Video Timeline: History of the Welsh Language

A new video resource that gives a contemporary look at Dafydd ap Gwilym’s famous cywydd, as studied in A Level Welsh Unit 5 (Medieval Prose and Early and Medieval Poetry). The video focus on 4 parts of the text to tell the story, detailing the content in today’s language and focusing on the poet’s style and craft. Script prepared by Dr Eurig Salisbury, lecturer at the Department of Welsh at Aberystwyth University.   Welsh subtitles can be selected on video in YouTube. Funded by Welsh Government.

There were no witch hunts in Wales. A surprisingly small number of 'witches' were found guilty and hanged in Wales. Only five, compared to more than 200,000 women who were hanged or burned in western Europe after being accused of 'witchcraft' between 1484 and 1750. There are several ‘old wives tales’ or superstitions about witches where the Welsh experience is mistakenly combined or confused by English or British lore and history. The Coel Gwrach project is an attempt to ensure that Gwen, Rhydderch, Lowri, Agnes and Margaret get their place in history through the medium of Welsh, their own language rather than the language of the court, but also so that that their stories get a second chance to be heard in society.

Pūtahitanga:  te reo Māori (in the Māori language) which describes a community coming together to work together on a specific idea, topic or challenge. The word embodies the ethos of the research project that uses it as a title: The Pūtahitanga Project. This is a project that explores popular music, language and identity in the Welsh and Māori contexts. As part of the project, Dr Elen Ifan from Cardiff University received an Innovation Grant from the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol to hold workshops in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Wales with musicians who use Māori and Welsh in their work. This resource shares clips from the workshop in Cardiff and includes activities to involve you in our research as well. It is mainly designed for higher education students, but it is also relevant to anyone interested in Welsh popular music and the worksheet is suitable for AS and A level as well. The project essentially aims to find connections between the experiences of musicians who use two minority languages ​​(Welsh and te reo (the language) Māori), trying to understand the various challenges facing these musical communities , but without directly comparing. The project uses creative research methods and involves audiences in the research. This resource forms part of that work. The video files include a presentation by the lead researcher and clips from a workshop held in Cardiff in November 2023. The worksheet guides the person using the resource through the activities, encourages them to engage with the themes of the project, to think about what is relevant or important to them, and invites creative responses to the research. 

The purpose of this booklet is to share good practice in developing educational provision and teaching in a minoritised language in universities. The good practice covered in this booklet come from focus groups held with lecturers and students looking at their experiences of Welsh and Irish medium education at universities in Wales and Ireland. This booklet discusses: good practice in encouraging students to study in a minoritised language developing provision in a minoritised language; teaching in a minoritised language supporting students in a minoritised language assessments in a minoritised language normalising the use of a minoritised language among students. We anticipate that this booklet will be useful not only for lecturers and providers of higher education in these countries, but also for lecturers, higher education providers and providers in other education sectors in other parts of the world who are developing educational provision and teaching in a minoritised language.