Table of Contents
How is Welsh different from English?
The Welsh language is in the Celtic language group, whereas English is in the West Germanic group; consequently the English language is further from the Welsh language in both vocabulary and grammar than from a number of European languages, such as Dutch, for example.
What percentage of Wales speaks fluent Welsh?
48\% of Welsh speakers considered themselves to be fluent in Welsh according to the Welsh Language Use Survey 2019-20, while 20\% could speak a fair amount of Welsh. The percentage of fluent Welsh speakers has fallen by 10 percentage points between 2004-06 and 2019-20, from 58\% to 48\%.
Why do people in Wales not speak Welsh?
Welsh originates from the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Britons. With English sovereignty over Wales made official with Henry VIII’s Act of Union in 1536, use of Welsh was largely banned and laws were passed which removed the official status of the Welsh language.
What is unique about the Welsh language in Britain?
Welsh is a Brythonic language, meaning British Celtic in origin and was spoken in Britain even before the Roman occupation. Thought to have arrived in Britain around 600 BC, the Celtic language evolved in the British Isles into a Brythonic tongue which provided the basis not only for Welsh, but also Breton and Cornish.
Is Welsh better than English?
The Welsh language is vastly superior to English, as we will now demonstrate! And, in fact, we think the English would be much better off cognitively, financially and intellectually if they cast off the yoke of their own dismal tongue and embraced the ancient Celtic language of Britain.
Are the Welsh considered British?
Wales is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. The majority of people living in Wales are British citizens.
Is Welsh a dying language?
Welsh is the only Celtic language not considered endangered by UNESCO. Though there have been some concerns over Welsh-speaking communities shrinking, Welsh speakers are actually on the rise.
Where should you not live in Wales?
The five worst performing areas:
- Conwy.
- Wrexham.
- Neath Port Talbot.
- Flintshire.
- Rhondda Cynon Taf.
Is English harder to learn than Welsh?
New research has reveals it takes a native English speaker an average of 1,040 hours to learn Welsh compared to just 550 hours to become fluent in French. But learning the tongue-twisting ancient Celtic tongue of Wales is a doddle compared to some other languages.
How many people in Wales speak Welsh?
However, as the Annual Population Survey (APS) provides quarterly results, it is useful to use the APS to look at trends in the Welsh language between censuses. For the year ending 31 December 2019 the Annual Population Survey reported that 28.4\% of people aged three and over were able to speak Welsh. This figure equates to 857,600 people
Do people really know more Welsh than they think?
It was a linguistic experiment, but I was pleasantly surprised that even in areas that were predominantly English speaking, people knew more Welsh than they thought – and were willing to use it with me, even if they had only a few words.
What are the closest relatives of the Welsh language?
Breton and Cornish are its nearest relatives, its ‘sister languages’. Irish, Manx and Scots Gaelic are its first cousins. Welsh first emerged some 1,500 years ago, and the earliest Welsh literature dates back to the sixth century – some 800 years before the English of Chaucer!
Why learn Welsh in Wales?
Every child in Wales now has the opportunity to learn Welsh, and the demand for Welsh-medium education has grown consistently, particularly in Cardiff and the South East. As a result, the language has become more ethnically diverse than ever before, with speakers from Asian and African backgrounds as well as from other parts of Europe.