do all Scottish, Irish and Welsh speak English?

Hi again

Sorry - I didn't re-read what I'd written carefully enough before I posted it. I meant to say "...Welsh is *not* anything like as different from GAELIC as Chinese is..."

Having said that, what I wrote is true as well, only not to the same extent.

That's a bit irrelevant, really.

Frankly I don't care whether or not Wales is represented on the Union Flag - England and Wales still has legal importance. Also it's unrealistic to put a red dragon or the cross of St David on the flag - it'd just be appeasing a few silly nationalists like that Glyn out of Big Brother, wouldn't serve any actual purpose, and would just look silly.

I don't think it's fair to call Glyn Wise (of Big Brother fame) a "silly nationalist". The guy is Welsh, born and bred in a throughly Welsh speaking part of North Wales, in a town where over 70% of the population use Welsh as their ordinary day to day means of communication. That is not to say they are not all proficient in the use of English - they are, as is every person in Wales, but many learned it as a second Language, as did Glyn himself.

Glyn is passionately proud of his Welshness, and why shouldn't he be? He was lucky to have Imogen as a fellow housemate as she, too, was a fluent Welsh speaker, this time from South Wales. Very often when the two of them were alone together they spoke in Welsh, and being BB the cameras and microphones picked up every thing, everywhere - hence the title Big Brother....but for the benefit of all the UK viewers (99% of whom wouldn't have a clue what the (BLEEP) they were saying), the playbacks all had English subtitles.

Glyn often wore tops sporting the word "Cymru" (Wales in Welsh) and draped himself in the Welsh flag...with its red dragon on a green and white background. He's Welsh, for goodness sake, so what's wrong with showing patriotism the way he did when, like me, temporarily exiled in "foreign parts"! :-) It does seem bizarre that Wales is not represented on the Union flag, but among other reasons it just would not fit, because the flag is made up of the red and blue crosses of the other home countries on a white background.

Talking about the Dublin accent...I think it's great. I went to Dublin for the first time earlier this year and loved it. One of the housemates in Big Brother came from Dublin and he went under the name of Spiral, but the fact that everyone referred to him as "Spoiral" gives you some indication of what his accent was like as that's how he pronounced his name. :-)

PS: Stornoway (Steornabhaigh) and the Isle of Lewis.....nearly every summer I went with my family (Mum, Dad and sister) to spend a week's holiday there when I was younger.....great! Give my best wishes to the Seaforth Hotel in Stornoway.

Damian, I doubt Glyn's story about learning English as just a second language... his father is from Bristol.

Putting the Welsh flag on the union flag is like putting mustard on a blackforrest gateau.The welsh unlike the English and Scots,Havent done anything significant enough to deserve a place on it.As for that guy from big brother if he was displaying the same nationalist stuff about England ,you can bet your bottom dollar there would be loads of complaints from the welsh.

zxczxc: I didn't know that Glyn's father was from Bristol.....in that case, it would hardly be possible for him to know only Welsh in his earliest years would it? Unless of course his Dad was a fluent Welsh speaker at the time which is about as likely as Glyn shacking up with Princess Beatrice.

I never actually heard Glyn himself say that he only spoke Welsh as a very young child so he couldn't be accused of telling porky pies...I just heard it from another source or perhaps read it somewhere. As a budding journalist myself, believe me you can't take everything you see or hear as gospel! :-)

Obviously he would speak English at home with a Bristolian dad, but I know for sure that outside the home, with all his mates in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Welsh is the main Language spoken 90% of the time.

I am looking for a Celtic / Scottish word meaning grandfather - naturally how it is said in English. ANyone out there with any info

Damian: What gets me is that if Glyn's father were the only English speaker then he'd grow up with a Bristolian accent more than a Welsh one (when speaking English, at least). Since he doesn't, I think that someone's telling porkies. Plus, just look at him: he looks a bit thick, and to be honest acted as such, so it isn't too much of a surprise he wasn't particularly fluent in any language, let alone English (to be honest, I don't think any of the housemates were).

Fair comment, zxczxc (hey, how do you pronounce your name? Is it Polish? :-) )

Someone was telling porkies somewhere along the line in that case.....all I know about Glyn is that he has lived all his life in a small town in an area of Wales where Welsh is the day to day living Language of about 75% of the population, and at the age of 18 he admitted to being wet behind the lugholes and looked on the whole BB experience as his chance to "learn life skills"! Bless!

If his Dad does have a typical Bristolian accent then it would be quite noticeable among the other residents in Blaenau Ffestiniog (how I love typing out that name!) I would reckon, even though English immigration into Wales generally is pretty significant....I'm not too sure on the Welsh situation compared with the Scottish in that respect.

But even with his Dad's presumed Bristol accent, Glyn would still grow up with a very pronounced Welsh accent local to that particular area.....and you have to admit that Glyn's accent when speaking English was very strongly North West Welsh....I recognised it from when I was in Anglesey a wee while back, and from going around places like Bangor and Caernarfon, in an area they call Gwynedd, which was one of the ancient kingdoms of Wales. Glyn spoke exactly like most of the local people there...at least when they spoke English....most of the time the majority of locals spoke Welsh. It seems as if all the English speakers were tourists!

So in spite of having an English Dad Glyn grew up speaking Welsh at school and when out with all his mates, but at home he would have spoken English would he not? Unless he and his Welsh Mum wanted to conspire against poor Dad at any time! Anyway, the story about Glyn having English as a definite second Language doesn't hold water does it? So porky pies applied in some quarters....blame the press! LOL

One thing I learned was the pronunciation of the name Gwynedd (referrring to that area of Wales). The DD sound at the end has exactly the same sound as the TH sound in the English words "the" "with" "than" etc. And the word is pronounced by the Welsh far more emphatically than do the English...all the letters being firmly sounded, and not glided over as with the English (and also the Scots no doubt, let's be fair!) who piss off the locals big time when they say "Gwinn-ud" or "Gwinn-ith" - with the TH sound as in the English words "thin" and "through".

In Welsh you have to put more effort in enunciating all the words clearly and strongly, unlike in English English when you can just glide over the words and hardly open your mouth!

"I am looking for a Celtic / Scottish word meaning grandfather - naturally how it is said in English. ANyone out there with any info"

Steve, I can only help you with the Irish form but Gaelic should be Gaelic. Hope it will do.

seanathair= direct tranlation is old father but it means grandfather.
It is pronounced, shan-aa-her

franny i am amazed at your narrow minded ingnorance its simply breath taking! to say wales/ireland have had little influance on british affairs is total rubbish, i am sure anyone would be able to find the influance of welsh,irish on all affairs relating to britain you have just enforced my take on the english and england as always looking down on smaller yet vital nations around the world and thinking you're a major partner in europe/world when you have almost no influance if any outside the uk its almost laughable the only nation not to see this is the english,WAKE UP england is probaly the most despised nation (not envied )behind the usa.as for welsh nationalism its every welsh/irish/scots and english persons right to be proud of thier identity,having worked with many english i've had no probs with them at all as long as theyve'd shown a healthy respect for my language and culture,strangly enough theyve'd shown great intrest in it. so thanks fran for enforcing the tipical ingnorant english stereotype for me, the rest of the uk will be rid of you yet! ps i'm assuming you're english if not you should be! daw ein dydd (our days coming)

Ireland has nothing to do with the UK.

« WAKE UP england is probaly the most despised nation (not envied )behind the usa. »

The main flaw in your thinking here is that very few people outside of the British Isles actually distinguish politically between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In my experience, the United Kingdom is seen largely as a single unit, at least as far as most non-British/Irish people are concerned.

As for whether or not 'England' is really the second most despised country in the world... I'd hesitate to suggest that the vast majority of people on this planet probably don't really give at toss about the place.

This is a fascinating forum. Scots Gaelic is too beautiful to fade away. There are many in the U.S. such as myself who find the language very attractive and are trying to learn what we can from on-line resources, books, etc.

I'm looking forward to getting over to Stornoway for a visit next April. (cheapest airfare!). I can't get the rest of my family interested in Gaelic yet but I'm sure they will enjoy the visit. (We live near Seattle, so we're used to the wet & rainy weather.

There's been quite an interest in all things Celtic around here. My interest started with music. I bought a CD of Gaelic music and fell for it right away. I know we tend to fanatise about other cultures, but if we become all homogenised it would be very boring world.

Any suggestions on where to stay would be appreciated.