176-634: Welsh writing in English ( Welsh : Llenyddiaeth Gymreig yn Saesneg ), (previously Anglo-Welsh literature) is a term used to describe works written in the English language by Welsh writers. The term 'Anglo-Welsh' replaced an earlier attempt to define this category of writing as 'Anglo-Cymric'. The form 'Anglo-Welsh' was used by Idris Bell in 1922 and revived by Raymond Garlick and Roland Mathias when they renamed their literary periodical Dock Leaves as The Anglo-Welsh Review and later further defined
352-438: A 23 July 1918 letter to The Cambria Daily Leader , Lewis, as he would do for the remainder of his life, explained why he felt cultural nationalism needed to precede political decolonisation , "In Wales, if we gave ourselves less to party politics and more to the development of our own education and culture, we should make Wales more fitted to have an independent life of her own under Home Rule . And Home Rule, before we have
528-490: A European reputation, but for many Welshmen [he was] chiefly the keeper of the national conscience." Lewis is usually acknowledged as one of the most vitally important figures in 20th-century Welsh-language literature . He is also widely credited, through his 1962 radio address Tynged yr Iaith ("The Fate of the Language"), with almost singlehandedly bringing Welsh back from the brink of language death . In 1970, Lewis
704-655: A South Wales miner.) However, many see the Carmarthenshire-born satirical short-story writer and novelist Caradoc Evans (1878–1945) as the first—or first modern—Welsh writer in English. His short-story collections My People (1915) and Capel Sion (1916) were highly controversial, and Roland Mathias bitterly comments that "No other Anglo-Welsh prose writer. .. displayed such ill will to Wales or to Welsh people". W. H. Davies (1871–1940), born in Newport , became famous principally for his The Autobiography of
880-735: A Super-Tramp which was set mostly in North America. The principal themes in his work are observations about life's hardships, the ways in which the human condition is reflected in nature, his own tramping adventures and the various characters he met. In his poetry he was particularly inspired by birds, the weather and the seasons. His prose works were nearly all autobiographical and were sometimes, as with his 1918 "A Poet's Pilgrimage (or A Pilgrimage in Wales)", set in his homeland. (See also Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89), Edward Thomas (1878–1917) and Joseph Keating (1871–1934).) In Parenthesis ,
1056-441: A Welsh Language Scheme, which indicates its commitment to the equality of treatment principle. This is sent out in draft form for public consultation for a three-month period, whereupon comments on it may be incorporated into a final version. It requires the final approval of the now defunct Welsh Language Board ( Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg ). Thereafter, the public body is charged with implementing and fulfilling its obligations under
1232-532: A Welsh language audience. While Raymond Garlick discovered sixty-nine Welsh men and women who wrote in English prior to the twentieth century, Dafydd Johnston thinks it "debatable whether such writers belong to a recognisable Anglo-Welsh literature, as opposed to English literature in general". Well into the nineteenth century English was spoken by relatively few in Wales, and prior to the early twentieth century there are only three major Welsh-born writers who wrote in
1408-490: A Welsh poetic form, the awdl , and Welsh orthography ; for example: A rival claim for the first Welsh writer to use English creatively is made for the poet, John Clanvowe (1341–1391). Clanvowe's best-known work was The Book of Cupid, God of Love or The Cuckoo and the Nightingale . which is influenced by Chaucer's Parliament of Fowls . The Cuckoo and the Nightingale had previously been attributed to Chaucer but
1584-539: A Welsh-language edge inscription was used on pound coins dated 1985, 1990 and 1995, which circulated in all parts of the UK prior to their 2017 withdrawal. The wording is Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad (Welsh for 'True am I to my country'), and derives from the national anthem of Wales, " Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau ". UK banknotes are in English only. Some shops employ bilingual signage. Welsh sometimes appears on product packaging or instructions. The UK government has ratified
1760-600: A career in university teaching and academic research. His eight-novel Angel Mountain Saga , set in north Pembrokeshire in the Regency and early Victorian period, is effectively a portrayal of "Mother Wales" in the persona of the heroine Martha Morgan. He has also written four volumes of Pembrokeshire folk tales, and two other novels. One of these, written for children, won the Wishing Shelf Award in 2012. John Evans
1936-663: A census glossary of terms to support the release of results from the census, including their definition of "main language" as referring to "first or preferred language" (though that wording was not in the census questionnaire itself). The wards in England with the most people giving Welsh as their main language were the Liverpool wards of Central and Greenbank ; and Oswestry South in Shropshire . The wards of Oswestry South (1.15%), Oswestry East (0.86%) and St Oswald (0.71%) had
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#17327583486212112-514: A co-founder of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru (The National Party of Wales), now the Welsh nationalist political party known as Plaid Cymru , at a covert meeting with fellow nationalists during the 1925 National Eisteddfod of Wales . Lewis has been described by Jan Morris as, "the most passionate of twentieth century Welsh patriots ", and as being, "one of the few twentieth century writers in Welsh with
2288-551: A coalminer's son from the Rhondda, but won a scholarship to Oxford and then became a schoolmaster. He wrote 11 novels as well as short stories, plays, and radio and television scripts, most of which focused on unemployment in the Rhondda Valley in the 1930s. He has been described by Stephen Thomas Knight as "about the most verbally brilliant writer of Welsh fiction in English". His inaugural novel Sorrow for Thy Sons (1937)
2464-556: A convinced Welsh nationalist, was ironically aware of the fact that, while born in Wales, he had worked outside the Principality until his early forties. Robert Minhinnick , born in 1952, is a notable writer from the second half of the twentieth century. He has been the winner of a Society of Authors Eric Gregory Award, and has twice won the Forward Prize for best individual poem, while his collections of essays have twice won
2640-502: A family which flees Russia for South Wales. As only a couple of her 25 novels have a Welsh setting she does not fit the narrower definitions of Welsh writing in English. While the Welsh writing in English scene tended to be dominated by fiction in the 1930s, in the latter part of the twentieth century poetry flourished. A landmark event was the 1967 publication of Bryn Griffith's anthology Welsh Voices , which, in Tony Conran's words,
2816-516: A film. His autobiographical light comedy, The Druid's Rest was first performed at the St Martin's Theatre , London , in 1944. It saw the stage debut of Richard Burton whom Williams had spotted at an audition in Cardiff . During the nineteenth century the use of the Welsh language declined generally in Wales, with the development of compulsory education in the English language, but more so in
2992-468: A grittier side to Welsh literature; and Malcolm Pryce who has writing a number of humorous send ups of noir such as Aberystwyth Mon Amour (2001). Both of these writers were born in England, but have Welsh roots and are now Welsh based, and write much on Welsh subject matter. Nikita Lalwani , is originally from Rajasthan in India, but was raised in Wales, and her novel Gifted (2007) was nominated for
3168-526: A left-wing perspective on the Welsh industrial scene in his trilogy Border Country (1960), Second Generation (1964), and The Fight for Manod (1979). He also enjoyed a reputation as a cultural historian. He was an influential figure within the New Left and in wider circles. His writings on politics, the mass media, and literature are a significant contribution to the Marxist critique of culture and
3344-426: A measure of violence... To the Welsh people, who had long ceased to believe that they had it in them, it was a profound shock." However, despite the acclaim the events of Tân yn Llŷn generated, by 1938 Lewis's concept of perchentyaeth ("home ownership") had been firmly rejected as not a fundamental tenet of the party. In 1939 Lewis resigned as Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru president, saying that Wales
3520-534: A modernist epic poem by David Jones (1895–1974) first published in 1937, is probably the best known contribution from Wales to the literature of the First World War . To a large extent, though not entirely, "The first flowering of Welsh writing in English" was in industrial South Wales and this was linked to the rapid decline in the use of the Welsh language in the twentieth century, especially in this region. David Jones and Dylan Thomas are two writers of
3696-403: A more continual religious and cultural exploration of pre- Reformation Wales by Welsh writers and intellectuals. In a 22 October 1919 letter to The Cambria Daily Leader , called for a revival of drama in the Welsh language, beginning with the improvement of dramas set in the villages, "All the plays we have seen so far describe, and rather idyllically describe, village manners. But village life
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#17327583486213872-602: A number of other authors who published before the Second World War but who did not come from the South Wales valleys. Amongst these was Swansea suburbanite Dylan Thomas (1914–53), whose first collection, 18 Poems , was published in 1934. Then there is Geraint Goodwin (1903–41) from Newtown in mid-Wales, who, in such works as the novel The Heyday in the Blood (1936), wrote about declining rural communities in
4048-537: A par with gambling . It was not until 1902 when David Lloyd George called for patronage of Welsh drama at the National Eisteddfod that a profile of respectability started to be acquired among devout communities. The English language classical repertoire was first brought to those who could understand it by travelling troupes such as the Kemble family ( Charles Kemble was born at Brecon in 1775). With
4224-461: A pavilion in Caernarfon . Many Welsh people were angered by the judge's scornful treatment of the Welsh language, by the decision to move the trial to London, and by the decision of University College, Swansea, to dismiss Lewis from his post before he had been found guilty. Dafydd Glyn Jones wrote of the fire that it was "the first time in five centuries that Wales struck back at England with
4400-483: A penitential treatise. The beginnings of an Anglo-Welsh tradition are found by some in the novels of Allen Raine (Anne Adalisa (Evans) Puddicombe) (1836–1908), from Newcastle Emlyn , Carmarthenshire, whose work, Stephen Thomas Knight proposes, "realised a real, if partial, separate identity and value for a Welsh social culture". (Other possible precursors are Monmouthshire -born Arthur Machen (1863–1947), and Joseph Keating (1871–1934), who began his working life as
4576-519: A political act of arson at Penyberth, Gwynedd, in 1936. Discussions of the need for a "Welsh party" had been conducted since the 19th century. With the generation or so before 1922 there "had been a marked growth in the constitutional recognition of the Welsh nation", wrote historian John Davies . By 1924 there were people in Wales "eager to make their nationality the focus of Welsh politics". Lewis's experiences in World War I , and his sympathy for
4752-534: A raw nerve. While Lewis' had wished to shame Plaid Cymru into more direct action promoting a Welsh language revival , his speech instead led to the formation of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg ( Welsh Language Society ) later that year at a Plaid Cymru summer school held in Pontardawe in Glamorgan . The foundation of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg allowed Plaid Cymru to focus on electoral politics, while
4928-556: A real national spirit, would mean simply that the Welsh Parliament would be an enlarged County Council." After his return from the trenches, Lewis entered the literary field by arguing that three conditions needed to be met for Welsh literature to become truly meaningful. Firstly, "a more professional attitude to Welsh drama". Secondly, the reestablishment of a direct link between Welsh culture with that of mainland Europe, and particularly with French culture , and, lastly,
5104-529: A separate identity for this kind of writing arose because the term 'Welsh Literature' describes Welsh-language literature which has its own continuous tradition going back to the sixth century poem known as Y Gododdin . The phrase "Welsh writing in English" has replaced the earlier "Anglo-Welsh literature" because many Welsh writers in English have felt that the latter usage failed to give "Welsh status to Welsh people who, not speaking Cymraeg , nevertheless do not feel at all English". Welsh writers in English in
5280-460: A sequence of seven novels, The Land of the Living , which surveys the political and cultural history of twentieth-century Wales. With regard to the fact that he wrote in English, Humphreys refers to "using the language of cultural supremacy to try to express something that comes directly from the suppressed native culture" of Wales. His most recent work is the collection of short stories, The Woman in
5456-484: A series of over 800 articles and several books published between the 1920s and 1960s. Under Milk Wood is a 1954 radio drama by Dylan Thomas , adapted later as a stage play . The play had its first reading on stage on 14 May 1953, in New York, at The Poetry Center at 92nd Street Y . While the second half of the twentieth century saw the serious decline of Welsh heavy industry, along with serious unemployment and
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5632-546: A significant working-class poet in Idris Davies (1905–53), who worked as a coal miner before qualifying as a teacher. He initially wrote in Welsh "but rebellion against chapel religion", along with the "inspirational influence of English" poets, led him to write in English. Gwalia Deserta (1938) is about the Great Depression, while the subject of The Angry Summer (1943) is the 1926 miners' strike. There are
5808-479: A single discourse (known in linguistics as code-switching ). Welsh speakers are largely concentrated in the north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd , Conwy County Borough , Denbighshire , Anglesey , Carmarthenshire , north Pembrokeshire , Ceredigion , parts of Glamorgan , and north-west and extreme south-west Powys . However, first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales. Welsh-speaking communities persisted well into
5984-445: A willingness to accept a subservient position for the Welsh language", wrote Davies. It may be because of these strict positions that the party failed to attract politicians of experience in its early years. However, the party's members believed its founding was an achievement in itself; "merely by existing, the party was a declaration of the distinctiveness of Wales", wrote Davies. During the inter-war years, Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru
6160-938: Is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people . Welsh is spoken natively in Wales , by some in England , and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province , Argentina ). It is spoken by smaller numbers of people in Canada and the United States descended from Welsh immigrants, within their households (especially in Nova Scotia ). Historically, it has also been known in English as "British", "Cambrian", "Cambric" and "Cymric". The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 gave
6336-589: Is a poet, playwright, editor, broadcaster, lecturer and translator from Welsh. She was born in Cardiff and raised there, in Penarth, and in Pembrokeshire. Both her parents were native Welsh speakers, yet she was brought up speaking English and learnt Welsh only as an adult. In the mid-1980s she moved to rural Ceredigion , West Wales. She became the third National Poet for Wales in 2008. Amongst other poets of
6512-566: Is available throughout Europe on satellite and online throughout the UK. Since the digital switchover was completed in South Wales on 31 March 2010, S4C Digidol became the main broadcasting channel and fully in Welsh. The main evening television news provided by the BBC in Welsh is available for download. There is also a Welsh-language radio station, BBC Radio Cymru , which was launched in 1977. Saunders Lewis Saunders Lewis (born John Saunders Lewis ; 15 October 1893 – 1 September 1985)
6688-687: Is believed to have first met fellow student Margaret Gilcriest, a Roman Catholic from County Wicklow and staunch believer in Irish political and cultural nationalism , in December 1913. Lewis and Gilcriest shared an enthusiasm for literature and in their subsequent courtship by letters, all of which have since been published, there are references to the writings of Dora Sigerson , Katherine Tynan , James Clarence Mangan , Alice Meynell , Emily Lawless , Thomas Kettle , Daniel Corkery , and James Joyce . After his aunt Ellen persuaded his father "to accept
6864-688: Is considered to have lasted from then until the 14th century, when the Modern Welsh period began, which in turn is divided into Early and Late Modern Welsh. The word Welsh is a descendant, via Old English wealh, wielisc , of the Proto-Germanic word * Walhaz , which was derived from the name of the Celtic people known to the Romans as Volcae and which came to refer to speakers of Celtic languages, and then indiscriminately to
7040-470: Is more than 'manners'. It includes memories and traditions and song and even dance and mummery. Village and peasant drama, if it should tell the round truth, must include romance, the Mabinogion , the monastery , witchcraft , fairyland , and all the ancient playgrounds of men. Let us widen our field." In a letter of 25 October 1919 to the same newspaper, Lewis urged Welsh-language playwrights and
7216-587: Is one of Wales' most uncompromising writers, a former punk rocker, poet, filmmaker and novelist he has also campaigned against the Badger cull alongside Brian May and other celebrities. Current Welsh poets have been surveyed in the University of Aberystwyth project, "Devolved Voices". This was a three-year research project starting in September 2012 that investigated the state of Welsh poetry in English since
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7392-511: 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 Welsh law manuscripts. Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The Bible translations into Welsh helped maintain
7568-563: Is the official language of the British state , affirming that '"the literature which people called Anglo-Welsh was indistinguishable from English literature". Ironically, Saunders Lewis was himself born in Wallasey in England to a Welsh-speaking family. The problems are perhaps epitomised by Roald Dahl , a writer of short stories and children's literature. Dahl was born in Wales, to Norwegian parents, and spent much of his life in England, and
7744-732: 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. This discretion stems from the fact that Cumbric was widely believed to have been the language used in Hen Ogledd. An 8th-century inscription in Tywyn shows
7920-618: The 1997 Welsh devolution referendum . Poets included were: Tiffany Atkinson , Zoe Brigley , Sarah Corbett , Damian Walford Davies, Nia Davies, Jasmine Donahaye, Joe Dunthorne , Jonathan Edwards , Rhian Edwards , Kristian Evans, Matthew Francis , Dai George, Ian Gregson , Philip Gross , Emily Hinshelwood , Meirion Jordan, Anna Lewis , Gwyneth Lewis , Patrick McGuiness , Andrew McNeillie , Kate North, Pascale Petit , clare e. potter, Deryn Rees-Jones , Fiona Sampson , Zoe Skoulding , Katherine Stansfield, Richard Marggraff Turley , Anna Wigley, and Samantha Wynn-Rhydderch. Poet Mab Jones ,
8096-500: The 2016 Australian census , 1,688 people noted that they spoke Welsh. In the 2011 Canadian census , 3,885 people reported Welsh as their first language . According to the 2021 Canadian census , 1,130 people noted that Welsh was their mother tongue. The 2018 New Zealand census noted that 1,083 people in New Zealand spoke Welsh. The American Community Survey 2009–2013 noted that 2,235 people aged five years and over in
8272-466: The 2021 census , 7,349 people in England recorded Welsh to be their "main language". In the 2011 census, 1,189 people aged three and over in Scotland noted that Welsh was a language (other than English) that they used at home. It is believed that there are as many as 5,000 speakers of Patagonian Welsh . In response to the question 'Does the person speak a language other than English at home?' in
8448-520: The Communist Party , but in the course of his life he was involved, to some degree, with all the major British parties. Amongst his novels of working-class life are Rhondda Roundabout (1935) and Bidden to the Feast (1938). The political development of a young miner is the subject of Cwmardy (1937), Lewis Jones 's (1897–1939) largely autobiographical novel. Gwyn Thomas (1913–81) was also
8624-473: The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature notes the absence of direct evidence of that when linking Clanvowe with the work. The poem is written as a literary dream vision and is an example of medieval debate poetry . A concerto inspired by the poem was composed by Georg Friedrich Handel . It apparently also influenced works by both John Milton and William Wordsworth . Clanvowe also wrote The Two Ways ,
8800-538: The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of Welsh. The language has greatly increased its prominence since the creation of the television channel S4C in November 1982, which until digital switchover in 2010 broadcast 70 per cent of Channel 4's programming along with a majority of Welsh language shows during peak viewing hours. The all-Welsh-language digital station S4C Digidol
8976-707: The Liberal Party . His other opponent, independent candidate Alun Talfan Davies , was another former member of Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru who would later become Chairman of the Welsh Liberal Party . The "brilliant but wayward" Gruffydd was a favorite with Welsh-speaking intellectuals and drew 52.3% of the vote, to Lewis's 22.5%. The election effectively split the Welsh-speaking intelligentsia, and left Lewis embittered with politics, leading him to retreat from direct political involvement. However
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#17327583486219152-701: The Man Booker Prize . Trezza Azzopardi 's debut novel The Hiding Place (2000) was also nominated for the Booker Prize, and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize , winning the latter. It is the story of the Maltese community in Cardiff. Jan Morris is better known as a non-fiction writer, but she has written some fiction too; her novel Hav won the 2007 Arthur C. Clarke Award . Brian John came to creative writing late, after
9328-756: The Polish name for Italians) have a similar etymology. The Welsh term for the language, Cymraeg , descends from the Brythonic word combrogi , meaning 'compatriots' or 'fellow countrymen'. Welsh evolved from Common Brittonic , the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons . Classified as Insular Celtic , the British language probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and
9504-640: The United States spoke Welsh at home. The highest number of those (255) lived in Florida . Sources: Calls for the Welsh language to be granted official status grew with the establishment of the nationalist political party Plaid Cymru in 1925, the establishment of the Welsh Language Society in 1962 and the rise of Welsh nationalism in the later 20th century. Of the six living Celtic languages (including two revived), Welsh has
9680-404: The decolonisation of Welsh-language literature , the dramatic arts, and culture needed to precede Welsh devolution or political independence . If the excessive Anglophilia and colonial mentality traditionally known as Dic Siôn Dafydd was never challenged or defeated, Lewis predicted in 1918, "the Welsh Parliament would [only] be an enlarged County Council." Lewis accordingly became
9856-542: The "hugely important role", adding, "I look forward to working with the Welsh Government and organisations in Wales in developing the new system of standards. I will look to build on the good work that has been done by the Welsh Language Board and others to strengthen the Welsh language and ensure that it continues to thrive." First Minister Carwyn Jones said that Huws would act as a champion for
10032-596: The 1880s identified a small part of Shropshire as still then speaking Welsh, with the "Celtic Border" passing from Llanymynech through Oswestry to Chirk . The number of Welsh-speaking people in the rest of Britain has not yet been counted for statistical purposes. In 1993, the Welsh-language television channel S4C published the results of a survey into the numbers of people who spoke or understood Welsh, which estimated that there were around 133,000 Welsh-speaking people living in England, about 50,000 of them in
10208-517: The 1925 National Eisteddfod in Pwllheli , Gwynedd , with the aim of establishing a "Welsh party". They founded Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru ("National Party of Wales"), on 5 August 1925. The principal aim of the party would be to foster a Welsh-speaking Wales. To this end it was agreed that party business be conducted in Welsh, and that members sever all links with other British parties. Lewis insisted on these principles before he would agree to
10384-627: The 1930s had to look to London for publication and the possibility of literary success; though gradually, beginning in 1937, Welsh writing in English received encouragement from Welsh-based literary and critical journals, initially Wales , published by Keidrych Rhys in three intermittent series between 1937 and 1960. Next came the Welsh Review , published by Gwyn Jones, first in 1939 and then between 1944 and 1948. (See also Life and Letters Today , which between 1938 and 1950 contained works by and about many Welsh writers in English.) An early work of
10560-411: The 1930s who do not fit into this paradigm. One of the chief impediments to the development of Welsh theatre (in both English and Welsh), throughout much of history, was the lack of major urban centres. With the growth of Swansea and Cardiff, this situation changed, but many churchmen opposed it. The Methodist Convention in 1887 recommended that chapels regard theatrical activity as an immoral practice on
10736-477: The 1960s and 1970s is the subject for novelists such as Alun Richards (1929–2004) and Ron Berry (1920–97). Both use humour in their bitter description of the spiritual decay of the South Wales Valleys , where the heavy industries of iron and steel and coal have disappeared, to be replaced by high-technology industrial parks. Similar themes are expressed in the novels of a younger generation, as in Christopher Meredith 's (born 1954) Shifts (1988), which deals with
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#173275834862110912-468: The 1960s as a Welsh-language publishing house, later began producing English-language books on subjects of Welsh interest. Gomer Press , based in Llandysul , Carmarthenshire, is another supporter of Welsh writing in English. It was established in 1892 and claims to be '"the largest publishing house in Wales". A more recent addition to Welsh publishing in English is Honno Press, which specialises in women writers. The problems of post-industrial South Wales of
11088-400: The 1970s – the establishment of more schools using Welsh as their primary means of instruction (see education in Wales ). A Welsh-language TV channel was set up in 1982. The culmination of this trend was the creation of a National Assembly for Wales in 1999. The defeat of the first Welsh devolution referendum in 1979 had been a grave disappointment to Welsh nationalists . The expansion in
11264-409: The 1993 Act nor secondary legislation made under it covers the private sector, although some organisations, notably banks and some railway companies, provide some of their information in Welsh. On 7 December 2010, the Welsh Assembly unanimously approved a set of measures to develop the use of the Welsh language within Wales. On 9 February 2011 this measure, the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 ,
11440-470: The Anglo-Welsh as "those Welsh men and women who write in English about Wales". In addition, writers born outside Wales, who have both lived in as well as written about Wales, are often included, such as John Cowper Powys (1872–1963), who settled in Wales in 1935 and wrote two major novels, Owen Glendower (1941) and Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages (1951), that have Welsh subject matter. In addition to using Welsh history and settings, Powys also uses
11616-430: The Assembly which confirms the official status of the Welsh language; which creates a strong advocate for Welsh speakers and will improve the quality and quantity of services available through the medium of Welsh. I believe that everyone who wants to access services in the Welsh language should be able to do so, and that is what this government has worked towards. This legislation is an important and historic step forward for
11792-454: The BBC, the Corporation could become a useful tool to serve Plaid Cymru's political ends. In 1929 he declared it would soon be necessary to arrange for "thousands of Welshmen to be prosecuted for refusing to pay for English programmes". The following year Lewis was commissioned by E.R. Appleton, Director of the BBC's Cardiff radio station, (who had banned broadcasting in Welsh) to broadcast a talk which would "explain Welsh Nationalism". On vetting
11968-447: The Cymdeithas launched a campaign of civil disobedience aimed at the State's policy of coercive Anglicisation . According to Marcus Tanner, "For the first time, the British government was forced to recognise the existence of a substantial non-Anglophone culture, and to rethink attitudes that had been set in stone since Henry VIII 's so-called Acts of Union . The new, more conciliatory attitude began under Labour , but continued under
12144-482: The English education system." He became editor of The Liscard High School Magazine and often visited the Wallasey Public Library, where he read contemporary English literature and, as a teenager, was enthusiastic when he discovered the recent mythopoeic poetry and prose reimaginings of Irish folklore and mythology by Irish nationalists William Butler Yeats , John Millington Synge , and Padraic Colum . Lewis later recalled that through these writers, "I came for
12320-458: The English language: George Herbert (1593–1633) from Montgomeryshire , Henry Vaughan (1622–1695) from Brecknockshire , and John Dyer (1699–1757) from Carmarthenshire . While some see them as clearly belonging to the English tradition, Belinda Humphrey believes that both Vaughan and Dyer are Anglo-Welsh poets because, unlike Herbert, they are "rooted creatively in the Welsh countryside of their birth". Furthermore, she suggests in Vaughan's case
12496-486: The Falklands War is modelled on Aneirin's Y Gododdin . Swansea poet Harri Webb 's (1920–1994) verse, including The Green Desert (1969), is marked in its themes by a radical and uncompromising commitment to Welsh nationalist politics. Another important poet of the late twentieth century is Tony Curtis (born 1946) from Carmarthen: he is the author of several collections, most recently War Voices (1995), The Arches (1998), and Heaven's Gate (2001). John Tripp (1927–86),
12672-550: The Greater London area. The Welsh Language Board , on the basis of an analysis of the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study, estimated there were 110,000 Welsh-speaking people in England, and another thousand in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In the 2011 census , 8,248 people in England gave Welsh in answer to the question "What is your main language?" The Office for National Statistics subsequently published
12848-564: The House of Commons. The University of Wales seat had become vacant when the constituency's Liberal Member of Parliament, Ernest Evans , had been appointed a county court judge in 1942. Lewis was selected to contest the seat for Plaid Cymru in the ensuing 1943 University of Wales by-election . His opponent was former Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru Deputy Vice-president William John Gruffydd . Gruffydd had been voicing doubts about Lewis's ideas since 1933, and by 1943 he had left Plaid Cymru and joined
13024-524: The Pwllheli conference. According to the 1911 census, out of a population of just under 2.5 million, 43.5% of the total population of Wales spoke Welsh as a primary language. This was a decrease from the 1891 census with 54.4% speaking Welsh out of a population of 1.5 million. With these pre-requisites, Lewis condemned " 'Welsh nationalism' as it had hitherto existed, a nationalism characterized by inter-party conferences, an obsession with Westminster and
13200-588: The UK government's decision to involve Wales in the conflict. With this challenging and revolutionary policy Lewis hoped a significant number of Welshmen would refuse to join the armed forces . Lewis and other party members were attempting to strengthen loyalty to the Welsh nation "over the loyalty to the British State". Lewis argued "The only proof that the Welsh nation exists is that there are some who act as if it did exist." However, most party members who claimed conscientious objection status did so in
13376-587: The Wales Book of the Year Award. Minhinnick edited Poetry Wales magazine from 1997 to 2008. His first novel, Sea Holly (2007) was shortlisted for the 2008 Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize. Welsh writing in English tended from the beginning to be dominated by men, but the period after World War II produced some distinguished Welsh women poets, including Ruth Bidgood (born 1922), Gillian Clarke (born 1937), and Sheenagh Pugh (born 1950). Pugh
13552-496: The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, all new signs have Welsh displayed first. There have been incidents of one of the languages being vandalised, which may be considered a hate crime . Since 2000, the teaching of Welsh has been compulsory in all schools in Wales up to age 16; this has had an effect in stabilising and reversing the decline in the language. Text on UK coins tends to be in English and Latin. However,
13728-704: The Welsh Language Scheme. The list of other public bodies which have to prepare Schemes could be added to by initially the Secretary of State for Wales, from 1993 to 1997, by way of statutory instrument . Subsequent to the forming of the National Assembly for Wales in 1997, the Government Minister responsible for the Welsh language can and has passed statutory instruments naming public bodies who have to prepare Schemes. Neither
13904-484: The Welsh influence on his work is not always immediately apparent. Thus he might be seen partly as a Welsh analogue to Northern Ireland's C.S. Lewis . Peter George is another example of a writer of Welsh origins who rarely wrote about Wales. Conversely, Eric Linklater was born in Penarth , but is generally considered a Scottish writer. A further challenge for the definition of Welsh literature in English has come with
14080-667: The Welsh language official status in Wales. Welsh and English are de jure official languages of the Welsh Parliament, the Senedd , with Welsh being the only de jure official language in any part of the United Kingdom, with English being merely de facto official. According to the 2021 census , the Welsh-speaking population of Wales aged three or older was 538,300 (17.8%) and nearly three quarters of
14256-399: The Welsh language, and of leading people back to the mother tongue." In the field of fiction the major figure in the second half of the twentieth century was Emyr Humphreys (1919). Humphreys' first novel The Little Kingdom was published in 1946; and during his long writing career he has published over twenty novels. These include A Toy Epic (1958), Outside the House of Baal (1965), and
14432-526: The Welsh language, though some had concerns over her appointment: Plaid Cymru spokeswoman Bethan Jenkins said, "I have concerns about the transition from Meri Huws's role from the Welsh Language Board to the language commissioner, and I will be asking the Welsh government how this will be successfully managed. We must be sure that there is no conflict of interest, and that the Welsh Language Commissioner can demonstrate how she will offer
14608-487: The Welsh of the 16th century, but they are similar enough for a fluent Welsh speaker to have little trouble understanding it. During the Modern Welsh period, there has been a decline in the popularity of the Welsh language: the number of Welsh speakers declined to the point at which there was concern that the language would become extinct. During industrialisation in the late 19th century, immigrants from England led to
14784-787: The Welsh provenance rather than the English language. Recently the more neutral term "Anglophone Writing from Wales" has been employed. There is no final, clear definition of what constitutes a Welsh writer in English, or Anglo-Welsh author. Obviously it includes Welsh writers whose first language is English, rather than Welsh, such as Swansea born Dylan Thomas (1914–53) and novelist Emyr Humphreys , born in Prestatyn in 1919. But it also includes those born outside Wales with Welsh parentage, who were influenced by their Welsh roots, like London-born poet David Jones (1895–1974). Glyn Jones in The Dragon Has Two Tongues defines
14960-566: The Welsh-speaking heartlands, with the number dropping to under 50 per cent in Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire for the first time. However, according to the Welsh Language Use Survey in 2019–20, 22 per cent of people aged three and over were able to speak Welsh. The Annual Population Survey (APS) by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that as of March 2024, approximately 862,700, or 28.0 per cent of
15136-570: The Window (2009). Bill Hopkins (1928–2011) was aligned with the existentialist wing of the " angry young men " movement. His only novel, The Divine and the Decay (1957), created a scandal with its Nietzschean themes, and the reactions made him abandon what would have been his second novel. At a local level Fred Hando (1888–1970) chronicled and illustrated the history, character and folklore of Monmouthshire (which he also called Gwent ), in
15312-488: The Wirral , Cheshire , in the north-west of England , on 15 October 1893. He was the second of three sons of Lodwig Lewis (1859–1933), a Calvinistic Methodist minister, and his wife Mary Margaret (née Thomas, 1862–1900). When he was only six years old, Lewis's mother died and his unmarried maternal "Aunt Ellen" (Ellen Elizabeth Thomas) moved into the manse and helped to raise him. Jan Morris has described Liverpool as
15488-408: The advance of the English language, theatre in English developed quickly between 1875 and 1925. By 1912 Wales had 34 theatres and many halls licensed for dramatic performances. However, the arrival of sound cinema in the 1930s led to the closure or transformation of most theatres. Emlyn Williams (1905–1987) became an overnight star with his thriller Night Must Fall (1935), in which he also played
15664-537: The arts. His work laid the foundations for the field of cultural studies and the cultural materialist approach. The subject matter of the Cardiff-born Booker Prize -winner Bernice Rubens (1928–2004) is quite different. She was a member of Cardiff's small Jewish community; and associated themes were a central concern of much of her writing, including Brothers (1983), where parallels with her own ancestry are obvious: it follows four generations of
15840-440: The border region. David Jones (1895–1974), whose father was from North Wales, was born in a London suburb. His epic poem In Parenthesis , which deals with his World War I experiences, was published in 1937. Another Swansea poet Vernon Watkins (1906–67) likewise does not belong with the main group of writers of the so-called First Wave from the South Wales mining communities. Roland Mathias suggests that "his use of Welsh tradition
16016-490: The case against building this "bombing school" in Wales, despite a deputation representing 500,000 Welsh protesters. Protest against the project was summed up by Lewis when he wrote that the UK Government was intent upon turning one of the "essential homes of Welsh culture, idiom, and literature" into a place for promoting a "barbaric" method of warfare. Construction of this military academy began exactly 400 years after
16192-482: The cause of Irish independence , brought him to Welsh nationalism. He was an advocate for Welsh independence In 1924, Lewis founded Y Mudiad Cymreig ("The Welsh Movement") with a small group of fellow nationalists. The group met secretly for the first time in Penarth on 7 January 1924. The group continued to meet in secret throughout 1924 and began drawing up a set of aims and policies intended to "rescue Wales from political and cultural oblivion". At around
16368-460: The census. In terms of usage, ONS also reported that 14.4 per cent (443,800) of people aged three or older in Wales reported that they spoke Welsh daily in March 2024, with 5.4 per cent (165,500) speaking it weekly and 6.5 per cent (201,200) less often. Approximately 1.7 per cent (51,700) reported that they never spoke Welsh despite being able to speak the language, with the remaining 72.0 per cent of
16544-586: The closest there is to a metropolis for the people of North Wales . During a television interview with Aneirin Talfan Davies , Lewis later recalled that this was also true during his childhood, as in and around Liverpool, "there were around about a hundred thousand Welsh-speaking Welsh people ... So I was not born in English-speaking England... but into a society that was completely Welsh and Welsh-speaking." Even though his father
16720-419: The closing of a steel mill, and Duncan Bush 's (born 1946) grim portrait of urban isolation Glass Shot (1991). The body of Meredith's fiction, as well as his poetry, ranges much more widely, including historical fiction and bleak comedy. Another important novelist of the post-Second-World-War era was Raymond Williams (1921–88). Born near Abergavenny , Williams continued the earlier tradition of writing from
16896-451: The context of their moral and religious beliefs, rather than on political policy. Of these almost all were exempt from military service. About 24 party members made politics their sole grounds for exemption, of whom 12 received prison sentences. For Lewis, those who objected proved that the assimilation of Wales was "being withstood, even under the most extreme pressures". Prior to 1950, universities could elect and return representatives to
17072-653: The corporation. As newspapers of the time noted, appointees seemed primarily drawn from the families of the Welsh-speaking elite including "the son of a professor of Welsh and the offspring of three archdruids". Saunders Lewis's assiduous campaigning over the years was to succeed in cementing an ongoing Plaid Cymru influence within the BBC. When the BBC's Welsh Advisory Council was eventually established in 1946, although half its members were Labour, several Plaid Cymru supporters were appointed including Saunders Lewis's successor as Plaid Cymru president, Gwynfor Evans . Welsh nationalism
17248-488: The counties of Glamorgan , Flint , and Pembroke . Assuming, "a gloomy sepulchral tone", Lewis argued that the Welsh language was, "driven into a corner, ready to be thrown, like a worthless rag, on the dung heap." The responsibility for this lay, according to Lewis, less in the hands of the British civil service bureaucracy than with the timidity and indifference of the Welsh-speaking people themselves. As he had fully intended it to do, Lewis' lecture immediately touched
17424-414: The course of the 20th century this monolingual population all but disappeared, but a small percentage remained at the time of the 1981 census. Most Welsh-speaking people in Wales also speak English. However, many Welsh-speaking people are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain and the social context, even within
17600-489: The creation of Old Welsh, Davies suggests it may be more appropriate to refer to this derivative language as Lingua Britannica rather than characterising it as a new language altogether. The argued dates for the period of "Primitive Welsh" are widely debated, with some historians' suggestions differing by hundreds of years. The next main period is Old Welsh ( Hen Gymraeg , 9th to 11th centuries); poetry from both Wales and Scotland has been preserved in this form of
17776-531: The current situation of Welsh poetry in English, Ian Gregson suggests that "much of the most exciting poetry in Britain is being written in Wales". He singles out Oliver Reynolds (born 1957), Gwyneth Lewis (born 1959) – who also write in Welsh – and Stephen Knight (born 1960) as having fulfilled "their early promise". Amongst more recent Welsh writers in English, Niall Griffiths is notable for his novels Grits (2000) and Sheepshagger (2001), which portray
17952-479: The decline in Welsh speakers particularly in the South Wales Valleys. Welsh government processes and legislation have worked to increase the proliferation of the Welsh language, for example through education. Welsh has been spoken continuously in Wales throughout history; however, by 1911, it had become a minority language, spoken by 43.5 per cent of the population. While this decline continued over
18128-455: The early short stories tended to focus on the eccentricities – as seen from a metropolitan viewpoint – of Welsh rural life, though later work focused on life in the industrial valleys of South Wales. A genre of poetry also developed which consciously located itself in association with poetry in the Welsh language and this emphasis led some writers to question the term "Anglo-Welsh" and favour the alternative "Welsh Writing in English" as emphasising
18304-399: The early twentieth century favoured poetry and the short story over the novel, with some notable exceptions. This was for two main reasons: in a society lacking sufficient wealth to support professional writers, the amateur writer was able to spare time only for short bursts of creativity and these forms concentrated linguistic delight and exuberance. Since the main market was London publishers,
18480-414: The experience proved invaluable for Plaid Cymru, as "for the first time they were taken seriously as a political force." The by-election campaign led directly to "considerable growth" in the party's membership. In 1962 Lewis gave a radio speech entitled Tynged yr iaith ("The Fate of the Language") in which he predicted the complete extinction of the Welsh language by 2000 unless immediate action
18656-598: The first time to understand what patriotism meant and the spirit of the nation meant. And I soon began to think that things like those , which had seized hold of them in Ireland, were the things I should seize hold of in Wales." Lewis' earliest attempts at writing poems were in English and were inspired by William Wordsworth , Walter Pater , John Wesley and the King James Bible . After entering Liverpool University to study English literature in 1911, Lewis
18832-606: The first wave of Anglo-Welsh writers was The Withered Root (1927) by Rhys Davies (1901–78) from the Rhondda Valley. While he probably wrote more fiction about the industrial world of the South Wales Valleys than anyone else, Rhys Davies was in fact a grocer's son who was living in London by the time he was twenty. Unlike that of other writers from the mining community, his fiction is more concerned with individuals, in particular women, than with politics. D. H. Lawrence
19008-491: The following decades, the language did not die out. The smallest number of speakers was recorded in 1981 with 503,000 although the lowest percentage was recorded in the most recent census in 2021 at 17.8 per cent. By the start of the 21st century, numbers began to increase once more, at least partly as a result of the increase in Welsh-medium education . The 2004 Welsh Language Use Survey showed that 21.7 per cent of
19184-960: The founder and editor of Black Rabbit Press, has won a number of awards, including the John Tripp Spoken Poetry Audience Prize, the Aurora Poetry Award, the Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize, and the Rabbit Heart Poetry Film Festival Grand Jury Prize. She also received a Creative Wales Award. She has presented two radio programs for the BBC which featured Welsh poetry from the past to the present. Contemporary poets also include Rhian Edwards , Meirion Jordan (born 1985), Nerys Williams , and Jonathan Edwards (born 1979). Rhian Edwards' debut collection Clueless Dogs
19360-407: The future of the Welsh people . In the 21st century, he continues, for this reason to be the target of posthumous attacks by far left politicians from the very party he helped to found. Even so, Lewis was overwhelmingly voted the tenth greatest Welsh hero in the ' 100 Welsh Heroes ' poll, released on St. David's Day 2004. John Saunders Lewis was born into a Welsh-speaking family in Wallasey in
19536-552: The globalisation of culture. However, modern Welsh literature in English reflects a multicultural experience. If a Welsh writer chooses to write in English, this does not mean that they are unable to speak Welsh as well. In some cases, such as Jan Morris or Gillian Clarke , English-language writers have chosen to learn Welsh. In others, a native Welsh speaker such as Siân James or Jo Walton may choose to write some, or all of their work in English. Writing for an English-language market does not necessarily mean that they have abandoned
19712-574: The hardship and suffering that came with it, it also saw significant cultural gains with regard to a separate Welsh identity within the British Isles, starting with the appointing of a Secretary of State for Wales in 1964, and the establishment of a Welsh Office in Cardiff the following year. With these developments came an Arts Council for Wales . For the Welsh-speaking minority there was the Welsh Language Act of 1967 , and – from
19888-469: The highest number of native speakers who use the language on a daily basis, and it is the Celtic language which is considered the least endangered by UNESCO . The Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the Welsh and English languages be treated equally in the public sector, as far as is reasonable and practicable. Each public body is required to prepare for approval
20064-476: The highest percentage of residents giving Welsh as their main language. The census also revealed that 3,528 wards in England, or 46% of the total number, contained at least one resident whose main language is Welsh. In terms of the regions of England , North West England (1,945), London (1,310) and the West Midlands (1,265) had the highest number of people noting Welsh as their main language. According to
20240-456: The history of Welsh, with rather indistinct boundaries: Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh. The period immediately following the language's emergence is sometimes referred to as Primitive Welsh, followed by the Old Welsh period – which is generally considered to stretch from the beginning of the 9th century to sometime during the 12th century. The Middle Welsh period
20416-580: The inevitable", Lewis and Margaret Gilcriest (1891-1984) were married at Our Lady and St Michael Roman Catholic Church in Workington , Cumberland , on 31 July 1924. They had one child, a daughter, Mair Saunders Jones (1926-2011). When the First World War broke out, an idealistic Lewis, feeling inspired by the Aesthete philosophy of Walter Pater to, "savour this experience of life-energy at
20592-595: The language already dropping inflections in the declension of nouns. Janet Davies proposed that the origins of the Welsh language were much less definite; in The Welsh Language: A History , she proposes that Welsh may have been around even earlier than 600 AD. This is evidenced by the dropping of final syllables from Brittonic: * bardos 'poet' became bardd , and * abona 'river' became afon . Though both Davies and Jackson cite minor changes in syllable structure and sounds as evidence for
20768-403: The language to employ it in his poems. Although an Anglican priest, he was a fervent nationalist and advocated non-violent action against English owners of holiday homes in Wales. As an admirer of Saunders Lewis, Thomas defended his need to use English: "Since there is in Wales a mother tongue that continues to flourish, a proper Welshman can only look on English as a means of rekindling interest in
20944-562: The language, its speakers and for the nation." The measure was not welcomed warmly by all supporters: Bethan Williams, chairman of the Welsh Language Society, gave a mixed response to the move, saying, "Through this measure we have won official status for the language and that has been warmly welcomed. But there was a core principle missing in the law passed by the Assembly before Christmas. It doesn't give language rights to
21120-555: The language. As Germanic and Gaelic colonisation of Britain proceeded, the Brittonic speakers in Wales were split off from those in northern England, speaking Cumbric, and those in the southwest, speaking what would become Cornish , so the languages diverged. Both the works of Aneirin ( Canu Aneirin , c. 600 ) and the Book of Taliesin ( Canu Taliesin ) were written during this era. Middle Welsh ( Cymraeg Canol )
21296-541: The late 1930s, yet he belongs more to the post-war era. Tony Conran in 2003 suggested that it was not until the late sixties, "with the 'fragments' that were to be collected in The Sleeping Lord (1974), that his work began to enter our bloodstream and be seen as a significant part of the Anglo-Welsh renaissance". The attitude of the post-war generation of Welsh writers in English towards Wales differs from
21472-414: The lead role of a psychopathic murderer. The play was noted for its exploration of the killer's complex psychological state, a step forward for its genre. It was made into a film in 1937 and has been frequently revived. The Corn is Green (1938) was partly based on his own childhood in Wales. He starred as a Welsh schoolboy in the play's London premiere. The play came to Broadway in 1940 and was turned into
21648-510: The masses"), based on Catholic social teaching , Distributism , and Christian democracy . Saunders Lewis perceived the early development of BBC radio broadcasting in Wales (which was almost entirely in English) as serious threat to his aim of arresting the decline of the Welsh language (then down to 36%) and turning Wales back into a 100% Welsh-speaking nation. At the same time he also recognised that if he could exert influence and pressure on
21824-622: The modern period across the border in England. Archenfield was still Welsh enough in the time of Elizabeth I for the Bishop of Hereford to be made responsible, together with the four Welsh bishops, for the translation of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Welsh. Welsh was still commonly spoken there in the first half of the 19th century, and churchwardens' notices were put up in both Welsh and English until about 1860. Alexander John Ellis in
22000-473: The mythology of The Mabinogion . He also studied the Welsh language. Then there is the poet, teacher, and critic Jeremy Hooker (born 1941), who taught at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth from 1965 to 1984 and became deeply involved in writing about and teaching Welsh writing in English during this time, though he wrote only a few poems with Welsh subject matter. The Liverpool -born novelist James Hanley (1897–1985) lived in Wales from 1931 until 1963 and
22176-411: The national aspirations and indigenous culture of our country". Another writer who escaped from his proletarian background was Gwyn Jones (1907–1999). He wrote about this world in novels and short stories, including Times Like These (1936) which explores the life of a working-class family during the 1926 miners' strike . Jones founded The Welsh Review in 1939, which he edited until 1948; this journal
22352-448: The number of Welsh-language speakers to one million by 2050. Since 1980, the number of children attending Welsh-medium schools has increased, while the number going to Welsh bilingual and dual-medium schools has decreased. Welsh is considered the least endangered Celtic language by UNESCO . The language of the Welsh developed from the language of Britons . The emergence of Welsh was not instantaneous and clearly identifiable. Instead,
22528-550: The party's initial position on the war, party members were free to choose for themselves their level of support for the war effort. Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru was officially neutral regarding involvement the Second World War , which Lewis and other leaders considered a continuation of the First World War . Central to the neutrality policy was the idea that Wales, as a nation, had the right to decide independently on its attitude towards war, along with opposition towards
22704-769: The passage of the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 . On 8 September 1936, the building was set on fire and in the investigations which followed Saunders Lewis, Lewis Valentine , and D. J. Williams claimed responsibility. They were tried at Caernarfon, where the jury failed to agree on a verdict. The case was then sent to be retried at the Old Bailey in London, where "the Three" were convicted, and sentenced to nine months imprisonment. On their release from Wormwood Scrubs , they were greeted as heroes by 15,000 Welsh people at
22880-473: The people of Wales in every aspect of their lives. Despite that, an amendment to that effect was supported by 18 Assembly Members from three different parties, and that was a significant step forward." On 5 October 2011, Meri Huws , Chair of the Welsh Language Board , was appointed the new Welsh Language Commissioner. She released a statement that she was "delighted" to have been appointed to
23056-551: The people of the Western Roman Empire . In Old English the term went through semantic narrowing , coming to refer to either Britons in particular or, in some contexts, slaves. The plural form Wēalas evolved into the name for their territory, Wales. The modern names for various Romance-speaking people in Continental Europe (e.g. Walloons , Valaisans , Vlachs / Wallachians , and Włosi ,
23232-436: The population in Wales said they had no Welsh language skills. Other estimates suggest that 862,700 people (28.0%) aged three or older in Wales could speak Welsh in March 2024. Almost half of all Welsh speakers consider themselves fluent, while 20 per cent are able to speak a fair amount. 56 per cent of Welsh speakers speak the language daily, and 19 per cent speak the language weekly. The Welsh Government plans to increase
23408-471: The population not being able to speak it. The National Survey for Wales, conducted by Welsh Government, has also tended to report a higher percentage of Welsh speakers than the census, with the most recent results for 2022–2023 suggesting that 18 per cent of the population aged 3 and over were able to speak Welsh, with an additional 16 per cent noting that they had some Welsh-speaking ability. Historically, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh. Over
23584-502: The population of Wales aged 3 and over, were able to speak the language. Children and young people aged three to 15 years old were more likely to report that they could speak Welsh than any other age group (48.4 per cent, 241,300). Around 1,001,500 people, or 32.5 per cent, reported that they could understand spoken Welsh. 24.7 per cent (759,200) could read and 22.2 per cent (684,500) could write in Welsh. The APS estimates of Welsh language ability are historically higher than those produced by
23760-407: The population of Wales spoke Welsh, compared with 20.8 per cent in the 2001 census , and 18.5 per cent in the 1991 census . Since 2001, however, the number of Welsh speakers has declined in both the 2011 and 2021 censuses to about 538,300 or 17.8 per cent in 2021, lower than 1991, although it is still higher in absolute terms. The 2011 census also showed a "big drop" in the number of speakers in
23936-473: The possible influence of the tradition of Welsh-language poetry. Writers from medieval Wales such as Geoffrey of Monmouth and Adam of Usk also used Latin and Norman French, in addition to English and Welsh. Welsh writing in English might be said to begin with the fifteenth-century bard Ieuan ap Hywel Swrdwal (?1430 – ?1480), whose Hymn to the Virgin was written at Oxford in England in about 1470 and uses
24112-542: The previous generation, in that they were more sympathetic to Welsh nationalism and to the Welsh language. The change can be linked to the nationalist fervour generated by Saunders Lewis and the burning of the Bombing School on the Lleyn Peninsula in 1936, along with a sense of crisis generated by World War II. In poetry R. S. Thomas (1913–2000) was the most important figure throughout the second half of
24288-542: The publication of Anglo-Welsh writers in Wales in journal and book form was important for the further development of Welsh writing in English. This included The Welsh Review (1939–1948), and Dock Leaves which later became The Anglo-Welsh Review (1949–1987) and continues (from 1988) as the New Welsh Review . In 1967 another important Anglo-Welsh journal, Poetry Wales , was founded by Meic Stephens , assisted by Harri Webb. Shortly thereafter, in 1970, Planet
24464-409: The required fresh approach to this new role." Huws started her role as the Welsh Language Commissioner on 1 April 2012. Local councils and the Senedd use Welsh, issuing Welsh versions of their literature, to varying degrees. Road signs in Wales are in Welsh and English. Prior to 2016, the choice of which language to display first was the responsibility of the local council. Since then, as part of
24640-547: The same time as Lewis formed Y Mudiad Cymreig , another group of nationalists formed Byddin Ymreolwyr Cymru ("The Welsh Home Rule Army") in Caernarfon. The group was led by Huw Robert Jones , who made contact with Lewis in early 1925 and proposed to form a new political party. Lewis met with Jones, Lewis Valentine , Moses Griffith, Fred Jones and D. Edmund Williams in a café called Maes Gwyn during
24816-496: The script, which advocated political nationalism in preference to "cultural nationalism", Appleton decided it was too controversial and inflammatory to be broadcast. In October 1933 the University of Wales Council, which had been lobbying for more Welsh-language broadcasting, appointed a ten-man council to press the case with the BBC. It included David Lloyd George , William George , W. J. Gruffydd and Saunders Lewis – who
24992-411: The second half of the twentieth century, the names of Roland Mathias (1915–2007), Leslie Norris (1921–2006), John Ormond (1923–1990), Dannie Abse (born 1923), Raymond Garlick (born 1926), Peter Finch (born 1947), Tony Curtis (b. 1946), Nigel Jenkins (b. 1949), Mike Jenkins (b. 1953), Paul Henry (b. 1959), Christopher Meredith and Paul Groves (born 1947) have a significant place. With regard to
25168-651: The shift occurred over a long period, with some historians claiming that it had happened by as late as the 9th century , with a watershed moment being that proposed by linguist Kenneth H. Jackson , the Battle of Dyrham , a military battle between the West Saxons and the Britons in 577 AD, which split the South Western British from direct overland contact with the Welsh. Four periods are identified in
25344-425: The south because of immigration from England and Ireland as a result of industrialisation. This loss of language was an important factor in the development of Anglo-Welsh writing in South Wales, especially in the mining valleys. While some of these authors came from Welsh-speaking families, they generally tended to associate this language with the repressive religion of Nonconformist chapels. The Anglo-Welsh writers of
25520-408: The term in their anthology Anglo-Welsh Poetry 1480-1980 as denoting a literature in which "the first element of the compound being understood to specify the language and the second the provenance of the writing". Although recognised as a distinctive entity only since the 20th century, Garlick and Mathias sought to identify a tradition of writing in English in Wales going back much further. The need for
25696-460: The theatre going public to both, "take note of the dramatic history of Europe." Lewis continued, "And so it seems to me we should begin anew with translation . We should translate into Welsh the plays of the acknowledged masters, of Euripides , of Corneille , of Racine , of Moliere , of Ibsen , of the Spaniards , and we should act them continually; we should learn the classics." In 1922, he
25872-526: The twentieth century, beginning with The Stones of the Field in 1946 and concluding with No Truce with the Furies (1995). While he "did not learn the Welsh language until he was 30 and wrote all his poems in English", he wanted the Welsh language to be made the first language of Wales, and the official policy of bilingualism abolished. He wrote his autobiography in Welsh, but said he lacked the necessary grasp of
26048-526: The use of Welsh in daily life, and standardised spelling. The New Testament was translated by William Salesbury in 1567, and the complete Bible by William Morgan in 1588. Modern Welsh is subdivided into Early Modern Welsh and Late Modern Welsh. Early Modern Welsh ran from the 15th century through to the end of the 16th century, and the Late Modern Welsh period roughly dates from the 16th century onwards. Contemporary Welsh differs greatly from
26224-555: The utmost", enlisted in the 3rd Battalion, King's Liverpool Regiment on 4 September 1914. British Army records describe Lewis at the time as five-feet and three inches in height, weighing just over seven and a half stone, and as having red hair and grey eyes. In April 1915, Lewis applied for a commission with the South Wales Borderers and was promoted to full lieutenant in February 1916. The following summer, he
26400-488: The vital importance of cultural nationalism . Furthermore, according to Jelle Krol, Lewis, was amazed to see how his own father's recent words of advice were echoed by Barrès, who wrote, "the only way to cultivate your personality as an artist and to develop your own resources, is to go back to your roots". Lewis accordingly, "discovered the importance of his Welsh roots during his service in France." In April 1917, Lewis
26576-518: Was "the most lively and exciting selection of contemporary Anglo-Welsh poetry ever to have appeared". Tony Conran (born 1931) is an important figure in this so-called second flowering as critic, poet, and translator of Welsh poetry. His Penguin Book of Welsh Verse (1967) has been especially helpful in bridging the gap between the Welsh and English speaking. In his own poetry he makes use of Welsh tradition: for example, his elegy for Welsh soldiers killed in
26752-639: Was a Welsh politician, poet, dramatist, Medievalist , and literary critic . Born into a Welsh-speaking ministerial family in Greater Liverpool , Lewis studied in a public school growing up. He rediscovered the importance of both his heritage language and cultural roots while serving as a junior officer in the British Army during the trenches of the First World War . As a vocal supporter of Welsh nationalism , Lewis believed, however, that heritage language revival , cultural nationalism and
26928-436: Was a major influence on Rhys, though similarities with Caradoc Evans have been noted, and it has been suggested that he had "The tendency to process images of the Welsh valleys for consumption by English audiences". Another Anglo-Welsh novelist (and playwright) was Jack Jones (1884–1970), a miner's son from Merthyr Tydfil who was himself a miner from the age of 12. He was active in the union movement and politics, starting with
27104-502: Was a scholar, "who liked solitude and study", and possessed a very large library of Welsh literature , the only Welsh-language books that Saunders Lewis read while growing up were Bishop Morgan 's Bible , the hymnbook, and Sunday school commentaries. Lewis attended prestigious English-speaking Liscard High School for Boys where he was bullied at first, due to the fact that what little English he could speak, "was full of Welsh words." In time, however, Lewis became, "a typical product of
27280-499: Was appointed as lecturer in Welsh literature at the University College of Wales, Swansea . During his time at Swansea he produced some of his most significant works of literary criticism: A School of Welsh Augustans (1924), Williams Pantycelyn (1927), and Braslun o hanes llenyddiaeth Gymraeg [ cy ] (An outline history of Welsh literature) (1932). He continued in this post until his dismissal for
27456-693: Was born in Birmingham, but lived for many years in Cardiff and taught creative writing at the University of Glamorgan until retiring in 2008. Her collection Stonelight (1999) won the Wales Book of the Year Award in 2000. She has twice won the Cardiff International Poetry Competition. She has also published novels. She now lives in Shetland . Although Ruth Bidgood was born near Neath in 1922, her first collection The Given Time appeared only in 1972. Gillian Clarke
27632-469: Was buried there. Hanley published, Grey Children: A Study in Humbug and Misery (1937), a study of unemployment in industrial South Wales and three novels set in Wales. As one writer notes: "a widely debatable area of Anglo-Welsh acceptability exists". Saunders Lewis , the noted Welsh-language poet, novelist, dramatist, and nationalist, in fact rejected the possibility of Anglo-Welsh literature because English
27808-622: Was complete by around AD 550, and labelled the period between then and about AD 800 "Primitive Welsh". This Primitive Welsh may have been spoken in both Wales and the Hen Ogledd ('Old North') – the Brittonic-speaking areas of what are now northern England and southern Scotland – and therefore may have been the ancestor of Cumbric as well as Welsh. Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to
27984-414: Was continuing to incense the BBC by publicly alleging it was "seeking the destruction of the Welsh language". The University Committee, which was described by BBC Director General John Reith as "the most unpleasant and unreliable people with whom it has been my misfortune to deal" gained ever more influence on the BBC in Wales not least in the selection of BBC staff – a function delegated to the committee by
28160-619: Was deployed to active service on the Western Front . During the war, Lewis read the trilogy of novels The Cult of the Self (French: Le Culte du moi ) by the French writer Maurice Barrès . Barrès, a French nationalist , had called since the 1890s, alongside Paul Claudel and Paul Bourget , for, "a 'return' to national values and traditions." This volume heavily influenced Lewis' growing sense of his own Welsh identity and belief in
28336-467: Was first broadcast in 1954. The critic, novelist, and poet Glyn Jones 's (1905–1995) career also began in the 1930s, but he belongs more to the later era, and one of his most important works, the novel The Island of Apples , was published in 1965. His first language had been Welsh but he chose to write in English. James A. Davies describes him as "a considerable talent in need of the great editor he never managed to find". David Jones also first published in
28512-462: Was highly selective – only the ancient custom of the Mari Lwyd and the legend of Taliesin". Alun Lewis (1915–44), from Cwmaman near Aberdare , published both poetry and short fiction and might well have been a major figure in the decades after the war but for his early death. The careers of some 1930s writers continued after World War Two, including those of Gwyn Thomas , Vernon Watkins , and Dylan Thomas , whose most famous work Under Milk Wood
28688-497: Was ignited in 1936 when the UK Government settled on establishing an RAF training camp and aerodrome at Penyberth on the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd . The events surrounding the protest, known as Tân yn Llŷn ("Fire in Llŷn"), helped define Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru . The UK Government settled on Llŷn as the site for its training camp after similar proposed sites in Northumberland and Dorset met with protests. However, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin refused to hear
28864-581: Was important for raising discussion of Welsh issues. What is probably the most famous novel about Wales, Richard Llewellyn 's How Green Was My Valley , was published in 1939. It is described by Glyn Jones in The Dragon Has Two Tongues as a "staggering and accomplished piece of literary hokum" (p. 51), "a book [that Jones finds] impossible to take seriously, though much of it [he] read with absorption" (p. 53). (See also Margiad Evans [Peggy Eileen Whistler] (1909–58); Richard Hughes (1900–76); Alexander Cordell (1914–97).) The mining valleys produced
29040-460: Was launched by Ned Thomas and subsequently edited by the poet and essayist John Barnie . In the early 1990s came the yearly Welsh Writing in English: A Yearbook of Critical Essays edited by M. Wynn Thomas & Tony Brown. Amongst book publishers, the University of Wales Press, founded in 1922, has been influential. Poetry Wales became involved with publishing, firstly as Poetry Wales Press, and then, since 1985, as Seren Books. Y Lolfa , founded in
29216-536: Was linked as one of the 'founders' of European civilization. Lewis, a self-described "strong monarchist ", wrote "Civilization is more than an abstraction. It must have a local habitation and name. Here its name is Wales." Additionally, Lewis strove for the stability, educational and cultural advancement, and economic prosperity of local communities in Y Fro Gymraeg . He also denounced both laissez faire capitalism and Marxism , and instead promoted what he called perchentyaeth : (lit. "distributing property among
29392-433: Was most successful as a social and educational pressure group rather than as a political party. For Saunders Lewis, party president 1926 to 1939, "the chief aim of the party [is] to 'take away from the Welsh their sense of inferiority ... to remove from our beloved country the mark and shame of conquest. ' " Lewis sought to cast Welshness into a new context, wrote Davies. Lewis wished to demonstrate how Welsh heritage
29568-419: Was named the Wales Book of the Year in 2013. Jonathan Edwards' debut collection My Family and Other Superheroes won the Costa Book Award for Poetry in 2014. Meirion Jordan, who was born in Swansea, Wales, won the Newdigate Prize in 2007 and Seren has published two collections by him. Nerys Williams is originally from Pen-Y-Bont, Carmarthen in West Wales, and her collection of poetry Sound Archive (2011)
29744-419: Was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Literature and was appointed as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Gregory by Pope Paul VI . Saunders Lewis' traditionalist Catholic and distributist beliefs gave him a simultaneously anti-Marxist and anti-colonialist interpretation of Welsh history and a similar vision, influenced by his study of what had he considered to have worked in Irish nationalism , for
29920-416: Was not ready to accept the leadership of a Roman Catholic. Although Lewis was the son and grandson of prominent Welsh Calvinistic Methodist ministers, he had converted to Roman Catholicism in 1932. Lewis maintained a strict neutrality in his writings through his column Cwrs y Byd in Y Faner . It was his attempt at an unbiased interpretation of the causes and events of the war. Outside of
30096-518: Was passed and received Royal Assent, thus making the Welsh language an officially recognised language within Wales. The measure: The measure required public bodies and some private companies to provide services in Welsh. The Welsh government's Minister for Heritage at the time, Alun Ffred Jones , said, "The Welsh language is a source of great pride for the people of Wales, whether they speak it or not, and I am delighted that this measure has now become law. I am very proud to have steered legislation through
30272-399: 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, thus evolving into Welsh and the other Brittonic languages. It is not clear when Welsh became distinct. Linguist Kenneth H. Jackson has suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern
30448-785: Was published by Seren and Cabaret by New Dublin Press in 2017. Williams, a native Welsh speaker, was a recipient of a Fulbright Scholar's Award at University of California at Berkeley , and is a recent winner of the Ted McNulty Poetry Prize from Poetry Ireland . The National Theatre Wales , was founded in 2009, several years after Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru its Welsh language equivalent. As well as non-Welsh productions, it aims to produce original English language works by Welsh playwrights. In addition to Anglo-Welsh writers winning awards outside Wales, there are also several Welsh awards that can be won by English language writers. Welsh language Welsh ( Cymraeg [kəmˈraːiɡ] or y Gymraeg [ə ɡəmˈraːiɡ] )
30624-469: Was rejected by Gollancz and not published until 1986. Thomas's first accepted book was a collection of short stories, Where Did I Put My Pity: Folk-Tales From the Modern Welsh , which appeared in 1946. He was also known for his negative attitude to the Welsh language, and Glyn Jones sees him as falling "short of being a completely representative figure ... in his attitude to Wales and Welshness," as Gwyn Thomas "appears in his writing to have little sympathy with
30800-487: Was severely wounded in action in the left leg and thigh near Gonnelieu , with, "the calf of the leg nearly blown away", as part of the Battle of Cambrai . Afterwards, Lewis needed more than a year to convalesce, during which his younger brother, Ludwig Lewis, was killed in action on 7 July 1917. Although Lewis desperately wanted to visit and help comfort their grieving father at Swansea , his own battlefield injuries were still far too severe to permit him to travel. In
30976-416: Was taken. Lewis's radio speech was in response to the 1961 census, which showed a decrease in the percentage of Welsh speakers from 36% in 1931 to 26%, of the population of about 2.5 million. In the census the counties of Merionethshire (Meirionnydd), Anglesey (Ynys Môn), Carmarthenshire (Sir Gaerfyrddin), and Caernarfonshire averaged a 75% proportion of Welsh speakers, with the most significant decreases in
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