Welsh language

Spoken in

611,000 Wales, England 133,000, Chubut Valley 25000, Canada 3160, USA 2655, New Zealand 1155, Australia 1060

Indo-European celtic Inselkeltisch Brythonic Welsh

Cym

Welsh ( also Welsh; proper name Cymraeg [ kəmrɑ ː ɨɡ ] or - Article - y Gymraeg [ ə ɡəmrɑ ː ɨɡ ]; English: Welsh ) is a p- Celtic language, and together with Breton and Cornish Britannic subgroup of the Celtic languages . It is in Wales spoken by about 750,000 people. Thus she is the Celtic language with the most native speakers. In Wales it is, alongside English, the official language and school language. There are two main dialects, a northern and a southern.

In contrast to Breton Welsh is still very vital, since it is still learned by many children as their native language and spoken by all walks of life. In some parts of the country, especially in the north, provide Welsh- speakers are still the majority, with a share of up to 70 %. Over the past decade, the percentage of speakers has remained constant, whereas previously they declined slowly but steadily; the absolute number of speakers has actually risen again. Since Wales have their own parliament, the National Assembly for Wales / Cymru Cynulliad Cenedlaethol, features, measures to promote the Welsh language have been intensified. In addition, the Welsh pride and the identity element of many Welsh, even if they no longer control it.

According to the 2001 census, talk about 21% of the Welsh language. Limited Walisischkenntnisse (eg only reading skills ) have about 8 % of the population. However, the chances of obtaining the language are quite good, in rural areas is often still spoken predominantly Welsh. A significant role is played by the youth organization Urdd Gobaith Cymru.

Outside of Wales Welsh is spoken in the Chubut Valley in the Argentine province of Chubut in Patagonia.

The language code from ISO 639-1 is cy, according to ISO 639-2 (B ) and wel according to ISO 639-2 (T) cym.

Pronunciation

The Welsh alphabet contains the following letter:

Abc ch d dd ef ff g ng hijl ll mnop ph r rh st th uwy

Ch, dd, ff, ng, ll, ph, rh and th count as single letters, and are also treated in the arrangement in dictionaries.

K, q, v, x and z do not occur in Welsh words; j appears only in English loanwords.

A: a ( short or long). IPA [a ], [ ɑ ː ].
B: b. IPA [b]
C: k IPA [k ]
Ch: like the German ch in ach ( never as in I ). IPA [ χ ]
D: d IPA [ d]
Dd: voiced th as in English this. IPA [ ð ]
E: e, ä ( short or long). IPA [e ː ], [ ɛ ]
Q: How w in German. IPA [v ]
Ff: f as in English. IPA [ f]
G: g IPA [ ɡ ]
Ng: almost always as ng in thing, only in exceptional cases as in bingo. IPA [ ŋ ], [ ŋɡ ]
Ngh: ng with audible IPA h [n ]
H: h IPA [h ]
I: i like (short or long ) or before vowels like German j. IPA [i ː ], [ ɪ ], [ j]
J: j as English. IPA [ dʒ ]
L: l IPA [ l]
Ll: voiceless friction-grip l (. Arises when a l and h are pronounced the same time, by English speakers often heard than thl or khl Has similarity to the German ch in cup, but the tip of the tongue touches the back of the incisors ) IPA [ ɬ ]
M: m. IPA [m]
Mh: m with the following words IPA [m ]
N: n IPA [n ]
Nh: n with the following IPA h [n ]
O: o ( short or long). IPA [o ː ], [ ɔ ]
Oe: about how German eu. IPA [ ɔɨ ]
P: p. IPA [ p]
Ph: f as in English. IPA [ f]
R: strong voiced rolled r as in Spanish. IPA [r ]
Rh: strong rolled unvoiced r with the same pronounced, clearly audible h IPA [r ]
S: unvoiced see IPA [s ]
Si: sch. IPA [ ʃ ]
T: t. IPA [t ]
Th: unvoiced th as in English thing. IPA [ θ ]
L: South Wales as i; in North Wales, more or less like y in pyramid (short or long; = IPA [i]).
W: as German u ( short or long) or before vowels like English w. IPA [u ː ], [ ʊ ], [ w]
Wy: either as ui or wi in English wit or ( British ) English who in follower. IPA [ ʊɨ ]
Y: ( 1) In monosyllables and in the last syllable of polysyllabic words like Welsh u ( see above). ( 2) Otherwise known as German unstressed e in please. - = Cymry, Welsh ' ( plural) is about as kömri, but without the lip rounding of ö ( [ kəmɾɪ ] ).

Vowels can be short or long:

Are short all unstressed vowels and
Stressed vowels before consonant clusters (but ch, dd, ff, th each individual consonants! ) and before p, t, c, m, ng; also if they are marked with a circumflex ( â, ê, etc.).

The emphasis is, with few exceptions, on the penultimate syllable: = Brenin, King ', brenhínes =, Queen ', breninésau =, queens '. One of the exceptions is Cymraeg =, welsh ', because ae or oe considered as two syllables.

Grammar

Anlautveränderungen

A special feature of the Welsh language (as well as the other insular Celtic languages) are the Anlautmutationen (English initial mutations, Cymric. Treigladau ). Under certain conditions, the word-initial consonant of a word is replaced by another in a regular way.

Anlautveränderungen can be triggered or by the syntactic position or function of the word in the sentence ( subject, object, adverbial use ) by the preceding word ( articles, pronouns, prepositions ).

It outputs several types of Anlautveränderung: lenition (soft mutation, treiglad meddal ), nasalization (nasal mutation, treiglad trwynol ) and Aspirierung ( aspirate or the spirant mutation, treiglad llaes ). ( The names are phonetically inaccurate, but have come to be. )

So, for example, solves the possessive pronoun of the second person singular dy ( 'your' ) from lenition; the 1st person singular fy ( 'my' ) nasalization; and the 3rd singular feminine ei ( her ') Aspirierung.

Particularly " vulnerable " for the lenition also are feminine nouns. So the noun and related adjectives is lenited about when preceded by the definite article or the number word un ( a ). The example cath ( feminine, dt: , cat ') shows:

Cath who - ( a ) White Cat ' (any )
Y gath whom - the white cat '
Un gath whom - a white cat ' ( not two)

In contrast to ci ( masculine, dt: 'dog' ):

Ci gwyn -, ( a ) white dog '
Y ci gwyn -, the white dog '
Un ci gwyn -, a white dog '

The following table illustrates the impact of different Anlautveränderungen ( nc = no change, that is, the basic form is used):

G is completely eradicated in lenition.
This rule applies to all words with an initial vowel.

Word order

The normal, unmarked word order in Welsh is verb - subject - object:

, The teacher gave the boy a book. '

Adjectives usually follow the noun they describe:

, The red dragon '

One of the few exceptions is, for example, hen, old. It is used before the noun and triggers the lenition of:

, The old man '

Nouns

The Welsh distinguishes between masculine and feminine nouns. Feminine nouns are therefore inclined to more mutations than masculine. Thus resulting in about a lenition if an article is used before the noun: cath -, ( a ) cat ', but y gath - the cat '. In this case, all adjectives that describe the word, lenited. Y gath times - that little cat '. The gender difference is only in the singular.

The plural can be formed in different ways:

By appending a Pluralsuffixes: afal, Apple ' - Pl afalau;
By Umlaut: Cymro Welsh ' - Pl Cymry;
By suffix and Umlaut or vowel change: nant, gorge ' - nentydd Pl.
A number of nouns passes the singular means plural suffix from from (so-called singulative ): Ser, star - Sg sera, star '.
Adar, Birds ' - Sg Aderyn, Bird '.

Adjectives

A small number of adjectives has separate feminine forms:

TRWM difficult ' - fem trom
Gwyn, white ' - fem gwen

Generally, however, the same form is used by masculine and feminine nouns. Many of the separate feminine forms are now beyond even fallen out of use.

An increase forms the Welsh owns next to the comparative and superlative to another equative ( " as ... as " ):

Prepositions

A special feature of the Welsh language (and other island Celtic languages) are the conjugated prepositions:

Argentina Language family Brittonic languages Chubut Province Formant International Phonetic Alphabet Singulative number List of Welsh principal areas by percentage Welsh language Gaulish language Noric language Goidelic languages

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