s - Wyższa Szkoła Filologiczna we Wrocławiu

136
Rhidian Jones
2. Knowledge about the past and current state of Welsh
2.1. Historical background
The representative knowledge about the history of the inhabitants of Wales
and their language is obtainable from Geraint Huw Jenkins (2007), Siôn T. Jobbins
(2011). To sum up, we can state that Welsh Welsh (Cymraeg) developed
from the Brythonic language that was spoken throughout Britain before the
Anglo-Saxons began to settle in the east of the island in the 5th century. It is
a Celtic language that is closely related to the other Brythonic tongues – Cornish
and Breton – and it is a linguistic cousin of Irish Gaelic.
Welsh was to enjoy a high status in the Middle Ages when it was the language
of the courts of the native princes, the language of law, and was the medium
for poetry and story-telling that were such established parts of the culture
of Wales. The oldest surviving poem in Welsh comes from the early 7th century.
In 1536 Wales was incorporated into England by a Law that became known
as the Act of Union, and although the Act stated the desire to “extirpe alle and
singular the sinister usages and customs of Wales” (Jobbins 2011: 87), that did
not come about, nor was it feasible. Wales was almost entirely Welsh-speaking
and the advent of a Welsh printing press gave added sustenance to the language
in the 16th century. In 1588 the Bible in its entirety was translated into Welsh in
order to convert the people to the new Protestantism in their own language, and
so the Welsh people had the Bible in the vernacular at a relatively early date,
which partly explains the language’s later robustness. Much like the influence
of the 1611 King James Bible on the English language, the 1588 Welsh Bible
standardized the written language and gave it a solid literary base. Welsh became
the language of religion in Wales and the people later became literate in it
due to the Sunday schools and circulating schools of the 18th century.
The industrial revolution in the 19th century changed many parts of Wales,
in particular the coal-rich south. Industry attracted thousands of incomers to
south Wales, not only from the rural west and north of Wales but also from
England and Ireland. Many incomers from outside Wales were assimilated and
learnt Welsh, but by the turn of the 20th century the pressure on the language
became too great and there was a gradual shift to English throughout populous
south Wales. Welsh ceased to be transferred in the home, a fact that was demonstrated
in the family of the writer from the Rhondda, Gwyn Thomas, who
said of his upbringing in the 1920s that “the death of Welsh ran through our
family of 12 children like a geological fault” (Jenkins 2001: 62). The eldest six
children spoke Welsh, the youngest six did not.
A world authority on economy and migration, Brinley Thomas (1959), argued
that the industrial revolution had been a blessing to the language because