Welsh belongs to the Celtic language group of the Indo-European language family. Speakers of the Welsh language can be found throughout the world and most evidently in Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.
Welsh is an isolated language that emerged from the British in the 6th century. In 2004, the Welsh speakers constituted 21.7% of the total population of Wales. Traditionally, large number of Wales’ citizens spoke only Welsh. Although a few of them spoke English, they were more comfortable in expressing themselves in Welsh rather than English.
The number of Welsh speakers started to decline with the increasing use of the English language. However, the beginning of the Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 succeeded in giving it an equal status with the English language.
The Welsh words have originated from the Brythonic words and some loan words from Latin. There was a significant change seen in the official use of the Welsh language after the 1536 and 1542 Acts were passed. The main purpose of these acts was the unification of Wales and England. It became virtually impossible for any Welsh speaker to hold office in Wales without the knowledge of English. As a result, the Welsh language saw a steady decline although it wasn’t officially banned until the passing of Welsh Courts Act in 1942, which permitted limited use of the language.
Since 2000, Welsh has been made compulsory and is taught in all schools to children up to the age of 16. This endeavor saw major stabilization and also a reverse effect in the decline of the language as a result of decades of demands from Welsh language activists. Thus, even the non-Welsh speaking English migrants grew up with some knowledge of Welsh.
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