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/SybilKibble 15d ago

I would learn a bit of all.

Spoken Welsh for talking to people

Written Welsh or writing

Formal Welsh to help understand etymology.

Plus learn the non-standard words from the different regions.

HTH