roundstonewoods asked: Oh my, I love this blog! I wish I had known about it sooner. Anything Welsh and Wales is my weakness! If you don't mind my asking, what sparked your interest in Wales and Welsh as a language? Did you find it difficult to pick up? I'm currently independently studying Welsh and have applied to study in Wales, and it's so rare to find someone else who's interested!

Thanks so much for your note!

My interest in Wales began when I was a teenager. While my peers were out partying, I was home, reading about historical linguistics and “minority” languages like the Celtic family and Basque. I tried to teach myself Welsh, but the only book I could find at my library (this was before the internet) was a very old (and not very helpful) copy of Teach Yourself Welsh.

In college, I majored in English, but as I was getting ready to graduate I applied to various postgraduate programs in linguistics. My “long shot” application was to a tiny Ph.D. program at Harvard in Celtic Languages and Literatures. I’d never get in, but I had to try, right?

Well, I did get in, and that’s where I went to graduate school (at least, the first time around), and that’s when I started studying Welsh seriously. I spent a summer at an immersion program at the University of Wales, Lampeter, and by the end of that I was nearly fluent. For economic reasons, I ended up leaving Harvard (I talk about this on my other blog here and here). In the nine years since, I’ve lost my grip on the language, but I can still read it.

People are under the impression that Welsh is a difficult language. In my opinion, this is an illusion that stems from its unusual orthography: for instance, “w” as a vowel really throws people off. However, once you start learning, you find out that orthography is one of the great things Welsh has going for it. Unlike English, once you learn the rules, you’ll know how to pronounce an unfamiliar word just by how it’s spelled.

The grammar and vocabulary is also easier than you would think—at least for an English speaker, and at least once you get past the fact that you have to start your sentences with the verb—in part because of the Latin (and later, English) influence on the language. Irish, coming from a nearly un-Romanized island, doesn’t have this and is a much more difficult language for an English-speaker to learn.

Anyway, that’s my take on Welsh. I love the language, and I regret losing the ability to speak it.