elsiebub:

slutty-ankylosaurus:

animate-mush:

mythaelogy:

things linguistics has taught me: do not fuck with the welsh

Seriously though do not. This is welsh nationalism in a nutshell.

So like, 150 or so years ago, nobody cared about Welsh. Not even the welsh. But then, one day, some folks got sick of paying the tolls at toll gates. Citing bizarre biblical precedent, they dressed up as women and started seizing toll gates, at which point the (also welsh) gate owners went “WTF?” and called in (english) magistrates to resolve the dispute.

The English Magistrates looked at the situation and went “WTF?” and commissioned an inquiry loosely titled “WTF is wrong with Wales??”

Well this commission did a ton of work and looked at schools and politics and people on hillsides raising sheep and all that jazz and came to the thrilling conclusion: What’s Wrong with Wales is that Ridiculous Backwards Language they all speak there.

There was a moment of dead silence, broken only by the loud scrape as Wales, collectively, as a nation, in a fit of unity not seen since the castles came to subjugate the native tribes, pushed back its chair, stood up slowly, and said “what you just say bout me?”

And folks who’d never heard it spoken started teaching their children Welsh, and the old sheep herder on the hill became a cultural icon, and the rioters and the gate owners high fived each other and said “suck it, England!” (only in Welsh this time).

And now Welsh is a protected language, there’s a strong Welsh nationalist movement, with its own flag and spelling conventions, and there’s a Welsh channel on television (which is doubly impressive when you remember that Britain only has like three channels).

And that is how the Welsh saved their language from extinction by sheer force of spite

Just gotta add those toll booth riots were called the Rebecca Riots, the rioters were known as Rebeccas and I am named after them. It’s the one consolation to an otherwise boring name.

Also my great grandad lived to the age of 101 and never spoke a word of English that wasn’t forced out of him through threat of unemployment. Despite being fluent and having 5 great grandchildren who have the Welsh vocabulary of toddlers.

let me tell you some of the ways the English tried to kill our language

in Tudor times they brought in the “Act of Union” which banned the use of Welsh in public settings 

in the 1800s they brought in the “Welsh Not” in schools. if a child was heard speaking Welsh in school, they were given the Not. if another child spoke it, it was passed on. the person left with the Not at the end of the day was caned.

 in the 1960s they refused to have Welsh language signs for roads, streets etc. so we ripped all of them out and deposited them outside government buildings until they installed bilingual signs

i could go on but it makes me too angry so i won’t

Welsh is the oldest living language, and is beautiful. fight me.

[Image is an excerpt from a textbook titled “Speech Divergence.” Text:

Example 8

A number of people who were learning Welsh were asked to help with a survey. In their separate booths in the language laboratory, they were asked a number of questions by a RP-sounding English speaker. At one point, this speaker arrogantly challenged the learners’ reasons for trying to acquire Welsh, which he called a ‘dying language which had a dismal future.’ In responding to this statement, the learners generally broadened their Welsh accents. Some introduced Welsh words into their answers, while others used an aggressive tone. One woman did not reply for a while, and then she was heard conjugating Welsh verbs very gently into the microphone.

End ID.]