WELSH (CYMRAEG)

Хочу поділитись деякими цікавинками, які дізнаюсь в процесі навчання. Нещодавно відкрила для себе мову Welsh, якою розмовляють у Вельсі. Раніше ніколи навіть не чула про неї!

WELSH (CYMRAEG)

Welsh is a Celtic language spoken in Wales (Cymru) by about 740,000 people, and in the Welsh colony (yr Wladfa) in Patagonia, Argentina (yr Ariannin) by several hundred people. There are also Welsh speakers in England (Lloegr), Scotland (yr Alban), Canada, the USA (yr Unol Daleithiau), Australia (Awstralia) and New Zealand (Seland Newydd).

Number of speakers (Nifer o siaradwyr). Welsh, or Cymraeg, is spoken by 19% of Wales’ total population of around 3 million, according to the 2011 census. This is down from 20.8% in 2001. However, in the sixth century AD Welsh was spoken in most of Britain, and until the twentieth century some shepherds in Cumbria were still counting their sheep in Welsh.

History (Hanes). If Welsh can seem complex and beautiful, it’s because it’s spent 4,000 years evolving. What’s certain is that it’s Britain’s oldest language. From Indo-European and Brythonic origins, the Romans were the first to commit these words to paper, introducing elements of Latin still present today. Historians see clues in the prose of the earliest Welsh poets, writing between the fifth and eighth centuries. They pinpoint Early Welsh, Breton and Cornish as being related. Offa’s Dyke was the first clear border between the English speakers of the east and the Welsh speakers of the west. Wales was one of the first countries to use its own language to create laws, and the word Cymry was used to describe its people as long ago as the 7th century.

The earliest known examples of Welsh literature are the poems of Taliesin and Aneirin's Y Gododdin, nobody knows for sure when these works were composed or when they were first written down, however the oldest surviving manuscript featuring Y Gododdin dates from the second half of the 12th century. The earliest known example of written Welsh is on a gravestone in Tywyn church and dates from the 8th century AD.

The name Welsh originated as an exonym given to its speakers by the Anglo-Saxons, meaning "foreign speech" (see Walha). The native term for the language is Cymraeg and Cymru for "Wales".

Current status (Statws cyfoes). Today there are radio stations and a TV channel, that broadcast entirely or mainly in Welsh. There are also weekly and monthly newspapers and magazines. About 500 books in Welsh are published annually, and there is a thriving Welsh language music scene. There are a number of Welsh language theatre groups, and regular eisteddfodau or cultural festivals are held throughout Wales.

All school pupils in Wales study Welsh as a first or second language for 12 years, from the age of 5 to 16. There are currently over 440 primary schools and over 50 secondary schools in Wales that teach entirely or mainly throught the medium of Welsh. There is also a Welsh-medium school in London. Some courses at Welsh universities and colleges are taught through Welsh, and there are numerous Welsh courses for adults throughout Wales.

Relationship to other languages (Perthynas i ieithoedd eraill). Welsh is fairly closely related to Cornish and Breton, and more distantly related to Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic. Here is an illustration of some of the differences and similarities between the Celtic languages using the phrases 'What is your name?' and 'My name is ... / I'm ...':

Irish - Cén t-ainm atá ort?, Is mise ...

Gloss: What-the name is on-you?, Am I [emphatic] ..."

Scottish Gaelic - Dè an t-ainm a th'ort, Is mise ...

Gloss: What the name is on-you?, Am I [emphatic] ..."

Manx - Cre'n ennym t'ort?, Ta'n ennym orrym ... / ... mish

Gloss: What'the name is on-you?, Is the name on-me ... / ... I [emphatic]"

Breton - Petra eo da anv?, ... eo ma anv

Gloss: What is your name?, ... is my name"

Cornish - Pyth yw dha hanow?, Ow hanow yw ...

Gloss: What is your name?, My name is ..."

Welsh - Beth yw dy enw (di)?, Fy enw (i) yw...

Gloss: What is your name (you)?, My name (me) is ..."

The only word in these examples that is similar in all the languages is name: ainm (Irish), ainm (Scottish Gaelic), ennym (Manx), anv (Breton), hanow (Cornish) and enw (Welsh).

The word for what - Cén (Irish), De (Scottish Gaelic), Cre (Manx), Petra (Breton), Pyth (Cornish) and Beth (Welsh) - illustrates one of the sound differences between the branches of the Celtic languages. In the Gaelic languages, apart from Scottish Gaelic, it starts with C, which is why they are called Q-Celtic languages (this sound is sometimes written with a Q in Manx), while in the Brythonic languges it starts with p or b, which is why they are known as P-Celtic. Both sounds developed from the Proto-Celtic [kʷ].

There are more similarities within each branch of these languages than between the branches (Gaelic and Brythonic), and the Gaelic languages are closer to one another than are the Brythonic languages.

Similar to languages such as Arabic, Classical Hebrew, and Mayan, the canonical word order in Welsh is verb–subject–object. This is unlike English and most other European Languages, which tend to use SVO.

Any Welsh words in English? Lots of British place names and geographical features have Welsh roots, but surprisingly few Welsh words have made it into everyday English vocabulary, actually. They include ‘bard’, ‘corgi’, ‘flannel’ – and maybe ‘penguin’, oddly. The most common is ‘dad’, from the Welsh tad.

The Welsh Alphabet. As first glance you could be forgiven for thinking that the Welsh language is the same as English but it actually has a few subtle differences. For starters it is actually made up of 28 letters  and doesn't have some of the English alphabet letters such as X and Z.

That said, often people will now include the letter j in the alphabet (between letters I and L) because it is used in several words that have made their way over from the English language. You won't really see K, V, X and X in the alphabet but they are used in more technical and measuring terms such as kilogram and zero.

Why don’t you have any vowels? It’s a myth, actually. Welsh has more vowels than English. English has a, e, i, o, u. Welsh has got a, e, i, o, u, w, y. English also uses ‘y’ as a vowel. Why? (No, that’s an example: ‘why’.) Also the word, ‘myth’, appropriately.
Phonology. The phonology of Welsh is characterised by a number of sounds that do not occur in English and are typologically rare in European languages, specifically the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative [ɬ], voiceless nasal stops [m̥], [n̥], and [ŋ̊], and voiceless rhotic [r̥]. Stress usually falls on the penultimate syllable in polysyllabic words, while the word-final unstressed syllable receives a higher pitch than the stressed syllable.

Easy Welsh phrases. Hello is the easily-remembered ‘helo’ and thank you is simply ‘diolch’. Here are some more simple words and phrases to get started:

Bore da (Pronounced: Boh-reh dah): Good morning

Nos da (nohs dah): Good night

Croeso i Gymru (Croesoh ee Gum-reeh): Welcome to Wales

Iechyd da! (Yeh-chid dah): Cheers!

Tafarn (Tav-arn): Pub

Diolch (Dee-olch): Thanks

Da iawn (Dah ee-aw-n): Very good

Counting system. The traditional counting system used by the Welsh language is vigesimal, which is to say it is based on twenties, as in standard French numbers 70 (soixante-dix, literally "sixty-ten") to 99 (quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, literally "four twenties nineteen"). Welsh numbers from 11 to 14 are "x on ten", 16 to 19 are "x on fifteen" (though 18 is deunaw, "two nines"); numbers from 21 to 39 are "1–19 on twenty", 40 is "two twenties", 60 is "three twenties", etc. This form continues to be used, especially by older people, and it is obligatory in certain circumstances (such as telling the time).

Some Facts about Welsh

The town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch (Phonetically: Llan-vire-pooll-guin-gill-go-ger-u-queern-drob-ooll-llandus-ilio-gogo-goch) has the longest place name in the UK. This is not an authentic Welsh toponym, but was artificially created in the 1860’s as a publicity stunt. It translates as: The Church of St Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio near a red cave.

At 58 letters long, ‘Lanfairpg’ is often mistakenly thought to be the longest place name in the world. With 85 letters Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokai-whenuakitanatahu, the Māori name for a hill in New Zealand, holds the record.

 In January 2014 it was reported that the Welsh language ‘faces emergency’, due to the inability of many who want to live their lives through the medium of Welsh to access Welsh in public services. However, the Welsh government insists that it is committed to promoting the Welsh language and "to ensuring that people are able to use it in all aspects of their daily lives".

Welsh, like Navajo, was used as a code language during World War II and the Balkan War.