Should You Learn Northern or Southern Welsh?

And does it matter?

Photo by Ed Maughan on Unsplash

I’m pretty new to Welsh so I’m coming at this from a beginner’s perspective.

At the start of the Say Something in Welsh course (which I’d highly recommend), you can choose to do either a Northern or Southern Welsh course.

I chose North because my Nana’s family lived in Blaenau Ffestiniog and I thought it would be a neat idea to learn the dialect that they’d have spoken, but I could just as easily have opted for the other.

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It doesn’t really matter which you choose.

You’ll find more Welsh speakers in South Wales (although, there’s a higher concentration of speakers in the North so you’ll probably find it easier to practice with them) but it’s still the same language.

They’re just different dialects with some differences in vocabulary or accent.

I speak English fluently but I don’t have the same accent or manner of speaking as someone from Newcastle or Cornwall.