<h2>Welsh Language Interpreters and Translators</h2>
Cal Interpreting &amp; Translations (CIT) offers Welsh interpreters and translators with legal, medical, and specialty experience, including criminal and civil matters, employee meetings, engineering, patent cases, labor disputes, immigration, and more.

CIT offers comprehensive Welsh language services including interpretation, translation, and transcription, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, worldwide. Our interpreters and translators are native speakers who have been screened, certified, provided credentials, field-tested, and kept up to date with developments in both English and Welsh languages through means such as lectures, conferences, and travel. Cal Interpreting &amp; Translations’ Welsh language interpreters and translators possess in-depth knowledge of the Welsh language, as well as of the culture and history of the Welsh people, allowing them to provide informed and complete interpretation and translation.
<h2>Who speaks Welsh?</h2>
The Welsh language is spoken primarily in Wales, but also in England and Y Wladfa, a Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina. A little less than 25% of the residents of Wales speak Welsh fluently. Wales experienced a significant drop in the number of fluent Welsh speakers in the first decade of the 2000s, but since 2011 has steadily recovered.
<h2>A History of the Welsh Language</h2>
The Welsh language is argued to have originated from the Britons towards the end of the 6th century. Before this time, three different languages were spoken by the Britons during the 5th and 6th centuries: Latin, Irish, and British. The emergence of the Welsh language was not instantaneous and is therefore not distinctly identifiable. Rather, the language emerged over a very long period of time. Some historians claim Welsh was not a distinctly formed language until as late as the 9th century.

Four separate periods can be identified in the history of the Welsh language: Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh. The period that came immediately after the Welsh language’s emergence is referred to as Primitive Welsh, followed by the Old Welsh period (generally considered as the time period from the beginning of the 9th century to the 12th century. The Middle Welsh period is considered to have begun in the 12th century and lasted until the 14th century, which is when the Modern Welsh period began. Modern Welsh is divided into Early and Late Modern Welsh.

The word Welsh was originally given to its speakers by the Anglo-Saxons.

The word comes from the Proto-Germanic word, walhaz, meaning “foreigner”, “stranger”, “Roman”, “Romance-speaker”, or “Celtic-speaker. The native Welsh term for the language is Cymraeg’.
<h2>An In-Depth Look at Welsh Language Origins</h2>
The Welsh language is thought to have evolved from Common Brittonic, which is the Celtic language that was spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons. The British language (also called Insular Celtic) is thought to have arrived in Britain sometime during either the Bronze or Iron Age. In the Early Middle Ages, Insular Celtic began to break of into distinct languages, due to a major increase in dialects. This is how Welsh and the other Brittonic languages evolved. However, scholars still debate when precisely Welsh became a distinct language.

Scholars do agree that Primitive Welsh was spoken in both Wales and the Hen Ogledd, or “Old North”. The Old North was the name for the Brittonic-speaking areas comprising what is now northern England and southern Scotland.
<h2>The Welsh Language Measure of 2011</h2>
The Welsh Language Measure of 2011 was established in order to give the Welsh language official status in Wales. To head this measure, the title of Welsh Language Commissioner was created in April 2012. The main responsibility of the Commissioner is to “promote and facilitate the use of the Welsh language”. This involves raising awareness of Welsh, as well as its official status as a language in Wales. The Commissioner is also responsible for imposing and maintaining standards on organizations to ensure the fair treatment of the Welsh language. The goal is that these enactments will lead to the establishment of further rights for Welsh speakers.

The two main principles that govern the role of the Commissioner are below:
<em>-Welsh should not be treated less favourably than the English language in Wales
-People should be able to live their lives in Wales through the medium of Welsh if they so wish.</em>