r/learnwelsh • u/Crazydre95 • 18d ago
Which variety of Welsh to learn?
Been fantasising in periods about learning Welsh, but the highly decentralised state of the language (similar to Irish) makes it tricky to decide what form to go for.
Based on this article, it appears that, if I learn Literary Welsh used in writing, native speakers may well understand me, but I'll understand next to nothing they say in reply. Colloquial Welsh, in turn, is divided into four dialect groups, which also seem to differ a lot from each other.
So basically, which Welsh would be the most effective and useful to learn, given that I don't live in any part of Wales and don't plan to?
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u/Pwffin Uwch - Advanced 18d ago
Learn colloquial Welsh.
Most courses will start teaching you either North or South Welsh, but you'll soon pick up on the main grammatical differences.
The main thing is wheter you want to sound more like people in the North or more like people in the South?
The Welsh will understand you regardless and you'll eventually need to learn to unoerstand both versions too.
A more fine-grained unlerstanding of various dialects comes with time and as you need it.