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82-616: Dinas Emrys ( Welsh for 'Emrys's city') is a rocky and wooded hillock near Beddgelert in Gwynedd , north-west Wales . Rising some 76 m (250 ft) above the floor of the Glaslyn river valley, it overlooks the southern end of Llyn Dinas in Snowdonia . Little remains of the Iron Age hillfort or castle structures that once stood here, save its stone ramparts and

164-441: 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

246-594: 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

328-459: A brass horn that prevents the Coraniaid from hearing their conversation, Llefelys offers solutions to each plague. The Coraniaid, he reveals, can be killed by a mixture made from a certain insect. This mixture is harmless to Britons, so Lludd must convene a meeting of both groups and throw the mixture over everyone, thereby destroying the invaders. The second plague is caused by a red dragon that

410-663: 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

492-544: A citadel, but the structure collapses repeatedly. His wise men tell him he must sacrifice a boy born without a father on the spot to alleviate the curse. Vortigern finally finds such a boy, Emrys ( Ambrosius Aurelianus , identified with Merlin in later versions), but Emrys reveals the real reason for the collapsing towers: two dragons, one red and one white, representing the Britons and the Saxons specifically, are buried beneath

574-543: A cradle and the sun clouded over so it became pitch dark. Lightning flashed in the sky and thunder clapped over his head. He dropped the pickaxe and ran home. When he arrived, everything was calm again, but he never returned to collect his pickaxe. Not far from Dinas Emrys is Cell y Dewiniaid – "The Grove of the Magicians". There is a field here that once had a thick grove of oak trees at its north end. Local tradition holds that Vortigern's wise men used to meet here to discuss

656-479: 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

738-527: A tower built on the spot continually collapses until Emrys reveals the buried dragons as the cause; once they are released the tower is successfully constructed and named after him. The name "Dinas Emrys" has been associated with a Roman ruin in Snowdonia , a localization that possibly dates as early as the Historia Brittonum . Welsh language Welsh ( Cymraeg [kəmˈraːiɡ] or y Gymraeg [ə ɡəmˈraːiɡ] )

820-513: A vat of cold water. Lludd returns home to Britain. He destroys the Coraniaid with the insect mixture and confines the dragons at Dinas Emrys . Finally he fights the "mighty magician", who submits to him to become his loyal servant. The earliest versions of the story appear inserted into certain manuscripts of the Brut y Brenhinedd , a series of Welsh adaptations of Geoffrey of Monmouth 's Historia Regum Britanniae . The oldest surviving version

902-1041: 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

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984-780: Is a compound , with the first element being Lleu (the name is usually spelled Lleuelis in the Red Book and White Book) lending his name to the Llewellyn dynasty of Welsh princes. Lleu is a major figure in the last of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi and is counterpart to the Irish mythological figure Lugh and the Gaulish god Lugus . Elements of Lludd and Llefelys bear some similarity to Irish stories of Nuada and Lugh,

1066-504: Is a pool inside the fort, but when the archaeologist Dr H. N. Savory excavated the hillfort between 1954 and 1956, he was surprised to find that not only were the fortifications of about the right time frame for either Vortigern or Ambrosius, but that there was a platform above the pool as described in the Historia Britonum . However, he found the platform to date much later than the accepted floruit of either personage. While it

1148-585: 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. Lludd and Llefelys The story begins as Lludd inherits

1230-688: 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

1312-399: Is embroiled in combat with a foreign white dragon. Lludd must set a trap for them at the exact centre of the island called Oxford , put them to sleep with mead , and then bury them underground in a stone chest. The third plague is caused by a "mighty magician", who casts a spell to make the whole court fall asleep while he raids their stores. Lludd must confront him, keeping himself awake with

1394-556: Is mentioned in the tale " Lludd and Llefelys " as the place where King Lludd of Britain traps and buries two dragons who are ravaging the land. The text explains that the site was later named "Dinas Emreis". This tale is a prequel to the older story involving the hero Emrys ( Ambrosius Aurelianus ) or Myrddin Emrys ( Merlin ). In sources such as the Historia Brittonum and Geoffrey of Monmouth 's Historia Regum Britanniae ,

1476-461: Is of interest to archaeologists because it is an example of a hillfort whose fortifications entirely postdate the Roman period, this hill is also of interest to enthusiasts about the legends of King Arthur . This is the setting of the famous exchange of the warlord Vortigern and the youthful Merlin , as told in the Historia Britonum . According to legend, when Vortigern fled into Wales to escape

1558-460: Is so good that they can hear anything the wind touches. The second plague is a horrid scream that comes every May Day and causes all pregnant women in Britain to miscarry. The third plague involves disappearing provisions: no matter how much Lludd may put in his stores, it will have vanished over the course of the night. Lludd takes his fleet to France to ask his brother's advice. With the aid of

1640-511: 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

1722-631: Is the one in the Llanstephan 1 manuscript, written between about 1225 and 1250. The tale's relationship with the Brut texts is significant; indeed, the early versions of the Brut have been classified by whether or not they include a version of it. Lludd and Llefelys also survives intact in the Red Book of Hergest and in fragmentary form in the White Book of Rhydderch , the two source texts for

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1804-732: 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

1886-541: The Mabinogion . Both Mabinogion versions relied on the earlier Brut versions, but elements of the tale predate the Bruts as well as Geoffrey's Latin original. The most noted part of Lludd is the episode of the two dragons, which is clearly related to a story that first appears in the 9th-century Historia Brittonum . Historia chapters 40–42 contain a narrative in which the tyrant Vortigern attempts to build

1968-500: 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

2050-466: 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

2132-470: The Anglo-Saxon invaders, he chose this lofty hillfort as the site for his royal retreat. Every day his men would work hard erecting the first of several proposed towers; but the next morning they would return to find the masonry collapsed in a heap. This continued for many weeks until Vortigern was advised to seek the help of a young boy not conceived by a mortal man. The King sent his soldiers out across

2214-538: 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

2296-756: 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

2378-640: 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

2460-594: 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

2542-596: 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

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2624-536: 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 ,

2706-486: 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

2788-463: The Britons that it caused infertility, panic and mayhem throughout the realm. In need of help Lludd sought counsel on this and other matters from his brother Llefelys , a King of Gaul. Llefelys furnished the information that the scream was caused by battling dragons. The scream would be uttered by the dragon of the Britons when it was fighting another alien dragon and was being defeated. Lludd heeded

2870-550: 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

2952-496: 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,

3034-704: 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

3116-667: 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

3198-526: 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

3280-487: 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

3362-630: 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

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3444-594: The White Dragon of the Saxons though winning the battle at present, would soon be defeated by the Welsh Red Dragon . After Vortigern's downfall, the fort was given to High-King Ambrosius Aurelianus , known in Welsh as Emrys Wledig, hence its name. The earliest sources regard the two dragons as distinctly different, and in a metaphor of the Adventus Saxonum describes one as being native to

3526-438: The advice given to him by Llefelys and captured both dragons in a cauldron filled with mead when they had transformed themselves, as apparently dragons did, into pigs. The captured dragons were buried at the place later called Dinas Emrys, as it was regarded as the safest place to put them. The main entrance to the fort is on the northern side of the hill and traces of a ruined medieval tower 36 feet by 24 feet have been found on

3608-521: The base of a keep [Grid reference SH 60669 49228 ]. Some believe the castle was erected by Llewelyn the Last to guard the road to the mountain pass of Snowdon . Little remains of the structures that once stood on the hill. Such remains as are visible today, including three series of ramparts and other walls and some foundations, mostly date to the Middle Ages. Archaeologist H. N. Savory described

3690-406: The cave, which will open of its own accord as soon as that person's foot touches it. A young man who lived near Beddgelert once searched for the treasure, hoping to give himself a good start in life. He took a pickaxe and climbed to the top of the hill. When he began to dig in earnest on the site of the tower, some terrible unearthly noises began to rumble under his feet. The Dinas began to rock like

3772-460: 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

3854-414: 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

3936-489: 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

4018-479: 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

4100-491: 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

4182-468: The fortifications as consisting of stone walls between 2.5 and 3 metres (8 and 10 ft) thick, which exploited every irregularity in the rocky hill-top, enclosing an irregular area of about a 10,000 m (110,000 sq ft) in size. The original means of access was by a steep path on the western side of the hillfort. The present entrance from the north-east is a later addition. Excavations in 1910 and 1954–56 revealed several periods of habitation at

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4264-488: The fortifications of about the right time frame for either Vortigern or Ambrosius, but that there was a platform above the pool as described in the Historia Britonum. However, he found the platform to date much later than the accepted floruit of either personage. Savory described the fortifications as consisting of stone walls between 2.5 and 3 metres (8 and 10 ft) thick, which exploited every irregularity in

4346-526: The foundation. This story was later adapted by Geoffrey of Monmouth, and thence appears in the Brut y Brenhinedd . Thus, Lludd supplies an origin for the dragons in the Vortigern story. Lludd, called Llaw Eraint or "Silver Hand", earlier called Nudd , was originally a figure of Welsh mythology and derives ultimately from the pre-Roman British god Nodens . He corresponds to the Irish mythological figure Nuada Airgetlám ; Airgetlám means "Silver Hand". Celticist John T. Koch suggests that Llefelys' name

4428-497: The fullest account of which is the Cath Maige Tuired ("The [Second] Battle of Mag Tuired"). In this tale, Nuada inherits a kingdom (Ireland) and his kinsman Lugh is dispossessed. The kingdom is beset by oppressors, and as in the story of Lludd , both fertility and the food supply is affected, but Lugh returns and saves his people with his wit and skills. This may suggest that both the Irish and Welsh tales descend from an older, common story. Sioned Davies notes that Coraniaid may be

4510-413: The great events of their times. An adjacent field is where they were buried and at one time a stone marked the site of each grave. A white thorn tree annually decorated each resting place with falling white blossoms. It has long been known that there is a pool inside the fort, but when the archaeologist Dr H. N. Savory excavated the hillfort between 1954 and 1956, he was surprised to find that not only were

4592-411: 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

4674-413: 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

4756-426: The hill is the base of a rectangular tower. It is generally accepted that this is part of an undocumented castle built by the princes of Gwynedd in the eleventh century. Dinas Affaraon or Dinas Ffaraon is a placename mentioned in some medieval Welsh literature, where it is said to be the original name of Dinas Emrys . Dinas Ffaraon (Fortress of Pharaoh ) or Dinas Ffaraon Dande (Fortress of Fiery Pharaoh)

4838-400: 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

4920-424: The island of Britain (it had arrived first) which was then joined by another new and alien dragon that fought it for supremacy. As to how the dragons became confined there, the story of Lludd and Llefelys in the Mabinogion gives details. According to the legend, when Lludd ruled Britain ( c. 100 BC), a hideous scream, whose origin could not be determined, was heard each May Eve. This scream so perplexed

5002-422: The kingship of Britain from his father, Beli . Soon after, he helps his brother Llefelys marry the princess of France and become king of that country. Though Lludd's reign starts off auspiciously – he founds "Caer Lludd", later to become London , as in Geoffrey – before long three plagues disrupt the peace. The first plague are the Coraniaid , who come to Britain and cannot be forced out because their hearing

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5084-424: The land to find such a lad. The boy they found was called Myrddin Emrys ( Merlin Ambrosius ). Vortigern, following the advice of his councillors, was planning to kill the boy in order to appease supernatural powers that prevented him from building a fortress here. Merlin scorned this advice, and instead explained that the hillfort could not stand due to a hidden pool containing two vermes ( dragons ). He explained how

5166-527: 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

5248-431: 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

5330-449: 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 )

5412-468: 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

5494-448: 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,

5576-402: 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

5658-412: 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 ,

5740-436: 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

5822-471: 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

5904-502: 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

5986-407: 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

6068-409: 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

6150-466: The rocky hill-top, enclosing an irregular area of about a 10,000 m (110,000 sq ft) in size. The original means of access was by a steep path on the western side of the hillfort. The present entrance from the north-east is a later addition. The walls had been "poorly built of stone two or three times ", possibly inspiring the legend's reference to the building collapsing several times during construction. The most conspicuous object currently on

6232-596: 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

6314-448: The site. The earliest elements date to the Iron Age , perhaps to the 1st or 2nd century. A pool within the enclosure, thought to be an artificial construction, may date to this phase. It is perhaps connected to the pool found in the popular tale of Vortigern and the dragons. Other traces suggest habitation into the 5th century, which would put it in the time frame for Vortigern and Ambrosius Aurelianus . It has long been known that there

6396-437: The summit. Nearby is a circle of tumbled stones about 30 feet in diameter which is said to be where the dragons were hidden. Before Dinas Emrys was so-named the fort was known as Dinas Ffaraon Dandde . According to local legend Myrddin hid treasure in a cave at Dinas Emrys. The discoverer of the treasure will be 'golden-haired and blue-eyed'. When that lucky person is near to Dinas Emrys a bell will ring to invite him or her into

6478-526: 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

6560-622: 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

6642-518: 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

6724-517: 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

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