#atebion

My friend, I have news for you: the Welsh language has two more vowels than the English alphabet!

A, E, I, O, U, W, Y! Seven vowels, baby!

Welsh is pronounced very differently to English, so I recommend looking up a phonetic guide such as this one to really get to grips with it. I'd also recommend seeking out some videos or audios so you get a real feel for how the language sounds - there's plenty of recommendations in my resources tag!

Lastly, a gentle suggestion: don't approach minority language speakers with negative assumptions about their language. 'Welsh has no vowels' and 'Welsh sounds funny' are incredibly common (and incredibly uninformed) takes that have been made against the language for centuries, to the point that Welsh is considered an acceptable punching bag in the mainstream simply because we're perceived as too 'little' to fight back.

(Source)

It's almost as if Welsh is an entirely separate language to English, stemming from the Celtic language branch rather than Germanic, and uses its own unique pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary! Weird, that.

Sadly, this attitude is nothing new - here's what the British Government had to say about the language in 1847:

"The Welsh language is a vast drawback to Wales, and a manifold barrier to the moral progress and commercial prosperity of the people. It is not easy to over-estimate its evil effects."

Oh man, I love this question and I have a LOT TO SAY before I get to my final answer.

The challenge here is that 'Wales mentioned' is basically short for 'Wales has been mentioned', which would translate into the rather clunky-sounding 'mae Cymru wedi cael ei chrybwyll'. To shorten this into the equivalent of 'Wales mentioned', you'd have to go for 'Cymru wedi'i chrybwyll', which... doesn't sound great. It just sounds overly formal and incorrect at the same time, which is not the vibe we want.

So! Our second option is 'sôn am Gymru'. This was my initial translation when I first read your ask, but there's a slight issue with the word 'sôn' (mention): it's both a noun and a verb. So, depending on how you read it, 'sôn am Gymru', it could come across as either 'a mention of Wales' or 'mention Wales' (as a command), which kind of detracts from the directness of 'Wales mentioned'.

So that brings me to my third option: 'cyfeiriad at Gymru' (a reference to Wales). It's technically correct and conveys the same meaning as 'Wales mentioned'... but man. It just sounds too formal again. It's better than 'Cymru wedi'i chrybwyll', but it's still not quite right.

So if the above options sound too correct, I reckon we should lean more into the initial brokenness of 'Wales mentioned' and just do what we do best: steal the English word and make it better.

Which brings me to...

MENSH CYMRU!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing about this translation is correct, which is what makes it the best one. Mensh is slang borrowed from the English 'mention'; it's not something you'll see in the dictionary, but it's a word you'll definitely hear colloquially amongst Welsh speakers!

Paid â mensh (don't mention it)

Ges i mensh yn y newyddion (I got a mention in the news)

Doedd dim mensh (there was no mention)

Now, if mensh was an actual Welsh word, technically the translation would be 'mensh o Gymru' (a mention of Wales)... but it's not a real word, so rules do not apply! Also, 'mensh o Gymru' could also be read as 'a mention from Wales', so keeping it as just 'mensh Cymru' removes any ambiguity and makes it clear it's just a playful take on 'Wales mentioned'.

Kernow bys vykken, Kembra bys vykken 💚🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Diolch! Cymru am byth, Cernyw am byth!

I've always found the similarities between our languages (and Breton!) absolutely fascinating. It's been on my to-do list for a long, long time to hit up the Festival interceltique de Lorient to fully immerse myself in the languages, but unfortunately it always clashes with the Eisteddfod Genedlaethol - I doubt they'd let me back into the country if I dared to leave during the first week of August.

In the meantime, here's an extremely fun video that S4C put out on TikTok a while ago comparing the three:

Occasionally the latter, but mostly the former! Despite its status as one of the oldest living languages in Europe, it's still exactly that: a living language! So just like the English language, it still very much evolves and reacts to new developments.

Let's take a look at the most recent additions to the Welsh dictionary:

Prawfddarllen = proofread

Mislifol a mislifboen = menstrual and menstrual pain

Iypi a iypiaidd = yuppy and yuppyish

Manyleb = specification

Maleiswedd = malware

Paffyddol = combative

Seiberdrosedd = cyber offence

Cofbin = memory stick

E-drosedd = e-offence

Gwrthfaleiswedd = antimalware

Genre = genre

Camsillafiad = typo or misspelling

Hirdymor = long-term

Canoldymor = mid-term

Byrdymor = short-term

Coloneiddiwr = coloniser

Ôl-drefedigaethu = post-colonise

(Almost all of these have existed as words for a solid while; they just took a while to be formally added to the dictionary!)

Out of this selection, I'd say that only 'iypi' (yuppy) fully replicates the English word using Welsh phonetics, while 'seiber' (cyber), 'coloneiddio' (colonise) and 'maleiswedd' (malware) also directly borrow from the English words - which you could then in turn argue borrows from Latin or Greek!

English words are often more like a combination of words pretending to be one word - basically formed out of linguistic building blocks - which makes it pretty easy for them to be deconstructed. 99.9% of the time, we already have those building blocks in Welsh!

Malware = malice + ware (collective noun for goods with a specific use)

Maleiswedd = malice + gwedd (condition or form of something)

So while 'maleis' is borrowed, the second half is not - because it doesn't need to be!

Of course, colloquially we're always dropping English words into Welsh sentences, especially if it's a relatively new term that hasn't naturally undergone a translation yet. But for the most part, we take pride in our building blocks and are keen to use them as much as possible when it comes to standardising new words - something I particularly enjoy when translating shit like 'fuckton' into Welsh on this blog. (Ffwcdunnell, if you're curious.)

I appreciate what you're saying (I think), but I have to wholeheartedly disagree!

I'm not really keeping the language alive; that would suggest it's dying, which categorically isn't. Welsh is a robust and resilient language that's very much alive and kicking; my blog is just one of the hundreds and thousands of ways the language expresses itself every day, and while I'm glad to be contributing in some small way, it's not all that exceptional.

I also don’t agree with the idea that most people in Wales have 'forgotten' their language. Due to a combination of historical and political bullshit that I can't succinctly break down in one ask, a huge chunk of Wales never got the opportunity to learn Welsh in the first place. Older generations are particularly out of luck, but the education system has generally improved over the decades which means more and more young Welsh people are learning Welsh in school - but the system doesn't always treat Welsh with the respect it deserves. And if the education system sometimes treats it as a compulsory tick box exercise, how on earth can we expect young people trying to get through their studies to really value it, especially those whose only experience of Welsh is in the classroom?

The only reason I'm fluent in Welsh is because I was born into a Welsh-speaking family in a largely Welsh-speaking area; had I been born a few miles over the county border to an English-speaking family, I doubt I'd be fluent. My fluency doesn't make me more valuable than those who didn’t have the same opportunity - I just learnt Welsh before I learnt English.

Hey there! I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt here and assume you aren’t coming from a malicious place with this comment - and maybe you thought I’d find it funny!

However, jokes about a minority language - especially one that’s been suppressed and marginalised by English speakers for centuries - aren’t your jokes to make.

It’s understandable that Cymraeg may be an unfamiliar language to you, but next time you have a thought like this, I suggest you take a moment to ask yourself if you know enough about the person you’re speaking with and the subject at hand before making the joke. Chances are, you don’t - and that’s okay. It’s not your fault you’re uninformed about something, but once you identify that gap in your understanding, it’s down to you to fill it and to work on your ignorance.

If you’d like to learn a bit more about the Welsh language and its historic suppression, I recommend this Wikipedia article as a starting point:

I've covered Welsh swearwords in a previous ask before, but you're right that I often directly adapt English swears into Welsh, especially 'fuck' as 'ffyc' or 'ffwc'. That's mostly because we live in a largely English-speaking country; it's become natural for 'shit' and 'ffyc' to become part of our daily vocabulary as we constantly switch between languages.

HOWEVER! We do have a huge amount of Welsh-language interjections. They're not always particularly rude (and a LOT of them are minced oaths, which are adapted versions of profanity such as 'darn'), but here's a brief list of some of the ways you can express surprise, confusion or toe-stubbing pain in Welsh:

damia/damio/daria = damn/darn it

godrapia = from the English 'god rot ye' which is basically 'goddamn'

Iesu = Jesus

Iesu Grist = Jesus Christ

asu = minced version of Jesus

argol/argoel/rargol = minced version of 'yr Arglwydd', meaning 'the Lord'

be yffach/uffern = what the hell

be ddiawl = what the devil

basdad = bastard

ych/ych a fi = yuck/[that's] yuck to me

nefi blw = another minced oath that literally means 'navy blue' but originally came from the Welsh word for heaven ('nefoedd')

iesgob = minced version of 'yr Esgob', meaning 'the Bishop'

iesgob mawr = big bishop

iesgob dafydd = the bishop David

asiffeta = literally 'asafoetida' (gum resin) but it became popular as a fake swear word thanks to C'mon Midffild, a popular Welsh comedy (probably partially because it sounds like 'arse' or 'asu', the minced version of Iesu)

There's plenty more; you'll even find that each region of Wales has its own particular way of swearing, which makes it even more important for people to experience different Welsh dialects when learning the language!