About this journal

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My main aim with this journal is to share my thoughts, experiences, and interesting things I've learned while I do my Celtic Studies degree. Celtic Studies is the study of Celtic languages, both modern and extinct, with focus on the six Celtic languages spoken today (Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Breton, Manx, and Cornish) and their associated histories, literatures, cultures, folklores, politics, etc.

As well as my Celtic Studies BA, I am also working on a Certificate of Higher Education in Modern Languages. I'm one of the Cornish Language Officers for the Association of Celtic Students. At the moment I'm planning on doing an MA in anthropology or historical linguistics or a related field, and I'd like to do a PhD in something eventually!

I've been interested in Celtic languages and Celtic nations my whole life, although I only started to seriously learn the languages/history/etc when I was a teenager. I'm from Wales, one side of my family is Cornish, and the other side is Scottish and Irish, so the Celtic nations and languages have always been very near and dear to my heart. I'm a second-language Welsh speaker, and I grew up with a little bit of Cornish, Irish, and Scots (the Germanic language) from my family.

I would also like to try and aid in combatting the misinformation, ignorance, and bigotry against the Celtic nations, both online and in my daily life. I'd love to read comments and talk, as long as you're not looking for an argument or a "debate". I'm very aware that the Celtic Studies sphere can attract all sorts of alt-right/white supremacist types looking to distort and use our cultures and peoples to fuel their own bigoted agendas, and I will not tolerate that at all here.

I'm also transgender, multiply disabled, a multimedia artist, and a musician, so those are also likely to make themselves known in this journal from time to time.

Images are hosted on Postimages.

Languages I know:

English (C2, first language) - I was born in Wales to a Scottish/Irish/Cornish family, so my first language was English unfortunately. I suppose I speak with the Wenglish dialect, or something like it, although I don't write in it ever. Maybe I should change that...

Cymraeg/Welsh (B2, second language) - I've been speaking Welsh in some form since I was 3, although it was not taught well at school and I ended up having to teach myself the grammar in high school. I did Welsh (and music, chemistry, and physics) at sixth form college, with the aim to do music or science at university, however I ended up really falling in love with Welsh and now I'm doing Celtic Studies at university. I grew up with a Welsh teacher from the north and then one from the south west, but now my dialect of Welsh is trying to be Gwenhwyseg (south east Wales), but it is probably closer to just being general South Walian Welsh.

Gaeilge/Irish (A2/B1, heritage language) - My granny is from Ireland, and I grew up knowing a few Irish words from her and my mother. I've been learning Irish since 2019, although my level is way lower than it should be for someone who's been doing it for that long, largely due to the pandemic happening. Language-learning wasn't really one of the main things on my mind during the height of Covid. I got more intense with my Irish studies in 2023 when my Irish classes started at university. My granny is from County Dublin and her father's part of the family was from County Cork so I want to learn the Cork/Munster dialect since there isn't really a distinct Dublin dialect anymore, but we're taught Connacht Irish at university, so in reality my dialect is probably more a mix of Standard and Connacht/Connemara Irish.

Kernewek/Cornish (A2, heritage language) - My father is from Cornwall so I grew up with some Cornish words from him and my grandfather (it was mostly my grandfather wanting to compare the Cornish words to the Welsh I knew). He had been learning the language for years, but I don't think he was fluent. I've been trying to learn Cornish since like 2017, but like Irish, my Cornish level is way lower than it should be (largely due to me not being able to find resources for it). I started studying Cornish with the Cornish Language Board in 2025, and I'd like to get Cornish to have a presence in my university/university town, since it's the only modern Celtic language that's not taught here. I'm hoping to take the Grade 1 exam in June this year. I started learning Cornish with a mix of orthographies (mostly Unified and some Kernewek Kemmyn), but now I mostly stick to Standard Written Form with a Middle Cornish basis.

Scots (A2, heritage language) - This is Scots the Germanic language, as opposed to Scottish Gaelic the Celtic language. My grandpa was a Scots speaker so I grew up with some Scots from him and my mother. Like Irish and Cornish, I've also been trying to learn Scots for years with very little to show for it. I've always had a hard time learning Scots, or Welsh, Irish, or Cornish, since there's this mental block and feeling of guilt and shame and inadequacy that come from not being able to speak your family's minoritised languages, or the minoritised language of where you're from. The dialect I want to learn is Central, or more specifically North East Central, since that's where my grandpa was from. 

Goídelc/Old Irish - I've not put a level for Old Irish since it's an old language so you don't 'speak' it with people, it's only used for reading historical texts. I started Old Irish in January of 2025, and I'm hoping to study it further when I do an exchange semester in Ireland. Old Irish is what made me realise that I actually do have an interest in history, and that I'd quite like to do a master's degree in something to do with medieval studies, medieval languages, historical linguistics, or some sort of related field.

中文/Chinese (HSK1/A1) - I did Chinese (Mandarin) in 2024/25 as an evening class at my university. If I do enough evening class language credits then I'll be able to get a Certificate of Higher Education in Modern Languages, in addition to my Bachelor of Arts in Celtic Studies.

Deutsch/German (A1) - I have an on-and-off relationship with German and I've started trying to learn it multiple times. I would like to be able to read academic texts in German one day.

Italiano/Italian (A1) - I did some Italian at university in 2023/24 as I really like opera, although I haven't done much since then.

Brezhoneg/Breton (A1) - I did Breton at university in 2022/23, and I'd like to come back to studying it properly again one day.

I want to learn:

Gaelg/Manx

Gàidhlig/Scottish Gaelic - I'm planning to start in 2027 or 2028

Kymraec/Middle Welsh

Gaoidhealg/Middle Irish

Gaulish

Lingua Latina/Latin - planning to start Latin when I start my master's degree, so 2028?

Englisċ/Old English

Diné Bizaad/Navajo

Jèrriais/Jersey Norman

Français/French

My long-term language-learning goals are to:

Refine and polish my Welsh skills so I'm comfortably at a C1/C2 level

Improve my knowledge of my heritage languages (Irish, Cornish, and Scots) to a fairly fluent level (at least B2)

Obtain at least an A2 level in the other three modern Celtic languages (Breton, Manx, and Scottish Gaelic)

Learn more about the ancient and medieval languages of the Celtic world (specifically I'd really like to study Middle Welsh, and I expect at some point I'll do Latin)

Be able to read academic Celtic studies texts in German and French