I read somewhere there were about 800,000 Welsh speakers.



It will be dead when all native speakers are dead, but they aren't yet, thank God
In 2050, I guess only a handful of native speakers will be left.

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Yeah but what does it matter how many native speakers there are or how many are learning? Surely the important thing is how many children are growing up speaking the native variety of the language

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

"Donegal Aran": "Arranmore/Árainn Mhór" is the name of the island.

There are something like 580,000 Welsh speakers in Wales, and a further 150,000 in England.
Most those in England are migrants, however there are as far as I know a few historical Welsh speaking villages in England in which welsh is still spoken by some people ,

http://sluggerotoole.com/2009/08/20/wel ... g-england/

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I'd heard and read about Oswestry before but didn't know how long the language had lasted there. It's an interesting example of how on one hand language and identity are connected and how on the other, they can be separated and the language be maintained for economic reasons only (revivalists take note!)

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

What makes you think they don't identify as Welsh? even though they are on the other side of the border, it says they have no ancestral connection to wales at all. Id take that to mean that unlike some other places Welsh is still spoken or was recently spoken in, the people's ancestors didn't originate from Wales proper, but are of local Welsh speaking ancestry.

Ive heard there are villages and towns in England which were recently Welsh speaking (19th Century) from both migrant miners etc and due to Welsh speaking pockets which got left on the wrong side when the border was drawn.

Breton's decline has been utterly amazing given so much is in the modern period. But then Occitan and other minority languages have also plummeted after world war 2, France really seems to be pushing for their extinction, which is a sad thing to see in this day in age.

When I went to Brittany on a school exchange in 1990, there were well over 500,000 Breton speakers , at the time it was the most widespread Celtic language, now there are around 200,000. And its losing 10,000 Speakers a Year !!! I wonder will they get their act together before its too late? But with the French states stance it looks bleak.

Still doesn't get me any closer though to figuring out how many different dialects there are still spoken here

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I don't know how Welsh speakers on the border would have seen themselves years ago, but I doubt the ones on the English side of the border today would see themselves as Welsh, but I'm not them, so it's only an assumption.

It's rather clear that the French state wants to kill off all minority languages, one would suspect to keep secession movements from occurring. Welsh looks the more viable of the lot at the moment, an irony, I think, most people would get

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

The funny thing with France is that they're part of the EU - which has an official minority language recognition charter. Like, if they were to apply to be admitted now, they would be denied because of this.

However, there is hope. There's been talk recently about changing the wording of their constitution so that they can have the justification to give some much needed resources to minority languages. Check herehttp://www.euractiv.com/culture/france-gets-closer-ratifying-reg-news-533181 for more information.

It would be great if it goes through but would seem to involve a referendum like Ireland does have when changing the constitution, which one would hope to see passed

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

less than that, there were 170,000 a few years ago.



I wonder what could be done to prevent Breton from disappearing almost completely.
Most native speakers are old; almost no teacher speaks or teaches the real language, so almost no child or teenager speaks the real language. And the very few people who'll still be able to speak it in 20 or 30 years, I wonder if they'll be able to use it if they don't live in the same area and don't know each other.
So-called "Breton language schooling" has given a false hope actually. If they taught the real language, transmission from grandparents to children would have been possible and pupils could have managed to speak properly. Most Breton activists are enemies of the language just as anti-Breton politicians are.

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne