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Question about the Welsh language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Jordan152 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5821 days ago 39 posts - 35 votes Studies: English, Finnish | Message 1 of 6 24 October 2011 at 12:38pm | IP Logged |
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I'm from the UK but haven't lived there for a while and even when I did I only visited Wales once. Anyway my question, if you were to go to the bigger cities i.e. Cardiff, Swansea etc would you hear a lot of Welsh on the street, in the shops etc? There seems to be the stereotype that the overwhelming majority of people in Wales don't know the language or at least never use it, statistics seem to say otherwise. Is it less common for younger people to speak it? Can you get round Wales just speaking Welsh? It is a great language and would love to speak it. Edited by Jordan152 on 24 October 2011 at 12:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes  Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 2 of 6 24 October 2011 at 1:26pm | IP Logged |
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Apparently Welsh is rapidly increasing in popularity among young folk, and I'm told there's a lot of them speaking it in Cardiff now, but it's still a predominantly English-speaking town.
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| PaulLambeth Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5373 days ago 244 posts - 315 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic, Hindi, Irish | Message 3 of 6 24 October 2011 at 9:49pm | IP Logged |
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Contrary to Cainntear's comment, I was in Swansea for a week and there was no sign of it. I've heard it's the same in Cardiff. I guess perhaps if there's an increase in popularity, it's still small. North Wales is supposedly your best bet for hearing it.
Try getting around by just speaking Welsh. Just because you might end up speaking better Welsh than the majority of Cardiff and Swansea doesn't mean that'll be the same in the more rural areas. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Remster Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4805 days ago 120 posts - 134 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: German, French | Message 4 of 6 25 October 2011 at 9:45am | IP Logged |
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From what I know, the part where you can find the most Welsh speakers would be in the
north-western part. You could roughly say: ''The further you are from the English border, the higher the percentage''. This is a ''rough'' statement, but it is a fact that the provinces near the English border have a really low amount of Welsh speakers. I believe most big cities are still predominantly English. Edited by Remster on 25 October 2011 at 9:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Alexander86 Tetraglot Senior Member United Kingdom alanguagediary.blogs Joined 4981 days ago 224 posts - 323 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, Catalan Studies: Swedish | Message 5 of 6 27 October 2011 at 8:40am | IP Logged |
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Since I'm a Cardiff resident who grew up in North Wales I feel qualified to answer this!
In Cardiff you do not hear a lot of Welsh. Period. You see a lot of Welsh because of the bilingual signs etc, but hearing it in the street is not rare, but not common either. Of course if one goes to places in Cardiff that are frequented by Welsh speakers then you can quickly hear it =) but the main areas are English-speaking. It is more common for younger people to speak it, contrary to your question. This is because school now provides a basis in Welsh for all students, and anyone who takes it further (a full GCSE or A Level) will speak good Welsh. Also Welsh has become more cool and people believe in it's future, so people want to learn it. But it's not like Catalan... So it's got some way to go. Can you get round Wales just by speaking Welsh? Well why not try it? Of course Welsh is far more spoken in West and particularly North and North West Wales, but it does exist over the spread of the country, just becoming more prevalent as one goes towards the Celtic fringe. Places like Caernarfon, Bala, Ynys Môn are very Welsh speaking. Hope I answered your questions! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| ciaran Triglot Newbie Wales Joined 4775 days ago 2 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English, Welsh*, French Studies: German, Breton | Message 6 of 6 31 October 2011 at 11:46pm | IP Logged |
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As a 'younger' person from Swansea, I can confirm that it isn't common to hear Welsh spoken on the streets around
here. That's not because nobody speaks it but, speaking from personal experience, those who do speak it are going to be with people who don't, so English would be used. Whenever everybody else in the group I'm with speaks Welsh, that's the language we'd go with, otherwise it's English. I went to Camarthen not long ago (~25 miles north west of Swansea) and was pleasantly surprised to hear Welsh being spoken about 40% of the time (from what I heard on the street). Even in places just outside of Swansea such as Llanelli, Ammanford, or even Neath, I notice more Welsh being spoken (if still a small minority). Edited by ciaran on 31 October 2011 at 11:49pm 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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