A Conversation for Y Wladfa - The Welsh in Patagonia

Welsh variation

Post 1

Underhill

I would be interested to know what has happened to the Welsh spoken in Patagonia - has it diverged much from what it was?

Most English people do not realise that there is a big difference between the Welsh of North and South Wales, with both ends of the country sticking up for their version as the "correct" one. If the bulk of the original settlers were from Bala (north), and they have had nearly 140 years to develop in their own direction (with at least the first half in relative isolation), how much does their Welsh now differ from the Welsh spoken in Cardiff (south)? Is there now a third contender for the most "authentic" Welsh?

I have no knowledge or axe to grind here - just interested to see if anybody knows anything about this.


Welsh variation

Post 2

Gaggle Halgrunt

A very interesting point - for which I don't have an answer by the way! A similar situation to the divergence of modern Afrikaans from modern Dutch.

Karl


Key: Complain about this post

Write an Entry

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."

Write an entry
Read more