About the Welsh language 

I would like to say as a native Welsh speaker thank you for covering our language so clearly and beautifully. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

I’m a first language speaker from a farm in the Snowdonia nation park mountains, and i must say im so thrilled to see the language spoken about by a non native speaker so eloquently and positively. Thank you so much 💖

I'm Welsh, so naturally I went into this video skeptical about how accurate it would be. Just want to say I was very impressed by the depth of research you've put into it. Thank you for bringing awareness to my wonderful language!

This young lady is amazing! I'm welsh, and a Welsh speaker, and the amount times I hear the language dismissed as "not even a real language", resulting in people not even trying to pronounce the most simple of Welsh words is frustrating and at times insulting, yet the pronunciation in this video was almost perfect. Very good video, and very nice to see the language given the respect it deserves, thankyou 👌

As a Welsh speaker I'm very impressed with the quality of this video. Great research and good to hear a non Welsh speaker complimenting the language. Chwarae teg a diolch yn fawr (Fair play and thanks very much).

I'm from Patagonia , argentina! My great-grandfathers were from wales! Interesting video

I am a Filipina and I want to learn the Welsh languange. I am now on my 2nd week learning Welsh in Duolingo😂

Welsh: utterly gorgeous, completely phonetic, almost no irregular verbs, the oldest literature in Europe. What's not to love? It feels like a mouthful of rubies when I speak it.

As a Welsh speaker is was so lovely to hear a non-Welsh speaker promoting our fascinating and historic language. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

Diolch yn barchus i chi! This video covers the language so beautifully! The main reason it did start to die off was due to being banned not once, but twice. It only recently regained status equal to English in 1993! If you're curious about this, research on the act of union 1536, the treachery of the blue books (Brad y llyfrau gleision 1847) where a member of parliament decided that Welsh language was barbaric and only served to hold the Welsh people back, and also the use of the Welsh Not in Schools through the 1900's Despite everything, all the oppression, us Welsh are a very stubborn people and our language continues to thrive to this day! It's wonderful to see more people taking an interest in, and learning the language, during the course of this pandemic. O byddedd i'r hen iaith barhau!

It's nice to see so many positive comments about the Welsh language from around the world. Ardderchog, diolch yn fawr.

I don't know how I arrived here, but I'm a history nerd so I'm staying.

Warms my heart they protect their beautiful languages x

I love this culture, blessed to have it in Patagonia. Regards from Puerto Madryn, Chubut 🖤

Shwmae a prynhawn da! Kate dw i! 😊 What a wonderful video! 😍 Welsh is my family’s ancestral language. In 1833, my 4th great grandfather, grandmother, and their six children came to America and still spoke Welsh in their home. Unfortunately, it was lost by the next generation. I am 40 years old, and a month ago, I began to learn Welsh to feel more connection to my ancestors and also for the beauty of the language. I now know over 300 words. 🥳 Reading Welsh is a lot easier for me than hearing and speaking, but it’s early days. I would love to be able to be fluent in Welsh, and I’ll put in the work! Diolch! 😊❤️

There are a few Welsh speaking people here in South Eastern Lancaster PA. They continue to teach it in the only Welsh chapel.

I am from Wales and speak fluent Welsh, it really is a great language. I went to an all Welsh primary school. I speak what you called ‘southern Welsh’. It can be very difficult to remember all the mutations when writing Welsh, I find it much easier to speak than read or write. It’s very interesting to see what other people think about something I have grown up with an consider a part of normal everyday life.

I’m watching from Vancouver 🇨🇦 - I’m part Welsh on my mother’s side. Fond memories of visiting Cymru 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 ... and meeting the older relatives. Hope to return after this pandemic is over.

hello everyone i'm from Saudi Arabia and i had enjoyed about this information, peace for Welsh people 🇸🇦🤍

As an English man married to a Welsh speaking wife, (we were married in Welsh) - this video is a perfect example and explanation of and about the Welsh language . Thank you!

I found this to be one of the more informative dissertations on the Welsh language but you also added a lovely measure of intrigue and nuance to the subject, You are truly a gifted linguist, Diolch!

I am self taught speaker of Irish (Gaeilge) and there is a saying, "Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam. A country without a language is a country without a soul.” A quote from Patrick Pearse.

Is really important preserve the diversity of languajes in Europe. My people, The Basques know so well how hard can be preserve a languaje, we speak Basque or Euskara, an isolated languaje, the only pre Indoeropean languaje alive in Europe, actually we are not more than a million speakers but we make a great enfort to preserve and we still doing for sure! So dont give up and preserve your languaje! Is a cultural heritage and not only for people of welsh is a treasure for European culture to.

I tried to teach myself the Welsh language from library books before I had internet. I was determined but it was difficult. I did learn a lot about how the language was suppressed by England through school and laws. Thank you for this.

It's so nice to see the Welsh language being recognised! I'm fluent Welsh so this is lovely for me! Diolch Cariad ❤

As a Welsh person who continues to speak Welsh fluently, this video makes me so happy :') diolch yn fawr iawn Julie!

Thoughts on the Welsh language: beautiful to my ear.

Thanks again Julie. Your attitude towards language exploration is always refreshing. And it's obvious that you put a lot of work into understanding them. More please!

I've been studying Welsh for a couple of years and it calls to me more than any other language I've learned or studied.

Welsh speaker here, hi. Loved your video. It's people like you who bring our language to the mainstream and I really appreciate you for it. So, storytime. I was in America at a birthday party when I was younger (16?) and everyone kept asking me where I was from. But there was this one guy who asked me, kind of in that, "hey everybody, look at me!" kind of way? And I said, "I'm from Australia, but from Wales originally" as I'd said about 1,000 times that night" And this boy every so confidently said "Oh, I can speak Welsh too!". So I'm like, yeah, go on. And he says "Sigh May! Why do I'n seared (and I kid you not) SIMREEOO!!!" I tell you I died. I died that day. To think this boy was obviously bragging about his knowledge of Welsh only to have read and memorised "Cymraeg" as "SIM-ree-oo"! Oh, always a good laugh at that one. So, Diolch. And for those who want to say "I speak Welsh" but not actually learn anything else, 1st, don't. Have some self-respect. And 2nd it's pronounced "Do een SHAR-rad come-RAIGH" And yes, Phonetic transcription IS my specialty ;)

Thank you for taking the time to pronounce the words properly. There are so many people who done videos and not even bothered and just pronounce the words as if they were English. Diolch yn fawr iawn i chi.

Best national anthem and always, always the best sung!

I had no idea about the magnificent history of the welsh. Greetings from México.

as a welsh person who cannot speak welsh, it can feel very isolating and i have been made to feel inadequate by native welsh speakers for not being welsh enough (don’t get me started on the “get over the bridge” comments i’ve received), though i was born and raised here. i have been practicing online and soon going to start classes, thanks for this video, wales and the welsh language don’t get talked about enough.

As a native English person, with an interest in Welsh, I was impressed by this well researched piece. Great job !

So nice to see such a beautiful person inform the world on the Welsh language. I was born and raised in Wales and had my education through the medium of Welsh. Thank you very much for shedding some light on the language as the country is often overlooked and forgotten globally. I couldn't be happier watching and listening to your overview of the language, and your grammar is spot on!

I’m Welsh amd I never see videos about Wales and the Welsh language so this is so nice to watch, the Welsh language is extremely important to me, so important that I go to a Welsh school and I speak Welsh to ny family and friends outside of school too! Diolch am creu hyn a cael pobl i deall mwy am cymraeg! ( thank you for making this and get people to understand more about Welsh) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

I'm actually quite impressed you took the time to research the word combrogi, most Welsh people don't even know that, or the word pritani... a great video, it's always awesome to see our beautiful and ancient language being appreciated by others.

As an American who traces nearly half her roots to Wales, and has always been both curious about and flummoxed by the language, I found this fascinating. Thank you!

I spent my teenage years in Welsh-speaking Wales, and it's my guess that about half a million people speak Welsh as a first language while about the same number again (including people like me) learned the language at school or evening classes and speak it as a second language. Usually not that fluently because real spoken Welsh differs a lot from school Welsh and literary Welsh is different again ~ a kind of diglossia. The unusual L sound also exists in Mongolian, I heard...

Welsh choirs are beautiful to listen to in their own language and so passionate. The Welsh nation anthem has to be one of the best in the world. Unfortunately the english in past eons tried to destroy this language but failed. Even though I'm not welsh I do enjoy telling my english friends that welsh is the original language of britain and that english is really a scandinavian language.

A lovely language, and Tolkien's Sindarin Elvish was heavily influenced by Welsh!

I’m Welsh and this is surprisingly accurate I’m glad you made this video to educate people love this video x

Diolch Julie, you made a very thorough video that was perfectly structured and paced. Welsh can be a challenging language but it's also very rewarding. I know a lot of people will have a better grasp of Welsh because of your video. Da iawn ac dal ati!

Diolch yn fawr iawn am dangos diddordeb yn ein iaith....thank you very much for showing interest in our language I love it when someone shows a real interest and doesn't want to push it aside as a "nuisance language" Diolch o'r galon.❤️

Fascinating video! I’ve just discovered your channel and I love your way of talking about languages - your passion (which I share) is absolutely felt! I live in Shropshire, in England but very near to the Welsh border. This has convinced me that I should begin learning this beautiful language…

Diolch Julie - da iawn. Your pronunciation was very good. The only points I'd make are: 'y' as you say can be liken 'i' sound, but it's usually a schwa. The definate article is 'y' which is pronounced as a schwa, 'uh' (yr if word after it starts with a vowel). Counting, there is a 'classical' way, which is similar to French, or, it seems, French is similar to Welsh as it may be proof of the Celtic Gaulish language subratatum in French, but the modern counting system is decimal so, for instance: 31 classical is "un ar ddeg ar hugain" (one and ten on twenty) but modern decimal is "tri deg un" (three ten one). This modern system was developed by the Welsh colony in Patagonia as they started the first ever proper Welsh medium schools there (Welsh was banned in Wales and children could be hit for speaking it) and they found that the classical counting system was too cumbersome for mathematics. The other small point I'd make is, there is a standard Welsh but, unlike, say in English is does allow for local variation. So, for instance a news reader may use the word 'rwan' (northern) or 'nawr' (southern) for the word 'now' in English, and both are acceptable. The big difference between spoken and written Welsh (though again this isn't a hard rule) is that increasingly Welsh speakers aren't running the verb, so not using the more condensed version e.g. "I ran" - "rhedais i" (condensed, 'standard') "dwi wedi rhedeg" (colloquial). Why this is, is difficult to understand, as the consended version is shorter, maybe people don't want to remember how to run the verb and may reflect a growing number of second language speakers who may not feel so confident in knowing how to run the verb. (I understand this happens in other languages too, like Hebrew?) The first clip you used, ironically, was a humorous sketch about the Welsh Language Commissioner, discussing the Welsh language! I don't know if you knew that! But thanks for the video, it was good - and thanks for the support. We're in the shadow of the world's most powerful language ever and it's a testament to our strength that we're 'yma o hyd': ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZpaYJT-5MHc.html

Hello from England, please keep your language alive! Every language has something unique to it, so keeping them is interesting!

I live in the U.S. a small town named Wales in Michigan. I was just curious about the history of the original Welsh people and language. Thanks for this intriguing lesson.

I am of Welsh heritage but was born and raised in the United States. I just learned today that the Welsh language exists. Thank you for this video!

Great positive video. There's a school in Japan which teaches Welsh too.

Thank you Julie!! Fascinating video combing historical and cultural facts with their consequences on Welsh language. Keep it up!!!

Most of my family is Welsh and we're very proud to be Welsh especially with the culture, beautiful language and landscapes🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 I'm seeing Wales and the Welsh language being represented more recently and I'm glad to see there are many people from different ethnicities learning our languages it's how everyone should be towards other cultures ❤️

I'm Irish and we speak Irish. I can speak my native language. But did you know out of all the Celtic languages Welsh has the most native speakers in the world. Irish he's the most by 2nd language but Welsh takes the cake as they're mother tongue. Keep Welsh alive Wales👍👍

Diolch! Loved you accent when using Welsh words!!

Wow! Excellent job! You got even the smallest historical details spot on, like the fact Breton was transplanted to France by Brythonic speakers fleeing the Anglo Saxon invasion of what would become England

/ɬ/ I learned living in Musqueam country on the west coast of Canada! It was awesome learning Cymraeg has this sound, too!

Thank you for an informative video about Cymraeg. Cymru was forced into the UK through English colonisation rather than joining voluntarily as some might think. Our language didn’t almost die of its own accord - it was rather almost killed off by the English through concerted political efforts to vanquish it. E.g. banning it in courts etc in the acts of Union, caning welsh children for speaking welsh (Welsh Not) and Brad y Llyfrau Gleision (treachery of the blue books) where Westminster attacked the language and Welsh people as evil, lazy and stupid. The treatment of the language and the Welsh is shameful really (same with Scotland and Ireland).

As someone who is only part welsh, I'm trying to get a better understanding of my cultural background, and this video helps quite a bit in understanding the language!

Well done! It gave me a good feeling when u said that they are trying to help their language.

glad to see a new upload! especially on a celtic language.

I congratulate you on your scholarship. Great work. We visited Puerto Madryn, Argentina in January 2019 and as we disembarked from the ship we were surprised to be welcomed to Argentina by a group of young people dressed in Welsh costume (pointed hats and dress) waving at us. So obviously, a group of people very proud of their heritage.

I've pursued learning Welsh on my own, because of my Morgan ancestry. It's a HARD damn language, but I absolutely love it 🖤🖤🖤

as a native speaker i love how you did this so nicely

Awesome video Julie. Cheers from Argentina

Some great eye make-up going on there! When I was born Welsh was already disappearing (I lived just over the border on the English side). Then it underwent a revival and we even organised a petition at school to try and make it a foreign language taught at the school. Sadly it didn't happen.

Brilliant presentation - so insightful and full of historical accuracies regarding our wonderful Welsh language - diolch yn fawr am rannu

I watched this out of curiosity, and I’m very impressed. I honestly think I will send this to anyone who says “Welsh is a dead language” or “They shouldn’t teach Welsh, no one even speaks it any more” as there are some facts in here this video that state otherwise. I’m proud of my culture and heritage, I absolutely love being able to speak Welsh whenever possible and teach my friends simple terms (mostly the swear words). This filled my heart with so much pride . Cariad mawr ❤️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Anyone have a favourite Welsh word/expression? Mine is “Fel rech mewn pot jam” gets me every time 🤣

So happy that the Welsh are fighting to keep the language alive. My father’s people are from Bala. I’m American. I hope to visit someday. Now I know why I love to sing.

Let us not forget that King Arthur was Welsh, and therefore spoke Cymraeg, and also that the reason the Welsh peoples were reduced but still surviving, is because they were historically stubborn, and so we have the beautiful language and traces of history to this day

I'm currently learning welsh and it's kinda hard but everytime I speak a sentence it feels epic.

Another fantastic video!! Dear teacher, you are definitely one of a kind! You have my deepest admiration. Thank for sharing your amazing knowledge with us. Congratulations and God bless you always.

I found this video in my recommendations and I'm glad the algorithm for once knew what I like :) Thank you for covering Cymraeg so beautifully and well researched. Almaenes Gymraeg ydw i, I'm German and I studied Welsh for a few years, moved to Wales and now I'm a fluent Welsh speaker.

Been to Wales thrice times. Love the Poeple, love the landscapes, love pride in their language. Just subscribed :)

There's a lot of us here in Wales who strive for independence due to our rocky history with England. Oppression unfortunately still happens today, but the problem is they go severely unrecognised and often can be seen as "unintended" oppression because of the general attitude that newer generations have been brought up with toward our culture which are extremely xenophobic and racist but are seen as okay just because we're Welsh. Its a lot more complicated of an issue but thats more or less how it is briefly. We're constantly facing behaviour from people in England where they're telling us that our language is a dead language, we don't need it etc etc which to us is oppressive behaviour because of events such as the Welsh Not where children were cained for speaking Welsh in school. Anyway.. enough of my ramblings... i loved this video so much... Cymru am byth!

This is so informative, thank you! Welsh is such a beautiful language! I'm so glad this video came up in my recommendations, subscribed 🥰

I always thought my mom's side was mostly Scottish/Swedish, but I recently found out that I'm almost twice as much Welsh as I am Scottish. I never thought I had _any_ Welsh blood, so I'm learning about the culture for the very first time. Thanks for this awesome video! :)

Thankyou for covering our language so well. Diolch ❤

I started learning Welsh as a challenge during the first COVID 19 lockdown and I’ve kept it up since then. As someone who lives close to Wales and has family there it’s fun to now be able to understand all the signs and pronounce words i had no idea about previously

Da iawn Julie, Ymdrech da. (Well done Julie, good effort) It's nice to see someone who has done their research. I am starting to build a channel almost exclusively about Welsh language and culture for anyone interested!

My Grandmother is from Galway and speaks West Ulster Irish. She has Dementia now and she has forgotten most English words. She still speaks Irish though. I'm a native speaker. The Language was stolen from us for many years but thanks to some brave men and women we finally got it back. Dia dhaoibh Éire

A great video on Welsh. Thanks to the resurgence of Welsh you are as likely to hear young speakers as much as elderly ones and it can now be heard spoken in areas on the border with England that were never traditionally Welsh speaking in the past. There are also a few Welsh speaking chapels scattered around London. Welsh has to be one of the most naturally poetic and melodic languages (along with Italian & others)

I love that the people are doing everything they can to keep the language going! I wish I could say the same for my language, Navajo, but unfortunately it seems like there aren’t enough people who are willing to keep it alive. At least from what I’ve seen. Thank you for the very educational video

Oh cariad. T'yn iawn. Rydyn ni'n gweithio'n galed i warchod ein Cymraeg hardd. A fantastic introduction to our beautiful language. Keep up the fantastic work. Diolch yn fawr iawn.

The accents of north and south vary greatly e.e Sut mae hi: How is it (informal North: su'mai South:shwmae

In German, welsch is an old word meaning foreign, incomprehensible. For instance, Welschschweiz is a Swiss German word for the French speaking part of Switzerland and Kauderwelsch is a German word for incomprehensible speech.

I am from wales, I don’t speak much Welsh but I know a bit, I used to think not many people around the world knew anything about Wales but this video truly changed my mind,

Native welsh speaker here.. the language has had a rough few decades, the welsh not being a big part of that but thankfully it is on the rise and its thanks to people like you. Thank you x

Thank you so much for an amazing insight to my language! You did a great job :) for more in-depth as to why the language was dying in the 19th and 20th century then look at the Welsh not (pupils would be caned/hit in school for speaking welsh as the English government at the time tried to abolish the welsh language as they thought it was hindering their education).

Diolch o galon am hwn [Thank you from my heart for this]. It's wonderful to hear of people finding joy in our language. A really nicely put together video, that's a lot of information to cram into a 10 minute video, but it did not feel rushed at all. Can I ask where the map around 1:42 comes from? Most things I've seen separate the areas of North East modern day Scotland from the Celtic tribes. As there is some debate about whether the Picts were Celts and whether Pictish was a Brythoneg language.

I think I could listen to you forever. Your voice is just so calming and lovely. Your content is wonderful - especially to someone like me who has devoted his life to linguistics and cultural immersion. I only found your channel yesterday and am excited to follow along with you!

Hi Julie, I live in Wales and am a Welsh learner. I found your presentation very positive and useful and I learned somethings that I did not know before. Well done and keep up the good work. Diolch yn fawr.

I was looking on my ancestry tree and discovered that I have many dragons in my closet with the initials CYMRU ! Thanks for this post as it has kindled my interest to learn more !

I found your channel by Georgian language and oh my god im in love with the way you explain, now its my favorite channel, greetings!

Welsh is a beautiful sounding language!

Love from garo hills,India... I just love celtic languages even to the extent to name my daughter with a Welsh name "Gwynyth "

OUTSTANDING job, Julie ! Your mastery of the subtleties and "quirks" of English grammar and syntax is amazing. I very much enjoy listening to your presentations. Keep up the good work. Congratulations from Pennsylvania in the US, and best wishes for the New Year. S'nami bog.

Excellent video. You covered a very good amount and managed to do it in under ten minutes. Very impressive. Thanks for the wonderful content.

My parents lived in Holywell in Wales. I was born (1960) in St Asaph about 11 miles away from Holywell. According to my birth certificate my first home was at Pistyll Rhaeadr (Waterfall) which, is 4 miles from the village of Llanrhaeadr-Y-Mochnant and 14 miles from the town of Oswestry Shropshire. Pistyll Rhaeadr is about 54 miles from Holywell. My father was Welsh and my mother was Italian. Growing up in the 1960 those days if both parents were not Welsh speaking you were not allowed to go into the Welsh class. So approximately 50% of Welsh born school children were not given the opportunity to learn their own language. This is Welsh children were often heard say, while they can understand some Welsh they were not able to speak it. In fact the Welsh that went to Patagonia was better spoken than the Welsh in Wales, they even printed there own books and money. But farming there was harder than it was in Wales. In 1999 I spoke with Dr Aled Lloyd Davies concerning Welsh migration. I asked him mainly about Patagonia, which he had visited several times. He asked me had I ever heard of the Three Freedoms? These freedoms where the main reasons for the Welsh emigrating to Patagonia in the 19th Century, which are as follows, freedom from tithes. The nonconformist in Wales objected to paying twice. That is, to their own church and to the Anglican Church. For example, the tithes from Bala went to support the Bishop of Lichfield. The Welsh wanted freedom from the English Government. They did not want to be ruled and oppressed by the English and they wanted freedom from their landlords. Whereby these freedoms had proved impossible in Wales they could be achieved in Patagonia because it was far away from large civilisations particularly England. Dr Aled Lloyd Davies told me about the importance of agriculture, its difficulties and success’; for instance, in Bala the rainfall was 45 inches per annum. In Patagonia however, it was a mere 3 inches, the shrubs that were growing in Patagonia would ware away the teeth of the sheep in a period of three years. The nearest fresh water supply was about forty miles away. The first two years in Patagonia brought crop failure. The Welsh owed their survival to the Tehuelche Indians who taught them how to hunt and survive. The attempt is therefore important in showing us how the Welsh coped and survived in these hard times by making good friends with the Indians. This land however was not the paradise Lewis Jones and Love Jones (1862) had described the Vale of Camwy to be. They had been sent out to inspect the Country of Patagonia and bring back a report. But when the Welsh emigrants later arrived in Patagonia it was found that this area was certainly not a paradise. Michael D Jones’s Son Llwyd ap Iwan was a surveyor and he was sent out to survey the land. But in so doing he was killed by bandits of the party of, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Wilson shot Llwyd dead while holding up a store in Nant y Pysgod. The Welsh had managed to dig a hundred and fifty miles of canal to bring fresh water to the farmlands. They also formed a co-operation. They had succeeded where the Spanish had failed. I was interested to know had the Welsh in Patagonia influenced the Argentine Government and education system? I put this question to Ian (Joan) Milman and his wife Gloria. They came over to Britain for a few weeks. They are world missionaries from Argentina. Ian Milman was born in Rio-Nigro Province. He said that the Welsh had no influence in Argentina politically, but certainly they influenced the area surrounding Chubut were the Welsh settled. Although politically the Welsh had no influence in Argentina politics the attempt to Patagonia is nevertheless important because it showed that the Welsh were able to form a democratic Government. R. Bryn Williams says, They formed a civil constitution, which was translated into Spanish and published in Argentina. It was praised as ‘a human of freedom ‘and acknowledged as ‘the first foundation of democracy in South America. The members of the Senate were annually elected. Everyone over 18 had the right to vote. It was fifty years later women could vote in Britain. And no person under the age of twenty-one could vote in Britain. 12 men were elected to govern and the senate met each month, all this was done in Welsh. They made laws, which were administered, by two Welsh courts. By twenty years after the first group arrived, the settlement became a great success.

Great job Julie! Thank you very much for your videos! Greetings from Iceland! I had stumbled on your video when trying to get information about the Georgian language, have watched all your video since then. Are you going to make a video about Esperanto?