Originally Posted by
Divine Wright
Three of my grandparents came from Welsh speaking families. Two of them were from Aberystwyth/Tregaron area and Welsh was their everyday language. My other grandmother came from a welsh speaking family from Ystrad Mynach. I'm not sure why but her parents didn't pass the language down to her , which is a shame because they would have spoke Wenhwyseg , which was the South East Wales dialect of Welsh and has/had some pretty interesting characteristics compared to West and North dialects.
As a result of having grown up in the Ystrad Mynach area myself, and despite having attended welsh medium primary in Tir y Berth and Bargoed, my Welsh was a bit patchy. It improved a bit after my parents moved us down west and I'm getting more and more interested in the language the older I get.
I live in the Basque Country now ,but speak to my daughter in Welsh, despite the incredulity of the locals who believe it almost criminal that I don't use English around her. People here are obsessed with learning English and, much as certain generations of Welsh speakers did, consider English the language of "successful" people.
My 14 month old daughter currently has "dwr" and "llaeth" under her belt. Her mother speaks to her in Basque. I doubt she'll ever become a global business leader but she'll be cool as fck, which I guess is what really matters.