Is wales more Welsh speaking than Ireland is Irish Speaking?
Do more speak welsh than speak Irish Gaelic?
Are there more second language welsh speakers than second language Irish Gaelic speakers?
Do more speak Irish as a native language than speak welsh as a native language ?
And so on .
The North isn't more welsh speaking than the south . Wales is more linguistically divided by west to east. The West is more welsh speaking than the east. But there is a welsh speaker in every village in Wales.
Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire are both in the south and so is northern Swansea, Northern Pembrokeshire, Western Neath and portal bot and Powys all these places are more welsh speaking than English.
You have to be fluent in welsh to teach and primary basis yes. And yes every university in wales has an "Adran Gymraeg" where all courses are through the medium of welsh, In ireland im rold it's only irish that can be studied not other subjects through that medium. Also how come the irish on Roadsigns is italica and seems assif it is not as important as english?
Also Ireland only has one county where over half the population speak's irish on a daily basis welsh has 4 . with larger populations in all.
No no, I am so sorry if it's coming across like that!
I have great respect for the Irish and their language. I am so sorry. I am doing Celtic Language studies and am just trying to compare. I am not trying in anyway to make Welsh superior. We welsh aren't like that and i certainly don't want you to think that. I am really sorry.
Nil moran Gaeilge agam, Ta cupla focail Gaeilge agam.
(Dydw i ddim yn siarad llawer o gwyddeleg ond wi'n gallu tymed bach)
Tá brón orm,
(Mae'n ddrwg gen i )
Neamhleor atá teanga amháin
(Dyw un iaith byth yn ddigon)
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Tags: bach, byth, carmarthenshire, celtic language, daily basis, gaeilge, gaelic speakers, gallu, language studies, mae, native language, ond, orm, pembrokeshire, populations, quot, second language, south wales, swansea, welsh speakers
November 12th, 2009 at 3:37 am
There are more first language Welsh speakers than first language Irish speakers, but probably more second langugae Irish speakers than 2nd language Welsh speakers.
November 12th, 2009 at 3:37 am
Wales can be divided in two parts – in the north, most speak Welsh; in the south most only speak English
"Wales is officially bilingual, with 21.7% of the population able to speak or read Welsh to some degree (based on the 2001 census questionnaire) although only 16% claim to be able to read, write and speak Welsh and a larger proportion having some knowledge of the Welsh language according to a 2004 language survey. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales
According to the 2006 census, 1,656,790 people (or 39%) in the Republic regard themselves as competent in Irish; though no figures are available for English-speakers, it is thought to be almost 100%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland#Languages
November 12th, 2009 at 3:37 am
I’m American, and learning Irish, so I can’t answer your question with anything factual…but I thank you for asking it, and to those of you who responded. An excellent question, and I feel like I’ve learned something from all of you.
November 12th, 2009 at 3:37 am
well, the population of ireland is 4.5m and that of wales 3m so if you can find good percentage figures of each population that speak irish/welsh you can probably easily answer your 1st question.
Children in wales up to the age of 16 study welsh as a second language where as in Irish it’s to the age of 18. There’s a huge Irish language department in every university in Ireland which shows that a lot of 18+ students go on to study it. I’m told, not all welsh uni have as big a department.
In Ireland, if you want to teach at national school level (anything up to 12 year olds) then you have to have really good Irish but whether or not this applies in Wales I don’t know.
From travelling to Wales quite a bit, I’d go with more Irish speaking the Irish language on a day-2-day basis than the Welsh but who knows!
November 12th, 2009 at 3:37 am
I notice from your questions and answers that you’re constantly comparing the number of Welsh speakers with the number of Irish speakers. Why does it matter to you so much how many native Irish speakers there are? You already believe that Welsh has more speakers than Irish anyway, so when you keep on saying this it’s as if you’re gloating and implying that Wales is therefore superior to Ireland in some way. Maybe you don’t mean that, but that’s how it seems to me.
November 28th, 2009 at 3:41 am
who gives a monkeys! I know there are around 600,000 people in wales who can speak welsh, many of them on a daily basis. I was brought up in a welsh speaking home and beleive the question should be ‘how do we preserve these great languages’?
December 17th, 2009 at 2:56 am
contrary to the first post, a lot of children receive their schooling through Irish (all subjects and not just Irish).
there are hundreds of such “Gaelscoileanna”.
Irish has a large number of non native, fluent as second language speakers.
Ireland has an Irish language TV station, and there are lots of teaching/learning resources available.
there is no doubt that Welsh is the most used Celtic language in daily life, but Irish is certainly the best of the rest.
Plenty of people are able to speak Irish, but unless the topic comes up, people will speak in English. I have had a few pleasant surprises when I have realised that some people I have known for years, and only ever spoken English to, turn out to be fluent or near fluent in Irish.
August 9th, 2010 at 9:12 am
In North Wales from Caernarfon and above, every school, primary and secondary is first language Welsh and English is taught as a second language. From Bangor down to the south of North Wales, every school learns Welsh as a second language at least. In secondary school this can be opted out of after year 9. Colleges are now promoting that their teachers learn welsh as after 16, Welsh is not spoken in classes in college except where it is offered in welsh also. In Universities, some courses are offered in welsh as well but not all.
I cannot comment for ireland but on a recent holiday there, i was informed that all children learned irish in their primary years, so this is similar to Wales.
August 9th, 2010 at 9:15 am
as an english speaker and a teacher in Wales, I suspect things in ireland and wales are very similar, in that both countries are striving to keep their languages alive and I do not blame them. It would be good if England strived to keep latin going and i think they do in Scotland with Scottish gaelic. I would like to learn these languages, and i think it is a good thing to keep them alive.