Patagonian Welsh

[gartdavis]

I've always loved being confounded by unexpected stories like this. 20 years ago, I was working to build a self-publishing company - lulu.com - that would open up the world of book publishing. It was not an easy journey. In 2005 a book was published on the site that told the story of this welsh-patagonian exclave. It sold hundreds of copies in Wales and Argentina. In its narrow space, it was as much a 'bestseller' as anything in the NYTimes, and it was clear that it would never have been published or reached this audience any other way. It was a benediction on our labors.

"William Casnodyn Rhys, a young theology student, dreamed of establishing a Welsh colony where the Welsh language and culture could be preserved...."

https://www.lulu.com/shop/william-casnodyn-rhys/a-welsh-song...

[gerdesj]

Us Britons have managed to cause some remarkably odd outcomes, way beyond the usual Empire bollocks and this is an absolute belter.

Welsh is a Brythonic language, which is the most common class of languages spoken across what is now the UK(ish) that predates the Roman invasion in 55/54BC and 43 AD. It's way older than English. Other living examples include Scottish, Irish, Cornish (revived) and Bretton (off of France). There are, of course, dialects and so on.

I think it is absolutely delightful that a small part of Patagonia speaks Welsh. In a world hell bent on painting itself beige this is a lovely thing. Diversity is important in all walks of life.

[iandioch]

FWIW, Scottish and Irish (and their sister Manx) are not Brythonic, they are in the other branch of extant Celtic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic.

[kitd]

My father grew up speaking Welsh at home. Years later, on a family holiday to Brittany, we heard some local old men speaking Breton. My dad was able to understand much of what they were saying. I had never realised the languages were that close.

[umanwizard]

> It's way older than English

What does it mean for one language to be older than another? They are both Indo-European languages, so they are descended from a common ancestor and have each been continually evolving since then.

[foxglacier]

How is diversity of languages important or even good? Language only works when it's not diverse so people can understand each other.

[pbhjpbhj]

Cymraeg dates to many years after the Roman occupation.

English was only established as the British language by Henry VII, so preceding it isn't hard.

[yazantapuz]

What a nice surprise to find this on HN! I live in Puerto Madryn, the city celebrates its anniversary in honor of the arrival of the first Welsh settlers. Around Chubut, it’s pretty common to see road and tourist signage in Spanish, Welsh, Aoniken and English — especially along Provincial Route 25, which connects the coast to the mountains in the west. It more or less follows the path the welsh took from the Chubut river valley to Esquel and Trevelin.

[eeue56]

Native Welsh speaker here! It has always been a dream of mine to go to Y Wladfa, and share a bond through language with people there.

One fun fact - my dad took some higher-learning Welsh exam as an adult. They had to time the exam to match Patagonia, as they were given the exact same exam to avoid any cheating.

[rossriley]

If anyone is interested Gruf Rhys (from Super Furry Animals) made a film, Separado!, where he tried to track down his Welsh family that migrated to Patagonia.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1505405/

[mark_undoio]

I love the Patagonian Welsh. BBC Wales, which often has great comedy, has a sitcom based around the original emigration to Patagonia: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b060cd20

The whole thing feels very much like a Star Trek plot to me with a culture leaving on a ship to an unknown world to preserve their way of life - which later the crew would happen upon in some episode.

[andycowley]

There's a lovely episode of _Welcome to Wrexham_ where they fly some fans over from Patagonia to see their football team play.

[wslh]

Not mentioned in the article but you can drink good beer there. Probably this one: https://www.instagram.com/draigcerveza

[thelibrarian]

I see someone else here also listens to Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff...

[jpmoral]

Hello fellow listener, what games do you play? I'm currently running a play-by-post of Urban Shadows.

[slater]

Why does this entry not show up on https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=wikipedia.org ?

Edit: I guess it’s because of the mobile URL…?

[detaro]

it does, but on the second page, because it was originally posted 3 days ago.

[oakejp12]

What an incredibly weird comment.