Middle Welsh language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Middle Welsh
Kymraec
Spoken in: Wales
Language extinction: Evolved into Modern Welsh about the 15th century
Language family: Indo-European
 Celtic
  Insular Celtic
   Brythonic
    Middle Welsh 
Writing system: Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: to be added
ISO/FDIS 639-3: wlm

 

Middle Welsh (Cymraeg Canol) is the label attached to the Welsh language of the 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This form of Welsh developed from Old Welsh.

Middle Welsh is the language of nearly all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion, although the tales themselves are certainly much older. It is also the language of most of the manuscripts of Welsh law. Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible, albeit with some work, to a modern-day Welsh speaker.

In other languages