History of the Welsh language
The history of the Welsh language spans over 1400 years, encompassing the stages of the language known as Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh.
Origins
Welsh evolved from British, the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Britons. Alternatively classified as Insular Celtic or P-Celtic, it probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was probably spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth. During the Early Middle Ages, the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, evolving into Welsh and the other Brythonic languages. It is not clear when Welsh became distinct.Primitive Welsh (550–800)
suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern was complete by around 550, and labelled the period between then and about 800 "Primitive Welsh". This Primitive Welsh may have been spoken in Wales, western England, and the Hen Ogledd, the Brythonic-speaking areas of what is now northern England and southern Scotland, and may therefore have been the ancestor of Cumbric as well as Welsh. Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time.Old Welsh (800–1150)
The Welsh language in documents predating around 1150. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the Cynfeirdd or 'Early Poets' – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was supposedly composed in the Hen Ogledd, raising further questions about the dating of the material and language in which it was originally composed.Middle Welsh (12th–14th centuries)
is the label attached to the Welsh of the 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of nearly all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion, although the tales themselves are certainly much older. It is also the language of the existing manuscripts of Welsh law. Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible, albeit with some work, to a modern-day Welsh speaker.The famous cleric Gerald of Wales tells the story of King Henry II of England. During one of the King's many raids in the 12th century, Henry asked an old man of Pencader, Carmarthenshire, whether he thought the Welsh language had any chance:
Early Modern Welsh (1500–1588)
Modern Welsh can be divided into two periods. The first, Early Modern Welsh, ran from the early 15th century to roughly the end of the 16th century.In the Early Modern Welsh Period use of the Welsh language began to be restricted, such as with the passing of Henry VIII's 1536 Act of Union. Through this Act Wales was governed solely under English law. Only 150 words of this Act were concerned with the use of the Welsh language. Section 20 of the Act banned the use of the language in court proceedings and those who solely spoke Welsh and did not speak English could not hold government office. Wales was to be represented by 26 members of parliament who spoke English. Outside certain areas in Wales such as South Pembrokeshire, the majority of those living in Wales did not speak English, meaning that interpreters were regularly needed in order to conduct hearings. Before passing the Act many gentry and government officials already spoke English; however, the Act codified the class ruling of the English language, with numbers who were fluent in English rising significantly after its passing. The Act's primary function was to create uniform control over the now united England and Wales; however, it laid a foundation for the superiority of classes through the use of language. Welsh was now seen as a language spoken by the lower working classes, with those from higher classes seen superior and given roles in government for choosing to speak English over Welsh. This part of the Act was not repealed until 1993 under the Welsh Language Act.
Late Modern Welsh begins (1588)
Welsh began with the publication of William Morgan's translation of the Bible in 1588. Like its English counterpart, the King James Version, this proved to have a strong stabilizing effect on the language, and indeed the language today still bears the same Late Modern label as Morgan's language. Of course, many changes have occurred since then.18th century
19th century
The 19th century was a critical period in the history of the language and one that encompassed many contradictions. In 1800 Welsh was the main spoken language of the vast majority of Wales, with the only exceptions being some border areas and other places which had seen significant settlement, such as south Pembrokeshire; by the 1901 census, this proportion had declined to a little over half of the population, though the large increase in the total population over the century meant that the total number of Welsh speakers grew throughout the 19th century, peaking in the 1911 census at over one million even as the proportion of the Welsh population that could speak Welsh fell below 50% for the first time.Especially when compared to other stateless languages in Europe, Welsh boasted an extraordinarily active press, with poetry, religious writing, biography, translations, and, by the end of the century, novels all appearing in the language, as well as countless newspapers, journals and periodicals. An ongoing interest in antiquarianism ensured the dissemination of the language's medieval poetry and prose. A further development was the publication of some of the first complete and concise Welsh dictionaries. Early work by Welsh lexicographic pioneers such as Daniel Silvan Evans ensured that the language was documented as accurately as possible. Modern dictionaries such as Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru are direct descendants of these dictionaries.
Despite these outward signs of health, it was during the nineteenth century that English replaced Welsh as the most widely spoken language within the country. Wales, particularly the South Wales Coalfield, experienced significant population growth and in-migration, which changed the linguistic profile of some areas.
Learning English was enthusiastically encouraged; in contrast, Welsh was not taught or used as a medium of instruction in schools, many of which actively discouraged the use of Welsh using measures such as the Welsh Not. Welsh held no official recognition and had limited status under the British state. It did not become officially recognised as the language of Wales until the passing of the Welsh Language Measure 2011. Welsh was increasingly restricted in scope to the non-conformist religious chapels, who would teach children to read and write in Sunday schools. Individuals such as Matthew Arnold championed the virtues of Welsh literature whilst simultaneously advocating the replacement of Welsh as the everyday language of the country with English, and many Welsh speakers themselves such as David Davies and John Ceiriog Hughes advocated bilingualism, if not necessarily the extinction of Welsh.
By the end of the nineteenth century, English came to prevail in the large cities of south-east Wales. Welsh remained strong in the north-west and in parts of mid-Wales and south-west Wales. Rural Wales was a stronghold of the Welsh language, and so also were the industrial slate-quarrying communities of Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire. Many of the nonconformist churches throughout Wales were strongly associated with the Welsh language.
20th century
Early census findings
By the 20th century, the numbers of Welsh speakers were shrinking at a rate which suggested that the language would be extinct within a few generations.File:Welsh poster for Derby Scheme Dec 1915.jpg|thumb|Welsh-language poster for the First World War-era Derby Scheme
According to the 1911 census, out of a population of just under 2.5 million, 43.5% of those aged three years and upwards in Wales and Monmouthshire spoke Welsh. This was a decrease from the 1891 census with 49.9% speaking Welsh out of a population of 1.5 million. The distribution of those speaking the language however was unevenly distributed with five counties remaining overwhelmingly and predominantly Welsh-speaking:
- Anglesey: 88.7% spoke Welsh while 61.0% spoke English
- Cardiganshire: 89.6% spoke Welsh while 64.1% could speak English
- Caernarfonshire: 85.6% spoke Welsh while 62.2% could speak English
- Carmarthenshire: 84.9% spoke Welsh while 77.8% could speak English
- Merionethshire: 90.3% spoke Welsh while 61.3% could speak English
- Denbighshire: 56.7% could speak Welsh while 88.3% could speak English
- Merthyr Tydfil County Borough 50.2% while 94.8% could speak English
1921 census and the founding of Plaid Cymru
- Anglesey: 87.8% could speak Welsh while 67.9% could speak English
- Cardiganshire: 86.8% could speak Welsh, 72.4% could speak English
- Carmarthenshire: 84.5% could speak Welsh while 83.1% could speak English
- Merioneth: 84.3% could speak Welsh while 69.5% could speak English
- Carnarvonshire: 76.5% could speak Welsh while 73.3% could speak English
The Welsh nationalist party Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru was founded at a meeting in the 1925 National Eisteddfod in Pwllheli, Gwynedd, with the primary aim of promoting the Welsh language.