Argentina's Strange Welsh Speaking Community

support name explained on patreon for ad-free videos exclusive podcasts and blog posts and to help choose what names get explained click the link in the description from our first migration to out of africa to the colonization of pretty much every corner of our planet we humans love to move around the globe when we go on grand migrations like this we take a lot of things with us not only do we bring ourselves and our belongings but we also take our cultures ideas and most importantly for today our languages languages settle and take a firm grasp in the land just as much as the people themselves do so much of our modern world and the languages spoken across it come from migration and settlement take english an example which has become the dominant language of north america or even how french has become the lingua franca in many african nations the resettlement of languages however aren't always this grand sometimes the language confines itself to just a small pocket of a modern nation take the french spoken in parts of canada or even the germans spoken in texas though today we're looking into one of the strangest cases of a language settling somewhere else on the planet and that's with the welsh-speaking community of argentina argentina is a truly fascinating country it is around 2.8 million square kilometers in size and has a population of almost 45 million it's also an incredibly biodiverse country with geography ranging from snowy mountains dense jungle to many lakes and rivers this means a huge variety of wildlife coordination honed too from penguins to jaguars while spanish is the national language of the nation many other native tongues are spoken there too it really is an incredibly diverse nation wales on the other hand is a little bit less dramatic well it's still dramatic in its own way i suppose of course wales is one of the home nations of the united kingdom meaning it kind of is and isn't a country i'm sure you know by now how the uk works wales is around just 20 000 kilometers square in size has a population of just over three million so definitely not quite as large as argentina unlike argentine it doesn't have quite as many languages either just welsh and english while its geography is not as diverse wales is still incredibly breathtaking its natural landscape is beyond picturesque if you have an image of stereotypical rural england in your mind you are probably more likely to find something like that in wales than in england itself in regards to animals well while it may not have jaguars or penguins they have sheep almost 10 million sheep to be precise these two countries are really incredible in their own right but they're also incredibly different yet there is that one thing we know these nations both have in common and that similarity starts to appear as you venture into the south of argentina into the famous region of patagonia and in the shibuta province you will find a truly unexpected site that site being a handful of towns and settlements where not only is welsh spoken but many of the signs around the town will be written in welsh you also see many quintessentially welsh things like tea rooms selling the incredibly welsh baron bluff cake it really is a little slice of whales tucked away in the southern hemisphere the welsh settlements of argentina are collectively known as warladfa which translates into english into meaning the colony it is also known as golimeg meaning the welsh settlement hopefully that's the only actual welsh i have to pronounce in this video this welsh colonization even have their own flag which is a wonderful hybrid of the two nations flags the light blue and white stripes of argentina with the welsh dragon firmly in the middle instead of that pouting sun how on earth did welsh out of every possible language on our planet end up making itself at home roughly 11 000 kilometers away in the depths of south america well to understand this we need to have a good idea of the history of the welsh language itself it's been spoken on the island of britain for an incredibly long time it's fought to date back to around 600 bc welsh is a celtic language but not quite like irish or scottish celtic those welsh languages are goidelic welsh is a bryphonic celtic language meaning it has more in common with cornish and breton than irish and scottish we have covered welsh quite a lot in the past in various videos if you have watched them then you will know that welsh is an incredibly unique language in the way it sounds and how it's spoken it's very different to the other languages spoken on the island or great britain even compared to its linguistically similar neighbor of cornish while we now celebrate uniqueness of welsh that hasn't always been the case in the past most people had the same reaction to things that were different to what they were used to and that reaction was to get rid of it well seems to have been deeply discriminated against throughout history in example king henry viii in the 16th century deemed that only english was to be spoken in the courts of wales and in the 19th century a report was published that stigmatized wales and the welsh language even further wales was seen as a backwards part of the uk when compared to the english-speaking parts of the nation the stigma on the language made the welsh tongue decline even further in overall speakers it wasn't only the welsh language that started to decline in the 19th century the industrial revolution across britain left much of rural wales baron the mining and industry that started to sprout up all across wales struck fear into many proud welshmen they were worried that the whales they all knew was disappearing and the home nation was becoming just another part of england this sparked many welsh people to want to settle somewhere else in the world and create something of a new welsh settlement where traditional welsh life and the language could live on despite migration of welsh people all across the new world first off many parts of the usa were actually set up as welsh communities towns like utica in new york and scranton in pennsylvania were initially welsh towns however these towns were not able to properly hold on to their welsh identity as pressure grew on the people to adopt the english spoken there and to live the american way of life to start a proper new welsh safe haven away from influence of the outside world somewhere a bit more further afield than the usa would have to be chosen in 1861 michael d jones from bella in north wales held a meeting with other welshman about where they could settle a new welsh land outside of the usa jones was a welsh nationalist and a principal of the local school one of the first contenders was vancouver island up in canada though for one reason or another that clearly wasn't agreed upon they all decided to look even further afield in the us and canada instead they delved into the south american nation of argentina at this time argentina was still a fairly new nation it had only declared independence in 1816 and its constitution was written in 1853 this fledgling nation was more than happy to have people migrate to their lands jones contacted the argentine government over this period and inquired about them being able to settle there the argentine government not only allowed them to settle but also promised that they could continue to use their own language and maintain the welsh way of life in patagonia there was also another motive for argentina allowing the welsh in the area of land that they were going to put the welsh in was under dispute between argentina and chile argentina atlanta welsh residents there firmly established this land as their own argentina also described patagonia as a very pleasant part of the country describing it to be very similar to the rural lands of wales in 1865 just four years after that initial meeting over 150 welsh people from all across the nation gathered in liverpool the border ship setting sail to their new home in patagonia the journey from liverpool to patagonia took no less than eight weeks i'm informed that this was relatively speedy at the time and this how long the journey took with good weather while the journey was pleasant enough it seems their rival wasn't quite as enjoyable the land the argentine government had allowed them to live in wasn't quite the carbon copy of rural whales they were told it was instead what they found waiting for them was a barren scrub land of little water food or natural resources like trees to create shelter with those first few nights must have been quite a shock to those who had left civilized whales behind the welsh ventured on however with some extra supplies sent to them and the native people helping them they found their way to the actual site they were offered to inhabit this land wasn't much better though it did have a river the settlers named this river camry and founded their first permanent settlement of rawson in 1865 both of which were very welsh names this settlement struggled with flooding and poor harvests at first however things started to get better thanks to a setter by the name of rachel jenkins she realized that they could possibly harness the river's constant flooding for their own use she created a simple yet effective irrigation system for the land that managed the flooding and allowed the land to become fertile and allowed farming production to increase after this the welsh and patagonia are off to the races more and more people started to settle death from not just wales itself but other welsh settlements of the aforementioned welsh parts of the usa the argentine government even granted the welsh castle as the title of the land in 1875. through the rest of the 19th century and into the early 20th century more welsh people came over as the nation of wales and the uk as a whole sunk into a depression in just a few decades those initial 150 wealth schedulers had turned this desolated part of patagonia into a fertile thriving welsh utopia this amazing job they had done on reinventing this land however drew the attention of more than just a welsh much to the dismay of those native welsh wrestlers the great job they had done became something of a detriment as people from all around the world not just wales flooded in to call this a lovely part of argentina their new home by 1915 the population had grown to roughly 20 000 with only half of those fought to be welsh and still speaking the language they held so dearly onto their language was a key reason as to why they settled in such a remote location in the first place they wanted to protect it and not let it get intermixed with other languages this huge influx of non-natives threatened that however it wasn't only this that threatened them as in the early years of the 20th century the argentine government started to sour on that welsh estimate why they soured i'm not too sure perhaps they were annoyed at how many immigrants it was bringing in from around the world by now maybe argentina has shaped his own image more and didn't want to have that welsh influence over their own identity the government stepped in here and ruled that welsh could no longer be spoken in local governments or in schools this started to bring welsh argentina into a bit of a decline while it was unable to be spoken in those places welsh was still proudly spoken at home and at church so the language did manage to survive in the land over 100 years have passed since the argentine government put a ban on the language and it seems like that ban isn't still in place while welsh is not as spoken there as when it was first settled it still has a surprising presence in the land patagonian welsh as it has come to be known as has between 1 000 to 5 000 native speakers and 50 000 argentines claim to have welsh ancestry the worst connection in argentina is concentrated in the three main welsh settlements of the country garmin trelu and trevolin all three of these being welsh names it is in these places where you will find welsh language signs and the previously mentioned welsh tea rooms from what i can see it really does look incredibly welsh however it does maintain a south american flair to it all if you by any chance happen to be from here please let us know down below what it's like in the comments the region has very close ties to wales too with there being many exchange trips between the two places set up by universities and schools together wales and welsh argentina have been able to help revive the welsh language in recent years and while welsh is spoken in both places the welsh spoken in wales and the welsh spoken in argentina aren't exactly the same as i mentioned this variation of welsh is known as patagonian welsh and it differs from normal welsh this is due to the fact that other languages have shaped it most noticeably spanish which is spoken across most of argentina the oval accent has been influenced by spanish with the plosives of welsh not being as dramatic sounding in patagonian welsh likewise welsh's glottal shift sound is more mellowed in patagonian spanish too i also read some key phrases have been changed across the atlantic too with spanish words being added to the welsh phrases one example being the patagonian welsh phrase of pashui hermann meaning pass in and being used to welcome someone into your house in native welsh the men meaning come in is used instead the patagonian's version is directly influenced by spanish and their word pass meaning pass some brand new welsh words have been coined in patagonian welsh 2 such as undrustrapha this is a worse translation of the spanish word baloneylia which means beach or spa or somewhere to bathe in general seems like my hopes of not having to say any more welsh words didn't pay off though anyway despite the concerns some of had in recent years about the decline of the welsh language it seems that now the tongue is thriving once again not just in wales but somehow all the way over in the depths of argentina thanks to patagonian welsh thank you to all my patrons who support name explain on a monthly basis patreon is vital to name explain and donating just two dollars a month allows you to enjoy ad-free videos and bonus patreon exclusive content it also allows you to help choose what names get explained in upcoming videos and get your name here with all these awesome people thank you so much for all the support you guys give name explain thank you so much reaching the end of the video check out another video subscribe to stay in the loop on all things name explain don't forget to follow me on instagram while i'm name explain yt and also join the facebook group friends of name explain both of which will be linked down below anyway i hope you enjoyed this video and once again thank you all so much

Channel: Name Explain

Views: 21,084

Rating: 4.9622369 out of 5

Keywords: name explain, etymology, language, word origina, patagonian welsh, wales, argentina

Id: T1HuNoBWyjg

Length: 13min 57sec (837 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 16 2021