Uploaded May 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Professor of Archaeology Howard Williams chats with linguist Dr Gareth Roberts about the origins of the English-language words 'Welsh' and 'Wales'. Did they really originally mean 'slave', 'foreigner' or something else?
Gareth Roberts is an Associate Professor in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he runs the Cultural Evolution of Language Lab, primarily concerned with investigating language change and variation through the use of experimental games. Gareth grew up in Dolgellau and, in spite of living in Philadelphia now, speaks to his kids exclusively in Welsh. While this is not standard practice nowadays in southeastern Pennsylvania, a collection of familiar local place names like Bryn Mawr and Bala-Cynwyd serve as a reminder that it might once have been a bit more common than it is now. He appears on various social media platforms as garicgymro, where he mainly posts about linguistics and boardgames.
All of Gareth's social media links are here: https://linktr.ee/garicgymro
Here are the individual links:
Website drgarethroberts.com
Twitter/X twitter.com/garicgymro
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/garicgymro.bsky.social
Mastodon: https://toot.wales/@garicgymro
Professor of Archaeology Howard Williams chats with linguist Dr Gareth Roberts about the origins of the English-language words 'Welsh' and 'Wales'. Did they really originally mean 'slave', 'foreigner' or something else?
Gareth Roberts is an Associate Professor in linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he runs the Cultural Evolution of Language Lab, primarily concerned with investigating language change and variation through the use of experimental games. Gareth grew up in Dolgellau and, in spite of living in Philadelphia now, speaks to his kids exclusively in Welsh. While this is not standard practice nowadays in southeastern Pennsylvania, a collection of familiar local place names like Bryn Mawr and Bala-Cynwyd serve as a reminder that it might once have been a bit more common than it is now. He appears on various social media platforms as garicgymro, where he mainly posts about linguistics and boardgames.
All of Gareth's social media links are here: https://linktr.ee/garicgymro
Here are the individual links:
Website drgarethroberts.com
Twitter/X twitter.com/garicgymro
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/garicgymro.bsky.social
Mastodon: https://toot.wales/@garicgymro
