Welsh is one of the Celtic scripts of the British group. It is mainly distributed in the western administrative part of Great Britain, that is, in Wales, where about 659 thousand people use this speech.
History of origin and development
It is known that this language began to form in the VI century, and British became its basis. Its name comes from the word Walha, which means "someone else's speech." The first Welsh-teaching school was founded in Aberystwyth in 1939. Nowadays, more than 500 institutions have been opened, where training is carried out entirely in Kimry (this is what the carriers themselves call it).
The earliest literary examples in which the Welsh language was used can be safely called Taliesin’s poems and the poem “Gododin” by Aneyrin, who described the battle of the 600th year between the Northumbrians and the Celts. The exact date of compilation and recording of these works is not known to anyone. Until their appearance, all literary works found in the country were written in Latin.
Use cases
Speaking about the modern Kimr language in a broad sense, it must be said that it is divided into two main parts: colloquial and literary. The first option is used in everyday informal speech, which is rapidly developing and improving under the norms of today's world. The biggest changes occur in vocabulary: the disappearance of words denoting objects that are no longer used, and, conversely, the advent of new, relevant expressions.
The Welsh literary language is used both in formal situations and in official documents. It remains close to the translation of the 1588 Bible.
Relevance
Welsh can hardly be called dead, because in our time there are a number of television channels and radio stations broadcasting in Welsh in full or predominantly. In addition, weekly and monthly print publications are published in the country, and about 500 books a year are published. Children between the ages of 5 and 16 learn Welsh English in schools as a core throughout the course of their studies.
In 2001, after a census that showed a decrease in the percentage of people who are able to speak Welsh, the language council was canceled. Instead, the post of Commissioner for the Welsh Language was introduced. Its main objective is to promote the frequent use of Welsh. The activities of the Commissioner are based on two principles:
- the official language of Wales must have functioning conditions at the level with English;
- the availability of media resources in Welsh, which the population will use if desired.
The first to take this position was M. Hughes, who had previously been deputy director of the language council. A year later, the National Assembly adopted a law according to which the institution is obliged to conduct activities not only in English, but also in Welsh.
Number of carriers
At the beginning of the 20th century, half of the population used the Welsh language in everyday communication, and by the end of the century the number of speakers was reduced to 20%. The census in 2001 showed the following statistics: 582,368 people can only communicate in Welsh, and 659,301 people. can read in Welsh and use it in speaking and writing. About 130 thousand carriers reside in England, half of which live in Greater London. The statistics of 2004 showed that the population speaking the state language increased by 35 thousand people.
Dialects and accent
Despite the fact that England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland are parts of the same state, their official languages ​​are somewhat different from each other. Let us return to the use of Welsh speech. Literary language does not have as many different dialects as spoken. This is due to the fact that everyday speech is used much more often than formal, accordingly, the part that is used more will develop. Therefore, in the literary language significant changes are not observed.
Spoken dialects are divided into southern and northern. The differences between them are determined by grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. Take, for example, the Patagonian Welsh dialect, formed in 1865, after the Welsh people moved to Argentina. This adverb has borrowed many Spanish terms denoting local features.
general characteristics
The Kimry language is the self-name of the familiar word for us, “Welsh,” which comes from the term Cymru (Wales), read as “kemri”. It belongs to the Indo-European family, the alphabet writing system is Latin. People who speak Welsh can be found in some regions of countries such as Argentina (Colony of Patagonia), USA, Canada, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia and England. Wales is the territory where this language has official status.
The basis of the letter is the Latin alphabet, the number of letters in which is 28. The letter J is mainly used in English borrowings: garej, jam, etc. The sounds of the Kimry language are atypical for European languages, for example, deaf sonants. As for stresses, in polysyllabic words they fall on the penultimate syllable.
The subject - predicate - addition - this is the obligatory order of the parts of speech in the sentence. Verb forms and preverbal particles are used instead of pronouns in subordinate clauses.
Welsh English has a twenty-decimal system of counting, that is, the number 40 literally from Welsh to Russian will be translated as “two times twenty”, and, for example, 39 will turn into “nineteen plus twenty.” This method is mainly used to indicate age and dates; in other cases, the usual decimal system is used.