CARDIFF

The Welsh, being remnant Romano-Britons (as with the Cornish), have good reason to learn Latin as part of their ancient heritage!

Rightly, the Welsh treasure their Celtic Brittonic heritage and the Welsh language (Cymraeg), but the Romano-Britons had become a bilingual people by the end of the Roman occupation in 410 AD, when the Romans withdrew and the Romano-Britons had a short spell of occupying the whole Province of Britannia. During this time the Romano-Britons still saw themselves as the Roman citizens, prior to, and during the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons.

The Welsh people (the Britons) had been part of the Christian faith since the Romans first brought the religion here during their occupation. From this period onwards, Latin continued to play a major part in the cultural life of the Welsh, as with all converts to Christianity through ecclesiastic affiars.

The Latin language continued to live alongside the Welsh language (the strongest survivior of the Romano-British (or indeed all the Celtic) languages) for many centuries (the earliest accounts of the Britons/Romano-Britons are all in Latin, and Gildas & Nennius's texts were all largely in Latin), many Latin loan words exist in Welsh (and the other Brythonic languages), not only from the Roman occupation but from the periods of Celtic Christianity too.

Such Latin loan words in Welsh/Cymraeg include:-

Ysgol - Schola - School
Pont - Pons - Bridge
Ffenestr - Fenestra - Window
Eglwys - Ecclesia - Church
Cwningen - Cuniculus - Rabbit
Dysgu - Disco - To learn
Sgrifennu - [Scribens] - To write (from the Latin present participle)

...And many more, between about 800-1000 in total.