Welsh English Totally Explained

Welsh English, Anglo-Welsh, or Wenglish (see below) refers to the dialects of English spoken in Wales by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly influenced by Welsh grammar and often include words derived from Welsh. In addition to the distinctive words and grammar, there's a variety of accents found across Wales. John Edwards has written and spoken entertainingly about a specific form of Welsh English—found in the south-east area of Wales—that he calls 'Wenglish'. Some people, generally outside Wales, use the same word to refer to any form of English spoken in Wales.

Pronunciation and peculiarities

Some of the features of Welsh English are

Distinctive pitch differences, giving a "sing-song" effect.
Lengthening of all vowels is common in strong valleys accents.
Pronouncing a short 'i' as 'eh' for example edit would become 'ed-et' and benefit would be 'benefet'
A tendency towards using an alveolar trill [r] (the 'rolled r') in place of an approximant [ɹ] (the 'normal English r').
Yod-dropping doesn't occur after any consonant, so rude and rood, threw and through, chews and choose, chute and shoot, for example, are distinct.
Sometimes adding the word "like" to the end of a sentence for emphasis, or using it as a filler.

Influence of the Welsh language

As well as borrowing words directly from the Welsh language (for example cwtch, bach), Welsh English is influenced by the grammar of Welsh and Welsh intonation. Placing something at the start of a sentence emphasises it: "furious, she was". Conversely, structures that would indicate emphasis in Standard English, like "He does go there", or "I do do it", might be used in neutral contexts, where no emphasis is intended. This derives from the common use of periphrasis and auxiliary verbs in spoken Welsh.
There is also evidence of semantic influence. The Welsh verb dysgu means both "learn" and "teach", and sentences like "He learned me to drive" in place of Standard-English "He taught me to drive" are not uncommon.

Regional accents within Wales

There is a very wide range of regional accents within Wales.

South Wales

The 'sing-song' Welsh accent familiar to many English people is generally associated with South Wales. Somewhat reduced South-Wales accents can be heard from serious Shakespearian 'theatre' actors Richard Burton and Anthony Hopkins, or on recordings of Dylan Thomas. Swansea accents are prominent in the film Twin Town. The popular Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones also has a Swansea accent, when its not an LA accent. The singers Shirley Bassey and Charlotte Church, meanwhile, are from Cardiff where many Cardiffians refer to their home city as 'Caaardiff'. The accent of Newport is also distinctive, quite different from that of nearby Cardiff and has some of the influence of rural Monmouthshire, for example Newportonians going shopping go "Dewn tewn" for 'down town'.
An online survey for the BBC, reported in January 2005, placed the Swansea accent in the bottom ten accents likely to help a career, although "Cardiff folk ranked only a few places higher".

North West Wales

The accents of North Wales are markedly different. In North West Wales the accent is less sing-song, with a more consistently high-pitched voice and differences in vowel quality. The "R" sound is rolled extensively and the dark L is used at the beginning or middle of words, for example in "lose", "bloke", and "valley". The sound is often pronounced unvoiced (the sound doesn't exist in Welsh), so "lose" is pronounced the same as "loose".

North East Wales

In North East Wales, the accent can sound like those of Cheshire and Merseyside (the latter most evident in Flintshire). Towns nearer the border or with substantial populations tend to have Scouse-like accents, due to the preference of the urban youth and Liverpudlians living there, as well as the high population of families having moved there from the Liverpool area in recent centuries. More 'sing-song' accents are often found in Welsh speakers in the Northeast.

Western Wales

In the South of Pembrokeshire, the accent is similar in some respects to Cornish speech patterns. Certain Welsh words such as 'crwt' and 'pwdu' are used, despite the low number of Welsh speakers in the area. Owing to the high number of English migrants to the area, South Pembrokeshire is sometimes claimed to have an almost English accent; however, this is incorrect.
It is worth noting that accents in Wales vary even over relatively short distances. Within Swansea itself there's a striking difference between the West Swansea accent (which sounds relatively English) and the rest of Swansea. The Neath accent is different again. Within Carmarthenshire, there's a noticeable difference between the Carmarthen, Llanelli and Ammanford accents. As in many other areas of Britain, the strength of different south-Walian accents is frequently related to social class, with the pronunciation of more educated speakers often closer to RP.

Influence outside Wales

While English accents have affected the accents of English in Wales, influence has moved in both directions. In particular, Scouse and Brummie accents have both had extensive Anglo-Welsh input through immigration, although in the former case, the influence of Anglo-Irish is better known.

External results

Click here for more details on Welsh English

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://welsh_english.totallyexplained.com">Welsh English Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.