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By *ost SockMan
over a year ago
West Wales and Cardiff |
"Basically you can be anywhere to west of a line between cardigan and Swansea...
Depending where may determine your ability on how quick you learn Welsh..as to how successful you are socially..
I've lived here 5 years and never heard anyone speak Welsh, up north yes but south never.
I know about 5 words and I do ok
Plenty of Welsh still spoken not far west of you in Carmarthenshire, including the Amman Valley, Llanelli, Carmarthen etc. I go to the latter regularly and don’t think I’ve ever not heard it. North Pembrokeshire used to be 60-70% Welsh speakers, though its changing a lot with in-migration of people.
I even hear more Welsh in South Pembs than I used to.
There’s more speakers in the south than the north, though the percentage is lower.
Basically, there’s parts of Wales where the language is very important (including much of the western part of south Wales) and areas it isn’t (e.g. most of the South Wales valleys, like Glynneath).
If someone moves to an area where it’s not a big part of life, I don’t think they need feel they should learn. If they move to an area where it is a big part of community life, I think learning is a great thing and kinda respectful.
I think your totally wrong with you comment with there's more welsh in the south than north,I'm from the north and the welsh is very strong I cam go month's without have to speak English, with my experience over the years it the south is where the language is dying and struggling, every visit I struggle to find a welsh speaker I'm the south where here I can go to every shop and pub and hear nothing but welsh
It’s a fact that there are more actual Welsh speakers in the south. It’s simply because there’s more people. The place with the most Welsh speakers in Wales is…….Cardiff.
I did mention that the percentage is lower in the south. We’d probably agree that percentage is probably a better indicator of Welsh language strength and I absolutely do feel that Welsh feels stronger in the north. That doesn’t make it wrong that there are more Welsh speakers in the south though.
You definitely do hear Welsh in rural west Wales/mid Wales - I use it with plenty of customers most days for starters! Recently I went to a concert in Ceredigion entirely in Welsh and the theatre was full.
I feel like we’ve totally derailed the OP’s thread. Then again, it’s good practice for the endless debates about the language he’ll here when he moves here
A lot that do speak welsh in Cardiff is the people that moved there to work, my sister in law is from Cardiff born and raised there and she can't speak a word of Welsh, the county that's has the highest people that can actually speak and write in welsh is Gwynedd then second to that is Anglesey "
OP - I still feel bad taking over your thread, but I’m not sure there was much to be added really. Hope that’s ok.
I’ve lived in Cardiff 23 years and would totally agree most have moved there. I’m talking about Welsh speakers (not writing), so I guess we’re looking at different things. In the latest govt survey, Cardiff and Carmarthenshire are 1st and 3rd for the authorities with the most Welsh speakers (Gwynedd is 2nd, having gone above Carms in this year’s survey).
Perhaps we’re looking at different surveys! Gwynedd and Anglesey are indeed 1 & 2 for the percentage of speakers, but that’s different.
Again, totally agree that the language is stronger in the north, but divide Wales into north and south and more speakers are in the latter.
Perhaps we should just agree that a) there are parts of South Wales where it is an important part of life b) it’s an awesome, beautiful language  |