Headquarters of the Asociación San David. Welsh: Cymdeithas Dewi Sant.Trilingual signal in Gaiman.
Patagonian Welsh (Welsh: Cymraeg y Wladfa) is a variety of the Welsh language spoken in the Patagonia region's Y Wladfa, Welsh settlements located in Chubut Province, Argentina. Though Patagonian Welsh is distinct from the several dialects used in Wales itself, the dialects have a high degree of mutual intelligibility, and speakers from Wales and Patagonia are able to communicate readily. Numerous toponyms throughout the Chubut Valley are of Welsh origin.
Teachers are sent from Wales to teach the language and to train local tutors in the Welsh language. There is some prestige in knowing the language, even among those not of Welsh descent. Welsh education and projects are mainly funded by the Welsh Government, British Council, Cardiff University and the Welsh–Argentine Association. In 2005, there were 62 Welsh classes in the area and Welsh was taught as a subject in two primary schools and two colleges in the region of Gaiman. There is also a bilingual Welsh–Spanish language school called Ysgol yr Hendre situated in Trelew, and a college located in Esquel. In 2016, there were three bilingual Welsh–Spanish primary schools in Patagonia.
In 2023-24, the number of registered learners—encompassing students in schools and adult programs—reached over 970, a significant increase from 623 in 2020.[1]
The formal Eisteddfod poetry competitions have been revived, and are now bilingual in Welsh and Spanish.
Language uses
Language education
Ysgol yr Hendre in Trelew - a school designed to reinstate Welsh as a living language to local children
Around 2005, sixty-two Welsh classes were taught in Chubut and language was also on the curriculum of a kindergarten, two primary schools and two schools in the area of Gaiman (including a school dating from 1899), as well as a bilingual Welsh–Spanish school located in Trelew and a school in Esquel.[2][3] Welsh classes in the Andes region have been held since 1996. The Welsh Institute of Trevelin and Esquel was born from a joint project of the National Assembly of Wales, the British Council and the Government of the Province of Chubut.[4]
Since the late 1990s, the Wales–Argentina Association has run a program to increase the teaching and use of the Welsh language in Chubut. For 15 years, the plan succeeded in creating a new type of Welsh-speakers in Patagonia (Welsh speakers as a second language, mostly young). By 1997, most of the students were adults and there was only one school for children. Four years later, there were 263 hours of Welsh classes per week and 846 students, of whom 87% were children and young people (in Gaiman, 95% of those attending such classes were under the age of 20).[5]
One of the functions of the Wales–Argentina Association is also to organise teacher and student exchange trips between Wales and Argentina: it has a representative on the British Council's Welsh Teaching Project Commission which has sent Welsh teachers to Chubut and financially supports a student attending an intensive Welsh language course held annually. It also has links with colleges and schools in both Wales and Chubut, where it subsidises and provides support to students.[6]
In May 2015, the local government of Trelew announced free intensive Welsh language classes for the city's inhabitants under the name of Cwrs Blasu ("Savoring the language"). Ann-Marie Lewis, a Welsh teacher, travelled to Patagonia exclusively to teach the language.[7]
Welsh–Spanish bilingual schools
For the 150th anniversary of the colony, an association was created in Trevelin to form the first Spanish–Welsh bilingual school in the 16 de Octubre Valley under the name of Ysgol Gymraeg yr Andes, which will be public, but privately managed. The intention of the school was to bring back Welsh as a spoken language into the community. Fifteen families initially showed an interest in the project.[4]
Literature and journalism
Newsletter Y Drafod.
Poetry and literature books have been published since the early years of the colony, while the first newspapers, such as the Y Drafod, published bilingually in Welsh and Spanish, date from the 1890s.[8]
Eisteddfod
In September the Eisteddfod for young people is held in Gaiman and in October for adults. Also, they are held in Trevelin, Dolavon and Puerto Madryn.[9] Competitions are conducted in both Welsh and Spanish.[10]
Vocabulary
The dialect contains local adoptions from Spanish or borrowings from English, not present in the Welsh spoken in Wales.[11]
Loma Blanca (in Welsh Bryn Gwyn) south of Gaiman.Original photograph of the 16 de octubre Valley School (Ysgol Cwm Hyfryd) with inscriptions in Welsh.Platform of the former Trelew train station («pueblo de Luis»).
When the Welsh settlers arrived in Patagonia, they did not have immediate contact with the Tehuelche or Mapuche natives, who already had their own toponymy for the region. Because of this, they needed to name the landscapes of their new home.[13]
Puerto Madryn was the first Welsh toponym. The name of the city commemorates Love Jones Parry, Baron of Madryn in Wales. The place name originated towards the end of 1862, when Love Jones Parry, accompanied by Lewis Jones, travelled to Patagonia aboard the Candelaria ship[clarification needed] to decide whether that region was suitable for a Welsh colony.[14]
In the Chubut river valley, some of the toponyms of villages and rural areas arose from the peculiarities of the terrain (such as Bryn Gwyn, "white hill", or Tyr Halen, "salt land"), from the names of the farms donated by the Argentine government, or by a chapel erected in the area (as in the case of Bethesda or Ebenezer).[13]
There are also tributes to people, such as Trelew, where "Lew" is an abbreviation for Lewis Jones;[14] or compound names derived from geographical features (for example, Dolavon, where Dol is meadow or lap[clarification needed] and afon, river) or even from buildings (such as Trevelin, where Tre is town and felin, mill, for John Daniel Evans' flour mill).[13][15]
Some toponyms created by the Welsh survive, but others have been lost.[13] In 2015 a project called Gorsedd y Cwmwl emerged, aimed at restoring the original name of the Trono de las Nubes hill given by the first Welsh people who inhabited the 16 de Octubre valley and forgotten by the population, since the mountain is also called La Monja.[16]
Stream of the Fall; nant "stream", north-western Welsh ffôl = rockfall from Eng. fall; English spelling used in the name. Possibly "cascade, waterfall" as a local meaning.
Cove (of) Madryn (after Castell Madryn in north-west Wales, seat of Sir Love Jones-Parry, a supporter of the plan for a Welsh settlement. In 1862 or 1863 the ship Candelaria on which he was sailing, investigating suitable sites for the settlement, took refuge from a storm in this bay)
Sinuous River (cam = sinuous, -wy = supposed suffix meaning stream, river)
Río Corintos
Aber Gyrants
Stream of the Currants (N.B. NOT Currents). Welsh aber "estuary", but also "stream" in north Wales; north-western cyran(t)s "currants, Corinthian grapes" with initial mutation C > G)
Rio Futaleufú/ Rio Grande
Afon Fawr
Big River
Salina Grande y Salina Chica
Y Llynnoedd Heliaidd
The Salty/Brackish Lakes
Sierra Chata
Craig y Werfa
Rock at the Werfa (south-eastern Welsh = shady place; also a minor place-name in south-east Wales)
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