Welsh
Welsh
(Cymraeg)
is a Indo-European language
with approximately 562K speakers speakers.
It is written using the
Latin
script.
Its BCP 47 language code is cy.
Welsh (Cymraeg) is a Celtic language spoken in Wales, a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is one of the oldest living languages in Europe, descended from the Brittonic languages of the early medieval period. Welsh has approximately 562,000 speakers.
Welsh is notable as one of the most successful language revival efforts in the modern era. It is a co-official language of Wales alongside English, and Welsh-medium education has expanded significantly since the 1980s. Welsh uses the Latin alphabet and is famous for its mutation system, where word-initial consonants change based on grammatical context.
Writing Systems Used for Welsh
Frequently Asked Questions
What alphabet or script does Welsh use?
What direction is Welsh written?
How many people speak Welsh?
What language family does Welsh belong to?
What is the language code for Welsh?
Language Facts
- BCP 47 Code
- cy
- ISO 639-3
- cym
- Status
- living
- Speakers
- 562K speakers
- Language Family
- Indo-European
- Scripts
- 1
- Primary Script
- Latin
Data sourced from Unicode CLDR and ISO 639-3. Last updated April 20, 2026.