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Welsh and Breton are both Brythonic Celtic language from Britain. Welsh is spoken by a large community in Walses, 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 Gaelic. Breton does not have as many accented charcters as French.
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.
Modern versions of many fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana, Tahoman Times CE (Mac OS X) or Palatino (Mac OS X) are Unicode fonts and contain the letters needed for this language. it is recommended you transistion to the newer Unicode fonts whenever possible.
Welsh mostly uses the circumflex accent, but other accents are used as well. Cornish uses few accents, but some texts may use long marks and other accents.
As of Windows XP Microsoft provides a Welsh keyboard utility which allows you to type accented W and Y. If you wish to simulate a Welsh keyboard, do the following:
See Detailed Instructions for more detailed instructions with screen capture images. See the Micorosoft Keyboard Layouts for the position of the keys.
If you are using Word 2003 or Word 2007 , you can use the following ALT key plus a numeric code can be used to type a Latin character (accented letter or punctuation symbol) in any Windows application. If this is not available, you can use the Character Map to insert the characters in a master document, then cut and paste as needed.
| Currency | |
| £ | ALT+0163 |
|---|---|
| € | ALT+0128 |
NOTE: Codes with numbers over 255 are only available in Word 2003 or 2007. Users with older versions of Windows or not using may need to use the Character Map utility.
| 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 |
-- |
| Umlaut (Lower) | ä 0228 |
ë 0235 |
ï 0239 |
ö 0246 |
ü 0252 |
ÿ 0255 |
-- |
| 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 (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 |
-- |
In Windows, combinations of the ALT key plus a numeric code can be used to type a non-English character (accented letter or punctuation symbol) in any Windows application. More detailed instructions about typing accents with ALT keys are available. Additional options for entering accents in Windows are also listed in the Accents section of this Web site.
In order to use these codes you must activate the international keyboard. Instructions are listed in the Keyboards section of this Web site.
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.
For these codes, you must make sure you use the Alt key on the right side of the keyboard.
| Currency | |
| £ | Control+RightAlt+4 |
|---|---|
| € | Control+RightAlt+5 |
Apple now has a Welsh keyboard, but it only works for Unicode Aware applications such as Microsoft Office 2004, Text Edit, Dreamweaver MX, Netscape 7 Composer and others.
See instructions for activating a Macintosh keyboard for more details.
For Unicode Compliant Applications, you can activate the U.S. Extended keyboard (10.3/10.4) or the Extended Roman keyboard (10.2) to type the long marks. This utility will allow you typ type accents over Welsh Y,W and add long marks.
For older applications, the standard Macintosh vowel accent codes are available.
| 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 | |
| £ | Option+3 |
|---|---|
| € | Shift+Option+2 (not on older fonts) |
These are the codes which allow browsers and screen readers to process data as the appropriate language. All letters in codes are lower case. Welsh pages should be encoded as Unicode in order to display the accent W's and Ys correctly.
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.
See Using Encoding and Language Codes for more information on the meaning and implementation of these codes.
| Currency | |
| £ | £ |
|---|---|
| € | € |
Use these codes to input accented letters in HTML. For instance, if you want to type île you would type île.
| 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) |
-- |
| Umlaut (Lower) | ä ä (228) |
ë ë (235) |
ï ï (239) |
ö ö (246) |
ü ü (252) |
Ÿ Ÿ (255) |
-- |
| 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 î is number 238, île can also be used to input île. These numbers are also used with the Windows Alt codes listed above.
Computers process text by assuming a certain encoding or a system of matching electronic data with visual text characters. Whenever you develop a Web site you need to make sure the proper encoding is specified in the header tags; otherwise the browser may default to U.S. settings and not display the text properly.
To declare an encoding, insert or inspect the following meta-tag at the top of your HTML file, then replace "???" with one of the encoding codes listed above.
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=??? ">
...
<head>
Language tags are also suggested so that search engines and screen readers parse the language of a page. These are meta data tags which indicate the page of a language, not devices to trigger translation. Visit the Language Tag page to view information on where to insert it.
