The Rise and Fall of the Welsh Language

amended Jon Porter

Croeso i Gymru！ If you dont know what this means， read on to find out more.

1 When you cross over the border from England into Wales you dont have to show your passport but you do notice a difference immediately. All the road markings and signs are shown in two languages， English and Welsh. Welsh is an official language in Wales and， along with Scottish Gaelic， Irish and Cornish， one of the last living indigenous languages of the UK.

2 Perhaps the first Welsh word youll see on the road into Wales is ARAF. Theres a helpful English translation next to it—SLOW. As you can see， Welsh looks quite different from English. It sounds very different too. If you think English pronunciation is difficult， try this： Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrn drobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Thats the name of a small town in Wales and， in English， it means ‘The Church of Saint Mary in the hollow of the white hazel tree near the rapid whirlpool and the church of Saint Tysilio near a red cave.

3 Welsh looks and sounds so different from English because its a Celtic language. Celtic cultures still exist around the edges of the UK—in Wales， Scotland and Northern Ireland and also in parts of France. For hundreds of years， almost everyone in Wales spoke Welsh but nowadays there are about 500，000 Welsh speakers—about 20 per cent of the population.

4 So is Welsh dying out？ Not at all. Nowadays all schoolchildren in Wales study Welsh and many choose to go to an all Welsh-speaking school. Because， by law， Welsh is as important as English， it means you can get public information in Welsh， speak Welsh in court or study a course at university in Welsh. You can surf the net in Welsh， look up things in the Welsh Wikipedia， keep up with friends on Facebook and write your blog in Welsh.

5 What else do Welsh speakers do in their free time？ Well， they can watch the award-winning Welsh soap opera People of the Valley on TV， read a weekly newspaper or magazine or tune in to a Welsh radio station. They can also watch Welsh language DVDs， like Oscar-nominated ‘Hedd Wyn or ‘Solomon & Gaenor. In the summer they can choose from the many Welsh festivals to go to， but the biggest and best is probably the National Eisteddfod where around 150，000 people come together for eight days to see over 6，000 people taking part in music and poetry competitions.

6 The number of Welsh speakers and opportunities to use Welsh are growing in Wales but is it always easy to have two official languages in one small country？ Most of the time everything goes smoothly but occasionally things dont quite go to plan. For example， a few years ago somebody in charge of road signs sent for the Welsh version of ‘No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only. As soon as they got the reply from the translation service they enthusiastically made the sign and put it up. A few days later some Welsh speakers told them what the sign said： ‘I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated. It was only then that they realised they had made a big mistake. In the same year， a sign in Cardiff might have caused some nasty accidents for pedestrians. In English it clearly said ‘Look Right， but in Welsh it said ‘Look Left！

And by the way， Croeso i Gymru！ means ‘Welcome to Wales—I hope youll be able to visit one day.