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Culture

Welsh revealed to be in the top 7% of the languages of the world

By David Owens
Elis James speaks to renowned linguist David Crystal (Credit: S4C)

It's been revealed that Welsh is in the top 7% of languages spoken globally.

The stunning statistic came to light during an airing of an episode of new four-part series Stori'r Iaith (Story of the language) broadcast on St David's Day.

In the episode comedian and broadcaster Elis James travelled to Holyhead to meet world renowned linguist and author David Crystal to discuss the place of the Welsh language in the order of minority languages.

It was there that the linguist revealed that Welsh is one of the success stories of the 20th century in terms of the revitalisation of the language.

When asked by Elis how Welsh is ranked alongside other minority languages, David answered: "Well, we've done wonderfully well. Remember 6000 languages, right. So most of those languages have how many speakers? One, two, 10, 50, 100, 1000 speakers. These are seriously endangered languages.

"Welsh is one of the success stories of the 20th century in terms of the revitalization process. Welsh is in the top 7% of the languages of the world as far as number of speakers is concerned."

Elis quipped in response: "So Premier League then!"

Welsh is in the top 7% most spoken languages on earth.

That puts a different perspective on things! 🤯pic.twitter.com/KACy2nba5w

— Ifan Morgan Jones (@ifanmj) March 1, 2023

In the four-part series famous faces go on a personal journey to explore the history of the Welsh language.

In the his episode Elis James learns about the campaign for Welsh language rights in the 1900s. He also visits the Basque Country to find out how the Basque language has already a million speakers, this being the goal for the Welsh language by 2050.

Other episodes feature Alex Jones, Sean Fletcher and Lisa Jen.

Watch Stori'r Iaith HERE

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15 comments

Iago Prydderch

We should not be complacent that the battle to save the language is over. Rather than listen to positive spin we need to look at the facts produced in the last two censuses which show the language is declining. Wales is a national Capel Celyn slowly drowning in the waters of the English tongue. Wales has to become a bilingual nation for the language survival and that needs to be enforced in schools. Anyone who objects to enforcing bilingualism in schools is on the side of the Unionists who want only one language on this island. They have more in common with their comrades outside of Wales than protecting our heritage.

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Arthur Owen

I find it strange that only one of these four talented people lives in Wales.

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Cymro677

You sound happy about that? Weird

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David

Where is the proof of the 7% figures or the list? Where is the link for the data?

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Paul Webb

I think that David Crystal means that, of the 6000 or so languages in the world, Welsh ranks in the top of 7% (i.e. top 420) so far as number of speakers is concerned...

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Riki

Million British speakers won’t happen due to the fact that the British government in Cardiff constantly fail to implement safeguards to ensure such a number. It’s becoming clearly every day that it’s nothing short of a PR stunt. And it’s a shame, because if the language goes, the country may aswell go with it. We have already surrendered what it means to be British to the English, wouldn’t be surprised if we give the language and then our country to them aswell.

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YrArwr

What's a "monitory" language?

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GWYN W EVANS

1.4 million registered for Welsh language lessons on Duolingo

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Ampus

Of which I, a second-generation Brit, was one. If I recall aright, the first lesson or two were about greeting a dragon; so useful - though a start has to be made somewhere, I suppose. But, I gave up pretty soon. Welsh is just not my cup of tea for various reasons. Okay, here's a few then: preponderance of w's and y's, making reading slow; invariable placement of adjectives after nouns even the Romance languages don't do it to that extent; redundancy in pronunciation of the letters i, u and some y's. And I would have trouble remembering the vocabulary I would guess that of those 1.4m learners on Duo relatively few are active.

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Marc Evans

Many have begun a successful journey to learn Welsh with Duolingo. Say Something in Welsh is another app which is based on teaching whole phrases and quickly moves on to useful sentences. However, if you can, the best way to learn any language is with a tutor. We are so fortunate in Wales in having one of the most successful and affordable language learning courses in the world. You can choose face to face or online courses and you will also be informed of the many many opportunities to meet with Welsh speakers and fellow learners to get essential informal practice (and discover so many other aspects of Wales - learning Welsh literally opens doors to new experiences and windows on new ways to see the world. It does take time, effort and a desire to succeed. Within four years you could be holding your own in conversations, following tv and radio programmes and truly enjoying Welsh language events. An added bonus will be all the new friends you gain. www.learnwelsh.cymru/learning

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Paul Webb

I am learning Welsh and would like to read articles from this site in Welsh. Is that possible?

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Stephen Owen

I agree, it would be great to have articles in Welsh on Nation Cymru too

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RJRJ

They used to write Welsh some articles on Nation. Don't know what's happened to them.

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Star

Hey Paul. If you go to gwales.com you can buy Welsh written books for learners. Type in Mynediad and learners books are there 😊

Reply
Star

Brythonic was the original language of Britain before the invasion which pushed the original people to the west. I feel cheated 😕 We are not speaking our own language 😩

Reply

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Replying to Iago Prydderch Cancel

We should not be complacent that the battle to save the language is over. Rather than listen to positive spin we need to look at the facts produced in the last two censuses which show the language is declining. Wales is a national Capel Cel...

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