Welsh people

:This article is about the Welsh as an ethnic group. For information about residents or nationals of Wales, see demographics of Wales.

Culture

Language

The traditional language of the Welsh people is the Welsh language (Cymraeg or y Gymraeg), which is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic languages. It is spoken natively in parts of Wales, and in the Chubut Valley, a Welsh immigrant colony in the Patagonia region of Argentina. There are also speakers of Welsh throughout the world, most notably in England, Scotland, the United States, and Australia.

Related Topics:
Welsh language - Brythonic - Celtic languages - Chubut Valley - Welsh immigrant colony - Patagonia - Argentina - England - Scotland - United States - Australia

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The 2001 census found that 20.5 percent of people living in Wales speak Welsh, up from 18.5 percent in 1991). However, the same census shows that 25 percent of residents were born outside Wales. The number of Welsh speakers in other places in Britain is uncertain, but numbers are high in the main cities and there are speakers along the Welsh-English border.

Related Topics:
2001 - 1991

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Even among the Welsh speakers, very few people speak only Welsh, with nearly all being bilingual in English. However, a large number of Welsh speakers are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain (known in linguistics as code-switching).

Related Topics:
Bilingual - English - Code-switching

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Thanks to the work of the Mudiad Ysgolion Feithrin (Welsh Nursery Movement), recent census data reveals a reversal in decades of linguistic decline: there are now more Welsh speakers under five years of age than over 60. For many young people in Wales, the acquistion of Welsh is a gateway to better careers and increased cultural opportunity: Wales's third greatest revenue earner is media products and Cardiff boasts a world-class animation industry.

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Although Welsh is a minority language, and thus threatened by the dominance of English, support for the language grew during the second half of the 20th century, along with the rise of Welsh nationalism in the form of groups such as the political party Plaid Cymru and Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society). The language is used in the bilingual Welsh Assembly and entered on its records, with English translation. Technically it is not supposed to be used in the British Parliament , but several Speakers (most notably George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy, himself born in Wales, close by Tonypandy) spoke Welsh in longer English-language speeches.

Related Topics:
Minority language - 20th century - Welsh nationalism - Political party - Plaid Cymru - Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg - Welsh Assembly - British Parliament - Speaker - George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy - Tonypandy

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Welsh as a first language is largely concentrated in the less urban north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd, Merioneth, Ynys Môn (Anglesey), Carmarthenshire, North Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, and parts of western Glamorgan, although first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales. However, Caerdydd (Cardiff) is now home to an urban Welsh speaking elite which dominates the media and government throughout the nation.

Related Topics:
First language - Gwynedd - Merioneth - Ynys Môn - Carmarthenshire - Pembrokeshire - Ceredigion - Glamorgan

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Welsh language is an important part of Welsh identity, but not an essential part. Welsh speakers actively distinguish between 'Cymry Cymraeg' (Welsh-speaking Welsh), Cymry-di-Cymraeg (non Welsh speaking Welsh) and Saeson (English). Parts of the culture are however tied to the language - notably the Eisteddfod events, poetry and aspects of folk music and dance.

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Religion

Most Welsh people of faith are affiliated with the Church in Wales or other Christian denominations such as the Presbyterian Church of Wales or Catholicism, although there is even a Russian Orthodox chapel in the semi-rural town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. In particular, Wales has a long tradition of nonconformism and Methodism. Other religions Welsh people may be affiliated with include Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Sikhism, with most non-Christian Welsh people found in the southern cities of Cardiff, Swansea, and Newport.

Related Topics:
Church in Wales - Christian denomination - Presbyterian Church of Wales - Catholicism - Russian Orthodox - Blaenau Ffestiniog - Nonconformism - Methodism - Buddhism - Hinduism - Judaism - Islam - Sikhism

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The 2001 Census showed that slightly less thsn 10% of the Welsh population are regular church- or chapel-goers (a slightly smaller proportion than in England or Scotland), although about 70% of the population see themselves as some form of Christian. Judaism is the oldest non-Christian faith established in Wales, with a community recorded in Swansea from around 1730. In August 1911, during a period of public order and industrial disputes, Jewish shops across the South Wales coalfield were targetted by mobs. Consequently the Jewish population of that area, which reached a peak of 4000 - 5000 in 1913, declined with only Cardiff retaining a sizeable Jewish population, of about 2000 in the 2001 Census. The largest non-Christian faith in Wales is Islam, with about 22,000 members in 2001 served by about 40 mosques, following the first mosque established in Cardiff in 1947. A college for training clerics has been established at Llanybydder in west Wales. Islam arrived in Wales in the mid-nineteenth century, and it is thought that Cardiff's Yemeni community is Britain's oldest Muslim community, established when the city was one of the world's largest coal-exporting ports. Hinduism and Buddhism each have about 5000 adherents in Wales, with the rural county of Ceredigion being the centre of Welsh Buddhism. There are about 2000 Sikhs in Wales, with the first purpose-built gurdwara opening in Cardiff in 1989. In 2001 some 7000 people classified themselves as following "other religions" including a reconstructed form of Druidism, which was the pre-Christian religion of Wales (not to be confused with the Druids of the Gorsedd at the National Eisteddfod of Wales). Approximately one sixth of the population, some 500,000 people, profess no religious faith whatever.

Related Topics:
Census - Judaism - Islam - Hinduism - Buddhism - Sikh - Gurdwara - Druidism - Gorsedd - Eisteddfod

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The sabbatarian temperance movement was also historically strong among the Welsh, the sale of alcohol being prohibited on Sundays in Wales by the Sunday Closing Act of 1881 - the first legislation specifically issued for Wales since the Middle Ages. From the early 1960s, local council areas were permitted to hold referendums every seven years to determine whether they should be "wet" or "dry" on Sundays: most of the industrialised areas in the east and south went "wet" immediately, and by the 1980s the last district, Dwyfor in the northwest, went wet, since when there have been no more Sunday-closing referenda.

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Symbols

The Welsh flag depicts the Welsh dragon (called y Ddraig Goch, "the red dragon"), one of the most widely recognized Welsh national symbols and the national animal of Wales. It appears in the early legends of Merlin, and from them is taken to be the battle standard under which the Pendragons, Uther and Arthur rallied their troops.

Related Topics:
Welsh flag - Welsh dragon - Y Ddraig Goch - National animal - Merlin - Pendragon - Uther - Arthur

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Wales also has use of another flag, the flag of Saint David. Although unofficially a national flag it is flown across the country every year to mark Saint David's Day and in 2002 was incorporated into Cardiff City Football Club's logo.

Related Topics:
Flag of Saint David - Saint David's Day - 2002 - Cardiff City Football Club

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The leek is another national symbol and is worn every year on Saint David's Day. According to legend, St. David (the patron saint of Wales) ordered his troops to identity themselves by wearing the plant on their helmets during a battle against the Saxons. The daffodil is the national flower, symbolizing chivalry and respect in the language of flowers. The Narcissus obvallaris species only grows in the Tenby area of Wales.

Related Topics:
Leek - Saint David's Day - St. David - Patron saint - Helmet - Saxons - Daffodil - National flower - Chivalry - Respect - Language of flowers - Narcissus obvallaris - Tenby

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