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The Old Language Endures: Cymraeg in North America

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In the 1600s and 1700s, thousands left Cymru in search of a better life. Many landed in Pennsylvania, on the east coast of what is today the United States. According to Cymru Pennsylvania , this state retains the distinction of the highest Welsh-American population in the country still today, with about 150,000 claiming Welsh identity. Their early ancestors left their traces in the places they named: Bala Cynwyd, Berwyn, Lower and Upper Gwynedd, Narberth, North Wales, and Radnor.  Later immigration, however, moved further into the continental heartland. By the 1800s, Ohio was one of the primary destinations for new arrivals. You find fewer Welsh place names, but they’ve left their trace.  Follow Ohio’s Welsh Scenic Byway from Gallipolis to Jackson, and you will come across their old churches—including the Welsh Congregationalist Church in Oak Hill that was home to a Welsh-speaking congregation for more than 100 years, up until the mid-twentieth century. Today, it’s the home o...
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CODECS: The perfect resource for Celtic students

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Imagine that you’re writing a paper on a medieval Celtic text, and you want to know what has already been published on that text. Or, you are doing a course on medieval Irish palaeography, and you get confused by the insular script (been there). Fear not, because CODECS ( Collaborative Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies), is here! CODECS is a great resource for everyone engaged with Celtic studies, and it can make your time as a student a whole lot easier. Therefore, you find a useful guide of using CODECS below, so you can see all the great things it has to offer! What is CODECS? CODECS, an acronym for Collaborative Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies, is an online platform published by the  A. G. van Hamel Foundation for Celtic Studies . The A.G. van Hamel Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in the Netherlands. Named after the Dutch celticist who established the Chair of Celtic Studies at Utrecht University in 1923, the organisation p...
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What Happens to ‘Potential’ New Welsh Speakers?

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  I want you to imagine something. You're sixteen years old and you've just finished your compulsory education having spent all of your school life learning Welsh. You have practised the past participle, sung songs, prayed in Welsh, and even sat your Welsh exams. And now, you've left school with, let's say, an intermediate level of proficiency in the language. So is the experience of many school leavers in Wales. But slowly, you find that your opportunities to use Welsh have shrunk markedly. You've gone from using the language – even in little ways – on a daily basis to not at all. You forget which words to use and when, so your confidence drops. And you're now even less likely to use Welsh when the opportunity arises. Then, you leave Wales to attend university or look for work. People point out how 'Welsh' you sound and ask you if you can speak the language, but of course – like many young people – you just want to fit in. Over the years, your relations...
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     On a cold day in early September, 2024, I sat down in an Introduction to Old Irish class, and my life changed forever. I realised, while poring over initial mutations and noun stems, that I wanted to continue my language studies for many years to come. But, saying that, it wasn’t easy. Old Irish can be beautiful and fascinating, but it can also be a pain to wrap your head around. In this post I want to steer you towards the resources that helped me during my Old Irish studies, in the hopes that they will help you too.   ● Old Irish Workbook by E. G. Quin      ○ It goes without saying that this was the most educational of the resources I used. It was the class textbook, and breaks down Old Irish into simple and short chapters. Each chapter builds on the previous one, and you will find that you understand more than you realise the further you read. At the end of every chapter there are exercises you can complete, in order to strengthen your languag...
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