Welsh English

• The vowel of cat {{IPA|/æ/}} is pronounced either as an open front unrounded vowel {{IPA|[a]}}{{sfnp|Wells|1982|pp=380, 384–385}}{{sfnp|Connolly|1990|pp=122, 125}} or a more central near-open front unrounded vowel {{IPA|[æ̈]}}.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPwYt3gVbu4C&q=welsh+vowels&pg=PA138 |title=English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change - Google Books |access-date=2015-02-22|isbn=9781853590313 |last1=Coupland |first1=Nikolas |last2=Thomas |first2=Alan Richard |year=1990a|publisher=Multilingual Matters }}{{page needed|date=February 2021|reason=URL is a search}} In Cardiff, bag is pronounced with a long vowel {{IPA|[aː]}}.{{harvp|Wells|1982|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=a3-ElL71fikC&q=North+Wales 384, 387, 390]}} In Mid-Wales, a pronunciation resembling its New Zealand and South African analogue is sometimes heard, i.e. trap is pronounced {{IPA|/trɛp/}}.
• The vowel of end {{IPA|/ɛ/}} is pronounced close to cardinal vowel {{IPA|[ɛ]}}, similar to modern RP.
• In Cardiff, the vowel of "kit" {{IPA|/ɪ/}} sounds slightly closer to the schwa sound of above, an advanced close-mid central unrounded vowel {{IPA|[ɘ̟]}}.
• The vowel of "bus" {{IPA|/ʌ/}} is usually pronounced [{{IPA|ɜ}}~{{IPA|ə}}]{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPwYt3gVbu4C&q=%22welsh+English%22+transcription&pg=PA130 |title=English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change - Google Books |access-date=2015-02-22|isbn=9781853590313 |last1=Coupland |first1=Nikolas |last2=Thomas |first2=Alan Richard |year=1990a|publisher=Multilingual Matters }}{{page needed|date=February 2021|reason=URL is a search}}{{sfnp|Wells|1982|pp=380–381}} and is encountered as a hypercorrection in northern areas for foot.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dptsvykgk3IC&q=uvular+in+welsh&pg=PA110 |title=A Handbook of Varieties of English: CD-ROM. - Google Books |access-date=2015-02-22|isbn=9783110175325 |last1=Schneider |first1=Edgar Werner |last2=Kortmann |first2=Bernd |year=2004 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Company KG }} It is sometimes manifested in border areas of north and mid Wales as an open front unrounded vowel {{IPA|/a/}}. It also manifests as a near-close near-back rounded vowel {{IPA|/ʊ/}} without the foot–strut split in parts of North Wales influenced by Cheshire and Scouse accents, and to a lesser extent in south Pembrokeshire.{{cite news|url=https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/pembrokeshire-wales-little-england-history-1-6016252|last=Trudgill|first=Peter|publisher=The New European|title=Wales's very own little England|date=27 April 2019|access-date=16 April 2020}}
• The schwa tends to be supplanted by an {{IPA|/ɛ/}} in final closed syllables, e.g. brightest {{IPA|/ˈbrəitɛst/}}. The uncertainty over which vowel to use often leads to 'hypercorrections' involving the schwa, e.g. programme is often pronounced {{IPA|/ˈproːɡrəm/}}.

File:Abercrave English monophthongs chart.svg

File:Cardiff English monophthongs chart.svg

File:Abercrave English diphthongs chart.svg

File:Cardiff English diphthongs chart.svg

• The trap-bath split is variable in Welsh English, especially among social status. In some varieties such as Cardiff English, words like ask, bath, laugh, master and rather are usually pronounced with PALM while words like answer, castle, dance and nasty are normally pronounced with TRAP. On the other hand, the split may be completely absent in other varieties like Abercraf English.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=387}}
• The vowel of car is often pronounced as an open central unrounded vowel {{IPA|[ɑ̈]}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPwYt3gVbu4C&q=stigmatised&pg=PA138 |title=English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change - Google Books |access-date=2015-02-22|isbn=9781853590313 |last1=Coupland |first1=Nikolas |last2=Thomas |first2=Alan Richard |year=1990a|publisher=Multilingual Matters }}{{page needed|date=February 2021|reason=URL is a search}} and more often as a long open front unrounded vowel {{IPA|/aː/}}.
• In broader varieties, particularly in Cardiff, the vowel of bird is similar to South African and New Zealand, i.e. a mid front rounded vowel {{IPA|[ø̞ː]}}.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPwYt3gVbu4C&q=rounded&pg=PA130 |title=English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change - Google Books |access-date=2015-02-22|isbn=9781853590313 |last1=Coupland |first1=Nikolas |last2=Thomas |first2=Alan Richard |year=1990a|publisher=Multilingual Matters }}{{page needed|date=February 2021|reason=URL is a search}}
• Most other long monophthongs are similar to that of Received Pronunciation, but words with the RP {{IPA|/əʊ/}} are sometimes pronounced as {{IPA|[oː]}} and the RP {{IPA|/eɪ/}} as {{IPA|[eː]}}. An example that illustrates this tendency is the Abercrave pronunciation of play-place {{IPA|[ˈpleɪˌpleːs]}}.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPwYt3gVbu4C&q=playplace&pg=PA138 |title=English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change - Google Books |access-date=2015-02-22|isbn=9781853590313 |last1=Coupland |first1=Nikolas |last2=Thomas |first2=Alan Richard |year=1990a|publisher=Multilingual Matters }}{{page needed|date=February 2021|reason=URL is a search}}
• In northern varieties, {{IPA|/əʊ/}} as in coat and {{IPA|/ɔː/}} as in caught/court may be merged into {{IPA|/ɔː/}} (phonetically {{IPAblink|oː}}).

• Fronting diphthongs tend to resemble Received Pronunciation, apart from the vowel of bite that has a more centralised onset {{IPA|[æ̈ɪ]}}.
• Backing diphthongs are more varied:
• The vowel of low in RP, other than being rendered as a monophthong, like described above, is often pronounced as {{IPA|[oʊ̝]}}.
• The word town is pronounced with a near-open central onset {{IPA|[ɐʊ̝]}}.
• Welsh English is one of few dialects where the Late Middle English diphthong {{IPA|/iu̯/}} never ju:, remaining as a falling diphthong {{IPA|[ɪʊ̯]}}. Thus you {{IPA|/juː/}}, yew {{IPA|/jɪʊ̯/}}, and ewe {{IPA|/ɪʊ̯/}} are not homophones in Welsh English. As such yod-dropping never occurs: distinctions are made between choose {{IPA|/t͡ʃuːz/}} and chews {{IPA|/t͡ʃɪʊ̯s/}}, through {{IPA|/θruː/}} and threw {{IPA|/θrɪʊ̯/}}, which most other English varieties do not have.

• Most Welsh accents pronounce /r/ as an alveolar flap {{IPA|[ɾ]}} (a 'flapped r'), similar to Scottish English and some Northern English and South African accents, in place of an approximant {{IPA|[ɹ]}} like in most accents in England{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPwYt3gVbu4C&q=alveolar+tap&pg=PA130 |title=English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change - Google Books |access-date=2015-02-22 |isbn=9781853590313 |last1=Coupland |first1=Nikolas |last2=Thomas |first2=Alan Richard |year=1990a|publisher=Multilingual Matters }}{{page needed|date=February 2021|reason=URL is a search}} while an alveolar trill {{IPA|[r]}} may also be used under the influence of Welsh.{{cite book |title=Investigating Language Attitudes: Social Meanings of Dialect, Ethnicity and Performance |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q2-uBwAAQBAJ&q=welsh+english+trilled+r&pg=PT88 |date=15 July 2003 |publisher=University of Wales Press |editor1=Peter Garrett |editor2=Nikolas Coupland |editor3=Angie Williams |isbn=9781783162086 |page=73 |access-date=2 September 2019}}
• Welsh English is mostly non-rhotic, however variable rhoticity can be found in accents influenced by Welsh, especially northern varieties. Additionally, while Port Talbot English is mostly non-rhotic like other varieties of Welsh English, some speakers may supplant the front vowel of bird with {{IPA|/ɚ/}}, like in many varieties of North American English.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPwYt3gVbu4C&q=rhotic&pg=PA138 |title=English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change - Google Books |access-date=2015-02-22|isbn=9781853590313 |last1=Coupland |first1=Nikolas |last2=Thomas |first2=Alan Richard |year=1990a|publisher=Multilingual Matters }}{{page needed|date=February 2021|reason=URL is a search}}
• H-dropping is common in many Welsh accents, especially southern varieties like Cardiff English,{{sfnp|Coupland|1988|p=29}} but is absent in northern and western varieties influenced by Welsh.{{cite book |title=Approaches to the Study of Sound Structure and Speech: Interdisciplinary Work in Honour of Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk |date=21 October 2019 |publisher=Magdalena Wrembel, Agnieszka Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak and Piotr Gąsiorowski |pages=1–398 |isbn=9780429321757 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hh24DwAAQBAJ&q=h+dropping+north+wales&pg=PT22}}
• Some gemination between vowels is often encountered, e.g. money is pronounced {{IPA|[ˈmɜn.niː]}}.{{sfnp|Crystal|2003|p=335}}
• As Welsh lacks the letter Z and the voiced alveolar fricative /z/, some first-language Welsh speakers replace it with the voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ for words like cheese and thousand, while pens ({{IPA|/pɛnz/}}) and pence merge into {{IPA|/pɛns/}}, especially in north-west, west and south-west Wales.{{sfnp|Crystal|2003|p=335}}{{cite book |title=The British Isles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EeXI43AwwiEC&q=north+west+wales+accent++%2Fz%2F&pg=PA117 |publisher=Bernd Kortmann and Clive Upton |access-date=31 January 2019|isbn=9783110208399 |date=2008-12-10 }}
• In northern varieties influenced by Welsh, chin ({{IPA|/tʃɪn/}}) and gin may also merge into {{IPA|/dʒɪn/}}.{{sfnp|Crystal|2003|p=335}}
• In the north-east, under influence of such accents as Scouse, ng-coalescence does not take place, so sing is pronounced {{IPA|/sɪŋɡ/}}.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=a3-ElL71fikC&pg=PA390 390]}}
• Also in northern accents, {{IPA|/l/}} is frequently strongly velarised {{IPA|[ɫː]}}. In much of the south-east, clear and dark L alternate much like they do in RP.
• The consonants are generally the same as RP but Welsh consonants like {{IPAslink|ɬ}} and {{IPAslink|x}} (phonetically {{IPAblink|χ}}) are encountered in loan words such as Llangefni and Harlech.{{sfnp|Crystal|2003|p=335}}

{{See also|List of English words of Welsh origin}}

Aside from lexical borrowings from Welsh like {{lang|en-GB|italic=yes|bach}} (little, wee), {{lang|en-GB|italic=yes|eisteddfod}}, {{lang|en-GB|italic=yes|nain}} and {{lang|en-GB|italic=yes|taid}} (grandmother and grandfather respectively), there exist distinctive grammatical conventions in vernacular Welsh English. Examples of this include the use by some speakers of the tag question {{lang|en-GB|italic=yes|isn't it?}} regardless of the form of the preceding statement and the placement of the subject and the verb after the predicate for emphasis, e.g. {{lang|en-GB|italic=yes|Fed up, I am}} or {{lang|en-GB|italic=yes|Running on Friday, he is.}}{{sfnp|Crystal|2003|p=335}}

In South Wales the word where may often be expanded to {{lang|en-GB|italic=yes|where to}}, as in the question, "{{lang|en-GB|italic=yes|Where to is your Mam?}}". The word {{lang|en-GB|italic=yes|butty}} ({{langx|cy|byti}}) is used to mean "friend" or "mate".{{cite web |title=Why butty rarely leaves Wales |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/why-butty-rarely-leaves-wales-2302834|work=Wales Online |date=2 October 2006 |orig-year=updated: 30 Mar 2013 |access-date=22 February 2015}}

There is no standard variety of English that is specific to Wales, but such features are readily recognised by Anglophones from the rest of the UK as being from Wales, including the phrase {{lang|en-GB|italic=yes|look you}} which is a translation of a Welsh language tag.{{sfnp|Crystal|2003|p=335}}

The word {{lang|en-GB|italic=yes|tidy}} is among “the most over-worked Wenglish words”. It carries a number of meanings including ‘great’ or ‘excellent,’ or a large quantity. A {{lang|en-GB|italic=yes|tidy swill}} is a wash that includes, at the least, the hands and the face.{{Cite book|last=Edwards|first=John|title=Talk Tidy|publisher=D Brown & Sons Ltd|year=1985|isbn=0905928458|location=Bridgend, Wales, UK|pages=39}}

As Wales has become increasingly more anglicised, code-switching has become increasingly more common.{{Cite journal|last=Deuchar|first=Margaret|date=December 2005|title=Congruence and Welsh–English code-switching|journal=Bilingualism: Language and Cognition|language=en|volume=8|issue=3|pages=255–269|doi=10.1017/S1366728905002294|s2cid=144548890|issn=1469-1841}}

Welsh code-switchers fall typically into one of three categories: the first category is people whose first language is Welsh and are not the most comfortable with English, the second is the inverse, English as a first language and a lack of confidence with Welsh, and the third consists of people whose first language could be either and display competence in both languages.{{Cite journal |doi=10.1515/ijsl.2009.004|title=Code switching and the future of the Welsh language|journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language|issue=195|year=2009|last1=Deuchar|first1=Margaret|last2=Davies|first2=Peredur|s2cid=145440479}}

Welsh and English share congruence, meaning that there is enough overlap in their structure to make them compatible for code-switching. In studies of Welsh English code-switching, Welsh frequently acts as the matrix language with English words or phrases mixed in. A typical example of this usage would look like dw i’n love-io soaps, which translates to "I love soaps".

In a study conducted by Margaret Deuchar in 2005 on Welsh-English code-switching, 90 per cent of tested sentences were found to be congruent with the Matrix Language Format, or MLF, classifying Welsh English as a classic case of code-switching. This case is identifiable as the matrix language was identifiable, the majority of clauses in a sentence that uses code-switching must be identifiable and distinct, and the sentence takes the structure of the matrix language in respect to things such as subject verb order and modifiers.{{Cite journal|date=2006-11-01|title=Welsh-English code-switching and the Matrix Language Frame model|journal=Lingua|language=en|volume=116|issue=11|pages=1986–2011|doi=10.1016/j.lingua.2004.10.001|issn=0024-3841|last1=Deuchar|first1=Margaret}}

The presence of English in Wales intensified on the passing of the Laws in Wales Acts of 1535–1542, the statutes having promoted the dominance of English in Wales; this, coupled with the closure of the monasteries, which closed down many centres of Welsh education, led to decline in the use of the Welsh language.

The decline of Welsh and the ascendancy of English was intensified further during the Industrial Revolution, when many Welsh speakers moved to England to find work and the recently developed mining and smelting industries came to be manned by Anglophones. David Crystal, who grew up in Holyhead, claims that the continuing dominance of English in Wales is little different from its spread elsewhere in the world.{{sfnp|Crystal|2003|p=334}} The decline in the use of the Welsh language is also associated with the preference in the communities for English to be used in schools and to discourage everyday use of the Welsh language in them, including by the use of the Welsh Not in some schools in the 18th and 19th centuries.{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/themes/society/language_education.shtml|title=Welsh and 19th century education|publisher=BBC|access-date=30 October 2019}}

{{main|Welsh literature in English}}

File:Dylan Thomas’ writing shed in Laugharne (17086083038).jpg' writing shed at the Boathouse, Laugharne]]

"Anglo-Welsh literature" and "Welsh writing in English" are terms used to describe works written in the English language by Welsh writers. It has been recognised as a distinctive entity only since the 20th century.{{sfnp|Garlick|1970}} The need for a separate identity for this kind of writing arose because of the parallel development of modern Welsh-language literature; as such it is perhaps the youngest branch of English-language literature in the British Isles.

While Raymond Garlick discovered sixty-nine Welsh men and women who wrote in English prior to the twentieth century,{{sfnp|Garlick|1970}} Dafydd Johnston believes it is "debatable whether such writers belong to a recognisable Anglo-Welsh literature, as opposed to English literature in general".{{sfnp|Johnston|1994|p=91}} Well into the 19th century English was spoken by relatively few in Wales, and prior to the early 20th century there are only three major Welsh-born writers who wrote in the English language: George Herbert (1593–1633) from Montgomeryshire, Henry Vaughan (1622–1695) from Brecknockshire, and John Dyer (1699–1757) from Carmarthenshire.

Welsh writing in English might be said to begin with the 15th-century bard Ieuan ap Hywel Swrdwal (?1430 - ?1480), whose Hymn to the Virgin was written at Oxford in England in about 1470 and uses a Welsh poetic form, the awdl, and Welsh orthography; for example:

:O mighti ladi, owr leding - tw haf

:::At hefn owr abeiding:

::Yntw ddy ffast eferlasting

::I set a braents ws tw bring.

A rival claim for the first Welsh writer to use English creatively is made for the diplomat, soldier and poet John Clanvowe (1341–1391).{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

The influence of Welsh English can be seen in the 1915 short story collection My People by Caradoc Evans, which uses it in dialogue (but not narrative); Under Milk Wood (1954) by Dylan Thomas, originally a radio play; and Niall Griffiths whose gritty realist pieces are mostly written in Welsh English.

• Cardiff English
• Abercraf English
• Gower dialect
• Port Talbot English
• Welsh literature in English
• Regional accents of English speakers
• Gallo (Brittany)
• Scots language

Other English dialects heavily influenced by Celtic languages

• Bungi dialect
• Cornish dialect
• Hiberno-English
• Highland English (and Scottish English)
• Manx English

{{reflist}}

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• {{Accents of English|377–393|hide1=y|hide3=y|mode=cs2}}

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• Parry, David, A Grammar and Glossary of the Conservative Anglo-Welsh Dialects of Rural Wales, The National Centre for English Cultural Tradition: [https://archive.org/details/start-of-survey-of-anglo-welsh-dialects/ introduction] and [https://archive.org/details/ggcawdrw-phonology phonology] available at the Internet Archive.

{{refend}}

• [http://www.bl.uk/soundsfamiliar Sounds Familiar?]{{spaced ndash}}Listen to examples of regional accents and dialects from across the UK on the British Library's 'Sounds Familiar' website
• [http://www.talktidy.com Talk Tidy] : John Edwards, Author of books and CDs on the subject "Wenglish".
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050325093722/http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/wal/Thoughts.html Some thoughts and notes on the English of south Wales] : D Parry-Jones, National Library of Wales journal 1974 Winter, volume XVIII/4
• [http://www.ku.edu/~idea/europe/wales/wales.htm Samples of Welsh Dialect(s)/Accent(s)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060626174623/http://www.ku.edu/~idea/europe/wales/wales.htm |date=26 June 2006 }}
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=tPwYt3gVbu4C&dq=%22welsh+English%22+transcription&pg=PA134 Welsh vowels]
• [http://parallel.cymru/?p=4224 David Jandrell: Introducing The Welsh Valleys Phrasebook]
• [https://www.oed.com/discover/welsh-english/ OED Welsh English]

{{Languages in Wales}}{{English dialects by continent}}

Welsh English

Category:Languages of Wales

Category:Dialects of English