WALES

Question 1

Background

Answer 1

• 5th-11th cen: Anglo-Saxon threat
• 1536/1542: English official language
• 19th cen: English immigration to southern coal mines
• 1993: Welsh language ensures equal treatment with English
  2011: Welsh becomes the second official language in Wales

Question 2

Welsh (Cymric)

Answer 2

• Celtic language (q-celtic)
• 20-25% (mostly north-west and central Wales)
• bilingual with English
• compulsory in school, still considered endangered
• No /ʌ/ in Welsh (Cemric)

Question 3

Welsh English Grammar

Answer 3

• invariant question tag “isn’t it?”
  > “I’ve hear the word, isn’t it?”
• how-adjective as an introductory adverbial phrase -> there’s+adj
  > “There’s nice to meet you”
• preposition on after name, term, word
  > “There’s a word on that”
• Word order in indirect questions resembles direct questions
  > “I don’t knot what time is it”
• Fronting or sentence-initial emphasis
  > “A horse it was”
• Habitual markers
  > periphrastic do
  > “I do go to church every Sunday”
  > habitual be+-ing
  > “I’m going to church every Sunday”
• repetition of adjectives
  > “She’s pretty, pretty”
• Use of will instead of will be
  > “is he ready? No, he will in a minute”
• Negative too
  > “I can’t do that, too”

Question 4

Welsh English

Answer 4

• Influenced from South Wales (Bristol), Mid Wales (Birmingham) and North Wales (Liverpool)
• North-Western Wales shows least influence from England

Question 5

Welsh English phonology (viktig!)

Answer 5

• STRUT-schwa merger (Ə) instead of (ʌ)
• Monophthong and diphthongs
  > minimal pairs rather than homophones
  > ay, ai, ey, ei -> ei
  > ow, ou, ol -> ou
• long medial consonant
  > happy (hap:i:)
• South: clear (l)
• North: dark (ɫ)
  > little
• Voiceless (ɬ) for (ll)
  > Lloyd
• Non-rhotic
  > Welsh (cymric) is rhotic:
  > various realisations (r) possible
• Voiceless (r̥) for (rh)
  > Rhiannon
• (x) for (ch), e.g. bach (dear)
• In North: voiceless (s) for (z)
  > Homophones
  > no (z) in Welsh (cymric)
• Sing-song or “lilting” intonation

Question 6

Welsh English and English English

Answer 6

• multiple negation
• ing-forms preceded by a
  > a-doing
• generalisation of verb forms
  > I see, they likes
• Unorthodox uses of strong verbs
  > he was took ill
• possessive pronouns
  > turn, yourn, theirn
• relative pronouns
  > as, what

Question 7

Welsh English: Vocabulary

Answer 7

• few loans from Welsh, mostly names and words (culture/behaviour)
• Semantic extension of English words
  > “loose” -> “Hurry upon we’ll lose the train”