Any Welsh pedants here?

[prism]

I know nothing about Welsh but I realise that the Welsh people I know are pretty punctilious in their use of English, and I assume that, being essentially proud of their own language, the Welsh don't go in for bad spelling (how would anyone know?!), grammar or punctuation.

Is I right or is I wrong?

Well, both my parents were Welsh (though lived in Monmouthshire, and spoke English) and I live in Wales, though I was born in southern England, so some may consider me totally English.

Are you asking about Welsh pedantry concerning Welsh grammar and punctuation, or Welsh people's English grammar and punctuation ?

I cannot answer concerning anything Welsh language, but in terms of English, I think there as much poor grammar and spelling (and random apostrophes) as anywhere else.

However, that might be skewed by the numbers of people in my area who, like me, never use Welsh at all, so it may be the case that those who have Welsh as their primary language are more sensitive to error and more careful as a result !

I really meant Welsh pedantry in Welsh- I just have this theory that since they've had to put a lot of effort into keeping the language alive, they'll be more enthusiastic about doing everything right. But that could be complete rubbish, of course- for all I know there are takeaways all over Wales that say the Welsh equivalent of "chip's" outside...

I do wonder what Welsh "text speak" would look like?

And would we notice that's what it was?

lloll?

The short answer is yes.
As you so rightly observed we welsh speakers are inordinently proud of the oldest living British language.
Have you ever come accross The National Eisteddfod? I ask because as it is the largest Arts Festival in Europe it's worth checking out the writing competitions.
www.eisteddfod.org.uk
The intracacies and fascination with wordplay are a delight.
There is even a designated tent for literature.

My DH is a Welsh speaker and informs me there are no swear words in Welsh, doesn't stop the Welsh swearing though they just use the English words. They also have a committee that make up Welsh words for 'new' English words like milkshake, computer etc...
Without offending the previous poster (I hope) if you're not Welsh I wouldn't bother with the Eisteddfod; I had to sit through this years on S4C; seriously there's only so much reciting and disco dancing this poor English girl can take.

THere's academic Welsh as well as street/slang Welsh and they vary a lot. My language (Welsh first language) differs depending on who I'm talking to. The Welsh I use with family and friends is of a good consistancy, with few English words. THe Welsh I use with teachers/ my boss is of a higher standard - I make less use of English words and idioms. But the Welsh I use in shops and in my work dealing with the public is much more relaxed as not to come over too intimidating.
So many people do not declare that they are Welsh speakers on the Census because they don't think their Welsh is good enough.
We held a course recently for Welsh speaker who've become out of practice in talking the language, called "mae dy Gymraeg di'n grét" (Your Welsh is great) with the idea of getting them comfortable with the language again. BUT, a member of the public complained about the use of the word "Grét" being an English word and that it was setting a bad example. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who judge people for their language level - and put them off forever. HTH

Also, as a Welsh speaker, it drives me mad when things as mis-translated, and they put signs up with major mistakes. One example was a road sign in Cardiff with "Pedestrians look to the right" in English but in Welsh it told us to look to the left.....

A visit to the Eisteddfod (start next Saturday) is a must. You needn't sit in the pink pavilion for hours if you're not into hearing the same song sung 5 times etc, but go around the "maes" for the atmosphere. They have translation-phones for those who don't speak the language of heaven

What about this one... news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7702913.stm

I just went to an on-line translator to get the Welsh for "pedant". It was unable to translate it! This makes me assume that the Welsh are uniformly good linguists, so have no need for this word...

that's terrible pebble! No excuse for it !