‘One of the most glorious failures’ of linguistic purism? An analysis of the contemporary lexical patterns of Patagonian Welsh in historical context

This paper reports a study investigating the acquisition of frequently used Welsh vocabulary by beginner learners of Welsh. Twenty-three participants were tasked to learn 300 content words over 50 days (10 minutes per day) using flashcards. Information was provided about techniques to support learning, such as the keyword method and paying attention to parts of words. Immediate and delayed post-learning tests revealed substantial differences in the ‘learnability’ and retention of target words. An end-of-study questionnaire elicited detailed information about participants’ learning experience, and found that more successful learners used highly systematic approaches to word selection and revision, and used the keyword technique. A resulting list of words ranked by learnability, and comments on learning techniques from high-scoring participants, are informing revisions of learning materials.  Authors: Tess Fitzpatrick, Steve Morris

This article surveys the considerations regarding sleep in Welsh literature by analysing the popular poems of Vicar Rhys Prichard (1579–1644). Religious and cultural considerations regarding sleep, as found in the Vicar’s poems, are analysed. The main characteristics of the Vicar’s sleep poems are identified, and we gain an insight into how some people slept, or how the Vicar believed or wished them to sleep. As a result, the article shows the importance of sleep during the period and that people took it seriously. In doing so, it is emphasized that it should be remembered that real people, of flesh and blood, are studied, and although they only exist in texts from our point of view, they should be treated as human beings that, in the context of this article, slept. Author: Dewi Alter

The recent online public discussion about Welsh Patagonia has been characterized by a tendency to condemn the settlers from Wales on moral grounds. This article takes on this debate, weighing up how, and to what extent, it is possible for us to place Y Wladfa and its people on the scales of morality. It gives detailed attention to the writing of Geraldine Lublin and Lucy Taylor on the history, as examples of reflective, multi-layered analysis that succeeds in conveying the complexity and difficulties of the situation. Having offered this outline, Iris Marion Young’s ethical framework is applied to the history, in order to highlight key ethical considerations, following Catherine Lu’s application of the same ‘social connection’ model to Japanese colonial history. Some initial conclusions are offered about what is revealed.  Author: Huw L. Williams

This article explores some aspects of the way in which Welsh Patagonia is represented in Separado! (2010), an experimental documentary (in terms of style) by Gruff Rhys and Dylan Goch. This portrayal exists in the context of a range of both factual and fictional Welsh-language representations of Patagonia produced since the 1940s in Wales. Through concepts derived from literary theory (Linda Hutcheon), sociology of culture (Pierre Bourdieu), political theory (Ernesto Laclau), travel writing theory (Graham Huggan and Patrick Holland; Peter Hulme), and postcolonial theory (Mary Louise Pratt), it will be possible to trace in the documentary trends present in previous representations of Patagonia, such as turning to Y Wladfa in politically challenging times in order to address anxieties regarding Welshness and the country’s past and future. Author: Sara Borda Green