So true!

[The Poot]

Interesting that the Chinese economy is growing again...... conspiracy theories aside
Welsh is spoken but lots of Welsh people don’t speak it.
Emyr is the expert.
I live in Ceredigion where everybody ( apart from us expats) speaks it. It’s the first language and even little children are bilingual.

It seems every alternative narrative to the “official narrative” is deemed a conspiracy theory these days.

 

[Podilia]

Interesting that the Chinese economy is growing again...... conspiracy theories aside

No more conspiracy than in the first message

I live in Ceredigion where everybody ( apart from us expats) speaks it. It’s the first language and even little children are bilingual.

That's great. They keep their old language in the time of the total English popularity in the world.
I've seen Welsh in Doulingo.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Interesting that the Chinese economy is growing again...... conspiracy theories aside
Welsh is spoken but lots of Welsh people don’t speak it.
Emyr is the expert.
I live in Ceredigion where everybody ( apart from us expats) speaks it. It’s the first language and even little children are bilingual.

And in Llanybyther right on the Carmarthenshire/Ceredigion border, due to an influx of Polish people working in the abbatoir English is the number three language and seldom spoken - the children are either taught Welsh or Polish at home, when they go to School, the Polish kids learn Welsh then English with their Welsh colleagues, so there's hardly a need to use English there.
When I started in school back in 1971 neither of the two primary schools in the valley were dedicated 'Welsh schools' yet everything was taught through the nedium of Welsh, English wasn't taught until the third or fourth year and then as a separate subject a few times a week I couldn't speak English until I was five or six.

 

[The Poot]

And in Llanybyther right on the Carmarthenshire/Ceredigion border, due to an influx of Polish people working in the abbatoir English is the number three language and seldom spoken - the children are either taught Welsh or Polish at home, when they go to School, the Polish kids learn Welsh then English with their Welsh colleagues, so there's hardly a need to use English there.
When I started in school back in 1971 neither of the two primary schools in the valley were dedicated 'Welsh schools' yet everything was taught through the nedium of Welsh, English wasn't taught until the third or fourth year and then as a separate subject a few times a week I couldn't speak English until I was five or six.

Neither can the majority of English kids these days. They grunt instead.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

That's great. They keep their old language in the time of the total English popularity in the world.

There's a Welsh school in London, many people speak Welsh in Patagonia which was a Welsh settlement founded in the 1800's Welsh chapels spring up in many countries around the world, there are Welsh speaking communities in Northern America. and in Australia. Australia has had two Welsh speaking Prime Ministers. In Fact if Woodrow Wilson hadn't narrowly won against the fafourite and against all forecasts in the 1916 US presidential elections, during the first world war the Prime Ministers of Britain, Australia and the USA could have conducted all their business in Welsh -David Lloyd George, Billy Hughes, the Australian PM and Charles Evans Hughes, governor of New York were all fluent Welsh speakers

 

[manek]

I'm curious: so when you say Welsh is the first language in your area, does that mean that Welsh is what you routinely hear people speaking in the street, shops, and homes?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'm curious: so when you say Welsh is the first language in your area, does that mean that Welsh is what you routinely hear people speaking in the street, shops, and homes?

yes

 

[Erichalfbee]

yes

Same here.

 

[happyculteur]

Did Dylan Thomas ever write any poetry in Welsh ? I've never seen any published.

Is it a language where stress counts, as in English, or are all syllables given equal value ?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Did Dylan Thomas ever write any poetry in Welsh ? I've never seen any published.

No - He was a Jack (Swansea boy), I don't think he could speak much Welsh most of them struggle with English down there

Is it a language where stress counts, as in English, or are all syllables given equal value ?

It's a far more phonetic language than English, accents are still important although nowadays the only one you see written regularly is the circumflex (ô) over cetain letters to soften/lengthen them, we used to use them when we were being taught how to write englynion - a type of very fixed measure poems which used cynghanedd which is the basic concept of sound-arrangement within one line, using stress, alliteration and rhyme a sort of harmony of syllables

 

[The Poot]

No - He was a Jack (Swansea boy), I don't think he could speak much Welsh most of them struggle with English down there

It's a far more phonetic language than English, accents are still important although nowadays the only one you see written regularly is the circumflex (ô) over cetain letters to soften/lengthen them, we used to use them when we were being taught how to write englynion - a type of very fixed measure poems which used cynghanedd which is the basic concept of sound-arrangement within one line, using stress, alliteration and rhyme a sort of harmony of syllables

Bet I could spit further than you though.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Bet I could spit further than you though.

Spit?!!

 

[ChrisS]

Without using your hands...

 

[Podilia]

Some examples of English humor confuse me... semantically

 

[happyculteur]

No - He was a Jack (Swansea boy), I don't think he could speak much Welsh most of them struggle with English down there

It's a far more phonetic language than English, accents are still important although nowadays the only one you see written regularly is the circumflex (ô) over cetain letters to soften/lengthen them, we used to use them when we were being taught how to write englynion - a type of very fixed measure poems which used cynghanedd which is the basic concept of sound-arrangement within one line, using stress, alliteration and rhyme a sort of harmony of syllables

Thankyou

 

[Apple]

Interesting language. Complitely different from English. Is it still spoken?

Probably spoken but little understood now we have google translate!
You should try Glaswegian hennie!!!
Nadelik Lowen

 

[Swn58]

came to my mind when Apple was giving directions to China, It's a song we sang as kids - it's to do with sending missionaries over to China and the Orient

Over there in China and the lands of Japan
Little yellow children live,
Everywhere around them only idols!
No-one speaks of God!
Jesus, remember the children,
Jesus, remember the children,
Send missionaries to them far across the ocean,
Jesus, remember the children.

?

 

[Anthony Appleyard]

... when we were being taught how to write englynion - a type of very fixed measure poems which used cynghanedd which is the basic concept of sound-arrangement within one line, using stress, alliteration and rhyme a sort of harmony of syllables.

See Englyn - Wikipedia

 

[HughMann]

I'm curious: so when you say Welsh is the first language in your area, does that mean that Welsh is what you routinely hear people speaking in the street, shops, and homes?

Of course! Would you ask a Frenchman if he heard French in France?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Of course! Would you ask a Frenchman if he heard French in France?

In Brittany maybe - as it's jam packed with British holiday home owners!!