| Welsh | … |
|---|---|
| Cymraeg, y Gymraeg | … |
| Pronunciation | [kəmˈraːiɡ] |
| Region | United Kingdom (Wales, England), Argentina (Chubut Province) |
| Ethnicity | Welsh |
| Speakers | • Wales : 538,300 (2021) (17.8% of the population of Wales at the 2021 census , including both L1 and L2 speakers) • England : 110,000 (2007, estimated) 1 • Argentina (Chubut) : 1,500–5,000 2 3 4 5 • Canada : <3,885 (L1) 6 (2011) • United States : 2,003 7 • Australia : 1,737 8 |
| Language family | Indo-European • Celtic • Insular Celtic • Brittonic • Western Brittonic • Welsh |
| Early forms | Common Brittonic • Old Welsh • Middle Welsh |
| Dialects | • Cofi • Gwyndodeg • Powyseg • Dyfedeg • Gwenhwyseg • Patagonian Welsh • Rhos |
| Writing system | • Latin (Welsh alphabet) • Welsh Braille |
| Official status | … |
| Official language in | Wales (United Kingdom) |
| Recognised minority language in | Argentina (Chubut Province) |
| Regulated by | • Welsh Language Commissioner (2012–present) • Welsh Language Board (1993–2012) |
| Language codes | … |
| ISO 639-1 | cy |
| ISO 639-2 | wel (B) cym (T) |
| ISO 639-3 | cym |
| Glottolog | wels1247 |
| ELP | Welsh |
| Linguasphere | 50-ABA |
| Welsh-speaking population in Wales according to the 2021 census | … |
| Welsh is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger (2010).9 | … |
(echo:: @ ⌗)
Footnotes
-
Hywel Jones. “Estimation of the number of Welsh speakers in England” (PDF). calls.ac.uk. ↩
-
Devine, Darren (30 March 2013). “Patagonia’s Welsh settlement was ‘cultural colonialism’ says academic”. Wales Online. Cardiff: Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 6 May 2017. Now, though 50,000 Patagonians are thought to be of Welsh descent, the number of Welsh speakers is believed to be between only 1,500 and 5,000. ↩
-
“Wales and Patagonia”. Wales.com. Welsh Government. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2016. Today the province of Chubut, where most Welsh immigrants settled, has a population of 550,000 people. Of these, some 50,000 can claim Welsh ancestry and 5,000 speak the Welsh language. ↩
-
Prior, Neil (30 May 2015). “Patagonia 150 years on: A ‘little Wales beyond Wales’”. BBC News. Retrieved 30 July 2020. ↩
-
Harris, Trevor (October 2018). “The Welsh language in Patagonia”. European Journal of Language Policy. 10 (2): 277–295. doi:10.3828/ejlp.2018.15. ↩
-
“Population of immigrant mother tongue families, showing main languages comprising each family, Canada, 2011”. Statistics Canada. Retrieved 21 August 2017. ↩
-
“Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for the Population 5 Years and Over: 2017-2021”. US Census Bureau. June 2025. ↩
-
“Cultural diversity: Census 2021”. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 12 January 2022. Retrieved 8 October 2023. ↩
-
Moseley, Christopher; Nicolas, Alexandre (2010). Atlas of the world’s languages in danger/editor-in-Chief, Christopher Moseley; cartographer, Alexandre Nicolas. Memory of peoples series (3rd ed. entirely revised, enlarged and updated. ed.). Paris: UNESCO, Intangible Cultural Heritage Section. ISBN 978-92-3-104095-5. ↩