You understood over half the Welsh!

The Welsh Language

Welsh is the oldest language in Britain, dating back 4,000 years. It is a Celtic language spoken by around 750,000 people in Wales (about a quarter of the population). There are another 130,000 Welsh speakers around England, Scotland and Ireland, including about 50,000 in London. There are also a few hundred Welsh speakers in Patagonia, Argentina. There are two dialects, northern and southern, but fortunately the differences are fairly minor.

There's a good history of the language on the BBC Wales website. More information about the Welsh Language can be found at:

Learn Welsh

Since you seem to have an affinity to the language you may like to learn a bit more! There are a number of fantastic online resources for learning Welsh for example from SSiW, the BBC and S4C:

Essential phrases to start with

English Welsh Rough Pronunciation
thanks diolch dee-ock
thanks very much diolch yn fawr dee-ock unn vowr
please plis please
OK iawn yown (rhymes with gown)
good morning bore da bor-er dah
good afternoon prynhawn da prin-hown dah
good evening noswaith dda noss-wythe-ah
good night nos da noss dah
hello helo hello
goodbye hwyl hoy-ill