How come the Welsh have done a lot better preserving their own language

than the Scottish or Irish, just wondering, been in North Wales all week and in most pubs they speak Welsh,

 

They use it to communicate with their sheep, if they are unable to sweet talk them they wont get them into their beds :bbpd:

 

Irish is terribly thought here. Ive learnt it since I was 5 and honestly couldnt string a sentence.

 

It's mostly rural parts, like in cardiff you would hear english being spoken mostly!

Plus it's worth remember the english occupied scotland for a while and most of the native language were killed so the new generation spoke english

 

do you mean Gaelic ??

Most pubs in North Wales will start talking in welsh when strangers walk in anyway

 

Areas in Donegal and Kerry speak Irish.

You will soon see alot more folk speaking Irish.

 

English has been spoken in central Scotland for as long as it has been in England. I see the Scots dialect of English as our language much more than Gaelic. I think only islanders could genuinely claim that as theirs.

 

In Scotland, Gaelic was never a 'national' language but concentrated in the Highlands and Islands. Mass emigration from these areas, and the dominance of English, has weakened it, though I still know Highlanders who speak it fluently.

In the central belt/lowlands, Scots was the spoken language, which has slowly developed into Scots-English.

I think as Wales only had one language it'd be easier to preserve. They might have just started speaking in Welsh because you walked in though

 

No it hasn't - Scots and English developed as completely separate and distinct languages.

 

Think so, or is there a National Language, here a lot of about the Ulster Scots language.

think that is a bit of a myth, they do jump about between english and welsh, but most is welsh spoken

 

It comes from the anglic branch of the germanic languages. At the time of ancient English they were one and the same. I'd say Scots and English developed side by side, rather than distinctly.

 

So is English, it seems.

 

Its compulsary that you learn the language in school until year 9 down here, might be partly to do with it. Though as already said, its mainly in rural areas, dont hear it much down here in cardiff.

 

Gaelic is pretty widespread up in the north of Scotland, its the central and lower belts where it has died out.

 

To be fair its getting better. I dont know what its like down in Dublin but up here thanks to the good work of catrina ruane, the Irish schools are growing and growing each year. Ive even been told that there is a Gaeltech area in West Belfast where the main language is Irish. Not sure if thats true or not.

 

I don't know the exact reason why the Welsh have been more successful at preserving their native language than the Irish or the Scots but I think it's a great thing for Wales that they have. It makes me slightly envious in all honesty.

Whenever I watch the National Anthems being sung at the Six Nations rugby I always feel a bit sad. The Welsh and the Irish rugby teams sing their national anthems in their native tongue but us Scots sing our national anthem in English. To me that is very symbolic of how anglicised Scotland has become over the centuries and I don't like it. I wish we could sing our national anthem at big sporting occasions in a tongue of our own. It would help to set us apart from England which is exactly where I want Scotland to be.

 

I live in the Hebrides and its definatly dying out with every generation.In my great grandfathers generation it was all that was spoken,now you'd be lucky if 1 in 5 speak it now.My parents speak it but never picked it up myself.It's also mandatory in primary schools up here.

 

Whys this Bob?

 

gaelic as a national television channel bbc alba even though it is a low percentage of tv licence payers that actually speak gaelic compared to how much money is spent on it

All wales have is signs, less words in the alphabet and bad spelling

 

where abouts in north wales were you? lived here since i was 5 and its true a lot people speak fluent in certain parts.