giat gate).
5 Phonology
Main article: Welsh phonology
The phonology of Welsh is characterised by a number of
sounds that do not occur in English and are typologically
rare in European languages, specically the voiceless
alveolar lateral fricative [], voiceless nasal stops [m ], [n ],
and [ ], and voiceless rhotic [r]. Stress usually falls on
the penultimate syllable in polysyllabic words, while the
word-nal unstressed syllable receives a higher pitch than
the stressed syllable.
6 Orthography
Main article: Welsh orthography
Welsh is written in a Latin alphabet traditionally consisting of 28 letters, of which eight are digraphs treated as
single letters for collation:
a, b, c, ch, d, dd, e, f, , g, ng, h, i, l, ll, m, n,
o, p, ph, r, rh, s, t, th, u, w, y
COUNTING SYSTEM
printers have not so many as the Welsh requireth. This es i or Mi wnes i fynd. Mi is an example of a preverbal
change was not popular at the time.[60]
particle; such particles are common in Welsh.
The most common diacritic is the circumex, which disambiguates long vowels, most often in the case of homographs, where the vowel is short in one word and long in
the other: e.g. man place vs mn ne, small.
Welsh lacks separate pronouns for constructing subordinate clauses; instead, special verb forms or relative pronouns which appear identical to some preverbal particles
are used.
7.1
Grammar
Morphology
The traditional counting system used by the Welsh language is vigesimal, which is to say it is based on twenties, as in standard French numbers 70 (soixante-dix, literally sixty-ten) to 99 (quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, literally
four twenties nineteen). Welsh numbers from 11 to 14
are "x on ten, 16 to 19 are "x on fteen (though 18 is
deunaw, two nines); numbers from 21 to 39 are 119
on twenty, 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).[61]
9
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 is in especially common use in schools due
to its simplicity, and in Patagonian Welsh. Whereas 39
in the vigesimal system would be pedwar ar bymtheg ar
hugain (four on fteen on twenty), in the decimal system it would be tri deg naw (three tens nine).
10
12 NOTES
[7] Taking Tea and Tortes With the Welsh In Distant Argentina. The New York Times. 3 April 2005. Retrieved
6 April 2010.
11
See also
[8] Roberts, Peter (1998), Wales and the British Inheritance, in Bradshaw, Brendan; Roberts, Peter, British
Consciousness and Identity: The Making of Britain, 15331707, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 24
12
Notes
[1] Oce for National Statistics 2014. Ons.gov.uk. 201412-11. Retrieved 2014-02-27.
[2] The Welsh Language Use Surveys of 2004-06 (PDF)
[3] United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Refworld | World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - United Kingdom : Welsh. UNHCR.
Retrieved 2010-05-23.
[4] Wales and Argentina. Wales.com website. Welsh Assembly Government. 2008. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
[5] Welsh Language Commissioner. Wales.gov.uk. Retrieved 2014-02-27.
[6] Nordho, Sebastian; Hammarstrm, Harald; Forkel,
Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). Welsh.
Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
11
[56] Free Welsh Localization for iOS Developers. Applingua. 2015-03-06. Retrieved 2010-05-23.
[57] Heath, Tony (1996-08-26). Welsh speak up for their ancient tongue. The Independent. p. 6.
[58] David Williamson. Walesonline.co.uk.
line.co.uk. Retrieved 2010-05-23.
Waleson-
[35] Welsh Government | Welsh Measure received Royal Assent Accessed: 13 February 2011]
[36] Royal Assent for ocial status of Welsh language - Wales
News - News - WalesOnline Accessed: 13 February 2011]
[37] BBC News - Language board chief Meri Huws is Welsh
commissioner (accessed 5 October 2011)
[38] List of declarations made with respect to treaty No. 148.
Conventions.coe.int. Retrieved 2010-05-23.
Ad-
13 References
J.W. Aitchison and H. Carter. Language, Economy
and Society. The changing fortunes of the Welsh
Language in the Twentieth Century. Cardi. University of Wales Press. 2000.
J.W. Aitchison and H. Carter. Spreading the Word.
The Welsh Language 2001. Y Lolfa. 2004
14 External links
Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011: available
in Welsh and English.
Welsh Language Commissioner
Welsh language at Omniglot
12
BBC Cymru, The history of the Welsh language
Statistical data
Jones, H. (2011). A statistical overview of the Welsh
language. Welsh Language Board. (Accessed 19
April 2013)
Welsh Language Board: The Vitality of Welsh: A
Statistical Balance Sheet, August 2010
Link for Welsh language statistics from the Welsh
Assembly Government (accessed 10 January 2009)
Example knowledge of Welsh (KS25) data
(Newport) from the Oce for National Statistics
Dictionaries
Welsh Phrasebook at Wikivoyage
Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru: University of Wales
Dictionary of the Welsh Language, a historical dictionary of Welsh (with a second edition in progress,
including an embryonic on-line version)
Welsh Lexicon, an online Welsh-English and
English-Welsh resource
Conversational groups
Mwydro Ynfyd Dedwydd Conversational Society
Cymdeithas y Dysgwyr Conversational Society
Courses
Say Something in Welsh, an online beginning Welsh
language course
Learning resources on the BBC website (includes
several beginners courses and a Colloquial Welsh
grammar guide)
Welsh Grammar (Lessons in Welsh with audio)
A grammar of the Welsh language (by Thomas Rowland, 1853) (Literary Welsh)
A guide to Welsh (by Thomas Jones, 1900): Part 1,
Part 2 (Literary Welsh)
14
EXTERNAL LINKS
13
15
15.1
14
15
15.2
Images
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Authors of the article
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15.3
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