Many people are shocked to learn that Welsh is a completely deifferent language to English, and that it is not a dead language. What do you all think?
2006-07-23 05:40:03 · 28 answers · asked by Linda 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Well Welsh is my 1st language....and I can speak English just as fluently....it's handy when abroad...peeps don't recognize the langauge..and don't bother selling u cheap stuff on the beach. Welsh is also spoken in Patagonia (Argentina).
2006-07-23 05:50:43 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Depends what you mean by "widely spoken"! It's widely spoken in Wales, yes! In the rest of the world, not so much, apart from parts of Patagonia, Argentina.
Welsh seemed in danger of dying out at the beginning of the century as the British government forbade it to be taught in schools. However it is taught now and is making a huge comeback, with loads of young people wanting to learn it. It also helps that in Wales they have S4C, which is Welsh Channel 4.
As for Welsh being a completely different language to English, I believe that's why they call it "Welsh" and not "English, but with a Welsh accent and some local slang terms."
2006-07-23 05:51:34 · answer #2 · answered by Alex 42 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
cymro digymraeg ydw i, ond dwi'n byw gyda chymraes.
and i've been shocked by the level of ignorance shown by some of the answers here (particularly the welsh ones).
i'm a first-language english speaker, but my partner knew no english until she was six. she still speaks with her father and most of her family in welsh and welsh is still very much the majority language when we go to see her relatives in the tawe and amman valleys.
about 20% of the population of wales use welsh as a first language - so it is a minority language, but a very large one. there are no cities where welsh is still the dominant language - though you will hear plenty of it on the streets of cardiff and swansea - but there are still several large towns (cardigan, carmarthen) where you hear a lot more welsh than english.
most interesting of all is that the language is now growing among under 30s (especially in the south) as people realise that you can manage in wales on just english - but you will miss a great deal.
the greatest rock musician who is a first language welsh speaker is john cale - the former bass player with the velvet underground. cale produced probably the first ever punk performance when he did a whitenoise cover of 'heartbreak hotel' at the rainbow theatre finsbury park on june 1st 1974. if you were there you could hear the influence of traditional welsh music on punk.
cale's music for 'shrek' is also a lot easier to understand if you know where cale is coming from, and if you've not heard the heavy metal version of 'myfanwy' .....
well, what do you expect? i already told you you were missing something rucial by not understanding welsh.
2006-07-24 01:57:29 · answer #3 · answered by synopsis 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
WIDELY??
That's the overstatement of the year!!!
; )
The vast majority of Welsh people have had to be taught Welsh forcibly - it's taught in the schools, BBC-Wales has TV programmes that are only in Welsh, it became a matter of national PRIDE to learn Welsh (and pretend you knew it ALL your life!) but even so, not ALL Welsh people have learnt it! It's okay for the kids, they learn it in school, but the vast majority of adults who had never learnt Welsh found it a LOT more difficult! It's not so easy to learn a second language in adulthood! Some managed of course, some learnt a little - and others either couldn't learn it or didn't see the point in trying!
Only a handful of Welsh people who are now middle aged were taught Welsh by their parents, and even they only spoke it occasionally! It's different now, but it still defies the description you gave it - 'widely spoken'!
I hope they get rid of English soon though - Cymraeg Yahoo! Answers, here we come...!
; D
2006-07-23 14:11:12 · answer #4 · answered by _ 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I'm Welsh and I have lots of friends that speak Welsh. It is making a comeback after the English tried to stamp it out. Ignorance on the part of the English/Americans does not suprise me however - I have had to fight it all my life. Long live Wales and the Welsh language!
2006-07-23 05:57:58 · answer #5 · answered by Squiddly Diddly 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I knew it. Some pub there somewhere has a quiz in Welsh every night/week or something. I saw it on Globe trekker, but I knew that Welsh was still spoken. Did you know that Prince Charles is the first Prince of Wales to speak Welsh fluently?
2006-07-23 05:46:56 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
My neices speak Welsh (my bro in law is welsh) and go to a welsh speaking school. I think that it is a positive part of the culture of Wales as long as people don't feel that they have to learn it.
I think that bilingual kids find it easier to learn other languages too (although I don't have any scientific evidence to back that up).
2006-07-23 05:49:22 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
And so it shouldn't be a dead language i am not Welsh but be proud of your roots and keep the Welsh language.I can't understand that Imogen in big Brother but she makes up for it in looks like most Welsh women.
2006-07-23 05:46:14 · answer #8 · answered by pig m 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Shame that when English speakers go into a Welsh pub the locals suddenly start speaking welsh.
Go in the same pub speaking Polish and they continue speaking English. I speak English and Polish and am glad i never bothered with welsh even though i was born there. Such a beautiful place let down by the people
2006-07-23 05:55:09 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
I'm not surprised that Welsh is still widely spoken, but then I'm Irish, and I know the Irish langauge exists, which many people don't know.
Us P and Q Celts have to stick together.
2006-07-23 05:49:17 · answer #10 · answered by Trish D 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋