In the late 18th century, a Welsh scholar employed by the East India Company, Sir William Jones, discovered that many words in Sanskrit, the language of Hindu holy books, were similar to words in Welsh. Further research, carried out by the German brothers Grimm and others, later revealed that most European languages and some Indian ones have a common ancestor, now known as Indo-European.

Other notable Welsh philologists were missionary David Jones who first put the Malagasy language of Madagascar into writing; John Davies who published the first grammar and dictionary of Tahitian; Dr. David Samuel, who made the first written record of the Maori language of New Zealand. Nearer Wales, Robert Williams compiled the first comprehensive dictionary of the Cornish language, and Bishop John Phillips translated the Book of Common Prayer into Manx.

在18世纪晚期，一位受雇于东印度公司的威尔士学者，威廉琼斯先生，发现在SANKRIT——印度圣书所用的语言——中的许多文字，都与威尔士的文字相似。稍后，由德国兄弟GRIMm和其他人所作的进一步研究显示大部分欧洲语言和一些印度语言有着一个共同的起源，现在被称为印欧语系。

另外一些著名的威尔士语言学家包括传教士大卫琼斯，以文字书写马达加斯加语的第一人；约翰戴维斯，第一本塔希提语的语法书和字典的出版者；大卫萨穆尔博士，第一份新西兰毛利语的书面记录的编写者；聂勒威尔斯，罗伯特威廉斯，编纂了第一本康沃尔的凯尔特语的综合字典，以及约翰菲利普斯主教，把共同祷经翻译成马恩岛语的译者。


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