Monroe Chat

Heheheeeee ~ This was 'chuckle worthy' to me .... I am so glad that it has been recognized but there are many, many Welsh People who are unable to speak or understand welsh

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The Welsh language, which dates back to the 6th century, got a major boost Thursday when the European Union formally recognized it as a minority tongue.

The move by the 27-nation bloc enabled Welsh Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones, representing Britain, to address colleagues at an EU culture ministers meeting in his native language.

"Welsh is one of Europe's oldest languages and I am delighted that my ministerial colleagues from across the union will hear it as a living and dynamic language of business," Jones said before the meeting.

Welsh, a Celtic language, is related to Breton, Cornish, Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic.

Census data shows it is slowly gaining ground: 21 percent of the 3 million Welsh nationals can speak Welsh, up from 18.7 percent in 1991. It became an official tongue in Wales in 1993 - 450 years after British rulers gave it the boot in favor of English.

Welsh speakers include opera stars Bryn Terfel and Rebecca Evans, movie stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and the late Richard Burton, and poet Dylan Thomas. Prince Charles has been known to speak a bit of Welsh, but he's not fluent.

At future EU ministerial meetings, Welsh speakers may now speak in their language if they bring interpreters.

Forty million of the EU's 497 million people speak any of 60 indigenous regional languages - or minority tongues - such as Irish, Catalan, Luxembourgish and Maltese.

The EU also has 23 official languages, while the United Nations has six: English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Chinese.

The EU's official languages - Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, Estonian, Greek, English, Spanish, French, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Maltese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Finnish and Swedish - enjoy equal status.

But tolerance does not come cheap. It costs European taxpayers more than 1 billion euros ($1.26 billion) a year just to translate speeches and official texts.