Welsh Language Resources
History of the Language

Online Learning Resources
Text/Audio Learning Resources
There are a number of books (some with accompanying CDs or tapes) which are designed for self-instruction and for use in Welsh learning classes. These are a few examples:
  • Welcome to Welsh: A Complete Welsh Course for Beginners, by Heini Gruffudd
  • Welsh: The Complete Course for Beginners, by Gareth King [Includes CDs and tapes]
  • Teach Yourself Welsh, by Julie Brake and Christine Jones [Includes CDs]
  • Basic Welsh: A Grammar and Workbook, by Gareth King
  • Intermediate Welsh: A Grammar and Workbook, by Gareth King

Reference Resources
Although Welsh learning materials normally include limited dictionary and grammar materials, more complete texts are helpful to the Welsh learner. These are a few of the supplementary resources currently available:
  • What’s the Word for? Beth yw’r gair am?, by Carol Williams
    This elementary dictionary is designed for persons who are learning Welsh as a second language. See http://www.uwp.co.uk/word_holding_frame.html
  • Teach Yourself Welsh Dictionary, by Edwin C. Lewis
    This dictionary is designed to complement the Teach Yourself Welsh textbook referred to above.
  • Pocket Modern Welsh Dictionary: A Guide to the Living Language
    This University of Oxford publication is edited by Gareth King. The usage and grammar commentaries for many of the entries provide a basic grammar reference resource to Welsh learners, although the number of entries is relatively limited.
  • Welsh-English, English-Welsh Dictionary, by H. Meurig Evans.
    This standard format dictionary includes over 50,000 entries. Each entry is brief.
  • Collins Gem Welsh Dictionary
    This is a Welsh-English/English-Welsh mini dictionary (about the size of a cell phone) that contains over 30,000 brief entries. The print is small. A recent edition uses the name Collins Welsh Dictionary.
  • Welsh-English/English-Welsh On-line Dictionary, Department of Welsh, University of Wales, Lampeter: http://www.geiriadur.net/
    This dictionary currently incorporates over 250,000 items and includes audio pronunciation of some Welsh words and phrases.
  • NINNAU’s Guide to the Use of the Welsh Dictionary for Beginners and Others, compiled by Robert A. Fowkes
    This guide provides a list of various possible forms in which a word can occur, in each instance referring the user to the base form in which the word can be found in the dictionary.
  • Dictionaries frequently contain supplementary grammar information. More extensive treatment of Welsh grammar is available online at the BBC Wales site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/grammar/ and in grammar texts, e.g., Modern Welsh: A Comprehensive Grammar, by Gareth King.
Many of the reference resources described above are available for purchase at www.Amazon.com. A more extensive inventory of Welsh learning materials is available at www.gwales.com, a Wales website. Some of these materials are available for review at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, www.clpgh.org.

Other Resources
  • Cymdeithas Madog, the Welsh Studies Institute of North America, sponsors an annual Welsh language week with multiple levels of study. Its mission is also to be “…a clearinghouse for information about Welsh language resources….” http://www.madog.org/
  • Several Welsh periodicals include information about the history and usage of the Welsh language as well as other information that is useful to the Welsh learner:

Welsh Pronunciation Examples
Click on the Welsh word or phrase to hear it pronounced in Welsh: