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This article is about Welsh people as an ethnic group and nation. For information about residents of Wales, see demographics of Wales. The Welsh (Cymry) are an ethnic group or nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language, which is a Celtic language.
History The tribes the Romans encountered in their time in Britain were known to the Romans as Ordovices, the Demetae, the Silures and the Deceangli, The consensus in Wales today is that they regard themselves as Celtic, claiming a heritage back to the Iron Age tribes, which themselves, based on modern genetic analysis, would appear to have had a predominantly paleolithic and neolithic indigenous ancestry. When the Roman legions departed Britain around 400, a Romano-British culture remained in the areas the Romans had settled, and the pre-Roman cultures in others. The people in what is now Wales continued to speak Brythonic languages with additions from Latin, as did some other Celts in areas of Great Britain. The surviving poem Y Gododdin is in early Welsh and refers to the Brythonic kingdom of Gododdin with a capital at Din Eidyn (Edinburgh) and extending from the area of Stirling to the Tyne. John Davies places the change from Brythonic to Welsh between 400 and 700. Offa's Dyke was erected in the mid-8th century, forming a barrier between Wales and Mercia. The process of coming to think of themselves as Welsh is not clear. There is plenty of evidence of the use of the term Brythoniaid (Britons); by contrast, the earliest use of the word Kymry (referring not to the people but to the land—and possibly to northern Britain in addition to modern day territory of Wales) is found in a poem dated to about 633. The name of the region in northern England now known as Cumbria is believed to be derived from the same root. Only gradually did Cymru (the land) and Cymry (the people) come to supplant Brython. Although the Welsh language was certainly used at the time, Gwyn A. Williams argues that even at the time of the erection of Offa's Dyke, the people to its west saw themselves as Roman, citing the number of Latin inscriptions still being made into the 8th century.. However, it is unclear whether such inscriptions reveal a general or normative use of Latin as a marker of identity or its selective and elitist use by the early Christian Church. The word Cymry is believed to be derived from the Brythonic combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen, and thus Cymru carries a sense of "land of fellow-countrymen", "our country"- and, of course, notions of fraternity. The name "Wales", however, comes from a Germanic root word meaning (ironically) "stranger" or "foreigner," and as such is related to the names of several other European regions where Germanic peoples came into contact with indigenous non-Germanic cultures. including: Wallonia (Belgium), Valais (Switzerland), and Wallachia (Romania), as well as the "-wall" of Cornwall. However, it has also been suggested that the prefix "Wall" acknowledges a people who had contact with the Roman empire (see Vlach). There are two words in modern Welsh for the English and this reflects the idea held by some that the modern English derive from various Germanic tribes (although there is little evidence for the extinction of the pre-Germanic inhabitants of England, and the idea ignores both the Scandinavian settlers in England and the Roman and Norman-French influences on English language, culture and identity): Saeson (singular: Sais), meaning originally Saxon; and: Eingl, denoting:-Angles,; meaning Englishmen in modern Welsh. The Welsh word for the English language is Saesneg, while the Welsh word for England is Lloegr. There was immigration to Wales after the Norman Conquest, several Normans encouraged immigration to their new lands; the Landsker Line dividing the Pembrokeshire "Englishry" and "Welshry" is still detectable today. The terms Englishry and Welshry are used similarly about Gower. The population of Wales increased from 587,128 in 1801 to 1,162,139 in 1851 and had reached 2,420,921 by 1911. Part of this increase can be attributed to the demographic transition seen in most industrialising countries during the Industrial Revolution, as death-rates dropped and birth-rates remained steady. However there was also a large-scale migration of people into Wales during the industrial revolution. The English were the most numerous group, but there were also considerable numbers of Irish and smaller numbers of many other ethnic groups. Culture Language The traditional language of the Welsh people is Welsh (Cymraeg or y Gymraeg), which is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic languages. It is spoken natively in parts of Wales, in the Chubut Valley, a Welsh immigrant colony in the Patagonia region of Argentina, and along the English-Welsh frontier. There are also speakers of Welsh elsewhere in Great Britain and throughout the world, most notably in the United States and Australia. The 2001 census found that 20.5 percent of people living in Wales speak Welsh, up from 18.5 percent in 1991). However, the same census shows that 25 percent of residents were born outside Wales. The number of Welsh speakers in other places in Britain is uncertain, but numbers are high in the main cities and there are speakers along the Welsh-English border. Even among the Welsh speakers, very few people speak only Welsh, with nearly all being bilingual in English. However, a large number of Welsh speakers are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English and vice versa, usually depending on the area spoken. Many prefer to speak English in South Wales or the urbanised areas and Welsh in the North or in rural areas. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain (known in linguistics as code-switching). Thanks to the work of the Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin (Welsh Nursery School Movement), recent census data reveals a reversal in decades of linguistic decline: there are now more Welsh speakers under five years of age than over 60. For many young people in Wales, the acquisition of Welsh is a gateway to better careers and increased cultural opportunity: Wales's third greatest revenue earner is media products and Cardiff boasts a world-class animation industry. Although Welsh is a minority language, and thus threatened by the dominance of English, support for the language grew during the second half of the 20th century, along with the rise of Welsh nationalism in the form of groups such as the political party Plaid Cymru and Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society). The language is used in the bilingual Welsh Assembly and entered on its records, with English translation. Technically it is not supposed to be used in the British Parliament as it is referred to as a "foreign language" and is effectively banned as disruptive behaviour, but several Speakers (most notably George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy, himself born in Wales, close by Tonypandy) spoke Welsh in longer English-language speeches. Welsh as a first language is largely concentrated in the less urban north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd, Meirionnydd, Ynys Môn, Carmarthenshire, North Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, and parts of western Glamorgan, although first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales. However, Cardiff is now home to an urban Welsh speaking population (both from other parts of Wales and from the growing Welsh medium schools of Cardiff itself) due to the centralisation and concentration of national resources and orginisations in the capital. It is often erroneously believed by some that Welsh speakers represent an elite which dominates the media and government throughout the nation. However, most Welsh media is in the English language and the continued low legal status afforded the language and the continued struggle most Welsh speakers endure to obtain equal services in their language attests to the opposite. It is possible to suggest that both Welsh speaking and English speaking elites exist in Wales with the English elite represeting a far larger demographic: as usual, the issue of elites revolves not around language but social class. The Welsh language is an important part of Welsh identity, but not an essential part. Welsh speakers actively distinguish between 'Cymry Cymraeg' (Welsh-speaking Welsh), Cymry di-Gymraeg (non Welsh speaking Welsh) and Saeson (English). Parts of the culture are however strongly connected to the language - notably the Eisteddfodic tradition, poetry and aspects of folk music and dance. However, Wales has a strong tradition of poetry in the English language. Religion Most Welsh people of faith are affiliated with the Church in Wales or other Christian denominations such as the Presbyterian Church of Wales or Catholicism, although there is even a Russian Orthodox chapel in the semi-rural town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. In particular, Wales has a long tradition of nonconformism and Methodism. Other religions Welsh people may be affiliated with include Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Sikhism, with most non-Christian Welsh people found in the southern cities of Cardiff, Swansea, and Newport. The 2001 Census showed that slightly less than 10% of the Welsh population are regular church- or chapel-goers (a slightly smaller proportion than in England or Scotland), although about 70% of the population see themselves as some form of Christian. Judaism has quite a long history in Wales, with a community recorded in Swansea from around 1730. In August 1911, during a period of public order and industrial disputes, Jewish shops across the South Wales coalfield were damaged by mobs. Since that time the Jewish population of that area, which reached a peak of 4000 - 5000 in 1913, has declined with only Cardiff retaining a sizeable Jewish population, of about 2000 in the 2001 Census. The largest non-Christian faith in Wales is Islam, with about 22,000 members in 2001 served by about 40 mosques, following the first mosque established in Cardiff in 1860. A college for training clerics has been established at Llanybydder in west Wales. Islam arrived in Wales in the mid-nineteenth century, and it is thought that Cardiff's Yemeni community is Britain's oldest Muslim community, established when the city was one of the world's largest coal-exporting ports. Hinduism and Buddhism each have about 5000 adherents in Wales, with the rural county of Ceredigion being the centre of Welsh Buddhism. Govinda's temple & restaurant, ran by the Hare Krishna's in Swansea is a focal point for many Welsh Hindus. There are about 2000 Sikhs in Wales, with the first purpose-built gurdwara opening in Cardiff in 1989. In 2001 some 7000 people classified themselves as following "other religions" including a reconstructed form of Druidism, which was the pre-Christian religion of Wales (not to be confused with the Druids of the Gorsedd at the National Eisteddfod of Wales). Approximately one sixth of the population, some 500,000 people, profess no religious faith whatsoever. The sabbatarian temperance movement was also historically strong among the Welsh, the sale of alcohol being prohibited on Sundays in Wales by the Sunday Closing Act of 1881 - the first legislation specifically issued for Wales since the Middle Ages. From the early 1960s, local council areas were permitted to hold referendums every seven years to determine whether they should be "wet" or "dry" on Sundays: most of the industrialised areas in the east and south went "wet" immediately, and by the 1980s the last district, Dwyfor in the northwest, went wet, since then there have been no more Sunday-closing referenda. Symbols The Welsh flag depicts the Welsh dragon (called y Ddraig Goch, "the red dragon"), one of the most widely recognized Welsh national symbols and the national animal of Wales. It appears in the early legends of Merlin, and from them is taken to be the battle standard under which the Pendragons, Uther and Arthur rallied their troops. Wales also has use of another flag, the flag of Saint David. Although unofficially a national flag it is flown across the country every year to mark Saint David's Day and in 2002 was incorporated into Cardiff City Football Club's logo. The leek is another national symbol and is worn every year on Saint David's Day. According to legend, St. David (the patron saint of Wales) ordered his troops to identify themselves by wearing the plant on their helmets during a battle against the Saxons. The daffodil is the national flower, symbolizing chivalry and respect in the language of flowers. The Narcissus obvallaris species only grows in the Tenby area of Wales. Welsh emigration Migration from Wales to the rest of Britain has been occurring throughout its history. Particularly during the Industrial Revolution hundreds of thousands of Welsh people migrated internally to the big cities of England and Scotland or to work in the coal mines of the north of England. As a result, much of the British population today have ancestory from Wales. The same can be said for the English, Scottish and Irish workers who migrated to Welsh cities such as Merthyr Tydfil or ports such as Pembroke in the Industrial Revolution. As a result, some English, Irish and Scottish have Welsh surnames ("Evans", "Jenkins" "Owen" etc.) and some Welsh have English, Scottish and Irish surnames - as a result, it is relatively rare in South Wales or English-speaking areas to find a person with exclusively Welsh ancestry. Many Italians also migrated to South Wales, particularly around the Gower area - Welsh-Italians can also be found in these areas. Internationally Welsh people have emigrated, in relatively small numbers (in proportion to population Irish emigration to the United States of America (USA) may have been 26 times greater than Welsh emigration),Nineteenth Century Arrivals in Australia: University of Wales, Lampeter website. Retrieved 03 August 2006. to many countries, including the USA (in particular, Pennsylvania), Canada and Patagonia.Welsh in Pennsylvania by Matthew S. Magda (1986), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. From Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Retrieved 03 August 2006.WELSH: Multicultural Canada. Retrieved 03 August 2006.South America - Patagonia: BBC - Wales History. Retrieved 03 August 2006. Malad City in Idaho, which began as a Welsh Mormon Settlement, lays claim to having more people of Welsh descent per capita than anywhere outside of Wales itself.Tiny US town's big Welsh heritage: BBC News, 20 July 2005. Retrieved 3 August 2006. Malad's local High School is known as the "Malad Dragons" and flies the Welsh Flag as its school colours.WELSH HISTORY, The Welsh in North America, Utah: Welsh Society of Central Ohio. Retrieved 03 August 2006. Welsh people have also settled as far as New Zealand and Australia.Welsh immigration from Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zeland. Retrieved 03 August 2003. Around 1.75 million Americans report themselves to have Welsh ancestry, as did a further 28,000 in Canada's 2001 census. This compares with 2.9 million people living in Wales (as of the 2001 census). There is no known evidence which would objectively support the legend that the Mandan were the company of Prince Madog. See also Further reading | ||||||||
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