About Welsh and Cornish

Welsh and Breton are both Brythonic Celtic languages from Britain. Welsh is spoken by a large community in Wales, especially in the north. Cornish is officially extinct, but many residents of Cornwall have learned a reconstructed variety, and some consider themselves fluent or native

Both languages are closely related to Breton (France) and more distantly related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic.

Welsh Links

Cornish Links

Recommended Fonts

Cornish Spelling

A variety of Cornish spelling systems have been proposed for Cornish. Some have no accented letters, but others may have accented letters.

Unicode for Welsh

Because of the writing system, Welsh places accents on the letters w (phonetic /u/) and y (phonetic /ɨ/ or /i/), which is very unique in languages of the world. These symbols require Unicode support apart from that of other Western European languages. Similarly, some Cornish words may include long vowels such as ā,ō which also require Unicode support.

Common Fonts

Many common fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Comic Sans, Palatinto and many more include suppot for characters such as ŵ,ŷ,ā,ō. However, many decorative fonts may be missing those characters.

Middle Welsh fonts

For the more uncommon Middle Welsh manusciript characters (e.g.), you may need a specialized font such as the ones listed below.

Windows Keyboards and Accent Codes

Windows Welsh Keyboard

Microsoft provides keyboard utilities for Welsh which allows you to type all the Welsh accented characters.

  1. See detailed keyboard activation instructions for different versions of the Windows operating system.
  2. To see where the critical keys are, go to the Microsoft Keyboard Layouts Page.
  3. You can also input characters from the Character Map. This can be useful if you only need to insert characters into only a few words.

Windows Alt Codes (Modern Welsh and Cornish)

Many, but not all characters can be inputted with the numeric ALT codes. You can also use the Character Map utility for any code
NOTE:
Codes with numbers over 255 are only available in Microsoft Word.

Vowel Codes

Alt Codes for typing Welsh accents:
Accent A E I O U Y W
Circumflex
(Cap)
Â
0194
Ê
0202
Î
0206
Ô
0212
Û
0219
Ŷ
0374
Ŵ

0372
Circumflex (Lower) â
0226
ê
0234
î
0238
ô
0244
û
0251
ŷ
0375
ŵ

0373
Acute
(Cap)
Á
0193
É
0201
Í
0205
Ó
0211
Ú
0218
Ý
0221

7810
Acute (Lower) á
0225
é
0233
í
0237
ó
0243
ú
0250
ý
0253

7811
Umlaut
(Cap)
Ä
0196
Ë
0203
Ï
0207
Ö
0214
Ü
0220
Ÿ
0159

7812
Umlaut (Lower) ä
0228
ë
0235
ï
0239
ö
0246
ü
0252
ÿ
0255

7813
Grave
(Cap)
À
0192
È
0200
Ì
0204
Ò
0210
Ù
0217
Ù
0217

7808
Grave (Lower) à
0224
è
0232
ì
0236
ò
0242
ù
0249
Ù
0217

7809
Macron/Long
(Word Only)
(Cap)
Ā
0256
Ē
0274
Ī
0298
Ō
0332
Ū
0362
Ȳ
0562
Umlaut (Lower) ā
0257
ē
0275
ī
0299
ō
0333
ū
0363
ȳ
0563

Currency

Thise codes work in any Windows application.

Currency ALT Codes
  ALT Code
£ ALT+0163
ALT+0128

Middle Welsh Character Codes

These codes work only in Microsoft Word and may require a special Middle Welsh font. Note that two lowercase delta characters are listed – one from the Greek block and one from the Latin Extended blocks. Use whichever is most appropriate.

Middle Welsh Codes
Sym ALT Code
δ ALT+948
Greek lower Delta
δ ALT+7839
Latin lower Delta
ALT+7932
Capital Middle Welsh V alternate
(should resemble the an open 6)
ALT+7933
Lower Middle Welsh V alternate
(should resemble the number 6)
ALT+7930
Cap Double LL Ligature
ALT+7931
Lower Double LL Barred
ALT+7934
Cap Y with Loop Tail
ỿ ALT+7936
Lower Y with Loop Tail

Windows International Keyboard Codes

In order to use these codes you must activate the international keyboard. Instructions are listed in the Keyboards section of this Web site. Again, not all characters are available, but some can be entered via the Character Map utility

Accented Vowels

This list is organized by Accent type. The sample shows a letter with that accent, and the Notes present any special comments about using that accent.

For the Template, the symbol "V" means type any vowel.

International Keyboard Codes
ACCENT SAMPLE TEMPLATE NOTES
Circumflex â Â SHIFT+^, V Wil not work with w.
Acute é É ‘, V ‘ = apostrophe key
Grave à À `, V ` = left single quote
Umlaut ë Ë ", V " = quote key

Example 1: To type lower case ó – Type the apostrophe key (‘), then O.  For capital Ó, type the apostrophe, then capital O.

Currency

For these codes, you must make sure you use the Alt key on the right side of the keyboard.

Codes for Currency
Sym Code
£ Control+RightAlt+4
Control+RightAlt+5

Macintosh Accent Codes

Extended Keyboard Codes

Use of the Extended Keyboard is recommended to accommodate accented y,w and long marks.

Welsh and Cornish Extended Keyboard Codes

Mac Extended Codes, X = any letter
ACCENT SAMPLE TEMPLATE
Circumflex Ŵ,ŵ Option+6, X
Acute Ẃ,ẃ Option+E, X
Grave Ẁ,ẁ Option+`, X
Umlaut Ÿ,ÿ Option+U, X
Long Mark Ā,ā Option+A, X

Example 1: To input the lower case ŵ (w-circumflex) hold down the Option key, then the 6 key. Release both keys then type lowercase w.

Currency

Mac Currency Codes
Sym Option Code
£ Option+3
Shift+Option+2

Welsh Keyboard

Apple does have a Welsh keyboard, but it is optimized for U.K English. See instructions for activating a Macintosh keyboard for more details.

Middle Welsh Manuscript Codes

To use the option codes below, you must activate and switch to the Unicode Hex Input Keyboard.
Note: Some characters may not be visible unless a Middle Welsh font is installed.

Mac Option Codes for Manuscripts
Sym Option Code
δ Option+03B4
Greek lower Delta
δ Option+1E9F
Latin lower Delta
Option+1EFC
Cap Middle Welsh V alternate
(should resemble a pointed "6")
Option+1EFD
Lower Middle Welsh V alternate
(should resemble a cursive V)
Option+1EFA
Cap Double LL Ligature
Option+1EFB
Lower Double LL Barred
Option+1EFE
Cap Y with Loop Tail
ỿ Option+1EFF
Lower Y with Loop Tail

 

HTML Accent & Language Codes

This section presents information specific to Welsh and Cornish. For general information about developing non-English Web sites, see the Encoding Tutorial or the Web Layout sections.

Unicode Encoding

If you use long marks, Unicode (utf-8) is the required encoding for Web sites. If the following encodings are used instead, you may encounter display problems:

Avoid These

  • iso-8859-1 (Latin 1),
  • iso-8859-15 (Latin with euro (€) symbol)
  • win-1252 (Windows 1)

Note: There is a "Celtic" Latin-8/Latin-14 standard (ISO-8859-14), but it has been supplanted by Unicode. Few applications support this standard.

Language Tags

Language Tags allow browsers and other software to process text more efficiently.

Language Codes:

  • cy (Welsh)
  • kw (Cornish)
  • wlm (Middle Welsh)
  • owl (Old Welsh)
  • cnx (Middle Cornish)
  • oco (Old Cornish)

HTML Entity Codes

Accent Codes

Use these codes to input accented letters in HTML. For instance, if you
want to type tân you would type tân. For gŵr, you would input gŵr.

HTML Entity Codes for Welsh Vowels
Accent A E I O U Y W
Circumflex
&Vcirc;
(Cap)
Â
Â
(194)
Ê
Ê
(202)
Î
Î
(206)
Ô
Ô
(212)
Û
Û
(219)
Ŷ
Ŷ
(374)
Ŵ
Ŵ
(372)
Circumflex (Lower) â
â
(226)
ê
ê
(234)
î
î
(238)
ô
ô
(244)
û
û
(251)
ŷ
ŷ
(375)
ŵ
ŵ
(373)
Acute
&Vacute;

(Cap)
Á
Á
(193)
É
É
(201)
Í
Í
(205)
Ó
Ó
(211)
Ú
Ú
(218)
Ý
Ý
(221)

Ẃ
(7810)
Acute (Lower) á
á
(225)
é
é
(233)
í
í
(237)
ó
ó
(243)
ú
ú
(250)
ý
ý
(253)

ẃ
(7811)
Umlaut
&Vuml;
(Cap)
Ä
Ä
(196)
Ë
Ë
(203)
Ï
Ï
(207)
Ö
Ö
(214)
Ü
Ü
(220)
Ÿ
Ÿ
(159)

Ẅ
(1E84)
Umlaut (Lower) ä
ä
(228)
ë
ë
(235)
ï
ï
(239)
ö
ö
(246)
ü
ü
(252)
ÿ
ÿ
(255)

ẅ
(1E85)
Grave
&Vgrave;

(Cap)

À
À
(192)
È
È
(200)
Ì
Ì
(204)
Ò
Ò
(210)
Ù
Ù
(217)

Ỳ
(7922)

Ẁ
(7808)
Grave (Lower) à
à
(224)
è
è
(232)
ì
&igrave
(236)
ò
ò
(242)
ù
ù
(249)

ỳ
(7923)

ẁ
(7809)
Long/Macron Ā
Ā
(256)
Ē
Ē
(274)
Ī
Ī
(298)
Ō
Ō
(332)
Ū
Ū
(362)
Ȳ
Ȳ
(562)
Macron (Lower) ā
ā
(257)
ē
ē
(275)
ī
ī
(299)
ō
ō
(333)
ū
ū
(363)
ȳ
ȳ
(563)

The numbers in parentheses are the numeric codes assigned in Unicode encoding. For instance, because â is number 226 tân can also be used to input tân. These numbers are also used with the Windows Alt
codes
listed above.

Currency

€,£ Entity Codes
Sym Entity Code
£ £
€

Middle Welsh Character Codes

Middle Welsh Entity Codes
  Entity Code
δ δ
Greek lower Delta
ẟ
Latin lower Delta
Ỽ
Lower Middle Welsh V alternate
(should resemble a pointed "6")
ỽ
Cap Middle Welsh V alternate
(should resemble a cursive V)
Ỻ
Cap Double LL Ligature
ỻ
Lower Double LL Barred
Ỿ
Cap Y with Loop Tail
ỿ ỿ
Lower Y with Loop Tail

Welsh Links

Middle Welsh fonts

Welsh Technology

Cornish Links

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