Yesterday and Today
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The Welsh language is about 1500 years old. Welsh evolved about the sixth century AD from Brythonic – a language that people spoke across Britain.
Over its 1500 years of existence it has continued to evolve, its use as a daily language and the language of administration has waxed and waned and waxed again as it has struggled to coexist side by side with one of the world’s major languages – English.
Some have been predicting the demise of the Welsh language for many a long year, others have wished to see it disappear off the face of the earth, while others have striven to ensure its survival.
Against all odds and through storms and oppression, the Welsh language has survived and evolved and is, in the words of singer Dafydd Iwan, “yma o hyd” – still here.