Patagonian Welsh


Patagonian Welsh is a variety of Welsh language spoken in Y Wladfa, the Welsh settlement in Patagonia, Chubut Province, Argentina. The numbers used in Modern Welsh originated in Patagonia in the 1870s, and were subsequently adopted in Wales in the 1940s.
Teachers are sent to teach the language and to train local tutors in the Welsh language, and there is some prestige in knowing the language, even among those not of Welsh descent. Welsh education and projects are mainly funded by the Welsh Government, British Council, Cardiff University and the Welsh–Argentine Association. In 2005 there were 62 Welsh classes in the area and Welsh was taught as a subject in two primary schools and two colleges in the region of Gaiman. There is also a bilingual Welsh–Spanish language school called Ysgol yr Hendre situated in Trelew and a college located in Esquel. In 2016 there were three bilingual Welsh–Spanish primary schools in Patagonia.
Patagonian Welsh has developed to be a distinct dialect of Welsh, different from the several dialects used in Wales itself; however speakers from Wales and Patagonia are able to communicate readily. Toponyms throughout the Chubut Valley are of Welsh origin.
A total of 1,220 people undertook Welsh courses in Patagonia in 2015.
The formal Eisteddfod poetry competitions have been revived,
although they are now bilingual in Welsh and Spanish.

History

The Welsh people first arrived in Patagonia in 1865. They had migrated to protect their native Welsh culture and language, which they considered to be threatened in their native Wales. Over the years the use of the language started to decrease and there was relatively little contact between Wales and the Chubut Valley. The situation began to change when many Welsh people visited the region in 1965 to celebrate the colony's centenary; since then the number of Welsh visitors increased.
In 1945 and 1946 the BBC World Service broadcast radio shows in Patagonian Welsh.
During the 1982 repatriation of Argentine troops from the Falklands war, British Merchant Navy seamen and Welsh Guardsmen met a Welsh-speaking Argentine soldier. The detained troops were disembarked at Puerto Madryn.
In 2004 the Welsh speakers in Argentina asked the Welsh government to provide them with Welsh TV programmes to encourage the survival and growth of Welsh in Patagonia.

Vocabulary

The dialect contains local adoptions from Spanish, not present in the Welsh spoken in Wales. For example, mynd i baseando derives from paseando in Spanish. Baseando is a grammatical mutation from paseando.
Patagonian WelshWelsh EnglishRioplatense Spanish
SingletFestvestchaleco
PoncinPwmpenpumpkinzapallo
Mynd i baseandoMynd am droto go for a walkir de paseo / ir paseando
CorralCorlansheepfold, corralcorral
Siarad drwy'r ffônSiarad ar y ffônto talk on the phonehablar por teléfono
PasiwchDewch i mewnenter! / come in!¡pase!
Tan tro nesafHwyl fawrGoodbyeHasta la próxima
AllanMâs, allan outfuera
Cur penPen tost, cur pen headachedolor de cabeza
FoFe, fo himél
FynyLan, fyny uparriba
Nain a taidMamgu a tadcu, nain a taid Grandmother and Grandfatherabuela y abuelo
FfwrnFfwrn, popty ovenhorno
LlaethLlaeth, llefrith milkleche
MarchMarch, stalwyn stallioncaballo
CostioN/aTo be difficult for someonecostar

Gallery of Welsh in Patagonia