Welsh language: what's the point?

[chip]

Aye, I can, and I can also pronounce Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, as I was born about 3 miles away.

:welshrulesok:

Twll din pob saes!

I lived opposite the railway station in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch for around two years. The road signs say LlanfairPG for some reason. Where you born on Ynys Mon or in the old maternatity hospital in Bangor?

Welsh is a beautiful language and living language, especially that spoken in the north. The Mabinogion is a wonderful story of the early kings and, if memory serve me right, tells how the red Welsh dragon faught and beat the white English one.

 

[captainmorganrum]

Where you born on Ynys Mon or in the old maternatity hospital in Bangor?

I was born in St Davids Hospital in Bangor.
They tore it down a few years ago - in its place they built a Matalan store.
Ho Hum!

 

[looney]

What is this, www.taffiesreunited.com ?

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

Is there anyone in Wales who speaks it as a first language though and not ANY English at all?

 

[Gwylan]

Is there anyone in Wales who speaks it as a first language though and not ANY English at all?

Not any more although the last people who couldn't speak any English died in my lifetime.

A quite significant proportion of people do speak Welsh as first language though. I've even heard in Merthyr.

 

[Starry]

Is there anyone in Wales who speaks it as a first language though and not ANY English at all?

My uncle and his family (sheep dog trainers! LOL) only speak Welsh, they can speak and understand English as well but only use Welsh. Makes for an interesting conversation when my husband speaks Irish, they speak Welsh and my son throws in Arabic for good measure.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

There are some Welsh only speakers I think, I met a guy from North Wales once who barely spoke a word of English.

I wasn't really having a go- in fact I thought it was quite entertaining to see Glyn and Imogen speaking in their native tongue. I did hear BB banned them at one point, which struck me at the time as very unfair. I think they should be allowed to converse in Welsh, if only to annoy Nikki even more and play on her insecurities.

It just struck me as odd, as they were supposedly speaking Welsh, yet you could understand most of what they said as so much of the conversation was English words.

If that was the French, they'd have invented new French words to avoid having to use English ones.

 

[Cian]

I wonder how many people on here can actually pronounce Machynlleth...

I can. Nice town, won 50 quid on a scratchcard I bought in the coop there. Full of strange people though, due to the CAT down the road being an "alternative" haven. Theres a cafe that smells very very funny

 

[Cian]

Makes for an interesting conversation when my husband speaks Irish

On that note, theres nobody who speaks only Irish left in Ireland, and anyone in Donegal who claims they speak it as a first language requires a great deal of suspicion placed on them.

~80% of the "Irish speakers" in certain gaeltacht areas are in it for the grant money, or the summer students. Considering I'm from there, its not like the old "stop speaking Irish, theres an outsider here" attitude, its just not spoken away from "official" business.

 

[Gully]

My mum was taught in Gaelic for some lessons when she was at school in Ireland, guess that must have been the 50's, haven't a clue if that is still done today.

I have met quite a few people who have Welsh as a first language, a couple of them didn't start to learn English until they went to school, hence their grasp of the language isn't as good as if they had spoken it since birth. I guess Glyn must fall into that category, he admitted that he thinks in Welsh and then tries to speak English. I can sympathise with him in this respect, on my few and shoddy attempts at speaking German I think in Dutch and then try to translate, usually much to the amusement of the person I am trying to speak with. As a result I think that I must come across as totally dim as it is a little slow and I am relying on quite a bit of guess-work.

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

Not any more although the last people who couldn't speak any English died in my lifetime.

A quite significant proportion of people do speak Welsh as first language though. I've even heard in Merthyr.

Fair enough. Just seemed odd to me when we were driving through Cardiff for the play-off final to see road signs in English AND Welsh - it occured to me that surely anyone would be able to understand just the English!

 

[chip]

Fair enough. Just seemed odd to me when we were driving through Cardiff for the play-off final to see road signs in English AND Welsh - it occured to me that surely anyone would be able to understand just the English!

Thats the point, they are not just in Welsh as the ignorant English wouldn't know where they where going. Its a courtesy thing for visitors.

 

[glasfryn]

My Welsh mate, big gay Dave, says Welsh borrows as many words from English as French does.

Which isn't bad -- considering only about 200,000 people speak it as a first language.

Oh yes I'v heard all this before about their first language(I was asked when I had to go into hospital what was my first language)the answer then is what it is now my first language is engish as is everyone who lives in the british isles.

WE ARE ALL BRITISH


WELSH LANGUAGE IS ANCIENT AS ARE MOST THAT USE IT.

we live in carmarthenshire the heartland of the welsh language they all speak english so why bother with a language that is dead.

 

[Cian]

My mum was taught in Gaelic for some lessons when she was at school in Ireland, guess that must have been the 50's, haven't a clue if that is still done today.

You're taught Irish through Irish, and can optionally do most other subjects (actually, all barring English and the entire Modern Eastern European Languages block of subjects that wre only added recently). Its popular amongst the new middle class who think it makes them more posh, and its dying a death amongst people actually in Irish speaking areas...

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I think I can honestly say that in the seven years I lived in Newport as a child, I never heard Welsh spoken on the streets.

Not so on more recent visits.

 

[Starry]

On that note, theres nobody who speaks only Irish left in Ireland, and anyone in Donegal who claims they speak it as a first language requires a great deal of suspicion placed on them.

~80% of the "Irish speakers" in certain gaeltacht areas are in it for the grant money, or the summer students. Considering I'm from there, its not like the old "stop speaking Irish, theres an outsider here" attitude, its just not spoken away from "official" business.

All of my family speak Irish as their first language. It is spoken at home, in the shops, mass is said in Irish, general conversation etc.

My son, until we moved had barely a word of English because my husband spoke only Irish or Arabic in the home.

 

[smudge]

See those 2 houses on the hill?
Mine's the one in the middle....isn't it?

 

[Starry]

Oh, and Starry, I am pretty much in agreement with you on Glyn being the best housemate, all the girls are dreadful, even Pete seems to have gone into his shell a bit, meanwhile Glyn is rapidly improving and to be fair is quite funny.

And having seen his attempts in the kitchen tonight, he has to WIN!

 

[Cian]

All of my family speak Irish as their first language. It is spoken at home, in the shops, mass is said in Irish, general conversation etc.

Where? Not in West Donegal for the past thirty years (or more - I blame UTV ) has it been spoken by anyone under the age of about 50, beyond when theres money to be made from it. Indeed, after the main branch of The Cope went on fire, its even gone off their new aisle signs, receipts, etc - its dead in most of The Rosses, which is meant to be "the core of the Gaeltacht" according to some Údarás publication I've seen recently. Mass hasn't been said in Irish in the Burtonport parish in quite some time (indeed, when double-checking the name of the parish, the parish and church websites for it are entirely in English)

Indeed, the last place I heard it being spoken in Donegal was Stranolar. Which isn't in the Gaeltacht. And hasn't been for Quite Some Time legally either.

 

[Gwylan]

I think I can honestly say that in the seven years I lived in Newport as a child, I never heard Welsh spoken on the streets.

Not so on more recent visits.

That's my experience too. I never heard any Welsh in Merthyr 30-40 years ago but hear it quite often when I'm back visiting the rellies.

Newport was virtually English then but a friend of mine sent his daughter to a Welsh-language school there - that's how much it has changed.

As for Irish, I've been there many times and I've only once heard it spoken once on the Aran Isles.

I once had an Irish language teacher try to get me into bed but I politely declined the offer - I might have learned some choice words.