Cymraeg (Welsh) And Linguistics

Highlights

Learn how languages develop, are used and influence our thoughts and communication whilst developing your professional Welsh skills. A world-renowned centre for the study of Welsh and Celtic Studies, our research specialisms span 1,500 years covering Welsh literature, and culture. Research strengths in language acquisition, variation, historical linguistics, corpus linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, Welsh linguistics, cognitive and critical discourse.

As well as the University library, our students benefit from a dedicated language library with a huge collection of 900 Linguistics and English Language books, maintained by Bangor Linguistics Society. You can gain funding when you study through the medium of Welsh. Scholarships by The Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol offer up to £1,000 per year whilst the University Welsh Medium Bursary offers an additional £250 per year depending on the amount of Welsh modules taken.

Course overview

Studying Welsh and Linguistics can strengthen your Welsh language skills, while satisfying your curiosity about how languages work. As a joint honours’ student, you take half of your modules each year in Welsh and half in Linguistics. Combining the study of both Welsh and Linguistics will give you excellent written, spoken and analytical skills alongside many other transferable skills relevant to a wide range of careers.

Explore rich and diverse literary texts from the tales of the Mabinogion to the dynamic literature of contemporary Wales. Delve into the rich Celtic culture and heritage of the Welsh language whilst learning about language variances in different speakers and geographic regions across the globe. The School of Welsh contribution to the literary and cultural life of Wales has been crucial.

Our academic team include some of the most prominent writers and poets in contemporary Wales. Garnering international acclaim, they have won awards including Book of the Year, Prose Medals, Drama Medals, Chairs and Crowns at the Urdd Eisteddfod and National Eisteddfod. Linguistics as a subject has been taught at Bangor University since the 1960s, making our department one of the first dedicated departments in the UK.

Your teaching is informed by our internationally recognised research into language and cognition. Our specialisms include acquisition, processing, comprehension, disorders and atypical language development - use, structure, variation, change, communication, maintenance, preservation, teaching, and technologies. Welsh is spoken in north-west Wales more than anywhere else in the world, providing unrivalled opportunities to improve your proficiency in the professional use of Welsh.

At Bangor University, we offer Welsh-speaking work placements and the chance to interact with the many Welsh-speaking professionals and communities we collaborate with. Many of our students join Bangor University’s Welsh Students' Union and choose to live in our Welsh-speaking halls of residence, Neuadd JMJ. Our Linguistics staff have links with the UK Cognitive Linguistics Association, Linguistics Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (LAGB), International Cognitive Linguistics Association and specialised organisations such as Researching and Applying Metaphor (RaAM).

Our facilities include a professional grade sound/recording studio and speech laboratory with Yamaha, Alesis and RØDE recording equipment, an eye tracking laboratory with a Tobii Pro X2-60 eye tracker, and an ERP laboratory with an actiCHamp Plus ERP machine. An extensive range of audio and video equipment is available to loan for student projects, such as state of the art ERP, eye tracking, sound recording, corpus and psycholinguistic resources. In addition to our dedicated library, Bangor Linguistics Society organises regular socials, guest lectures and workshops, for example, in the use of British Sign Language (BSL).