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Langfiles Ep. 32: Irish VS. Welsh

Śeid

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After 2 years.... we're here.... comparing 2 Celtic languages that many people may know. 🇮🇪 Irish and 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Welsh, both of these languages are possibly the most known of Celtic, so today we're comparing how both languages work.

Special Thanks go to Gael2Go for the Irish samples and to thebaldwelshteacher for the Welsh samples, as well as additional comments from both.

Check out Irish here:
Instagram: Instagram: gael2go
Website: https://www.gael2go.com/

Check out Welsh here:
Instagram: Instagram: baldwelshteacher
Facebook: Facebook: baldwelshteacher

Also explore the general Celtic Languages Discord server: Discord: discord

1st Song, Sonic & The Black Knight - System: Name Entry
2nd Song, Sonic Heroes - Power Plant (Xbox Beta Version)
3rd Song, NiGHTS: Journey Of Dreams - Eloquent Echo
4th Song, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Splatoon) - Squid Melody (Kibo Remix)
5th Song, Sonic Adventure 2 - City Escape (Demo Ver.)
6th Song, Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time - Listen Up, Now
7th Song, Sonic & The Black Knight - Fan Art (It Doesn't Matter)

Socials
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/sheid.bsky.s...
Insta: Instagram: sheid2871
Discord server: Discord: discord

All music and images used in this video are not mine, besides the frames I made, and all belong to their respective creators as they appear in this video.

20 Comments

@seid3366 Creator 1 month ago Pinned

Corrections:
1:15 it's spelled "Ieunac"
8:36 the inflected form in the 2sg is Arnat Ti

@DannyPotato 1 month ago

Are you Langfocus’ son?

@lancevance60 1 month ago

"Yuwankos." As I get older, this makes more and more sense as a word for young people.

@buurmeisje 1 month ago

This is like literally a langfocus video

@MrFearDubh 1 month ago

I speak Irish fairly well, but can only understand the odd word in Welsh.

@eoinmacantsaoir811 1 month ago

I speak Irish as my second language. I can almost understand Scots gaidhlig if the person is speaking slowly. Almost but not quite. The flow is the same and maybe 60%+ of the words, but there'll be a word or two missing that maybe ruins the understanding.

They're so close that there used to be a Scots gaidhlig soap opera shown on Irish Gaeilge TV (machair)

Welsh on the other hand might as well be Lithuanian. Not a clue.

@nicks_fixed2053 1 month ago

I'm Irish but was lucky enough to have my higher education in North Wales, where I learned Welsh for a year. I didn't find it difficult as the mechanics are almost identical, the double L "Ll" posed no problems to me and it was mainly a case of learning the vocabulary. Could an Irish person understand Welsh straight off the bat? Probably not, since Irish is Gaelic and Welsh is Brythonic. But there are many similarities in their structures, like the mutations that you mentioned ...

@DavidDoran-i8j 1 month ago

Would be good to see a comparison between Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. They will be slightly closer than Welsh and Irish, but not by much. The burning books example in S Gaelic is closer to Welsh: “Loisg e trì leabhraichean”

@Knappa22 1 month ago

Yes Welsh does use periphrastic formations for the present tense and imperfect tense, but the past tense remains inflected even in informal speech, especially in south Wales e.g Codais i yn fore. Es i lawr i’r gegin. Roedd y teulu yna a bwyton ni wyau wedi’u berwi.
(I got up early. I went down to the kitchen. The family was there and we ate boiled eggs.)

@torrawel 1 month ago (edited)

Brezoneg/Breton: Ema ‘n nen (from den) oc’h evañ dour

Also: Breton has both forms of conjugation plus a to do (ober) form plus (like Welsh) a pretty active/normalised continuous form (the one with o/oc’h)

@ozkardeoz 4 weeks ago

I hope you can do this video with Irish + Gaelic vs Welsh + Briton ... and others by family ... Greetings from Chile !!

@VDH2J 1 month ago

Good stuff man!

@TomBartram-b1c 1 month ago

In Welsh you only conjugate one verb. Codais am wyth o'r gloch, gwisgo, mynd lawr staer, cael brecwast ac wedyn gwylio'r teledu.

@DG-zi8lc 1 month ago

Great background music buddy 😮

@deithlan 1 month ago

This is a great video!

@deaglanuafhlaithbheartaigh8241 1 month ago

Irish speaker here.
Irish & Welsh - you don't understand eachother but the odd word, and the structure is similar when you look into it.

Speakers of Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx can have conversations with eachother as these were one language at a more recent point of history - though difficulties can arise. I can personally understand Scottish Gaelic a bit easier than Manx.

For me (and for other speakers of the 3 Gaelic languages, Irish, Scottish gaelic and Manx) Cornish and Breton are in the same category as Welsh in terms of intelligibility. I think those languages can understand eachother to varying degress

@Lugh-Lámhfhada 1 month ago (edited)

I speak some Irish but wouldn't consider myself fluent.

The flow and cadence of Welsh sounds similar to Irish, but a bit more melodic or sing-songey. I'd have no understanding of any Welsh.

Scottish Gàidhlig and Manx Gaelg are much more similar to Irish.

Scottish Gàidhlig is very often very understandable in written form, but can be more difficult in speaking.

Manx Gaelg is kind of the opposite. It has an orthography based more on English orthography, which is very different than Irish and Scottish Gàidhlig, but it can be easier to understand in spoken form.

(The last native Manx speakers died in the 1960s, so possibly the older native spoken Manx would have been more difficult.)

If the speaker is making an effort to slow down and be clear, then all three languages could communicate with a little difficulty.

The Ulster dialect of Irish in particular is somewhat situated between southern Irish dialects and Scottish Gàidhlig.

@hiccacarryer3624 1 month ago (edited)

Welsh speakers say they can understand cornish and Breton especially in written form. My Cornish is basic but I can recognise many Welsh cognates ( Bora is dawn in Cornish but morning in Welsh while myttin is morning in Cornish but madain in Irish -no doubt from Latin matin like lyver for book, eglos yglos for latin ecclesia church) words we have in common are Du for black, aber for mouth avon for river ( abhainn) lis for court ( lios), ki for dog, Gwynn, fionn for white , menydh/ mynnyyd for mountain etc

@Erik_Emer 1 month ago

Kinda wish you also delve further into how important assimilation is grammatically in Irish and Welsh. Like, "a" is a third person possessive, but assimilation shows what third person.
a cairde (her friends)
a gcairde (their)
a chairde (his)

@CCc-sb9oj 1 month ago (edited)

Accurate information and, refreshingly, accurate Irish pronunciation (just like on Langfocus)! I suppose I'll subscribe.

To answer the question, I have Irish but understand basically 0 Welsh (barring the odd word like "Sened" which is the same as our "Seanad").

This isn't surprising as they are on different branches of the Celtic language tree having separated, I think, a much longer time ago than all of the Romance languages did.

The mutual comprehensibility question would be more relevant for Irish and Scottish Gaelic speakers or for Welsh and Breton speakers.

Scottish Gaelic might have comparatively more words and structures in common with Welsh because it absorbed some influence from Pictish during its history, but not enough for any mutual comprehensibility of course. (Pictish is classified as a Brythonic Celtic language generally though some reckon it might not have been as far from Goidelic as the southern British language/dialects were. I have no expertise on that anyway).