Welsh nab their first native-tongued phone and iPhone app in one month's time -- Cymru am byth!
By Laura June 
posted August 5th 2009 4:04AM
posted August 5th 2009 4:04AM
Native speakers of Welsh, take heed! Orange has announced that a Welsh-language version of the Samsung S5600 will be made available in September. This would make it the first cellphone to handle the language, which has some 600,000 native speakers in Wales. The phone will contain 44,000 Welsh words, and was recently unveiled in Bala, Gwynedd. Also unveiled simultaneously was the first Welsh iPhone app, developed with English-speakers learning the language in mind, and will have a companion "Learn Welsh" phrasebook available in the iTunes store. Iechyd Da! 
vroom, vroom, pati shtata!
Citizen of LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH, rejoice!
This Welsh town actually exists and its name translates as "The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave".
http://llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.com/
Hey, I've been to that town! I can pronounce it too. All 51 letters. Easier than it looks.
The name means something like - St Marys church in the hollow of hazel near the rapid whirlpool and church of St Tysilio of red cave
Wales is a beautiful place.
LMAO I guess I should have read all your comment. hehe I would have seen you already translated. :(
is this a leak boyo?
Doesn't everyone who speaks welsh also speak English anyway?
The last person who could only speak Welsh died around 1998.
Thus Welsh is now a redundant means of communication.
So we should all just learn Chinese!
But if Welsh dies, no one will understand all those Super Furry Animals songs!
If we all already spoke Chinese then that would make sense.
Not if we don't want to..
*Starts to confuse Welsh with Gaelic*
Welsh?
It's a language...
Check this out for some humour:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7702913.stm
Gaelic = Sounds funny.
Welsh = Sounds funny, LOOKS funny written down.
Sasanach madraí.
It's called Irish... not gaelic...
Actually Derry Quinn... In Ireland the folks there have taken it upon themselves to simply call it Irish. The language is still considered to be Gaelic. The Scotts use Gaelic too. You think they call it Irish?
It's like here in North America. Some shallow minded Americans think the language they speak is called "American", while in fact it's English.
I thought the Irish used Celtic while the Scots used Gaelic? I'm so confusilated...
Welsh is a Brythonic language closer to Cornish and Breton (as in Brittany, France).
Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic are related languages in the Gaelic group.
Both groups are part of the Celtic language family.
It's a little like Portuguese & Spanish vs French.
Language is a big part of culture and most people want to preserve their culture. this is particularly hard for minority languages like the Celtic group. There are several thousand languages spoken across the world but some go extinct every year.
Rydw i'n hoffi coffi
Hwre! O'r diwedd fedrai ddefnyddio fy ffon yn iaith y nefoedd!
Yes its true we can all speak English (mostly), but that doesn't mean we wouldn't prefer to use a mobile in our native tongue. To be honest, the main bugbear for Welsh mobile users is the lack of a Welsh T9 support, though the English suggestions for Welsh words are always a source of mirth. Since most of my texts are in Welsh, I just have to switch T9 off.
The comments denigrating Welsh because of the dominance of English are very lame. every ethnic group wants to preserve its own culture. Every language preserves a great body of wisdom. If a language becomes extinct, something is lost for all people. If modern technology can preserve some smaller language, that is a good thing.
I think I agree with David Mitchell on the subject: http://www.channelflip.com/2009/06/25/david-mitchell%E2%80%99s-soapbox-gaelic/
If you already speak english and everyone who speaks welsh also speaks english then surely learning welsh purely as a means of communication is a pointless exercise. Of course this does not apply to learning it for historical and cultural reasons as people do with latin, but I think that using it in situations where communication is the only priority (such as road signs) is a bit redundant and overcomplicated.
600,000 native speakers in Wales....
This phone has been out here in Ireland for a couple of months with native Irish language support. Its marketed as the Samsung Cara (it means friend which is nice :-P)
Its a great idea even if most people only speak English as I know from experience, typing Irish place names is a pain (try typing Lisdoonvarna quickly on a phone) and I'm glad they're expanding it to Welsh.
Bravo Samsung Bravo!
I guess this means the Welsh Commission will have to spend 2 years agreeing on the welsh word for "iPhone" before deciding on "iPhone".
@Shinigami
Hardly anyone calls it that though, because it is so stupid. It was changed to that just for the sake of having a long name.
I don't speak Welsh sadly (from the south, where hardly anyone speaks it), but am going to make an effort to learn when I get chance. It is good for the language and the country though. Thank you samsung.
For a language that stopped its development at the steam train and does not have a native word for "spark plug", I find this ridiculous.
Welsh is fine to make the toutists point and smile but in reality it is about as much use on the world's communication stage as a bicycle is to a fish.
Oh just you die already. Your a stupid human.
Helo o cymru :D
Welsh is awesome. It shouldn't die. Lots of people in lots of countries speak their native tounge+english. Doesn't mean they should stop speaking their native tounge. It's a beautiful place, with awesome names (LlanfairPG = awesome).
And it's awesome when you go on holiday abroad, or hell, even if you're in England... because you can speak to your family and nobody would understand you ;)
Twll tin pob sais! ;)
guess iphone will be called phonidwy
@nigel, if you were a bilingual Welsh and English speaker like me, you would actually realise that new Welsh words are exactly the same as English words, but with io stuck on the end (pronounced yoh). The iPhone would become "iPhonio" or the mutation "iPhoniau" (pronounced ee-eye).
So far the English dogs haven't been able to break our code!
@Dekstar
Funny you should say that. I know a woman who married a Welsh guy and so she learnt Welsh to show some interest or whatever. They went to Wales on holiday and she went into a shop and the guys behind the counter asked each other how much they should charge "this English dog". She replied in Welsh "You won't charge this English dog anything" and walked out while the guys behind the counter were pretty gobsmacked.
phoniodwy*
I think this is amazing! I'm from England myself, and I know it knocked out the other British languages, but I think it's amazing that people still speak their native languages. The group of Gaelic languages and Welsh are all very beautiful languages!
For anyone interested in why the Welsh language isn't spoken by everyone in Wales and have wondered why us Welsh have been a bit grumpy with our English neighbours I suggest you Google "Acts of Union" and Henry VIII. Basically it meant that English would be the only language used in the courts and that no one able to speak to Welsh would be permitted to hold office unless they also had command of the English language.
Which was actually a very smart thing to do. It's hard to transact business or legal matters when speaking a gobbeldygook of languages. That's not to say that native languages don't have their places, and they certainly should be maintained as part of local heritage.
Something that happened hundreds of years ago surely doesn't justify any modern day resentment. Especially given that today Wales has an assembly and power over it's own laws while England has nothing.
I am from the US my Heritage is Welsh I have been trying to learn the Language for a few years now. This is awesome.
It's nice to be part of one of the most oppressed peoples in Europe, sometimes ;).
Welsh is a friggin awesome language.
Does it use actual welsh or just jumbles some letters together and throw in some double l's, and is there actually a difference?
Rhagorol! I knew there was at least one more good reason to buy an IPhone!
Fanman...
There doesn't actually seem to be any resentment on the Average Welsh persons behalf towards the English, or the English language as a whole.You are the one that seems to resent the Welsh language.
I ask you, what is wrong with speaking, writing, or reading Welsh in Wales? All the road signs and any other important information is in English too, so someone like yourself should have no reason to complain. No one is forcing you to Speak or even associate with the Welsh language in any fashion, so why do you feel as though a celebration of (what is left of) Welsh heritage is an attack on the English, it simply isn't.
I am welsh. Perhaps I've been a little over the top, sorry. I have a particular bug bear for people who have a sort of one-up-manship going on with the rest of the UK or who think they've been oppressed by England. I know that this is very few people and no one in this thread, but if the SNP can get elected in scotland then I would hate for Plaid Cymru to do the same here and ruin us.
..when successive English parties have done such a sterling job over the last 50 years.....yes I'm sure Plaid Cymru could only do worse ......
Oes posib ailsgwennu rhyngwyneb yr iphone efo'r PDM i ddefnyddio iaith wahanol ?
Is it possible to rewrite the iphone interface with the SDK to use a different language ?