Wales talk · Languages in Wales
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Languages in Wales
Languages in Wales
English is spoken throughout the country, but Wales also has its own language, Welsh (Welsh: Cymraeg). You will rarely hear it spoken in the southeast, but in the northwest you will often overhear conversations between locals in Welsh, but residents will quickly switch back to English to converse with visitors.
The most direct contact you will have with the Welsh language may be with signs, which are written in Welsh and English, and with Welsh placenames. It is well worth brushing up on the rules for pronouncing Welsh words; otherwise, you will almost certainly pronounce every Welsh place incorrectly. On roadsigns there is no colour coding to distinguish the languages, nor is there a standard protocol as to which language appears on top. Where the English and Welsh names for a town are the same, only one name will appear.
There is a Welsh regional accent, and a few parochial colloquialisms that may take a moment to work out what is meant, but don't be worried to ask for someone to repeat something. 'Aye', is commonly used to indicate 'yes' and 'ta-ra' can be said instead of 'goodbye'.
Most Welsh people will react well when interest is shown in their language. Although Welsh is now taught in schools and most younger people have some knowledge of the language, this has developed over the past 30 years, and for some time before that the use of Welsh at home and in the community was officially discouraged.
Locals will rarely expect visitors to attempt to speak Welsh. Using words like Bore Da (Good morning) and Diolch (Thank-you) will be appreciated in some parts of the country, they will sound strange in areas having almost exclusively English speaking populations (such as areas near the English border, along the Northern coast, the South Wales Valleys, Swansea and South Gower, South Pembrokeshire and Cardiff).
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Wales
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Wales - updated Apr 2024
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Wales Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.