Welsh
Welsh is a Brittonic language native to Wales and spoken by communities there and elsewhere. It has official status in Wales alongside English.
Brittonic languages: A branch of the Celtic languages that includes Welsh, Breton, and Cornish. Welsh belongs to this branch, whose languages developed in Britain.
Proto-Brittonic: The reconstructed ancestor of the Brittonic languages, spoken in Britain before their medieval differentiation. Welsh descends through stages of Brittonic speech.
Welsh language planning: Policies and coordinated efforts that influence the use, teaching, and status of Welsh. Planning supports Welsh-language education, services, and public visibility.
English language: A West Germanic language that became the principal language of the United Kingdom and a global lingua franca. English shares official status with Welsh in Wales and dominates many domains.
Welsh language movement: Campaigns and organizations advocating for the protection and increased use of Welsh. Activism helped secure legal recognition and practical services for Welsh.
Celtic languages: A family of Indo-European languages traditionally divided into Goidelic and Brittonic branches. This wider family places Welsh among languages with shared ancient ancestry.
Old Welsh: The earliest attested historical stage of the Welsh language, used roughly from the ninth to the eleventh centuries. Its surviving inscriptions and texts document Welsh’s early development.
Welsh-medium education: Education in which Welsh is used as a principal language of instruction. Schools transmit Welsh to children and expand its use beyond the home.
Breton language: A Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Brittany, in northwestern France. Breton is Welsh’s closest living linguistic relative, though the two are not mutually intelligible.
Welsh Language Society: A pressure group founded in 1962 to campaign for the rights and public use of Welsh. Its civil-disobedience campaigns pressed for Welsh-language signs and services.