Language fact file – Welsh

Language fact file: Welsh

Welsh is spoken as an official language in: Wales

Number of speakers: 538,000

Learn some: Impress people by commenting on the weather: mae’n braf heddiw (main brahv heth-ee-oo) means ‘it’s nice today’.

Fast facts:

Welsh is one of the oldest living languages in Europe. It has been spoken for more than 1,500 years, which makes it older than English.

Wales also boasts one of the longest place names in Europe, with a village in Anglesey, northwest Wales, called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlllantysiliogogogoch!

Despite being right next door, English has relatively few loan words from Welsh. Flannel, corgi and bard are a few, and it is hotly debated among linguists but some believe that penguin came from the Welsh pen gwyn, which means white head.