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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. Ỽ), you may need a specialized font such as the ones listed below.
- Palemonas MUFI – Comprehensive and Includes bold/Italic
- Quivira Font – Also very comprehensive
- Andron Scriptor Web
- See also the MUFI Font page.
Windows Keyboards and Accent Codes
Windows Welsh Keyboard
Microsoft provides keyboard utilities for Welsh which allows you to type all the Welsh accented characters.
- See detailed keyboard activation instructions for different versions of the Windows operating system.
- To see where the critical keys are, go to the Microsoft Keyboard Layouts Page.
- 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
Accent | A | E | I | O | U | Y | W |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Circumflex (Cap) |
 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 |
Ẃ 7810 |
Acute (Lower) | á 0225 |
é 0233 |
í 0237 |
ó 0243 |
ú 0250 |
ý 0253 |
ẃ 7811 |
Umlaut (Cap) |
Ä 0196 |
Ë 0203 |
Ï 0207 |
Ö 0214 |
Ü 0220 |
Ÿ 0159 |
Ẅ 7812 |
Umlaut (Lower) | ä 0228 |
ë 0235 |
ï 0239 |
ö 0246 |
ü 0252 |
ÿ 0255 |
ẅ 7813 |
Grave (Cap) |
À 0192 |
È 0200 |
Ì 0204 |
Ò 0210 |
Ù 0217 |
Ù 0217 |
Ẁ 7808 |
Grave (Lower) | à 0224 |
è 0232 |
ì 0236 |
ò 0242 |
ù 0249 |
Ù 0217 |
ẁ 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.
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.
Sym | ALT Code |
---|---|
δ | ALT+948 Greek lower Delta |
δ | ALT+7839 Latin lower Delta |
Ỽ | ALT+7932 Capital Middle Welsh V alternate (should resemble the an open 6) |
ỽ | ALT+7933 Lower Middle Welsh V alternate (should resemble the number 6) |
Ỻ | ALT+7930 Cap Double LL Ligature |
ỻ | ALT+7931 Lower Double LL Barred |
Ỿ | 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.
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.
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
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
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.
Sym | Option Code |
---|---|
δ | Option+03B4 Greek lower Delta |
δ | Option+1E9F Latin lower Delta |
Ỽ | Option+1EFC Cap Middle Welsh V alternate (should resemble a pointed "6") |
ỽ | Option+1EFD Lower Middle Welsh V alternate (should resemble a cursive V) |
Ỻ | Option+1EFA Cap Double LL Ligature |
ỻ | Option+1EFB Lower Double LL Barred |
Ỿ | Option+1EFE Cap Y with Loop Tail |
ỿ | Option+1EFF Lower Y with Loop Tail |
HTML Accent & Language Codes
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
.
Accent | A | E | I | O | U | Y | W |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Circumflex &Vcirc; (Cap) |
  (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 Ẃ (7810) |
Acute (Lower) | á á (225) |
é é (233) |
í í (237) |
ó ó (243) |
ú ú (250) |
ý ý (253) |
ẃ ẃ (7811) |
Umlaut &Vuml; (Cap) |
Ä Ä (196) |
Ë Ë (203) |
Ï Ï (207) |
Ö Ö (214) |
Ü Ü (220) |
Ÿ Ÿ (159) |
Ẅ Ẅ (1E84) |
Umlaut (Lower) | ä ä (228) |
ë ë (235) |
ï ï (239) |
ö ö (246) |
ü ü (252) |
ÿ ÿ (255) |
ẅ ẅ (1E85) |
Grave &Vgrave; (Cap) |
À À (192) |
È È (200) |
Ì Ì (204) |
Ò Ò (210) |
Ù Ù (217) |
Ỳ Ỳ (7922) |
Ẁ Ẁ (7808) |
Grave (Lower) | à à (224) |
è è (232) |
ì ì (236) |
ò ò (242) |
ù ù (249) |
ỳ ỳ (7923) |
ẁ 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
Sym | Entity Code |
---|---|
£ | £ |
€ | € |
Middle Welsh Character Codes
Entity Code | |
---|---|
δ | δ Greek lower Delta |
ẟ | ẟ Latin lower Delta |
Ỽ | Ỽ Lower Middle Welsh V alternate (should resemble a pointed "6") |
ỽ | ỽ Cap Middle Welsh V alternate (should resemble a cursive V) |
Ỻ | Ỻ Cap Double LL Ligature |
ỻ | ỻ Lower Double LL Barred |
Ỿ | Ỿ Cap Y with Loop Tail |
ỿ | ỿ Lower Y with Loop Tail |
Links
Welsh Links
Middle Welsh fonts
- Palemonas MUFI – Comprehensive and Includes bold/Italic
- Quivira Font – Also very comprehensive
- Andron Scriptor Web
- See also the MUFI Font page.