| Wales is situated in the south west of the British isle. | | | | but Latin and English borrowings are quite usual too. |
| It has an area of over 20,000 square kilometers and | | | | The Welsh language is closely related to Cornish and |
| it is bordered by England, the Bristol Channel and the | | | | Breton, which are also descendants of Brythonic. Its |
| Irish Sea. | | | | more distant relatives are the Gaelic languages of |
| Wales used to be politically integrated with England | | | | Ireland, the Isle of Man and Scotland. |
| during the 16th-19th century and it was divided into | | | | Welsh language is written in an adapted Latin |
| 22 districts in 1996. Today, Wales has administrative | | | | alphabet using eight digraphs (ch, dd, ff, ng, ll, ph, rh, |
| independence and the First Minister of Wales has the | | | | th) which are treated as single letters. Some of the |
| highest official status (except for the Queen who is | | | | particularities of the Welsh language are: the stress |
| still considered the rightful monarch of this country). | | | | falls mostly on the penultimate syllable of the words; |
| The inhabitants of Wales, the Welsh, are renowned | | | | nouns have two grammatical genders (masculine and |
| for being one of the most traditional peoples of the | | | | feminine); nouns are not inflected for case and |
| world. They have managed to preserve their cultural | | | | auxiliary verbs are used quite often. Also, the Welsh |
| identity almost intact through the centuries and this is | | | | use a special system for counting based on twenties |
| definitely one of the main reasons that prevented | | | | and resembling the French counting system. |
| The British Empire from fully assimilating them. The | | | | Sadly, as much as the local population and the Welsh |
| Welsh festivals and traditions are reminiscent of the | | | | linguists try to keep their language alive, English has |
| old pagan rituals, rare samples of the country's | | | | gained ground during the last few years and, from a |
| historical background. Welsh traditionalism also resides | | | | percentage of 50% of people speaking Welsh |
| in the language still spoken by approximately 700,000 | | | | towards the end of the 20th century, today we're |
| people in Wales and a small community in Patagonia. | | | | left with no more than 20%. However, the Welsh |
| Welsh is an old Celtic language and it first appeared in | | | | language is still studied in schools and it is quite often |
| writing in Taliesin's poems around year 700 AD. Its | | | | used in media and books. |
| vocabulary is based mostly on old Brythonic words | | | | |