Grovel again! Mae ddrwg gen i eto!!
I did not really mean it was the only cause. Vast numbers of folk moved into the Valleys, some speaking Cymraeg and some certainly not… e.g. the Irish, Italians…!! Before all that, the Normans, with Saxon troops, no doubt, progressively moved into the Marches. Bits like Gower were grabbed by guile or force of arms… no, I can’t blame the Not for loss of Cymraeg. All I can say is that the Not was only used where the children spoke Cymraeg and Cymraeg died out there!!
I do hope it is coming back and not just in school!!
Oh, a lot of things had an effect! Certainly immigration- but I would say the effect of both the Italians and Irish was at most minimal compared with the influx happening at the same time from elsewhere! (Even if you could blame Italians for spreading English! 
)
Anyway, It’s always good to hear your views on such things, and difference of opinion is always healthy!
And really the point I was making was not that the “Welsh Not” was not “the only cause”, but it seems have been used in areas where it certainly did not die out. (Though as I say, difficult to tell exactly where accurately.)
Those many, large areas (including those in the valleys) where it did not die out.
Wikipedia says 20-30 million people speak Kurdish, but also that there are many varieties of languages spoken by the Kurds, some not Kurdish.
Last night it was mentioned on the news here that Kurdistan is the largest nation in the world without being a political country. They are not exactly denied a homeland by Iraq, for roughly one fifth of Iraq is an autonomous Kurdish region - not that the Iraqi government had much choice here 
.
I must stop this, because it is a)political and b)not relevant to the forum, but it is Turkish Kurdistan that worries me!!
to @owainlurch Diolch for your forbearance . I actually blame the employers who wanted an English speaking workforce!!
Quite. And that suspicion that if someone is talking Welsh they must be plotting insurrection (or at least talking about you behind your back in front of your face) still lives on in the minds of so many monoglot English-speakers.
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I can’t remember the last time I had a conversation in Welsh that didn’t involve plotting at least some insurrection.
That’s parenthood for you, though…
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Nice letter from a lady from Rhosneigr in today’s Indy, asking what would happen if migrants to Wales, including second home owners, were required to speak Welsh. Nice paody of Daf C’s latest bit of daftness.
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Pwy sy’n Daf C 'te?
Dyn sy’n licio moch, yn honedig😄
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Here’s why I’m learning Welsh. Having passed away before I was born, I never had an opportunity to meet my taid who was born and raised on Ynys Môn. Fortunately I was able to get to know him through the autobiography he wrote about growing up in Wales at the turn of the last century, fighting in WWI, and emigrating to North America. In 1950, he took my nain and dad with him for a six-month visit with family on Ynys Môn. My dad learned some Welsh at school and from family during the visit, but by the time I came around three decades later, he could only recall a couple words and how to pronounce Llanfairpwyll (which he taught me to say when I was a kid.) Even though she herself didn’t speak Welsh or have much Welsh ancestry, my nain instilled in me a love of my Welsh heritage–particularly by encouraging me to refer to her as nain, saying “nos da” when going to bed, and filling me with Welsh cakes using the family recipe!
Five years ago I made my maiden voyage to Ynys Môn whilst staying with friends in London. The moment I saw the “Croeso i Gymru” sign from the train window, I felt an immediate and incredible connection with the land of my taid. Clearly not enough of a connection to learn Welsh before my visit the following year (or the next or the next…), but during my latest visit in December I spent some quality time doing genealogical research at the archives in Llangefni and meeting some relatives on Ynys Môn. I had an “it’s time to start learning Cymraeg” epiphany! Now that I have the first three lessons of the Northern Course under my belt, I am more confident than ever that I’ll be able to surprise my relatives by speaking with them in Welsh next time I visit. I’m also pretty sure being able to speak Welsh (especially with a Northern dialect) would secure my spot as favourite grandchild if my taid a nain were still alive!
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Croeso, @MatthewJWilliams! I enjoyed reading your introduction. This is a great community - don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions. Keep posting, and let us know how you are doing! 
Pob lwc!
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Such a beautiful story - your taid would be very proud of you,
justin
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Stori braf.
Croeso yma!
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What a lovely story. You are going to make your relatives very happy indeed on the next visit.
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Croeso! I do not think you are the only person to discover that you have been experiencing hiraeth by having it satisfied on arriving ‘home’!! Do you think you might return to Ynys Môn to live one day?
To @tatjana I saw the accent over Matthew’s ‘o’ and tried copying it into my post, which worked, but is there a way I can put accents in?
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(I’m quite patently not tatjana, but I hope I’ll do in the meanwhile.)
Are you on a PC? Hold down the ‘Alt’ button while you type 0244 on your numerical keypad (not on the numbers above the letters on the main keyboard). On a Mac, just hold down the ‘o’ until the various accented options pop up and then choose from the list.
BTW, on a PC you can get lots of different accented characters in the same way. If you google ‘ASCII character set’ you’ll be able to find a list of the various codes.
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Testing… didn’t work! I have a PC laptop, but it asked if I wanted to abandon my post!! I probably did something wrong!! Oh, I’ll try again and press ‘enter’ after
Testing No! No good, got shunted to S4C outside UK!! Have returned to post this!!
Oh dear - sorry! It’s been a while since I’ve used a PC, but that was what always used to work for me. Just as a matter of interest, if you try the code on a word processing document (e.g. Word, OpenOffice), does that work? Can you then cut and paste it into the box here? (Not that that’s a great solution - but it’s just to see if the problem lies with the website interface.)
Although, if you’re on a laptop you might not have the numerical number pad (as it doesn’t work with the numbers at the top of the keyboard). I think there is a way of simulating them by clicking something and using the central letters of the keyboard, but I’m a bit hazy on that…
In short - I’m not helping. Sorry! I hope someone more knowledgeable can step in at this point while I continue to blather away like that bloke in 4 Weddings and a Funeral…
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That sounds like a very powerful motivation tool. I have some similar stuff with regards to my Taid’s generation… 
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