Revision as of 11:59, 26 November 2008 editLilHelpa (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers413,676 editsm →History: spelling: occured -> occurred← Previous edit | Latest revision as of 06:30, 6 January 2025 edit undoOAbot (talk | contribs)Bots441,761 editsm Open access bot: hdl updated in citation with #oabot. | ||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{ |
{{Short description|Ethnic group and nation native to Wales}} | ||
{{Redirect|Welshman}} | |||
{{Infobox Ethnic group | |||
{{Refimprove|date=October 2024}} | |||
|group = Welsh people | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}} | |||
|image = ] | |||
{{Use British English|date=February 2021}} | |||
|image_caption = From top left:<br/>], ], ], ], ],<br/>].<br/>For further notable Welsh people, see:<br/>], ],<br/>], ]. | |||
{{Infobox ethnic group | |||
|population = About '''14 million''' Worldwide | |||
| group = Welsh people<br />''Cymry'' | |||
|region1 = {{GBR}} | |||
| |
| flag = | ||
| flag_caption = | |||
|ref1 = {{lower|<ref name="NA">Not Available collected data on country of birth but not on self-selected ancestry or ethnic origin as with the US, Australian and Canadian censuses.</ref>}} | |||
| total = | |||
|region2 = {{pad|2.0em}}{{WAL}} | |||
| popplace = ] 2 million<ref name="2011censuswales">{{cite web |url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_290982.pdf |publisher=] |title=2011 Census: Key Statistics for Wales, March 2011 |date=11 December 2012 |access-date=6 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160111162200/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_290982.pdf |archive-date=11 January 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><br />{{small|(identifying as Welsh only)}} | |||
|pop2 = 3 million | |||
| tablehdr = ''Significant ] in'' | |||
|ref2 = {{lower|<ref name="estimate">Estimated from population of Wales from 2001 census (2,903,085 ) with 89% of the population identifying as Welsh in 2001 ()</ref>}} | |||
<!--- | |||
|region3 = {{pad|2.0em}}{{SCO}} | |||
Note to editors: If you wish to change the numbers or add a country to this section, PLEASE CITE SOURCES (i.e. use the ref1, ref2, etc parameters) | |||
|pop3 = 16,623 | |||
----> | |||
|ref3 = {{lower|<ref name="scotland">{{cite web |url=http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/acci/web/files/Stats_Facts/2001Areas_Census_Results.pdf |format=PDF|title=City of Aberdeen: Census Stats and Facts}}</ref>}} | |||
| region2 = ] | |||
|region4 = {{pad|2.0em}}{{ENG}} | |||
| |
| pop2 = 2 million | ||
| ref2 = <ref name="usa">{{cite web|url=http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_B04003&prodType=table|title=2012 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates|publisher=]|access-date=6 January 2016|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200212212406/http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_B04003&prodType=table|archive-date=12 February 2020|url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
|ref4 = {{lower|<ref name="England">{{cite web |url=http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=276743&c=London&d=13&e=13&g=325264&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1198518794421&enc=1&dsFamilyId=85 |title=Welsh people in England}}</ref>}} | |||
| region3 = ] | |||
|region5 = {{USA}} | |||
| pop3 = {{Round|609711|-3}} | |||
|pop5 = 1,959,794 | |||
| ref3 = <ref name="England">{{cite web |author=Neighbourhood Statistics |url=http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=276743&c=London&d=13&e=13&g=325264&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1198518794421&enc=1&dsFamilyId=85 |title=Welsh people in England |publisher=Neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629064402/http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=276743&c=London&d=13&e=13&g=325264&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1198518794421&enc=1&dsFamilyId=85 |archive-date=29 June 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
|ref5 = {{lower|<ref name="usa">2006 Census ({{cite web |url=http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-state=dt&-context=dt&-reg=DEC_2000_SF4_U_PCT001:001|547;&-ds_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_&-TABLE_NAMEX=&-ci_type=A&-mt_name=ACS_2006_EST_G2000_B04003&-CONTEXT=dt&-tree_id=4001&-all_geo_types=N&-redoLog=true&-geo_id=01000US&-search_results=01000US&-format=&-_lang=en | |||
| region4 = ] | |||
|title=U.S. Census Bureau 2006 Census Fact Sheet}})</ref>}} | |||
| pop4 = {{Round|474805|-3}} (Includes those of mixed ancestry) | |||
|region6 = {{CAN}} | |||
| ref4 = <ref name="Welsh Canadians">{{cite web |url=http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=PR&Code1=01&Geo2=PR&Code2=01&Data=Count&SearchText=Canada&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=Ethnic%20origin&TABID=1 |author=Statistics Canada |title=Census Profile, 2016 Census |access-date=23 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422053324/http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=PR&Code1=01&Geo2=PR&Code2=01&Data=Count&SearchText=Canada&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=Ethnic%20origin&TABID=1 |archive-date=22 April 2018 |url-status=live |author-link=Statistics Canada }}</ref> | |||
|pop6 = 440,965 | |||
| region5 = ] | |||
|ref6 = {{lower|<ref name="canada"> In the Canadian census of 2006, 27,115 people identified themselves as belonging only to the Welsh ethnic group, while an additional 413,855 included Welsh as one of multiple ethnic groups they claimed to belong to.</ref>}} | |||
| pop5 = {{Round|125597|-3}} | |||
|region7 = {{NZL}} | |||
| ref5 = <ref name="Welsh Australians">{{cite web |url=http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/statistics/comm-summ/textversion/uk.htm |title=Welsh Australians |author=] – Department of Immigration and Border Protection |access-date=20 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140213070234/https://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/statistics/comm-summ/textversion/uk.htm |archive-date=13 February 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
|pop7 = 9,966 | |||
| region6 = ] | |||
|ref7 = {{lower|<ref>The reports 3,342 people stating they belong to the Welsh ''ethnic group''. The 1996 census, which used a slightly different question, reported 9,966 people belonging to the Welsh ethnic group.</ref>}} | |||
| |
| pop6 = {{Round|50000|-3}} | ||
| ref6 = <ref name="WAG">{{cite web |title=Wales and Argentina |url=http://www.wales.com/en/content/cms/English/International_Links/Wales_and_the_World/wales_argentina/wales_argentina.aspx |publisher=] |year=2008 |access-date=24 December 2010 |work=Wales.com website |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016085052/http://www.wales.com/en/content/cms/English/International_Links/Wales_and_the_World/wales_argentina/wales_argentina.aspx |archive-date=16 October 2012 }}</ref> | |||
|pop8 = 84,246 | |||
| region7 = ] | |||
|ref8 = {{lower|<ref name="australia">2001 Census ({{cite web |url=http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/free.nsf/Lookup/C41A78D7568811B9CA256E9D0077CA12/$File/20540_2001%20(corrigendum).pdf |format=PDF|title=Government of Australia - ausstats.abs.gov.au}})</ref>}} | |||
| |
| pop7 = {{Round|16623|-3}} | ||
| ref7 = <ref name="scotland">{{cite web|url=http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.asp?lID=1722&sID=332|format=PDF|title=City of Aberdeen: Census Stats and Facts page 25, section 18, Country of birth|publisher=]|year=2003|access-date=6 April 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100428141137/http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/nmsruntime/saveasdialog.asp?lID=1722&sID=332|archive-date=28 April 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
|pop9 = 20,000 | |||
| region8 = ] | |||
|ref9 = {{lower|<ref></ref>}} | |||
| pop8 = {{Round|9966|-3}} | |||
|languages = ], ] | |||
| ref8 = <ref> {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050308030551/http://www.stats.govt.nz/census/change-in-ethnicity-question.htm |date=8 March 2005 }}</ref> | |||
|religions = ] <ref name="sacreddes">{{cite web |url=http://www.sacred-destinations.com/wales/wales-religion.htm |title=Sacred Destinations Travel Guide}}</ref>, and other faiths. | |||
| languages = {{hlist|]|]|]}} | |||
| religions = Predominantly ] (46.5%) and ] (43.6%), traditionally ]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Religion, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/bulletins/religionenglandandwales/census2021 |access-date=2022-11-29 |website=www.ons.gov.uk}}</ref> | |||
| related = ], ], ], ], ], ], ] | |||
}} | }} | ||
{{Culture of Wales}} | |||
{{Culture of the United Kingdom}} | |||
The '''Welsh''' ({{langx|cy|Cymry}}) are an ] and ] native to ] who share a common ancestry, ] and ].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rhys |first1=John |author1-link=John Rhys |last2=Brynmor Jones |first2=David |author2-link=David Brynmor Jones |title=The Welsh People: Chapters On Their Origin, History, Laws, Language, Literature, And Characteristics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FNWRxAEACAAJ |date=1969 |publisher=Wentworth Press |isbn=978-1-01-052046-7 |edition=2019}}</ref> Wales is one of the four ]. The majority of people living in Wales are ].<ref name="Stats 1">{{cite web |url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/geography/beginner-s-guide/administrative/the-countries-of-the-uk/index.html|title=The Countries of the UK|publisher=statistics.gov.uk|access-date=10 October 2008 |archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160105160709/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/geography/beginner-s-guide/administrative/the-countries-of-the-uk/index.html|archive-date=5 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
The '''Welsh people''' (]: ''Cymro'' ("Welshman"); ''Cymraes'' ("Welshwoman"); ''Cymry'' ("Welshmen/women"); ''Cymry cymraeg'' ("Welsh-speaking welshmen/women")) are an ] and ] associated with ] and the ]. Authors ] and Gwyn A. Williams argue the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the ]<ref name="Welshorigions">], ''A History of Wales'', Penguin: 1994; ''Welshorigions'' p.54, ISBN 0-14-01-4581-8.</ref>, although the origins of ] in Wales may date back far longer. As with all ethnic groups, the term Welsh people applies to people who identify themselves as Welsh, and who are identified by others as Welsh, they share a perceived common origin and a shared cultural heritage. In modern use in Wales, "Welsh people" may also refer to anyone born or living in Wales.<ref></ref> | |||
==History== | |||
{{see also|History of Wales}} | |||
{{see|Genetic history of the British Isles}} | |||
In Wales, the ] ({{langx|cy|Cymraeg}}) is protected by law.{{refn|The Welsh language has been protected gradually and most notably by the ], the ], and the ].}} Welsh remains the predominant language in many parts of Wales, particularly in ] and parts of ], though English is the predominant language in ]. The Welsh language is also taught in schools in Wales; and, even in regions of Wales in which Welsh people predominantly speak English on a daily basis, the Welsh language is spoken at home among family or in informal settings, with Welsh speakers often engaging in ] and ]. In the English-speaking areas of Wales, many Welsh people are ] or semi-fluent in the Welsh language or, to varying degrees, capable of speaking or understanding the language at limited or conversational ] levels. The Welsh language is descended from Brythonic, spoken across Britain since before the ]. | |||
During their ], the ancient ] encountered tribes in present-day Wales that they called the ], the ], the ] and the ].<ref>Cunliffe, B. ''Iron Age communities in Britain''pp. 115-118</ref> Speaking ], a ], these tribes are traditionally thought to have arrived in Britain from the mainland parts of Europe over the preceding centuries. However, some archaeologists argue that there is no evidence for large-scale ] migrations into Great Britain.<ref name="cunliffe">''Iron Age Britain'' by ]. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-8839-5.</ref> The claim has also been made that ] may have been introduced to the ] as early as the early ] (or even earlier), with ] and ] languages developing indigenously.<ref name ="cunliffe" /><ref>''Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland Before the Romans'' by ], pp. 121-122. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-00-712693-X.</ref> Others hold that the close similarity between the Goidelic and Brythonic branches, and their sharing of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age terminology with their continental relatives, point to a more recent introduction of Indo-European languages, with ] itself unlikely to have existed prior than the end of the ] at the earliest. <ref>Mallory, J.P. ''In Search of the Indo-Europeans'' pp. 106-107, Thames & Hudson</ref> The genetic evidence in this case would show that the change to Celtic languages in Britain may have occurred as a cultural shift rather than through migration as was previously supposed. | |||
In 2016, an analysis of the geography of ] commissioned by the ] found that 718,000 people (nearly 35% of the Welsh population) have a family name of Welsh origin, compared with 5.3% in the rest of the United Kingdom, 4.7% in New Zealand, 4.1% in Australia, and 3.8% in the United States, with an estimated 16.3 million people in the countries studied having at least partial Welsh ancestry.<ref name="Welsh names">{{cite web|url=https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/statistics-and-research/2018-12/061102-welsh-diaspora-analysis-geography-welsh-names-en.pdf|title=The Welsh diaspora : Analysis of the geography of Welsh names |access-date=26 June 2016|first=Richard|last=Webber|work=Welsh Assembly}}</ref> Over 300,000 Welsh people live in ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.com/cymrufyw/29851488|title=Canolfan i 300,000 o Gymry|trans-title=Centre for 300,000 Welsh|work=BBC|date=5 November 2014|language=cy|access-date=6 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160111162144/http://www.bbc.com/cymrufyw/29851488 |archive-date=11 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Current genetic research supports the idea that people living in the British Isles are likely mainly descended from the indigenous European ] (Old Stone Age ]) population (about 80%), with a smaller ] (New Stone Age ]) input (about 20%).<ref name="prehistoric genes"> by Isabelle Dupanloup, Giorgio Bertorelle, Lounès Chikhi and Guido Barbujani (2004). '''Molecular Biology and Evolution''': 21(7):1361-1372. Retrieved 10 July 2006.</ref> Paleolithic Europeans seem to have been a homogeneous population, possibly due to a ] (or near-extinction event) on the ], where a small human population is thought to have survived the glaciation, and expanded into Europe during the ]. The assumed genetic imprint of Neolithic incomers is seen as a cline, with stronger Neolithic representation in the east of Europe and stronger Paleolithic representation in the west of Europe.<ref>del Giorgio, J.F. 2006. '']''. A.J. Place, ISBN 980-6898-00-1</ref><ref name="prehistoric genes"/> Most in Wales today regard themselves as ], claiming a heritage back to the Iron Age tribes, which themselves, based on modern genetic analysis, would appear to have had a predominantly Paleolithic and Neolithic indigenous ancestry. When the ] around 400, a ] culture remained in the areas the Romans had settled, and the pre-Roman cultures in others.<ref>'''': '''BBC '''. Retrieved 3 October 2006.</ref> | |||
== Terminology == | |||
In two recently published books, ''Blood of the Isles'', by ] and ''The Origins of the British'', by ], both authors state that according to genetic evidence, most Welsh people and most Britons descend from the ], as a result of different migrations that took place during the Mesolithic and the Neolithic eras, and which laid the foundations for the present-day populations in the British Isles, indicating an ancient relationship among the populations of ].<ref></ref><ref></ref><ref>[http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=33166 From the Cover: | |||
Genetic evidence for different male and female roles during cultural transitions in the British Isles]</ref> According to Stephen Oppenheimer 96% of lineages in ] in north Wales derive from Iberia. Genetic research on the Y-chromosome has shown that the Welsh, like the Irish are genetically very similar to the ] of Northern Spain and South Western France although the Welsh do contain more ] input than both the ] and the Basques.<ref name="BBC 2001"></ref> Genetic marker ] averages from 83-89% amongst the Welsh.<ref name="BBC 2001" /><ref></ref> | |||
The names "Wales" and "Welsh" are modern descendants of the Anglo-Saxon word ''{{linktext|wealh}}'', a descendant of the ] word '']'', which was derived from the name of the ] known to the Romans as ] and which came to refer indiscriminately to inhabitants of the ].<ref>{{cite web |last= Miller |first= Katherine L. |date= 2014 |title= The Semantic Field of Slavery in Old English: Wealh, Esne, Þræl |type= Doctoral dissertation |publisher= University of Leeds |url= http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/8031/1/Katherine%20Miller%20Semantic%20Field%20of%20Slavery%20in%20Old%20English%20v%203.pdf |access-date= 8 August 2019}}</ref> The ]-speaking ] came to use the term to refer to the ] in particular. As the Britons' territories shrank, the term came ultimately to be applied to a smaller group of people, and the plural form of {{lang|ang|Wealh}}, {{lang|ang|Wēalas}}, evolved into the name for the territory that best maintained cultural continuity with pre-Anglo-Saxon Britain: Wales.<ref name="Davies 1994 71">{{harv|Davies|1994|p=71}}</ref> The modern names for various ] people in ] (e.g. ], ], {{lang|fr|]}}, ], and {{lang|pl|Włochy}}, the ] name for Italy) have a similar etymology.<ref name="Davies 1994 71" /><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Albert Henry, {{lang|fr|''Histoire des mots Wallons et Wallonie'', Institut Jules Destrée, Coll. "Notre histoire", Mont-sur-Marchienne|italic=unset}}, 1990, 3rd ed. (1st ed. 1965), footnote 13 p. 86. Henry wrote the same about ].</ref><ref name="Tolkien 1">{{cite book |last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title=Angles and Britons: O'Donnell Lectures |publisher=University of Wales Press |year=1963 |location=Cardiff |pages=English and Welsh, an O'Donnell Lecture delivered at Oxford on 21 October 1955 |no-pp=true }}</ref><ref name="Gilleland">{{cite web |last=Gilleland |first=Michael |title=Laudator Temporis Acti: More on the Etymology of Walden |website=Laudator Temporis Acti website |date=12 December 2007 |url=http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2007/12/more-on-etymology-of-walden.html |access-date=29 October 2008 }}</ref><ref name="Davies 1994 69">{{harv|Davies|1994|p=69}}</ref> | |||
The people in what is now Wales continued to speak ] with additions from ], as did some other Celts in areas of ]. The surviving poem '']'' is in early Welsh and refers to the ] kingdom of ] with a capital at Din Eidyn (]) and extending from the area of ] to the Tyne.<ref>Jarman, A.O.H. 1988. ''Y Gododdin: Britain's earliest heroic poem p. xviii</ref> John Davies places the change from Brythonic to Welsh between 400 and 700.<ref>], ''A History of Wales'', published 1990 by Penguin, ISBN 0-14-014581-8</ref> ] was erected in the mid-8th century, forming a barrier between Wales and ].<ref> Davies, J. ''A history of Wales'' pp. 65-6</ref> | |||
The modern Welsh name for themselves is {{lang|cy|Cymry}} (plural) (singular: {{lang|cy|Cymro}} and {{lang|cy|Cymraes}} ), and {{lang|cy|Cymru}} is the Welsh name for Wales. These words (both of which are pronounced {{IPA|cy|ˈkəm.ri}}) are descended from the ] word ''kombrogi'', meaning "fellow-countrymen".<ref name="Davies 1994 69" /> Thus, they carry a sense of "land of fellow-countrymen", "our country", and notions of fraternity. The use of the word ''Cymry'' as a self-designation derives from the ] relationship of the Welsh with the Brythonic-speaking peoples of northern England and southern Scotland, the peoples of "]" ({{langx|en|The Old North}}).<ref>{{Cite book | |||
The process whereby the indigenous population of 'Wales' came to think of themselves as Welsh is not clear. There is plenty of evidence of the use of the term ''Brythoniaid'' (Britons); by contrast, the earliest use of the word ''Kymry'' (referring not to the people but to the land—and possibly to northern Britain in addition to modern day territory of Wales) is found in a poem dated to about 633. The name of the region in northern England now known as ] is believed to be derived from the same root.<ref>Williams, Ifor. 1972. ''The beginnings of Welsh poetry'' University of Wales Press. p. 71</ref> Only gradually did Cymru (the land) and Cymry (the people) come to supplant Brython. Although the Welsh language was certainly used at the time, Gwyn A. Williams argues that even at the time of the erection of Offa's Dyke, the people to its west saw themselves as Roman, citing the number of Latin inscriptions still being made into the 8th century.<ref>Williams, Gwyn A., ''The Welsh in their History'', published 1982 by Croom Helm, ISBN 0-7099-3651-6</ref> However, it is unclear whether such inscriptions reveal a general or normative use of Latin as a marker of identity or its selective use by the early ]. | |||
|last=Lloyd | |||
|first=John Edward | |||
|author-link=John Edward Lloyd | |||
|year=1911 | |||
|title=A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest (Note to Chapter VI, the Name "Cymry") | |||
|volume=I | |||
|edition=2nd | |||
|publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co. | |||
|publication-date=1912 | |||
|location=London | |||
|pages=191–192 | |||
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NYwNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA191 | |||
}}</ref> The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Phillimore|first=Egerton|year=1891|editor-last=Phillimore|editor-first=Egerton|contribution=Note (a) to The Settlement of Brittany|contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M35QO0vor-EC&pg=PA97|title=Y Cymmrodor|volume=XI|publisher=] |publication-date=1892|location=London|pages=97–101}}</ref> | |||
It is attested in a praise poem to ] (''Moliant Cadwallon'',<ref>The poem is available ].</ref> by Afan Ferddig) {{circa|633}}.<ref>{{harv|Davies|1994|p=71|ps=: The poem contains the line: 'Ar wynep Kymry Cadwallawn was'.}}</ref> | |||
In ], the word ''Cymry'' was used throughout the ] to describe the Welsh, though the older, more generic term ''Brythoniaid'' continued to be used to describe any of the ], including the Welsh, and was the more common literary term until {{circa|1100}}. Thereafter ''Cymry'' prevailed as a reference to the Welsh. Until {{circa|1560}} the word was spelt ''Kymry'' or ''Cymry'', regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland.<ref name="Davies 1994 69" /> | |||
The word Cymry is believed to be derived from the Brythonic ''combrogi'', meaning fellow-countrymen,<ref>], ''A History of Wales'', published 1990 by Penguin, ISBN 0-14-014581-8</ref> and thus Cymru carries a sense of "land of fellow-countrymen", "our country"- and, of course, notions of fraternity. The name "Wales", however, comes from a ] '']'' meaning "stranger" or "foreigner". | |||
== History == | |||
There are two words in modern Welsh for the English and this reflects the idea held by some that the modern ] derive from various Germanic tribes (although there is little evidence for the extinction of the pre-Germanic inhabitants of England, and the idea ignores both the ] settlers in England and the Roman and Norman-French influences on English language, culture and identity): Saeson (singular: Sais), meaning originally Saxon; and: Eingl, denoting:-Angles,; meaning Englishmen in modern Welsh. The Welsh word for the English language is Saesneg, while the Welsh word for England is Lloegr. | |||
{{See also|History of Wales|Genetic history of the British Isles}} | |||
] was proclaimed ] by his supporters on 16 September 1400. The last native Welsh person to hold the title.]] | |||
], the founder of the royal house of ]]] | |||
During their ], the ancient ] encountered tribes in present-day Wales that they called the ], the ], the ] and the ].<ref>Cunliffe, B. ''Iron Age communities in Britain'' pp. 115–118</ref> The people of what is now Wales were not distinguished from the rest of the peoples of southern Britain; all were called ] and spoke ], a ].<ref name="BBC Hist">{{cite web|title=BBC History – Ancient History in-depth:Native Tribes of Britain |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/iron_01.shtml|access-date=6 April 2010 |work=BBC History |year=2010 |quote=The Deceangli, the Ordovices and the Silures were the three main tribe groups who lived in the mountains of what is today called Wales. However, in prehistory Wales, England and Scotland did not exist in any way as distinctive entities in the ways they have done so for the last 1000 years.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100127093345/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/british_prehistory/iron_01.shtml|archive-date=27 January 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> This language, and Celtic culture more generally, seems to have arrived in Britain during the ], though some archaeologists argue that there is no evidence for large-scale ] migrations into Great Britain,<ref name="cunliffe">''Iron Age Britain'' by ]. Batsford. {{ISBN|0-7134-8839-5}}.</ref> in which case the Celticisation of Britain would have occurred through cultural diffusion. | |||
There was immigration to Wales after the ], several ] encouraged immigration to their new lands; the ] dividing the ] "Englishry" and "Welshry" is still detectable today.<ref>'''': '''BBC''' website. Retrieved 17 August 2006.</ref> The terms Englishry and Welshry are used similarly about ].{{Fact|date=February 2007}} | |||
Most people in Wales today regard themselves as ], claiming a heritage back to the Iron Age tribes. When the ] around 400, a ] culture remained in the areas the Romans had settled, and the pre-Roman cultures in others.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/nation/pages/state01.shtml |title= What happened after the fall of the Roman Empire? |publisher=BBC |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080609015441/http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/nation/pages/state01.shtml |archive-date = 9 June 2008}}</ref> The people in what is now Wales continued to speak ] with significant influence from ], as did people in other areas of western and northern Britain; this language eventually evolved into ]. The surviving poem '']'' is in early Welsh and refers to the ] kingdom of ] with a capital at ] (]) and extending from the area of ] to the Tyne.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jarman |first=A.O.H. |date=1988 |title=Y Gododdin: Britain's earliest heroic poem |page=xviii |location=Llandysul |publisher=Gomer}}</ref><ref>{{harv|Davies|1994|pp=65–66|ps=: Davies places the change from Brythonic to Welsh between 400 and 700.}}</ref> ] was erected in the mid-8th century, forming a barrier between Wales and ]. | |||
The population of Wales increased from 587,128 in 1801 to 1,162,139 in 1851 and had reached 2,420,921 by 1911.<ref> ''']</ref> Part of this increase can be attributed to the ] seen in most industrialising countries during the ], as death-rates dropped and birth-rates remained steady. However, there was also a large-scale migration of people into Wales during the industrial revolution. The English were the most numerous group, but there were also considerable numbers of Irish and smaller numbers of many other ethnic groups.<ref> ] ''The Story of the Welsh''</ref><ref>'''' '''therhondda.co.uk'''. Retrieved 9 May 2006</ref> For example, some ] migrated to South Wales. Wales received other immigration from various parts of the British ] in the 20th century, and ] and ] communities add to the ethno-cultural mix, particularly in urban Wales. Recently, parts of Wales have seen an increased number of immigrants from recent ] such as ]. | |||
The process whereby the indigenous population of Wales came to think of themselves as "Welsh" (a name applied to them by ]) is not clear. There is plenty of evidence of the use of the term ''Brythoniaid'' (Britons); meanwhile, the earliest use of the word ''Kymry'' (referring not to the people but to the land—and possibly to northern Britain in addition to Wales) is found in a poem {{circa|633}}. The name of the region in northern England now known as ] is derived from the same root.<ref>{{cite book|last = Williams|first = Ifor|date = 1972|title =The beginnings of Welsh poetry|publisher = University of Wales Press|page = 71|isbn = 978-0-7083-0035-0}}</ref> Only gradually did ''Cymru'' (the land) and ''Cymry'' (the people) come to supplant ''Brython''. Although the Welsh language was certainly used at the time, ] argues that even at the time of the erection of Offa's Dyke, the people to its west saw themselves as Roman, citing the number of Latin inscriptions still being made into the 8th century.<ref>{{cite book |last=Williams |first=Gwyn A. |title=The Welsh in their History |year=1982 |publisher=Croom Helm |isbn=0-7099-3651-6}}</ref> However, it is unclear whether such inscriptions reveal a general or normative use of Latin as a marker of identity or its selective use by the early ]. | |||
===21st century identity=== | |||
====2001 Census Controversy==== | |||
There was immigration to Wales after the ], and several ] encouraged immigration to their new lands; the ] dividing the ] "Englishry" and "Welshry" is still detectable today.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/immig_emig/wales/w_sw/article_4.shtml |title=The Flemish colonists in Wales: ''BBC'' website. Retrieved 17 August 2006 |publisher=BBC |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111213180442/http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/immig_emig/wales/w_sw/article_4.shtml |archive-date=13 December 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> The terms Englishry and Welshry are used similarly about ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ggat.org.uk/cadw/historic_landscape/gower/english/Gower_Features.htm |title=Gower Historical Processes, Themes and Background |publisher=Ggat.org.uk |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211154418/http://www.ggat.org.uk/cadw/historic_landscape/gower/english/Gower_Features.htm |archive-date=11 December 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
It is uncertain how many people in Wales consider themselves to be of Welsh ethnicity, because the ] did not offer 'Welsh' as an option; respondents had to use a box marked "Other". 95% of the population of Wales thus described themselves as being of ].<ref name="censusresults"></ref> Controversy surrounding the method of determining ethnicity began as early as 2000, when it was revealed that respondents in Scotland and Northern Ireland would be able to check a box describing themselves as of ] or of ] ethnicity, an option not available for Welsh or English respondents.<ref name="censusequality"></ref><ref></ref> Prior to the Census, ''Plaid Cymru'' backed a petition calling for the inclusion of a Welsh tick-box and for the National Assembly to have primary law-making powers and its own ].<ref name="censusequality" /> | |||
== Genetic studies == | |||
With an absence of a Welsh tick-box, the only other tick-box available was 'white-British,' 'Irish', or 'other'.<ref name="censusequality" /> The Scottish parliament insisted that a Scottish ethnicity tick-box be included in the census in Scotland, and with this inclusion as many as 88.11% claimed Scottish ethnicity.<ref></ref> Critics expected a higher proportion of respondents describing themselves as of Welsh ethnicity, similar to Scottish results, had a Welsh tickbox been made available. Additional criticism was leveled at the timing of the census, which was taken in the middle of the ] crisis of 2001, a fact organizers said did not impact the results.<ref></ref> However, the Foot and Mouth crisis did delay ], the first time since the ] any event postponed an election. | |||
{{Only primary sources|section|date=April 2023}} | |||
Recent research on ancient DNA has concluded that much of Britain's Neolithic population was replaced by ] in the ].<ref name="Olalde et al.">{{cite bioRxiv |last1=Olalde |first1=I |display-authors=et. al |date=May 2017|title=The Beaker Phenomenon and the Genomic Transformation of Northwest Europe|biorxiv=10.1101/135962}}</ref> The British groups encountered by the Romans were thus largely descended from these Beaker populations. | |||
The post-Roman period saw a significant alteration in the genetic makeup of southern Britain due to the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons; however, historical evidence suggests that Wales was little affected by these migrations. A study published in 2016 compared samples from modern Britain and Ireland with DNA found in skeletons from Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon era Yorkshire. The study found that most of the Iron Age and Roman era Britons showed strong similarities with both each other and modern-day Welsh populations, while modern southern and eastern English groups were closer to a later Anglo-Saxon burial.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Martiniano |first1=Rui |last2=Caffell |first2=Anwen |last3=Holst |first3=Malin |last4=Hunter-Mann |first4=Kurt |last5=Montgomery |first5=Janet |last6=Müldner |first6=Gundula |last7=McLaughlin |first7=Russell L. |last8=Teasdale |first8=Matthew D. |last9=van Rheenen |first9=Wouter |last10=Veldink |first10=Jan H. |last11=van den Berg |first11=Leonard H. |last12=Hardiman |first12=Orla |last13=Carroll |first13=Maureen |last14=Roskams |first14=Steve |last15=Oxley |first15=John |date=2016-01-19 |title=Genomic signals of migration and continuity in Britain before the Anglo-Saxons |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=7 |issue=1 |doi=10.1038/ncomms10326 |issn=2041-1723 |pmc=4735653 |pmid=26783717}}</ref> | |||
In the census, as many as 14 per cent of the population took the 'extra step' to write in that they were of Welsh ethnicity.<ref name="Welsh write in"></ref> Of these, Gwynedd recorded the highest percentage of those identifying as of Welsh ethnicity (at 27%), followed by Carmarthenshire (23 per cent), Ceredigion (22 per cent) and the Isle of Anglesey (19 per cent).<ref name="Welsh write in"/> For respondants between 16 and 74 years of age, those claiming Welsh ethnicity were predominatly in professional and managerial occupations.<ref name="Welsh write in"/> | |||
Another study, using Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon samples from Cambridgeshire, concluded that modern Welsh people carry a 30% genetic contribution from Anglo-Saxon settlers in the post-Roman period; however, this could have been brought about due to later migration from England into Wales.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schiffels |first1=Stephan |last2=Haak |first2=Wolfgang |last3=Paajanen |first3=Pirita |last4=Llamas |first4=Bastien |last5=Popescu |first5=Elizabeth |last6=Loe |first6=Louise |last7=Clarke |first7=Rachel |last8=Lyons |first8=Alice |last9=Mortimer |first9=Richard |last10=Sayer |first10=Duncan |last11=Tyler-Smith |first11=Chris |last12=Cooper |first12=Alan |last13=Durbin |first13=Richard |date=2016-01-19 |title=Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history |journal=Nature Communications |volume=7 |pages=10408 |doi=10.1038/ncomms10408 |issn=2041-1723 |pmc=4735688 |pmid=26783965}}</ref> | |||
====Surveys==== | |||
According to the 2001/02 Labour Force Survey, 87 per cent of Wales-born residents claimed Welsh ethnic identity.<ref name="01Labour Force survey"/> Respondents in the local authority areas of Gwynedd, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, and Merthyr Tydfil each returned results of between 91 and 93 per cent claiming Welsh ethnicity, of those born in Wales.<ref name="01Labour Force survey"/> Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taff, returned results 88-91 per cent of Wales-born respondents claiming Welsh ethnicity.<ref name="01Labour Force survey"/> Powys, Anglesey, Denbighshire, Caerphilly, and the Vale of Glamorgan returned results of 86-88 per cent of respondents born in Wales claiming Welsh ethnicity.<ref name="01Labour Force survey"/> Pembrokeshire, Swansea, Cardiff, Newport, Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent, Conwy, Flintshire, and Wrexham returned results of 78-86 per cent of those born in Wales claiming Welsh ethnicity.<ref name="01Labour Force survey"/> | |||
A third study, published in 2020 and based on Viking era data from across Europe, suggested that the Welsh trace, on average, 58% of their ancestry to the Brittonic people, up to 22% from a Danish-like source interpreted as largely representing the Anglo-Saxons, 3% from Norwegian Vikings, and 13% from further south in Europe such as ], to a lesser extent, ] and can possibly be related to French immigration during the Norman period.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Margaryan |first1=Ashot |last2=Lawson |first2=Daniel J. |last3=Sikora |first3=Martin |last4=Racimo |first4=Fernando |last5=Rasmussen |first5=Simon |last6=Moltke |first6=Ida |last7=Cassidy |first7=Lara M. |last8=Jørsboe |first8=Emil |last9=Ingason |first9=Andrés |last10=Pedersen |first10=Mikkel W. |last11=Korneliussen |first11=Thorfinn |last12=Wilhelmson |first12=Helene |last13=Buś |first13=Magdalena M. |last14=de Barros Damgaard |first14=Peter |last15=Martiniano |first15=Rui |date=September 2020 |title=Population genomics of the Viking world |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32939067/ |journal=Nature |volume=585 |issue=7825 |pages=390–396 |doi=10.1038/s41586-020-2688-8 |issn=1476-4687 |pmid=32939067|hdl=11250/2726713 |hdl-access=free }} (See supplemental note 11)</ref> | |||
According to the survey, when factoring non-Wales born residents, 67 per cent of those surveyed claimed Welsh or Welsh-British (rather than British, English or other) ethnic identity. This reflects a residential population which includes 30 per cent born outside of Wales. The survey, from the ], identified the remaining 33 per cent of respondents as 'Not Welsh'.<ref name="01Labour Force survey"></ref> | |||
A 2015 genetic survey of modern British population groups found a distinct genetic difference between those from northern and southern Wales, which was interpreted as the legacy of ].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Leslie |first1=Stephen |last2=Winney |first2=Bruce |last3=Hellenthal |first3=Garrett |last4=Davison |first4=Dan |last5=Boumertit |first5=Abdelhamid |last6=Day |first6=Tammy |last7=Hutnik |first7=Katarzyna |last8=Royrvik |first8=Ellen C. |last9=Cunliffe |first9=Barry |author10=Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2 |author11=International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium |last12=Lawson |first12=Daniel J. |last13=Falush |first13=Daniel |last14=Freeman |first14=Colin |last15=Pirinen |first15=Matti |date=March 2015 |title=The fine-scale genetic structure of the British population |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=519 |issue=7543 |pages=309–314 |doi=10.1038/nature14230 |issn=0028-0836 |pmc=4632200 |pmid=25788095|bibcode=2015Natur.519..309. }}</ref> | |||
==Culture== | |||
{{see also|Culture of Wales}} | |||
===Language=== | |||
{{main|Welsh language}} | |||
''see also ]'' | |||
A study of a diverse sample of 2,039 individuals from the United Kingdom allowed the creation of a genetic map and the suggestion that there was a substantial migration of peoples from Europe prior to Roman times forming a strong ancestral component across England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, but which had little impact in Wales. Wales forms a distinct genetic group, followed by a further division between north and south Wales, although there was evidence of a genetic difference between north and south Pembrokeshire as separated by the ].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Leslie |first1=Stephen |last2=Winney |first2=Bruce |last3=Hellenthal |first3=Garrett |last4=Davison |first4=Dan |last5=Boumertit |first5=Abdelhamid |last6=Day |first6=Tammy |last7=Hutnik |first7=Katarzyna |last8=Royrvik |first8=Ellen C. |last9=Cunliffe |first9=Barry |last10=Lawson |first10=Daniel J. |last11=Falush |first11=Daniel |last12=Freeman |first12=Colin |last13=Pirinen |first13=Matti |last14=Myers |first14=Simon |last15=Robinson |first15=Mark |last16=Donnelly |first16=Peter |last17=Bodmer |first17=Walter |title=The fine-scale genetic structure of the British population |journal=Nature |date=March 2015 |volume=519 |issue=7543 |pages=309–314 |doi=10.1038/nature14230|pmid=25788095 |pmc=4632200 |bibcode=2015Natur.519..309. }}</ref> Speaking of these results, Professor ], of the University of Oxford, said that the Welsh carry DNA which could be the most ancient in UK and that people from Wales are genetically relatively distinct.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Leake |first1=Jonathan |title=DNA shows Welsh and Cornish to be 'purest' Britons |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dna-shows-welsh-and-cornish-to-be-purest-britons-gdwnv8dzgsg |access-date=22 November 2022 |work=The Times |language=en}}</ref> | |||
]]] | |||
== Modern times == | |||
According to the 2001 (two thousand and one) census the number of Welsh speakers in Wales increased for the first time in 100 years, with 20.5% in a population of over 2.9 million claiming fluency in Welsh, or one in five.<ref name="censusresults"/> Additionally, 28% of the population of Wales claimed to understand Welsh.<ref name="censusresults"/> The census revealed that the increase was most significant in urban areas; such as Cardiff (''Caerdydd'') with an increase from 6.6% in 1991 to 10.9% in 2001, and ] with an increase from 9% in 1991 to 12.3% in 2001.<ref name="censusresults"/> However, the number of Welsh speakers declined in ] from 72.1% in 1991 to 68.7%, and in ] from 59.1% in 1991 to 51.8%.<ref name="censusresults"/> Ceredigion in particular experienced the greatest fluctuation with the a 19.5% influx of new residents since 1991.<ref name="censusresults"/> | |||
{| class="wikitable floatright" | |||
|- | |||
! Year | |||
! Population of Wales | |||
|- | |||
| 1536 || 278,000 | |||
|- | |||
| 1620 || 360,000 | |||
|- | |||
| 1770 ||500,000 | |||
|- | |||
| 1801 || 587,000 | |||
|- | |||
| 1851 || 1,163,000 | |||
|- | |||
| 1911 || 2,421,000 | |||
|- | |||
| 1921 || 2,656,000 | |||
|- | |||
| 1939 || 2,487,000 | |||
|- | |||
| 1961 || 2,644,000 | |||
|- | |||
| 1991 || 2,644,000 | |||
|- | |||
| 2011 || {{Round|3063456|-3}}<ref>{{harv|Davies|1994|pp=258–259, 319}}</ref><ref>Census 2001, | |||
2011 Census, Population Estimates for UK</ref> | |||
|} | |||
The population of Wales doubled from 587,000 in 1801 to 1,163,000 in 1851 and had reached 2,421,000 by 1911. Most of the increase came in the coal mining districts; especially ], which grew from 71,000 in 1801 to 232,000 in 1851 and 1,122,000 in 1911.<ref>Brian R. Mitchell and Phyllis Deane, ''Abstract of British Historical Statistics'' (Cambridge, 1962) pp 20, 22</ref> Part of this increase can be attributed to the ] seen in most industrialising countries during the ], as death rates dropped and birth rates remained steady. However, there was also a large-scale migration into Wales during the Industrial Revolution. The English were the most numerous group, but there were also considerable numbers of Irish; and smaller numbers of other ethnic groups,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/storyofwelsh/content/industrialrevolution.shtml |title=Industrial Revolution |publisher=BBC |access-date=17 October 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050904090445/http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/storyofwelsh/content/industrialrevolution.shtml |archive-date=4 September 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|publisher=LSJ Services Ltd |url=http://www.therhondda.co.uk/living/population.html |title=Population |website=Therhondda.co.uk |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-date=20 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080520075715/http://www.therhondda.co.uk/living/population.html}}</ref> including ] migrated to South Wales.<ref>{{cite web|date=15 August 2008 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/themes/society/migration_italian.shtml |website=Wales History |title=Italian immigration |publisher=BBC |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090403152531/http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/themes/society/migration_italian.shtml |archive-date=3 April 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> Wales received other immigration from various parts of the British ] in the 20th century, and ] and ] communities immigrated particularly to urban Wales.<ref>{{usurped|1=}}</ref> | |||
=== 2001 census === | |||
The decline in Welsh speakers in much of rural Wales is attributable to non Welsh speaking residents moving to North Wales, driving up property rates above what locals may afford, according to former ] county councilor ] of ], whose controversial comments in 2001 focused attention on the issue.<ref name="censusresults"/> As many as a third of all properties in Gwynedd are bought by persons from out of the country.<ref></ref> The issue of locals being priced out of the local housing market is common to many rural communities throughout Britain, but in Wales the added dimension of language further complicated the issue, as many new residents did not learn the Welsh language.<ref></ref> | |||
In 2001, it is uncertain how many people in Wales considered themselves to be of Welsh ethnicity; the ] did not offer 'Welsh' as an option; respondents had to use a box marked "Other". Ninety-six per cent of the population of Wales thus described themselves as being ].<ref name="censusresults">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/2755217.stm |title=Census shows Welsh language rise |work=BBC News |date=14 February 2003 |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105005721/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/2755217.stm |archive-date=5 January 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> Controversy surrounding the method of determining ethnicity began as early as 2000, when it was revealed that respondents in Scotland and Northern Ireland would be able to tick a box describing themselves as of Scottish or of Irish ethnicity, an option not available for Welsh or English respondents.<ref name="censusequality">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk_politics/2000/conferences/plaid_cymru/936077.stm |title=Census equality backed by Plaid |work=BBC News |date=23 September 2000 |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081124103326/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk_politics/2000/conferences/plaid_cymru/936077.stm |archive-date=24 November 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/2288147.stm |title=Census results 'defy tick-box row' |work=BBC News |date=30 September 2002 |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081228215723/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/2288147.stm |archive-date=28 December 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> Prior to the census, Plaid Cymru backed a petition calling for the inclusion of a Welsh tick-box and for the National Assembly to have primary law-making powers and its own ].<ref name="censusequality" /> | |||
In the absence of a Welsh tick-box, the only tick-boxes available were 'white-British,' 'Irish', or 'other'.<ref name="censusequality" /> The Scottish parliament insisted that a Scottish ethnicity tick-box be included in the census in Scotland, and with this inclusion as many as 88.11% claimed Scottish ethnicity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/06/22110457/05107 |title=Scottish Parliament's Review of Census Ethnicity Classifications Consultation |date=June 2005 |access-date=7 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130204130324/http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/06/22110457/05107 |archive-date=4 February 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Critics argued that a higher proportion of respondents would have described themselves as of Welsh ethnicity had a Welsh tick-box been made available. Additional criticism was levelled at the timing of the census, which was taken in the middle of the ]. Organisers said that this had not affected the results.<ref name="censusresults" /> The foot-and-mouth crisis delayed the ]; the first time since the Second World War that any event had postponed an election. | |||
A Plaid Cymru taskforce headed by Dafydd Wigley recommended land should be allocated for affordable local housing, and called for grants for locals to buy houses, and recommended council tax on holiday homes should double.<ref></ref> | |||
In the census, 14% of the population took the 'extra step' to write in that they were of Welsh ethnicity.<ref name="Welsh write in">{{cite web|url=http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=449 |title=NSO article: 'Welsh' on Census form |publisher=Statistics.gov.uk |date=8 January 2004 |access-date=17 October 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090605113311/http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=449 |archive-date=5 June 2009}}</ref> The highest percentage of those identifying as of Welsh ethnicity was recorded in ] (at 27%), followed by ] (23%), ] (22%) and the ] (19%).<ref name="Welsh write in" /> Among respondents between 16 and 74 years of age, those claiming Welsh ethnicity were predominantly in professional and managerial occupations.<ref name="Welsh write in" /> | |||
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 ]. | |||
=== 2011 census === | |||
Even among the Welsh speakers, very few people speak only Welsh, with nearly all being ] in ]. However, a large number of Welsh speakers are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English and vice versa, usually depending on the area spoken. Many prefer to speak English in South Wales or the urbanised areas and Welsh in the North or in rural areas. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain (known in linguistics as ]). | |||
In advance of the 2011 UK Census, the ] (ONS) launched a census consultation exercise. They received replies from 28 different Welsh organisations and a large proportion of these referred to Welsh ethnicity, language or identity.<ref name="WMail2009">Walesonline.co.uk '' {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118081927/http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2009/12/17/pioneering-census-questionnaire-for-wales-will-help-us-shape-the-future-91466-25410298/ |date=18 January 2012 }}'' published in Western Mail, 17 December 2009 (Retrieved 17 October 2011)</ref> | |||
Thanks to the work of the Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin (Welsh ] Movement), recent census data reveals a reversal in decades of linguistic decline: there are now more Welsh speakers under five years of age than over 60. For many young people in Wales, the acquisition of Welsh is a gateway to better careers and increased cultural opportunity: Wales's third greatest revenue earner is media products and Cardiff boasts a world-class animation industry. | |||
For the first time ever in British census history the 2011 Census gave the opportunity for people to describe their identity as Welsh or English. A 'dress rehearsal' of the Census was carried out on the Welsh island of ] because of its rural nature ''and'' its high numbers of Welsh speakers.<ref name="WMail2009" /> | |||
Although Welsh is a ], 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 ] in the form of groups such as the ] ] and ] (Welsh Language Society). The language is used in the bilingual ] and entered on its records, with English translation. Technically it is not supposed to be used in the ] as it is referred to as a "foreign language" and is effectively banned as disruptive behaviour<!--Explain this. What does "not supposed to" mean?-->, but several ]s (most notably ], himself born in Wales, close by ]) spoke Welsh in longer English-language speeches. | |||
The Census, taken on 27 March 2011, asked a number of questions relating to nationality and national identity, including ''What is your country of birth?'' and ''How would you describe your national identity?'' (for the first time 'Welsh' and 'English' were included as options), ''What is your ethnic group?'' ('White Welsh/English/Scottish/Northern Irish/British' was an option) and ''Can you understand, speak, read or write Welsh?''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/the-2011-census/2011-census-questionnaire-content/2011-census-questions---wales.pdf |title=2011 Census questions – Wales |publisher=Office for National Statistics |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130922222221/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/census/2011/the-2011-census/2011-census-questionnaire-content/2011-census-questions---wales.pdf |archive-date=22 September 2013 |access-date=17 October 2011}}</ref> | |||
As of the 2011 census in Wales, 66 per cent (2.0 million) of residents reported a Welsh national identity (either on its own or combined with other identities). Of these, 218,000 responded that they had Welsh and British national identity. Just under 17 per cent (519,000) of people in Wales considered themselves to have a British national identity only. Most residents of Wales (96 per cent, 2.9 million) reported at least one national identity of English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, or British.<ref>{{Cite web |title=2011 Census: Key Statistics for Wales, March 2011 |date=11 December 2012 |publisher=Office for National Statistics |url=https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/bulletins/2011censuskeystatisticsforwales/2012-12-11 |access-date=24 February 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322204758/https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/bulletins/2011censuskeystatisticsforwales/2012-12-11 |archive-date=22 March 2018}}</ref> | |||
Welsh as a ] is largely concentrated in the less urban north and west of Wales, principally ], inland ], northern and south-western ], ], ], North ], ], and parts of western ], although first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales. However, Cardiff is now home to an urban Welsh speaking population (both from other parts of Wales and from the growing Welsh medium schools of Cardiff itself) due to the centralisation and concentration of national resources and organisations in the capital. | |||
=== Surveys === | |||
The Welsh language is an important part of Welsh identity, but not an essential part. Welsh people actively distinguish between 'Cymry Cymraeg' (Welsh-speaking Welsh), Cymry di-Gymraeg (non Welsh speaking Welsh) and Saeson (English). Parts of the culture are however strongly connected to the language - notably the Eisteddfodic tradition, poetry and aspects of folk music and dance. However, Wales has a strong tradition of poetry in the English language. | |||
A survey published in 2001, by the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends at Oxford University (sample size 1161), found that 14.6 per cent of respondents described themselves as British, not Welsh; 8.3 per cent saw themselves as more British than Welsh; 39.0 per cent described themselves as equally Welsh and British; 20.2 per cent saw themselves as more Welsh than British; and 17.9 per cent described themselves as Welsh, not British.<ref name="CREST Minority Nationalism">{{cite web |url=http://www.crest.ox.ac.uk/papers/p86.pdf |title=CREST Minority Nationalism published 2001, extracted 14 July 2010 |page=10 |publisher=crest.ox.ac.uk |year=2001 |access-date=2010-07-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724053452/http://www.crest.ox.ac.uk/papers/p86.pdf |archive-date=24 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
===Religion=== | === Religion === | ||
{{See also|Religion in Wales}} | |||
Forms of ] have dominated religious life in what is now Wales for more than 1,400 years.<ref>L. Alcock, ''Kings and Warriors, Craftsmen and Priests in Northern Britain AD 550–850'' (Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland), {{ISBN|0-903903-24-5}}, p. 63.</ref><ref>Lucas Quensel von Kalben, "The British Church and the Emergence of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom", in T. Dickinson and D. Griffiths, eds, ''Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, 10: Papers for the 47th Sachsensymposium, York, September 1996'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), {{ISBN|086054138X}}, p. 93.</ref> Most Welsh ] are affiliated with the ] or other ]s such as the ],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://gov.wales/docs/statistics/2012/121217sb1262012en.pdf|title=2011 Census: First Results for Ethnicity, National Identity, and Religion for Wales |website=Gov.wales|access-date=9 January 2018}}</ref> ], and ] Christianity. Wales has a long tradition of ] and ].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.russianorthodoxchurchcardiff.com/|title=Russian Orthodox Church Abroad Cardiff|website=Russian Orthodox Church Abroad Cardiff|language=en|access-date=2018-08-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817225547/https://www.russianorthodoxchurchcardiff.com/|archive-date=17 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.orthodoxchurch.co.uk/Orthodox_Wales.html|title=Orthodox Wales|last=Wales|first=Father Luke Holden – Orthodox Christian Contact|website=Orthodoxchurch.co.uk|access-date=20 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170507183007/http://www.orthodoxchurch.co.uk/Orthodox_Wales.html|archive-date=7 May 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Some Welsh people are affiliated with either ], ], ], ] or ]. In the 2001, around 7,000 classified themselves as following "other religions", including a reconstructed form of ], which was the pre-Christian religion of Wales (not to be confused with the Druids of the ] at the National ] of Wales). Approximately one third of the population, some 980,000 people, profess no religious faith whatsoever.<ref name="stats">{{cite web |title=2011 Census: Key Statistics for Wales, March 2011|url=http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census/key-statistics-for-unitary-authorities-in-wales/stb-2011-census-key-statistics-for-wales.html#tab---Religion|publisher=]|access-date=11 November 2021}}</ref> | |||
The census showed that slightly fewer than 10% of the Welsh population are regular ] or chapel goers (a slightly smaller proportion than in England or Scotland), although about 58% of the population see themselves as Christian in some form. Judaism has quite a long history in Wales, with a Jewish community recorded in ] from around 1730. In August 1911, during a period of public order and industrial disputes, Jewish shops across the ] were damaged by mobs. Since that time the Jewish population of that area, which reached a peak of 4,000–5,000 in 1913, has declined; only ] has retained 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 ] established in ]. A college for training clerics has been established at ] in ]. Islam arrived in Wales in the mid 19th century, and it is thought that Cardiff's ] community is Britain's oldest Muslim community, established when the city was one of the world's largest coal exporting ports. ] and ] each have about 5,000 adherents in Wales, with the rural county of ] being the centre of Welsh Buddhism. ]'s temple and restaurant, run by the ] in ], is a focal point for many Welsh Hindus. There are about 2,000 ]s in Wales, with the first purpose-built ] opened in the ] area of Cardiff in 1989.{{cn|date=December 2022}} | |||
Most Welsh people of faith are affiliated with the ] or other ]s such as the ] or ], although there is even a ] chapel in the semi-rural town of ]. In particular, Wales has a long tradition of ] and ]. Other religions Welsh people may be affiliated with include ], ], ], ], and ], with most non-Christian people in Wales found in ]{{Fact|date=October 2008}}. | |||
The Sabbatarian ] was also historically strong among the Welsh; the sale of alcohol was prohibited on Sundays in Wales by the ] – the first legislation specifically issued for Wales since the Middle Ages. From the early 1960s, local council areas were permitted to hold referendums every seven years to determine whether they should be "wet" or "dry" on Sundays: most of the industrialised areas in the east and south went "wet" immediately, and by the 1980s the last district, Dwyfor in the northwest, went wet; since then there have been no more Sunday-closing referendums.{{cn|date=December 2022}} | |||
The 2001 ] showed that slightly less than 10% of the Welsh population are regular ] or ] goers (a slightly smaller proportion than in England or Scotland), although about 70% of the population see themselves as some form of Christian. ] has quite a long history in Wales, with a ] community recorded in ] from around 1730. In August 1911, during a period of public order and industrial disputes, Jewish shops across the ] were damaged by mobs. Since that time the Jewish population of that area, which reached a peak of 4,000–5,000 in 1913, has declined with only ] retaining a sizeable Jewish population, of about 2000 in the 2001 Census. The largest non-Christian faith in Wales is ], with about 22,000 members in 2001 served by about 40 mosques, following the ] established in ] in 1860. A college for training clerics has been established at ] in ]. Islam arrived in Wales in the mid ], and it is thought that Cardiff's ] community is Britain's oldest Muslim community, established when the city was one of the world's largest coal-exporting ports. ] and ] each have about 5,000 adherents in Wales, with the ] county of ] being the centre of Welsh Buddhism. ]'s temple & restaurant, ran by the ]'s in ] is a focal point for many Welsh Hindus. There are about 2,000 ]s in Wales, with the first purpose-built ] opened in the ] area of Cardiff in 1989. In 2001 some 7,000 people classified themselves as following "other religions" including a reconstructed form of ], which was the pre-Christian religion of Wales (not to be confused with the Druids of the ] at the National ] of Wales). Approximately one sixth of the population, some 500,000 people, profess no religious faith whatsoever. | |||
Despite Christianity dominating Wales, more ancient traditions persisted. In 1874 it was reported as common for an officiant to walk in front of the coffin with a horse's skull, which may be a tradition linked with the ] tradition.<ref>Merthyr Telegraph, and General Advertiser for the Iron Districts of South Wales - Friday 01 May 1874</ref> | |||
The sabbatarian ] was also historically strong among the Welsh, the sale of alcohol being prohibited on Sundays in Wales by the ] - the first legislation specifically issued for Wales since the Middle Ages. From the early 1960s, local council areas were permitted to hold referendums every seven years to determine whether they should be "wet" or "dry" on Sundays: most of the industrialised areas in the east and south went "wet" immediately, and by the 1980s the last district, Dwyfor in the northwest, went wet, since then there have been no more Sunday-closing referendums. | |||
== |
== Language == | ||
{{Main|Welsh language|History of the Welsh language|Welsh English}} | |||
]]] | |||
] | |||
The Welsh language is in the ] family; historically spoken throughout Wales, with its predecessor ] once spoken throughout most of the island of Great Britain. Prior to the 20th century, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh, with little or no fluent knowledge of English.<ref>Janet Davies, ], ] (1993). ''The Welsh Language'', page 34</ref> Welsh remains the predominant language in parts of Wales, particularly in North Wales and parts of West Wales. | |||
According to the 2001 census the number of Welsh speakers in Wales increased for the first time in 100 years, with 20.5% of a population of over 2.9 million claiming fluency in Welsh. In addition, 28% of the population of Wales claimed to understand Welsh. The census revealed that the increase was most significant in urban areas, such as Cardiff with an increase from 6.6% in 1991 to 10.9% in 2001, and ] with an increase from 9% in 1991 to 12.3% in 2001. However, the proportion of Welsh speakers declined in ] from 72.1% in 1991 to 68.7% in 2001, to 65.4% in 2011 and 64.4% in 2021. Similarly, in ] the percentage fell from 59.1% in 1991 to 51.8% in 2001, to 47.3% in 2011 and to 45.3% in 2021. Ceredigion saw a 19.5% influx of new residents between 1991 and 2001.<ref name="censusresults" /> | |||
* The ] incorporates the ] ] (Y Ddraig Goch) of Prince ] along with the ] colours of green and white. It was used by ] at the ] in 1485 after which it was carried in state to ]. The red dragon was then included in the Tudor royal arms to signify their Welsh descent. It was officially recognised as the Welsh national flag in 1959. The British ] incorporates the flags of ], ] and ] but does not have any Welsh representation. Technically, however, it is represented by the flag of England due to the Laws in Wales act of 1535 which annexed Wales following the 13th century conquest. | |||
* The flag of the princely ], which has 4 squares alternating in red and yellow and then a ] in each square of the opposite colour. The flag was first associated with ], who received the fealty of all other Welsh lords at the Treaty of Aberdyfi in 1216, becoming de jure Prince of Wales, according to historian John Davies. The Aberffraw family claimed primacy as princes of Wales as the senior decendants of ], and included ], who was known as ] (Prince of the Welsh), and ]. The current claimant may be ]. | |||
]]] | |||
* The flag of ], ], which combined the flags of Powys and Deheubarth, has 4 squares alternating in red and yellow and then a ] in each square of the opposite colour. The red lion on a yellow field represented Powys, and the yellow lion on a red field represented Deheubarth. Owain was the senior heir of both Powys and Deheubarth. The flag harkened back to the Aberffraw flag, linking Owain's rule with the Aberffraw princes of Wales in an effort to legitimize his rule. | |||
] | |||
* The ], part of the national flag design, is also a popular Welsh symbol. The oldest recorded use of the dragon to symbolise Wales is from the ], written around 820, but it is popularly supposed to have been the battle standard of ] and other ancient ]ic leaders. This myth is likely to have originated from ]'s vision of a Red (The Native Britons) and White (The Saxon Invaders) dragon battling, with the red dragon being victorious. Following the annexation of Wales by England, the red dragon was used as a supporter in the English monarch's coat of arms. The red dragon is often seen as a shorthand for all things Welsh, being used by many indigenous public and private institutions (eg: The ], ], numerous ] including ], ], ], ], ], ], and sports bodies, including the ], the ], ], ], etc.) | |||
* The ] is also a national emblem of Wales. According to legend, ] ordered his Welsh soldiers to identify themselves by wearing the vegetable on their helmets in an ancient battle against the ] that took place in a leek field. It is still worn on ] each ] | |||
* The ] is the ] of Wales, and is worn on ] each ]. (In Welsh, the daffodil is known as "]'s Leek", ''cenhinen Bedr/Cenin pedr''.) | |||
]]] | |||
* The ] is the ] of Wales. | |||
] | |||
* The ] is sometimes used as an alternative to the national flag (and used in part of ]'s crest), and is flown on ]. | |||
* The ] which are the historic arms of the ] are used by ] in his personal standard. | |||
* The ], the heraldic badge of the ] is sometimes adapted by Welsh bodies for use in Wales. The symbolism is explained on the article for ], who was the first ] to bear the emblem; see also ]. The ] uses such a design for its own badge. The national sport is often considered ], though football is very popular too. | |||
* The ] is sometimes named as the national symbol of wildlife in Wales.<ref></ref> | |||
* Patriotic anthems for "the land of Song" include "]" ("Land of My Fathers") (national anthem), "]", "]" (national hymn), "]", "]", "]". | |||
The decline in Welsh speakers in much of rural Wales is attributable to non-Welsh-speaking residents moving to North Wales, driving up property prices above what locals may afford, according to former ] county councillor ] of ], whose controversial comments in 2001 focused attention on the issue.<ref name="censusresults" /> As many as a third of all properties in Gwynedd are bought by people from outside Wales.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/1123782.stm |title=Apology over 'insults' to English |work=BBC News |date=19 January 2001 |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120806190314/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/1123782.stm |archive-date=6 August 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> The issue of locals being priced out of the local housing market is common to many rural communities throughout Britain, but in Wales the added dimension of language complicates the issue, as many new residents do not learn the Welsh language.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/524419.stm |title=UK: Wales Plaid calls for second home controls |work=BBC News |date=17 November 1999 |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120807114726/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/524419.stm |archive-date=7 August 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
==Welsh emigration== | |||
A Plaid Cymru taskforce headed by Dafydd Wigley recommended land should be allocated for affordable local housing, called for grants for locals to buy houses, and recommended that ] on holiday homes should double.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/1397281.stm |title=Plaid plan 'protects' rural areas |work=BBC News |date=19 June 2001 |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120806115537/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/1397281.stm |archive-date=6 August 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Migration from Wales to the rest of Britain has been occurring throughout its history. Particularly during the ] hundreds of thousands of Welsh people migrated internally to the big cities of England and Scotland or to work in the coal mines of the north of England. As a result, much of the British population today have ancestry from Wales. The same can be said for the English, Scottish and Irish workers who migrated to Welsh cities such as ] or ports such as ] in the ]. As a result, some English, Irish and Scottish have Welsh surnames ("Evans", "Jenkins" "Owen" etc.) and some Welsh have English, Scottish and Irish surnames - as a result, it is relatively rare in South Wales or English-speaking areas to find a person with exclusively Welsh ancestry. | |||
However, the same census shows that 25% of residents were born outside Wales. The number of Welsh speakers in other places in Britain is uncertain, but there are significant numbers in the main cities, and there are speakers along the ]. | |||
Some thousands of Welsh settlers moved to other parts of Europe, but the number was sparse and concentrated to certain areas. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a small wave of contract miners from Wales arrived into Northern ], and the centre of Welsh-French populations are in coal mining towns of the French department ]. Welsh settlers from Wales (and later Patagonian Welsh) arrived in ], ] in the early 1900s, many had founded towns in the province's ] coast region. | |||
Even among Welsh speakers, very few people speak only Welsh, with nearly all being ] in English. However, a large number of Welsh speakers are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. Some prefer to speak English in South Wales or the urbanised areas and Welsh in the North or in rural areas. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain (known in linguistics as ]).{{cn|date=April 2023}} | |||
Internationally Welsh people have emigrated, in relatively small numbers (in proportion to population Irish emigration to the ] (USA) may have been 26 times greater than Welsh emigration),<ref name="Australia">: '''''' website. Retrieved 3 August 2006.</ref> to many countries, including the USA (in particular, ]), ] and ].<ref> by Matthew S. Magda (1986), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. From '''Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission'''. Retrieved 3 August 2006.</ref><ref>: ''''''. Retrieved 3 August 2006.</ref><ref>: '''BBC - Wales History.''' Retrieved 3 August 2006.</ref> ] was sometimes referred to as ''Little Wales'' and the Welsh language was commonly heard or spoken among locals by the mid 20th century. {{Fact|date=July 2008}} ] in ], which began as a Welsh ] Settlement, lays claim to having more people of Welsh descent per capita than anywhere outside of Wales itself.<ref>: '''BBC News,''' 20 July 2005. Retrieved 3 August 2006.</ref> Malad's local High School is known as the "Malad Dragons" and flies the ] as its school colours.<ref>: ''''''. Retrieved 3 August 2006.</ref> Welsh people have also settled as far as ] and ].<ref> from ''''''. Retrieved 3 August 2003.</ref><ref name="Australia"/> | |||
Due to an increase in Welsh-language nursery education, recent census data reveals a reversal of decades of linguistic decline: there are now more Welsh speakers under five years of age than over 60. For many young people in Wales, the acquisition of Welsh is a gateway to better careers, according to research from the ] and Careers Wales.<ref name=DewisDa>{{cite web|url=http://www.careerswales.com/server.php?show=nav.9579|title=Dewis Da – Why choose Welsh?|access-date=2013-03-04|publisher=Careers Wales|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150603095544/https://www.careerswales.com/server.php?show=nav.9579|archive-date=3 June 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> The Welsh Government identified media as one of six areas likely to experience greater demand for Welsh speakers:<ref name=DewisDa /> the sector is Wales's third-largest revenue earner. | |||
Around 1.75 million Americans report themselves to have Welsh ancestry, as did a further 467,000 in ].<ref name="usa"/><ref name="canada"/> This compares with 2.9 million people living in Wales (as of the ]).<ref name="estimate"/> | |||
Although Welsh is a ], 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 ] in the form of groups such as the political party ] and ] (Welsh Language Society). The language is used in the bilingual ] (Senedd) and entered on its records, with English translation. The high cost of translation from English to Welsh has proved controversial.<ref>{{cite news|last=Powys|first=Betsan|title=Mugshots and making headlines|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-18159802|work=BBC News|access-date=2013-03-04|date=2012-05-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181023080850/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-18159802|archive-date=23 October 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> In the past the rules of the ] forbade the use of Welsh in any proceedings. Only English was allowed as the only language all members were assumed to speak.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1966/jul/21/oath-of-allegiance-welsh-language |title=Oath of Allegiance (Welsh Language) |work=] |date=21 July 1966 |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090719220349/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1966/jul/21/oath-of-allegiance-welsh-language |archive-date=19 July 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2017, the UK government agreed to support the use of Welsh in the Welsh Grand Committee, although not in parliamentary debate in the house outside of this committee.<ref>{{cite web |title=Memorandum from the Clerk of the House Use of Welsh in the Welsh Grand Committee at Westminster |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmproced/816/81610.htm |website=Parliament.UK |access-date=12 December 2019}}</ref> In 2018 Welsh was used in the grand committee for the first time.<ref>{{cite news |title=MPs speak Welsh in parliamentary debate for first time |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-42967899 |access-date=11 December 2019 |work=BBC News |date=7 February 2018}}</ref> | |||
There is no known evidence which would objectively support the legend that the ], a ] tribe of the central ], are Welsh emigrants who reached North America under Prince ] in 1170.<ref name="straightdope">{{cite web |last=Adams |first=Cecil |year=2006 |url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/060908.html |title=Straight Dope: Was there an Indian tribe descended from Welsh explorers to America?}}</ref> | |||
Welsh as a ] is largely concentrated in the less urban north and west of Wales, principally ], inland Conwy and ], northern and south-western ], the ], ], North ], ], and parts of western ], although first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales. However, Cardiff is now home to an urban Welsh-speaking population (both from other parts of Wales and from the growing Welsh-medium schools of Cardiff itself) due to the centralisation and concentration of national resources and organisations in the capital. | |||
== See also == | |||
{{portalpar|Wales}} | |||
{{sisterlinks}} | |||
{{columns |colwidth=25% | |||
|col1 = | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
|col2 = | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
*]'s ] in ''y Wladfa''. | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
|col3 = | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
*] | |||
}} | |||
For some, speaking Welsh is an important part of their Welsh identity. Parts of the culture are strongly connected to the language — notably the Eisteddfod tradition, poetry and aspects of folk music and dance. Wales also has a strong tradition of poetry in the English language.{{cn|date=December 2022}} | |||
== External links == | |||
* BBC Wales: | |||
] (Cymraeg y Wladfa) is a dialect of the ] which is spoken in ] in the ] region, ].{{cn|date=December 2022}} | |||
* BBC News report: | |||
* BBC News report: | |||
== Culture == | |||
* BBC News report: | |||
{{See also|Culture of Wales}} | |||
* BBC: | |||
* | |||
== National symbols == | |||
* data-wales.co.uk: | |||
{{Main|National symbols of Wales}} | |||
* data-wales.co.uk: | |||
* The ] ({{lang|cy|Baner Cymru}}) incorporates the ] ] ({{lang|cy|Y Ddraig Goch}}), a popular symbol of Wales and the Welsh people, along with the ] colours of green and white. It was used by Henry VII at the ] in 1485, after which it was carried in state to ]. The red dragon was then included in the Tudor royal arms to signify their Welsh descent. It was officially recognised as the Welsh national flag in 1959. Since the British ] does not have any Welsh representation, the Flag of Wales has become very popular. | |||
* Genetic data and | |||
* The ] is sometimes used as an alternative to the national flag, and is flown on ]. | |||
* Link2Wales: | |||
* The ], part of the national flag design, is also a popular Welsh symbol. The oldest recorded use of the dragon to symbolise Wales is from the '']'', written around 820, but it is popularly supposed to have been the battle standard of ] and other ancient Celtic leaders. Following the annexation of Wales by England, the dragon was used as a supporter in the English monarch's coat of arms. | |||
*'''', '''' | |||
* Both the ] and the ] are symbols of Wales. The origin of the leek can be traced back to the 16th century and the daffodil, encouraged by ], became popular in the 19th century.<ref>{{harv|Davies|1994|p=189}}</ref> This may be due to confusion of the Welsh for leek, ''cenhinen'', and that for daffodil, ''cenhinen Bedr'' or St. Peter's leek. Both are worn as symbols by the Welsh on ], 1 March. | |||
* | |||
* The ], the heraldic badge of the ], is sometimes adapted by Welsh bodies for use in Wales. The symbolism is explained on the article for ], who was the first Prince of Wales to bear the emblem. The ] uses such a design for its own badge. | |||
* | |||
== Welsh emigration == | |||
], Argentina, inspired by the ], owing to the Welsh immigration]] | |||
There has been migration from Wales to the rest of Britain throughout its history. During the ] thousands of Welsh people migrated, for example, to ] and ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/st-davids-day-liverpools-welsh-8738182|title=St David's Day: why are Liverpool's Welsh links so strong?|first=Dawn|last=Collinson|date=28 February 2015|website=Liverpoolecho.co.uk|access-date=20 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221011313/http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/st-davids-day-liverpools-welsh-8738182|archive-date=21 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ashtoninmakerfieldanddistrictu3a.co.uk/About%20Ashton-in-Makerfield.html|title=Ashton-in-Makerfield U3A – About Ashton-in-Makerfield |website=Ashtoninmakerfieldanddistrictu3a.co.uk|access-date=9 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180805203420/http://www.ashtoninmakerfieldanddistrictu3a.co.uk/About%20Ashton-in-Makerfield.html|archive-date=5 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> As a result, some people from England, Scotland and Ireland have Welsh surnames.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandworcester/content/articles/2006/11/13/hereford_in_wales_feature.shtml |title=BBC – Hereford and Worcester – About Herefordshire – Herefordshire in Wales?|website=Bbc.co.uk|access-date=20 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403021534/http://www.bbc.co.uk/herefordandworcester/content/articles/2006/11/13/hereford_in_wales_feature.shtml|archive-date=3 April 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2015/05/13/watch-43-years-on-should-oswestry-be-in-england-or-wales/|title=Watch: 43 years on – should Oswestry be in England or Wales?|website=Shropshirestar.com|date=13 May 2015 |access-date=20 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221011054/http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2015/05/13/watch-43-years-on-should-oswestry-be-in-england-or-wales/|archive-date=21 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/cheshire-west-chester-revealed-most-11581246|title=Bore da! Cheshire West revealed as most Welsh place in England |first=Mike|last=Fuller|date=8 July 2016|website=Chesterchronicle.co.uk|access-date=20 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221010715/http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/cheshire-west-chester-revealed-most-11581246|archive-date=21 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/people-shrewsbury-more-welsh-cardiff-2312971|title=Why the people of Shrewsbury are 'more Welsh' than Cardiff|website=Walesonline.co.uk|date=12 September 2006|access-date=20 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221010930/http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/people-shrewsbury-more-welsh-cardiff-2312971|archive-date=21 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
], the second President of the ] (1797–1801), whose paternal great-grandfather David Adams, born and bred at Fferm Penybanc, ], ], emigrated from Wales in 1675<ref>; {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160502202833/http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/entries/86fad734-9b13-39c8-9d4e-a7c6fba30fd5 |date=2 May 2016 }} recalled 13 November 2015</ref>]] | |||
Welsh settlers moved to other parts of Europe, concentrated in certain areas. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a small wave of contract miners from Wales arrived in Northern France; the centres of Welsh-French population are in coal mining towns, and particularly the French department of ] along with miners from many other countries. They tended to cluster in communities around their churches.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Knotter |first=Ad |date=December 2015 |title=Migration and Ethnicity in Coalfield History: Global Perspectives |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0020859015000413/type/journal_article |journal=International Review of Social History |language=en |volume=60 |issue=S1 |pages=13–39 |doi=10.1017/S0020859015000413 |issn=0020-8590}}</ref> | |||
Settlers from Wales (and later Patagonian Welsh) arrived in ] in the early 19th century, and founded towns in ]'s coast region; in 1819, the ship ''Albion'' left ] for ], carrying Welsh settlers to Canada; on board were 27 Cardiganian families, many of whom were farmers.<ref>{{cite news|work=Tivyside Advertiser|date=28 April 2018|url=https://www.tivysideadvertiser.co.uk/news/16175012.Ambitious_plans_to_celebrate_town__39_s_maritime_history/|title=2019 marks bi-centenary of the Albion sailing from Cardigan to Canada|access-date=26 October 2019}}</ref> In 1852, ] of ] established a settlement of about 100 Welsh people in the state of ] in Brazil. | |||
Internationally Welsh people have emigrated, in relatively small numbers (in proportion to population, Irish emigration to the US may have been 26 times greater than Welsh emigration),<ref name="Australia">{{cite web |url=http://www.lamp.ac.uk/oz/hughes/welsh19.html |title=Nineteenth Century Arrivals in Australia: ''University of Wales, Lampeter'' website. Retrieved 3 August 2006 |publisher=Lamp.ac.uk |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611222711/http://www.lamp.ac.uk/oz/hughes/welsh19.html |archive-date=11 June 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> to many countries, including the US (in particular, ]), Canada and ] in ], Argentina.<ref> {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060630062759/http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/welsh/page1.asp?secid=31 |date=30 June 2006 }}</ref><ref> {{webarchive |url=https://archive.today/20070626222921/http://www.multiculturalcanada.ca/ecp/content/welsh.html |date=26 June 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/cag/pages/cag-patagonia.shtml |title=Wales History: South America — Patagonia |publisher=BBC |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060513154008/http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/cag/pages/cag-patagonia.shtml|archive-date=13 May 2006 |access-date=17 October 2009}}</ref> ] was sometimes referred to as "Little Wales", and one of several communities where Welsh was widely spoken. There was a Welsh language press but by the late 1940s, the last Welsh language newspaper, ''y Drych'' began to publish in English.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=Ronald L. |title=Welsh Americans : a History of Assimilation in the Coalfields |date=1 March 2014 |publisher=The University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-4696-1489-2 |pages=65, 313–318 |edition=1stition }}</ref> ] in ], which began as a Welsh ] settlement, lays claim to a greater proportion of inhabitants of Welsh descent than anywhere outside Wales itself.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4699459.stm |title=Tiny US town's big Welsh heritage: ''BBC News,'' 20 July 2005. Retrieved 3 August 2006 |publisher=BBC News |date=20 July 2005 |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070106170829/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4699459.stm |archive-date=6 January 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref> Malad's local High School is known as the "Malad Dragons", and flies the ] as its school colours.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ligtel.com/~wales/waleshistory.html |title=Welsh History, The Welsh in North America, Utah |publisher=Ligtel.com |access-date=17 October 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090924150012/http://www.ligtel.com/~wales/waleshistory.html |archive-date=24 September 2009}}</ref> Welsh people have also settled in New Zealand and Australia.<ref name="Australia" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealanders/NewZealandPeoples/Welsh/1/en |title=Welsh immigration from ''Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand''. Retrieved 3 August 2003 |publisher=Teara.govt.nz |date=13 October 2009 |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413000537/http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealanders/NewZealandPeoples/Welsh/1/en |archive-date=13 April 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Around 1.75 million Americans report themselves to have Welsh ancestry, as did 458,705 Canadians in ].<ref name="usa" /><ref name="Welsh Canadians" /> This compares with 2.9 million people living in Wales (as of the ]).<ref name="estimate">{{cite web |url=http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/pyramids/pages/w.asp |title=Estimated from population of Wales from 2001 census (2,903,085Census 2001 Wales |publisher=Statistics.gov.uk |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091117175457/http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/pyramids/pages/W.asp |archive-date=17 November 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
There is no known evidence which would objectively support the legend that the ], a Native American tribe of the central United States, are Welsh emigrants who reached North America under Prince ] in 1170.<ref name="straightdope">{{cite web |url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/060908.html |title=Was there an Indian tribe descended from Welsh explorers to America? |website=Straight Dope |date=8 September 2006 |access-date=17 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512092315/http://www.straightdope.com/columns/060908.html |archive-date=12 May 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
The Ukrainian city of ] was founded in 1869 by a Welsh businessman, ] (an engineer from ]) who constructed a steel plant and several ] in the region; the town was thus named ''Yuzovka'' (Юзовка) in recognition of his role in its founding ("Yuz" being a Russian or Ukrainian approximation of Hughes).<ref>{{cite web |title=John Hughes |date=14 February 2009 |work=/wales south east |publisher=BBC |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/halloffame/historical_figures/john_hughes.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090214052603/http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/halloffame/historical_figures/john_hughes.shtml|archive-date=14 February 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
Former Australian Prime Minister ] was born in Barry, Wales. After she suffered from ] as a child, her parents were advised that it would aid her recovery to live in a warmer climate. This led the family to migrate to Australia in 1966, settling in Adelaide.{{cn|date=December 2022}} | |||
== See also == | |||
{{Portal|Wales}} | |||
{{Div col|colwidth=22em}} | |||
* ] | |||
* {{annotated link|Kale (Welsh Roma)}} | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
{{div col end}} | |||
== References == | == References == | ||
{{ |
{{Reflist}} | ||
;Sources | |||
* {{cite book| last=Davies| first= John| date=1994|title=A History of Wales|publisher=Penguin|isbn=0-14-014581-8}} | |||
== Further reading == | == Further reading == | ||
* {{cite book| last=Davies|first=Norman|title=The Isles|date=1991|publisher=Papermac|isbn=0-333-69283-7}} | |||
*John Davies, ''A History of Wales'', published 1990 by Penguin, ISBN 0-14-014581-8 | |||
* {{cite book| last=Williams|first=Gary|title=The Welsh in their History|date=1982|publisher=Croom Helm |isbn=0-7099-3651-6}} | |||
*Norman Davies, ''The Isles'', published 1991 by Papermac, ISBN 0-333-69283-7 | |||
* {{cite book| last=del Giorgio|first=J F| title=The Oldest Europeans|date=2005|publisher=A. J. Place |isbn=980-6898-00-1}} | |||
*Gwyn A Williams, ''The Welsh in their History'', published 1982 by Croom Helm, ISBN 0-7099-3651-6 | |||
* {{cite book| last=Hastings|first=Adrian|title=The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion, and Nationalism|date=1997|publisher=]|isbn=0-521-62544-0}} | |||
*J.F. del Giorgio, '']'', published 2005 by A.J. Place, ISBN 980-6898-00-1 | |||
* {{cite journal|first=Cristian|last=Capelli|display-authors=etal|title=A Y Chromosome Census of the British Isles|journal=Current Biology|volume=13|pages=979–984|date=2003|issue=11|doi=10.1016/s0960-9822(03)00373-7 |pmid=12781138|s2cid=526263|url=http://www.ucl.ac.uk/tcga/tcgapdf/capelli-CB-03.pdf}} | |||
*Adrian Hastings, ''The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion, and Nationalism'', published in 1997 by Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521625440 | |||
* {{cite journal|first=Stephen|last=Leslie|display-authors=etal|title=The fine-scale genetic structure of the British population|journal=Nature|pages=309–314|date=2015|volume=519|issue=7543 |doi=10.1038/nature14230 |pmid=25788095|pmc=4632200|bibcode=2015Natur.519..309.}} | |||
== External links == | |||
{{Template group | |||
{{Sister project links}} | |||
|list = | |||
* | |||
* | |||
{{Navboxes | |||
| list = | |||
{{Wales topics}} | {{Wales topics}} | ||
{{ |
{{Celts}} | ||
{{British peoples}} | {{British peoples}} | ||
{{British Isles}} | {{British Isles}} | ||
{{Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom}} | |||
}} | }} | ||
{{Authority control}} | |||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | |||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] |
Latest revision as of 06:30, 6 January 2025
Ethnic group and nation native to Wales "Welshman" redirects here. For other uses, see Welshman (disambiguation).This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Welsh people" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Ethnic group
Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
Wales 2 million (identifying as Welsh only) | |
Significant Welsh diaspora in | |
United States | 2 million |
England | 610,000 |
Canada | 475,000 (Includes those of mixed ancestry) |
Australia | 126,000 |
Argentina | 50,000 |
Scotland | 17,000 |
New Zealand | 10,000 |
Languages | |
Religion | |
Predominantly Non-religious (46.5%) and Christian (43.6%), traditionally Nonconformist | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Bretons, Cornish, Manx, English, Scottish, Irish, Ulster-Scots |
Part of a series on the |
Culture of Wales |
---|
History |
People |
Languages |
Traditions
|
Mythology and folklore |
Cuisine |
Festivals |
Religion |
Art |
Literature |
Music and performing arts |
Media |
Sport |
Monuments |
Symbols |
Part of a series on the |
Culture of the United Kingdom |
---|
History |
PeopleHistoric peoples
Modern ethnicities |
Languages |
Mythology and folklore |
Cuisine |
Festivals |
Religion |
Art |
Literature |
Music and performing arts |
Media |
Sport |
Monuments |
Symbols |
The Welsh (Welsh: Cymry) are an ethnic group and nation native to Wales who share a common ancestry, history and culture. Wales is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. The majority of people living in Wales are British citizens.
In Wales, the Welsh language (Welsh: Cymraeg) is protected by law. Welsh remains the predominant language in many parts of Wales, particularly in North Wales and parts of West Wales, though English is the predominant language in South Wales. The Welsh language is also taught in schools in Wales; and, even in regions of Wales in which Welsh people predominantly speak English on a daily basis, the Welsh language is spoken at home among family or in informal settings, with Welsh speakers often engaging in code-switching and translanguaging. In the English-speaking areas of Wales, many Welsh people are bilingually fluent or semi-fluent in the Welsh language or, to varying degrees, capable of speaking or understanding the language at limited or conversational proficiency levels. The Welsh language is descended from Brythonic, spoken across Britain since before the Roman invasion.
In 2016, an analysis of the geography of Welsh surnames commissioned by the Welsh Government found that 718,000 people (nearly 35% of the Welsh population) have a family name of Welsh origin, compared with 5.3% in the rest of the United Kingdom, 4.7% in New Zealand, 4.1% in Australia, and 3.8% in the United States, with an estimated 16.3 million people in the countries studied having at least partial Welsh ancestry. Over 300,000 Welsh people live in London.
Terminology
The names "Wales" and "Welsh" are modern descendants of the Anglo-Saxon word wealh, a descendant of the Proto-Germanic word walhaz, which was derived from the name of the Gaulish people known to the Romans as Volcae and which came to refer indiscriminately to inhabitants of the Roman Empire. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term to refer to the Britons in particular. As the Britons' territories shrank, the term came ultimately to be applied to a smaller group of people, and the plural form of Wealh, Wēalas, evolved into the name for the territory that best maintained cultural continuity with pre-Anglo-Saxon Britain: Wales. The modern names for various Romance-speaking people in Continental Europe (e.g. Wallonia, Wallachia, Valais, Vlachs, and Włochy, the Polish name for Italy) have a similar etymology.
The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry (plural) (singular: Cymro and Cymraes ), and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales. These words (both of which are pronounced Welsh pronunciation: [ˈkəm.ri]) are descended from the Brythonic word kombrogi, meaning "fellow-countrymen". Thus, they carry a sense of "land of fellow-countrymen", "our country", and notions of fraternity. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the post-Roman Era relationship of the Welsh with the Brythonic-speaking peoples of northern England and southern Scotland, the peoples of "Yr Hen Ogledd" (English: The Old North). The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century. It is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan (Moliant Cadwallon, by Afan Ferddig) c. 633.
In Welsh literature, the word Cymry was used throughout the Middle Ages to describe the Welsh, though the older, more generic term Brythoniaid continued to be used to describe any of the Britonnic peoples, including the Welsh, and was the more common literary term until c. 1100. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh. Until c. 1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland.
History
See also: History of Wales and Genetic history of the British IslesDuring their time in Britain, the ancient Romans encountered tribes in present-day Wales that they called the Ordovices, the Demetae, the Silures and the Deceangli. The people of what is now Wales were not distinguished from the rest of the peoples of southern Britain; all were called Britons and spoke Common Brittonic, a Celtic language. This language, and Celtic culture more generally, seems to have arrived in Britain during the Iron Age, though some archaeologists argue that there is no evidence for large-scale Iron Age migrations into Great Britain, in which case the Celticisation of Britain would have occurred through cultural diffusion.
Most people in Wales today regard themselves as modern Celts, claiming a heritage back to the Iron Age tribes. When the Roman legions departed Britain around 400, a Romano-British culture remained in the areas the Romans had settled, and the pre-Roman cultures in others. The people in what is now Wales continued to speak Common Brittonic with significant influence from Latin, as did people in other areas of western and northern Britain; this language eventually evolved into Old Welsh. The surviving poem Y Gododdin is in early Welsh and refers to the British kingdom of Gododdin with a capital at Din Eidyn (Edinburgh) and extending from the area of Stirling to the Tyne. Offa's Dyke was erected in the mid-8th century, forming a barrier between Wales and Mercia.
The process whereby the indigenous population of Wales came to think of themselves as "Welsh" (a name applied to them by Anglo-Saxon settlers) is not clear. There is plenty of evidence of the use of the term Brythoniaid (Britons); meanwhile, the earliest use of the word Kymry (referring not to the people but to the land—and possibly to northern Britain in addition to Wales) is found in a poem c. 633. The name of the region in northern England now known as Cumbria is derived from the same root. Only gradually did Cymru (the land) and Cymry (the people) come to supplant Brython. Although the Welsh language was certainly used at the time, Gwyn A. Williams argues that even at the time of the erection of Offa's Dyke, the people to its west saw themselves as Roman, citing the number of Latin inscriptions still being made into the 8th century. However, it is unclear whether such inscriptions reveal a general or normative use of Latin as a marker of identity or its selective use by the early Christian Church.
There was immigration to Wales after the Norman Conquest, and several Normans encouraged immigration to their new lands; the Landsker Line dividing the Pembrokeshire "Englishry" and "Welshry" is still detectable today. The terms Englishry and Welshry are used similarly about Gower.
Genetic studies
This section only references primary sources. Please help improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Welsh people" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Recent research on ancient DNA has concluded that much of Britain's Neolithic population was replaced by Beaker people in the Bronze Age. The British groups encountered by the Romans were thus largely descended from these Beaker populations.
The post-Roman period saw a significant alteration in the genetic makeup of southern Britain due to the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons; however, historical evidence suggests that Wales was little affected by these migrations. A study published in 2016 compared samples from modern Britain and Ireland with DNA found in skeletons from Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon era Yorkshire. The study found that most of the Iron Age and Roman era Britons showed strong similarities with both each other and modern-day Welsh populations, while modern southern and eastern English groups were closer to a later Anglo-Saxon burial.
Another study, using Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon samples from Cambridgeshire, concluded that modern Welsh people carry a 30% genetic contribution from Anglo-Saxon settlers in the post-Roman period; however, this could have been brought about due to later migration from England into Wales.
A third study, published in 2020 and based on Viking era data from across Europe, suggested that the Welsh trace, on average, 58% of their ancestry to the Brittonic people, up to 22% from a Danish-like source interpreted as largely representing the Anglo-Saxons, 3% from Norwegian Vikings, and 13% from further south in Europe such as Italy, to a lesser extent, Spain and can possibly be related to French immigration during the Norman period.
A 2015 genetic survey of modern British population groups found a distinct genetic difference between those from northern and southern Wales, which was interpreted as the legacy of Little England beyond Wales.
A study of a diverse sample of 2,039 individuals from the United Kingdom allowed the creation of a genetic map and the suggestion that there was a substantial migration of peoples from Europe prior to Roman times forming a strong ancestral component across England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, but which had little impact in Wales. Wales forms a distinct genetic group, followed by a further division between north and south Wales, although there was evidence of a genetic difference between north and south Pembrokeshire as separated by the Landsker line. Speaking of these results, Professor Peter Donnelly, of the University of Oxford, said that the Welsh carry DNA which could be the most ancient in UK and that people from Wales are genetically relatively distinct.
Modern times
Year | Population of Wales |
---|---|
1536 | 278,000 |
1620 | 360,000 |
1770 | 500,000 |
1801 | 587,000 |
1851 | 1,163,000 |
1911 | 2,421,000 |
1921 | 2,656,000 |
1939 | 2,487,000 |
1961 | 2,644,000 |
1991 | 2,644,000 |
2011 | 3,063,000 |
The population of Wales doubled from 587,000 in 1801 to 1,163,000 in 1851 and had reached 2,421,000 by 1911. Most of the increase came in the coal mining districts; especially Glamorganshire, which grew from 71,000 in 1801 to 232,000 in 1851 and 1,122,000 in 1911. Part of this increase can be attributed to the demographic transition seen in most industrialising countries during the Industrial Revolution, as death rates dropped and birth rates remained steady. However, there was also a large-scale migration into Wales during the Industrial Revolution. The English were the most numerous group, but there were also considerable numbers of Irish; and smaller numbers of other ethnic groups, including Italians migrated to South Wales. Wales received other immigration from various parts of the British Commonwealth of Nations in the 20th century, and African-Caribbean and Asian communities immigrated particularly to urban Wales.
2001 census
In 2001, it is uncertain how many people in Wales considered themselves to be of Welsh ethnicity; the 2001 UK census did not offer 'Welsh' as an option; respondents had to use a box marked "Other". Ninety-six per cent of the population of Wales thus described themselves as being White British. Controversy surrounding the method of determining ethnicity began as early as 2000, when it was revealed that respondents in Scotland and Northern Ireland would be able to tick a box describing themselves as of Scottish or of Irish ethnicity, an option not available for Welsh or English respondents. Prior to the census, Plaid Cymru backed a petition calling for the inclusion of a Welsh tick-box and for the National Assembly to have primary law-making powers and its own National Statistics Office.
In the absence of a Welsh tick-box, the only tick-boxes available were 'white-British,' 'Irish', or 'other'. The Scottish parliament insisted that a Scottish ethnicity tick-box be included in the census in Scotland, and with this inclusion as many as 88.11% claimed Scottish ethnicity. Critics argued that a higher proportion of respondents would have described themselves as of Welsh ethnicity had a Welsh tick-box been made available. Additional criticism was levelled at the timing of the census, which was taken in the middle of the 2001 United Kingdom foot-and-mouth crisis. Organisers said that this had not affected the results. The foot-and-mouth crisis delayed the 2001 United Kingdom general election; the first time since the Second World War that any event had postponed an election.
In the census, 14% of the population took the 'extra step' to write in that they were of Welsh ethnicity. The highest percentage of those identifying as of Welsh ethnicity was recorded in Gwynedd (at 27%), followed by Carmarthenshire (23%), Ceredigion (22%) and the Isle of Anglesey (19%). Among respondents between 16 and 74 years of age, those claiming Welsh ethnicity were predominantly in professional and managerial occupations.
2011 census
In advance of the 2011 UK Census, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) launched a census consultation exercise. They received replies from 28 different Welsh organisations and a large proportion of these referred to Welsh ethnicity, language or identity.
For the first time ever in British census history the 2011 Census gave the opportunity for people to describe their identity as Welsh or English. A 'dress rehearsal' of the Census was carried out on the Welsh island of Anglesey because of its rural nature and its high numbers of Welsh speakers. The Census, taken on 27 March 2011, asked a number of questions relating to nationality and national identity, including What is your country of birth? and How would you describe your national identity? (for the first time 'Welsh' and 'English' were included as options), What is your ethnic group? ('White Welsh/English/Scottish/Northern Irish/British' was an option) and Can you understand, speak, read or write Welsh?.
As of the 2011 census in Wales, 66 per cent (2.0 million) of residents reported a Welsh national identity (either on its own or combined with other identities). Of these, 218,000 responded that they had Welsh and British national identity. Just under 17 per cent (519,000) of people in Wales considered themselves to have a British national identity only. Most residents of Wales (96 per cent, 2.9 million) reported at least one national identity of English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, or British.
Surveys
A survey published in 2001, by the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends at Oxford University (sample size 1161), found that 14.6 per cent of respondents described themselves as British, not Welsh; 8.3 per cent saw themselves as more British than Welsh; 39.0 per cent described themselves as equally Welsh and British; 20.2 per cent saw themselves as more Welsh than British; and 17.9 per cent described themselves as Welsh, not British.
Religion
See also: Religion in WalesForms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now Wales for more than 1,400 years. Most Welsh people of faith are affiliated with the Church in Wales or other Christian denominations such as the Presbyterian Church of Wales, Catholicism, and Russian Orthodox Christianity. Wales has a long tradition of nonconformism and Methodism. Some Welsh people are affiliated with either Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam or Sikhism. In the 2001, around 7,000 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 third of the population, some 980,000 people, profess no religious faith whatsoever.
The census showed that slightly fewer than 10% of the Welsh population are regular church or chapel goers (a slightly smaller proportion than in England or Scotland), although about 58% of the population see themselves as Christian in some form. Judaism has quite a long history in Wales, with a Jewish community recorded in Swansea from around 1730. In August 1911, during a period of public order and industrial disputes, Jewish shops across the South Wales coalfield were damaged by mobs. Since that time the Jewish population of that area, which reached a peak of 4,000–5,000 in 1913, has declined; only Cardiff has retained 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. A college for training clerics has been established at Llanybydder in West Wales. Islam arrived in Wales in the mid 19th 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 5,000 adherents in Wales, with the rural county of Ceredigion being the centre of Welsh Buddhism. Govinda's temple and restaurant, run by the Hare Krishnas in Swansea, is a focal point for many Welsh Hindus. There are about 2,000 Sikhs in Wales, with the first purpose-built gurdwara opened in the Riverside area of Cardiff in 1989.
The Sabbatarian temperance movement was also historically strong among the Welsh; the sale of alcohol was prohibited on Sundays in Wales by the Sunday Closing (Wales) Act 1881 – the first legislation specifically issued for Wales since the Middle Ages. From the early 1960s, local council areas were permitted to hold referendums every seven years to determine whether they should be "wet" or "dry" on Sundays: most of the industrialised areas in the east and south went "wet" immediately, and by the 1980s the last district, Dwyfor in the northwest, went wet; since then there have been no more Sunday-closing referendums.
Despite Christianity dominating Wales, more ancient traditions persisted. In 1874 it was reported as common for an officiant to walk in front of the coffin with a horse's skull, which may be a tradition linked with the Mari Lwyd tradition.
Language
Main articles: Welsh language, History of the Welsh language, and Welsh EnglishThe Welsh language is in the Insular Celtic family; historically spoken throughout Wales, with its predecessor Common Brittonic once spoken throughout most of the island of Great Britain. Prior to the 20th century, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh, with little or no fluent knowledge of English. Welsh remains the predominant language in parts of Wales, particularly in North Wales and parts of West Wales.
According to the 2001 census the number of Welsh speakers in Wales increased for the first time in 100 years, with 20.5% of a population of over 2.9 million claiming fluency in Welsh. In addition, 28% of the population of Wales claimed to understand Welsh. The census revealed that the increase was most significant in urban areas, such as Cardiff with an increase from 6.6% in 1991 to 10.9% in 2001, and Rhondda Cynon Taf with an increase from 9% in 1991 to 12.3% in 2001. However, the proportion of Welsh speakers declined in Gwynedd from 72.1% in 1991 to 68.7% in 2001, to 65.4% in 2011 and 64.4% in 2021. Similarly, in Ceredigion the percentage fell from 59.1% in 1991 to 51.8% in 2001, to 47.3% in 2011 and to 45.3% in 2021. Ceredigion saw a 19.5% influx of new residents between 1991 and 2001.
The decline in Welsh speakers in much of rural Wales is attributable to non-Welsh-speaking residents moving to North Wales, driving up property prices above what locals may afford, according to former Gwynedd county councillor Seimon Glyn of Plaid Cymru, whose controversial comments in 2001 focused attention on the issue. As many as a third of all properties in Gwynedd are bought by people from outside Wales. The issue of locals being priced out of the local housing market is common to many rural communities throughout Britain, but in Wales the added dimension of language complicates the issue, as many new residents do not learn the Welsh language.
A Plaid Cymru taskforce headed by Dafydd Wigley recommended land should be allocated for affordable local housing, called for grants for locals to buy houses, and recommended that council tax on holiday homes should double.
However, the same census shows that 25% of residents were born outside Wales. The number of Welsh speakers in other places in Britain is uncertain, but there are significant numbers in the main cities, and there are speakers along the Welsh-English border.
Even among 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. Some prefer to speak English in South Wales or the urbanised areas and Welsh in the North or in rural areas. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain (known in linguistics as code-switching).
Due to an increase in Welsh-language nursery education, recent census data reveals a reversal of decades of linguistic decline: there are now more Welsh speakers under five years of age than over 60. For many young people in Wales, the acquisition of Welsh is a gateway to better careers, according to research from the Welsh Language Board and Careers Wales. The Welsh Government identified media as one of six areas likely to experience greater demand for Welsh speakers: the sector is Wales's third-largest revenue earner.
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 Parliament (Senedd) and entered on its records, with English translation. The high cost of translation from English to Welsh has proved controversial. In the past the rules of the British Parliament forbade the use of Welsh in any proceedings. Only English was allowed as the only language all members were assumed to speak. In 2017, the UK government agreed to support the use of Welsh in the Welsh Grand Committee, although not in parliamentary debate in the house outside of this committee. In 2018 Welsh was used in the grand committee for the first time.
Welsh as a first language is largely concentrated in the less urban north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd, inland Conwy and Denbighshire, northern and south-western Powys, the Isle of Anglesey, Carmarthenshire, North Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, and parts of western Glamorgan, although first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales. However, Cardiff is now home to an urban Welsh-speaking population (both from other parts of Wales and from the growing Welsh-medium schools of Cardiff itself) due to the centralisation and concentration of national resources and organisations in the capital.
For some, speaking Welsh is an important part of their Welsh identity. Parts of the culture are strongly connected to the language — notably the Eisteddfod tradition, poetry and aspects of folk music and dance. Wales also has a strong tradition of poetry in the English language.
Patagonian Welsh (Cymraeg y Wladfa) is a dialect of the Welsh language which is spoken in Y Wladfa in the Argentine region, Patagonia.
Culture
See also: Culture of WalesNational symbols
Main article: National symbols of Wales- The Flag of Wales (Baner Cymru) incorporates the red dragon (Y Ddraig Goch), a popular symbol of Wales and the Welsh people, along with the Tudor colours of green and white. It was used by Henry VII at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, after which it was carried in state to St. Paul's Cathedral. The red dragon was then included in the Tudor royal arms to signify their Welsh descent. It was officially recognised as the Welsh national flag in 1959. Since the British Union Flag does not have any Welsh representation, the Flag of Wales has become very popular.
- The Flag of Saint David is sometimes used as an alternative to the national flag, and is flown on Saint David's Day.
- The dragon, part of the national flag design, is also a popular Welsh symbol. The oldest recorded use of the dragon to symbolise Wales is from the Historia Brittonum, written around 820, but it is popularly supposed to have been the battle standard of King Arthur and other ancient Celtic leaders. Following the annexation of Wales by England, the dragon was used as a supporter in the English monarch's coat of arms.
- Both the daffodil and the leek are symbols of Wales. The origin of the leek can be traced back to the 16th century and the daffodil, encouraged by David Lloyd George, became popular in the 19th century. This may be due to confusion of the Welsh for leek, cenhinen, and that for daffodil, cenhinen Bedr or St. Peter's leek. Both are worn as symbols by the Welsh on Saint David's Day, 1 March.
- The Prince of Wales' feathers, the heraldic badge of the Prince of Wales, is sometimes adapted by Welsh bodies for use in Wales. The symbolism is explained on the article for Edward, the Black Prince, who was the first Prince of Wales to bear the emblem. The Welsh Rugby Union uses such a design for its own badge.
Welsh emigration
There has been migration from Wales to the rest of Britain throughout its history. During the Industrial Revolution thousands of Welsh people migrated, for example, to Liverpool and Ashton-in-Makerfield. As a result, some people from England, Scotland and Ireland have Welsh surnames.
Welsh settlers moved to other parts of Europe, concentrated in certain areas. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a small wave of contract miners from Wales arrived in Northern France; the centres of Welsh-French population are in coal mining towns, and particularly the French department of Pas-de-Calais along with miners from many other countries. They tended to cluster in communities around their churches.
Settlers from Wales (and later Patagonian Welsh) arrived in Newfoundland in the early 19th century, and founded towns in Labrador's coast region; in 1819, the ship Albion left Cardigan for New Brunswick, carrying Welsh settlers to Canada; on board were 27 Cardiganian families, many of whom were farmers. In 1852, Thomas Benbow Phillips of Tregaron established a settlement of about 100 Welsh people in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.
Internationally Welsh people have emigrated, in relatively small numbers (in proportion to population, Irish emigration to the US may have been 26 times greater than Welsh emigration), to many countries, including the US (in particular, Pennsylvania), Canada and Y Wladfa in Patagonia, Argentina. Jackson County, Ohio was sometimes referred to as "Little Wales", and one of several communities where Welsh was widely spoken. There was a Welsh language press but by the late 1940s, the last Welsh language newspaper, y Drych began to publish in English. Malad City in Idaho, which began as a Welsh Mormon settlement, lays claim to a greater proportion of inhabitants of Welsh descent than anywhere outside Wales itself. Malad's local High School is known as the "Malad Dragons", and flies the Welsh Flag as its school colours. Welsh people have also settled in New Zealand and Australia.
Around 1.75 million Americans report themselves to have Welsh ancestry, as did 458,705 Canadians in Canada's 2011 census. This compares with 2.9 million people living in Wales (as of the 2001 census).
There is no known evidence which would objectively support the legend that the Mandan, a Native American tribe of the central United States, are Welsh emigrants who reached North America under Prince Madog in 1170.
The Ukrainian city of Donetsk was founded in 1869 by a Welsh businessman, John Hughes (an engineer from Merthyr Tydfil) who constructed a steel plant and several coal mines in the region; the town was thus named Yuzovka (Юзовка) in recognition of his role in its founding ("Yuz" being a Russian or Ukrainian approximation of Hughes).
Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was born in Barry, Wales. After she suffered from bronchopneumonia as a child, her parents were advised that it would aid her recovery to live in a warmer climate. This led the family to migrate to Australia in 1966, settling in Adelaide.
See also
- Geography and identity in Wales
- Kale (Welsh Roma) – Romani subgroup in WalesPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
- List of Welsh mathematicians
- List of Welsh people
- List of Welsh women writers
- List of women artists associated with Wales
- Modern Celts
- Welsh American
- Welsh Argentine
- Welsh Australian
- Welsh Canadian
- Welsh Chilean
- Welsh history in Chicago
- Welsh immigration
- Welsh Italians
- Welsh New Zealander
- Y Wladfa
References
- "2011 Census: Key Statistics for Wales, March 2011" (PDF). Office for National Statistics. 11 December 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 January 2016. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
- ^ "2012 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 12 February 2020. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
- Neighbourhood Statistics. "Welsh people in England". Neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- ^ Statistics Canada. "Census Profile, 2016 Census". Archived from the original on 22 April 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
- Australian Government – Department of Immigration and Border Protection. "Welsh Australians". Archived from the original on 13 February 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
- "Wales and Argentina". Wales.com website. Welsh Assembly Government. 2008. Archived from the original on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 24 December 2010.
- "City of Aberdeen: Census Stats and Facts page 25, section 18, Country of birth" (PDF). City of Aberdeen. 2003. Archived from the original on 28 April 2010. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
- The 1996 census, which used a slightly different question, reported 9,966 people belonging to the Welsh ethnic group. Archived 8 March 2005 at the Wayback Machine
- "Religion, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics". www.ons.gov.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
- Rhys, John; Brynmor Jones, David (1969). The Welsh People: Chapters On Their Origin, History, Laws, Language, Literature, And Characteristics (2019 ed.). Wentworth Press. ISBN 978-1-01-052046-7.
- "The Countries of the UK". statistics.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 5 January 2016. Retrieved 10 October 2008.
- The Welsh language has been protected gradually and most notably by the Welsh Language Act 1967, the Welsh Language Act 1993, and the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011.
- Webber, Richard. "The Welsh diaspora : Analysis of the geography of Welsh names" (PDF). Welsh Assembly. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
- "Canolfan i 300,000 o Gymry" [Centre for 300,000 Welsh]. BBC (in Welsh). 5 November 2014. Archived from the original on 11 January 2016. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
- Miller, Katherine L. (2014). "The Semantic Field of Slavery in Old English: Wealh, Esne, Þræl" (PDF) (Doctoral dissertation). University of Leeds. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
- ^ (Davies 1994, p. 71)
- (in French) Albert Henry, Histoire des mots Wallons et Wallonie, Institut Jules Destrée, Coll. "Notre histoire", Mont-sur-Marchienne, 1990, 3rd ed. (1st ed. 1965), footnote 13 p. 86. Henry wrote the same about Wallachia.
- Tolkien, J. R. R. (1963). Angles and Britons: O'Donnell Lectures. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. English and Welsh, an O'Donnell Lecture delivered at Oxford on 21 October 1955.
- Gilleland, Michael (12 December 2007). "Laudator Temporis Acti: More on the Etymology of Walden". Laudator Temporis Acti website. Retrieved 29 October 2008.
- ^ (Davies 1994, p. 69)
- Lloyd, John Edward (1911). A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest (Note to Chapter VI, the Name "Cymry"). Vol. I (2nd ed.). London: Longmans, Green, and Co. (published 1912). pp. 191–192.
- Phillimore, Egerton (1891). "Note (a) to The Settlement of Brittany". In Phillimore, Egerton (ed.). Y Cymmrodor. Vol. XI. London: Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (published 1892). pp. 97–101.
- The poem is available online at Wikisource.
- (Davies 1994, p. 71): The poem contains the line: 'Ar wynep Kymry Cadwallawn was'.
- Cunliffe, B. Iron Age communities in Britain pp. 115–118
- "BBC History – Ancient History in-depth:Native Tribes of Britain". BBC History. 2010. Archived from the original on 27 January 2010. Retrieved 6 April 2010.
The Deceangli, the Ordovices and the Silures were the three main tribe groups who lived in the mountains of what is today called Wales. However, in prehistory Wales, England and Scotland did not exist in any way as distinctive entities in the ways they have done so for the last 1000 years.
- Iron Age Britain by Barry Cunliffe. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-8839-5.
- "What happened after the fall of the Roman Empire?". BBC. Archived from the original on 9 June 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- Jarman, A.O.H. (1988). Y Gododdin: Britain's earliest heroic poem. Llandysul: Gomer. p. xviii.
- (Davies 1994, pp. 65–66): Davies places the change from Brythonic to Welsh between 400 and 700.
- Williams, Ifor (1972). The beginnings of Welsh poetry. University of Wales Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-0-7083-0035-0.
- Williams, Gwyn A. (1982). The Welsh in their History. Croom Helm. ISBN 0-7099-3651-6.
- "The Flemish colonists in Wales: BBC website. Retrieved 17 August 2006". BBC. Archived from the original on 13 December 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- "Gower Historical Processes, Themes and Background". Ggat.org.uk. Archived from the original on 11 December 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- Olalde, I; et al. (May 2017). "The Beaker Phenomenon and the Genomic Transformation of Northwest Europe". bioRxiv 10.1101/135962.
- Martiniano, Rui; Caffell, Anwen; Holst, Malin; Hunter-Mann, Kurt; Montgomery, Janet; Müldner, Gundula; McLaughlin, Russell L.; Teasdale, Matthew D.; van Rheenen, Wouter; Veldink, Jan H.; van den Berg, Leonard H.; Hardiman, Orla; Carroll, Maureen; Roskams, Steve; Oxley, John (19 January 2016). "Genomic signals of migration and continuity in Britain before the Anglo-Saxons". Nature Communications. 7 (1). doi:10.1038/ncomms10326. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 4735653. PMID 26783717.
- Schiffels, Stephan; Haak, Wolfgang; Paajanen, Pirita; Llamas, Bastien; Popescu, Elizabeth; Loe, Louise; Clarke, Rachel; Lyons, Alice; Mortimer, Richard; Sayer, Duncan; Tyler-Smith, Chris; Cooper, Alan; Durbin, Richard (19 January 2016). "Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history". Nature Communications. 7: 10408. doi:10.1038/ncomms10408. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 4735688. PMID 26783965.
- Margaryan, Ashot; Lawson, Daniel J.; Sikora, Martin; Racimo, Fernando; Rasmussen, Simon; Moltke, Ida; Cassidy, Lara M.; Jørsboe, Emil; Ingason, Andrés; Pedersen, Mikkel W.; Korneliussen, Thorfinn; Wilhelmson, Helene; Buś, Magdalena M.; de Barros Damgaard, Peter; Martiniano, Rui (September 2020). "Population genomics of the Viking world". Nature. 585 (7825): 390–396. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2688-8. hdl:11250/2726713. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 32939067. (See supplemental note 11)
- Leslie, Stephen; Winney, Bruce; Hellenthal, Garrett; Davison, Dan; Boumertit, Abdelhamid; Day, Tammy; Hutnik, Katarzyna; Royrvik, Ellen C.; Cunliffe, Barry; Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium 2; International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium; Lawson, Daniel J.; Falush, Daniel; Freeman, Colin; Pirinen, Matti (March 2015). "The fine-scale genetic structure of the British population". Nature. 519 (7543): 309–314. Bibcode:2015Natur.519..309.. doi:10.1038/nature14230. ISSN 0028-0836. PMC 4632200. PMID 25788095.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - Leslie, Stephen; Winney, Bruce; Hellenthal, Garrett; Davison, Dan; Boumertit, Abdelhamid; Day, Tammy; Hutnik, Katarzyna; Royrvik, Ellen C.; Cunliffe, Barry; Lawson, Daniel J.; Falush, Daniel; Freeman, Colin; Pirinen, Matti; Myers, Simon; Robinson, Mark; Donnelly, Peter; Bodmer, Walter (March 2015). "The fine-scale genetic structure of the British population". Nature. 519 (7543): 309–314. Bibcode:2015Natur.519..309.. doi:10.1038/nature14230. PMC 4632200. PMID 25788095.
- Leake, Jonathan. "DNA shows Welsh and Cornish to be 'purest' Britons". The Times. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
- (Davies 1994, pp. 258–259, 319)
- Census 2001, 200 Years of the Census in ... Wales (2001) 2011 Census, Population Estimates for UK
- Brian R. Mitchell and Phyllis Deane, Abstract of British Historical Statistics (Cambridge, 1962) pp 20, 22
- "Industrial Revolution". BBC. Archived from the original on 4 September 2005. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- "Population". Therhondda.co.uk. LSJ Services Ltd. Archived from the original on 20 May 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- "Italian immigration". Wales History. BBC. 15 August 2008. Archived from the original on 3 April 2009. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- Interview with Mohammed Asghar AM
- ^ "Census shows Welsh language rise". BBC News. 14 February 2003. Archived from the original on 5 January 2009. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- ^ "Census equality backed by Plaid". BBC News. 23 September 2000. Archived from the original on 24 November 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- "Census results 'defy tick-box row'". BBC News. 30 September 2002. Archived from the original on 28 December 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- "Scottish Parliament's Review of Census Ethnicity Classifications Consultation". June 2005. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
- ^ "NSO article: 'Welsh' on Census form". Statistics.gov.uk. 8 January 2004. Archived from the original on 5 June 2009. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- ^ Walesonline.co.uk Pioneering census questionnaire for Wales will help us shape the future Archived 18 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine published in Western Mail, 17 December 2009 (Retrieved 17 October 2011)
- "2011 Census questions – Wales" (PDF). Office for National Statistics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 September 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
- "2011 Census: Key Statistics for Wales, March 2011". Office for National Statistics. 11 December 2012. Archived from the original on 22 March 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
- "CREST Minority Nationalism published 2001, extracted 14 July 2010" (PDF). crest.ox.ac.uk. 2001. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 14 July 2010.
- L. Alcock, Kings and Warriors, Craftsmen and Priests in Northern Britain AD 550–850 (Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland), ISBN 0-903903-24-5, p. 63.
- Lucas Quensel von Kalben, "The British Church and the Emergence of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom", in T. Dickinson and D. Griffiths, eds, Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, 10: Papers for the 47th Sachsensymposium, York, September 1996 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), ISBN 086054138X, p. 93.
- "2011 Census: First Results for Ethnicity, National Identity, and Religion for Wales" (PDF). Gov.wales. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
- "Russian Orthodox Church Abroad Cardiff". Russian Orthodox Church Abroad Cardiff. Archived from the original on 17 August 2018. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
- Wales, Father Luke Holden – Orthodox Christian Contact. "Orthodox Wales". Orthodoxchurch.co.uk. Archived from the original on 7 May 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
- "2011 Census: Key Statistics for Wales, March 2011". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
- Merthyr Telegraph, and General Advertiser for the Iron Districts of South Wales - Friday 01 May 1874
- Janet Davies, University of Wales Press, Bath (1993). The Welsh Language, page 34
- "Apology over 'insults' to English". BBC News. 19 January 2001. Archived from the original on 6 August 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- "UK: Wales Plaid calls for second home controls". BBC News. 17 November 1999. Archived from the original on 7 August 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- "Plaid plan 'protects' rural areas". BBC News. 19 June 2001. Archived from the original on 6 August 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- ^ "Dewis Da – Why choose Welsh?". Careers Wales. Archived from the original on 3 June 2015. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- Powys, Betsan (22 May 2012). "Mugshots and making headlines". BBC News. Archived from the original on 23 October 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- "Oath of Allegiance (Welsh Language)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 21 July 1966. Archived from the original on 19 July 2009. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- "Memorandum from the Clerk of the House Use of Welsh in the Welsh Grand Committee at Westminster". Parliament.UK. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
- "MPs speak Welsh in parliamentary debate for first time". BBC News. 7 February 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- (Davies 1994, p. 189)
- Collinson, Dawn (28 February 2015). "St David's Day: why are Liverpool's Welsh links so strong?". Liverpoolecho.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 February 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
- "Ashton-in-Makerfield U3A – About Ashton-in-Makerfield". Ashtoninmakerfieldanddistrictu3a.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 August 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
- "BBC – Hereford and Worcester – About Herefordshire – Herefordshire in Wales?". Bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 3 April 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
- "Watch: 43 years on – should Oswestry be in England or Wales?". Shropshirestar.com. 13 May 2015. Archived from the original on 21 February 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
- Fuller, Mike (8 July 2016). "Bore da! Cheshire West revealed as most Welsh place in England". Chesterchronicle.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 February 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
- "Why the people of Shrewsbury are 'more Welsh' than Cardiff". Walesonline.co.uk. 12 September 2006. Archived from the original on 21 February 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
- BBC website; Archived 2 May 2016 at the Wayback Machine recalled 13 November 2015
- Knotter, Ad (December 2015). "Migration and Ethnicity in Coalfield History: Global Perspectives". International Review of Social History. 60 (S1): 13–39. doi:10.1017/S0020859015000413. ISSN 0020-8590.
- "2019 marks bi-centenary of the Albion sailing from Cardigan to Canada". Tivyside Advertiser. 28 April 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2019.
- ^ "Nineteenth Century Arrivals in Australia: University of Wales, Lampeter website. Retrieved 3 August 2006". Lamp.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 11 June 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- Welsh in Pennsylvania by Matthew S. Magda (1986), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. From Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Retrieved 3 August 2006. Archived 30 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- Welsh: Multicultural Canada. Retrieved 3 August 2006. Archived 26 June 2007 at archive.today
- "Wales History: South America — Patagonia". BBC. Archived from the original on 13 May 2006. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- Lewis, Ronald L. (1 March 2014). Welsh Americans : a History of Assimilation in the Coalfields (1stition ed.). The University of North Carolina Press. pp. 65, 313–318. ISBN 978-1-4696-1489-2.
- "Tiny US town's big Welsh heritage: BBC News, 20 July 2005. Retrieved 3 August 2006". BBC News. 20 July 2005. Archived from the original on 6 January 2007. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- "Welsh History, The Welsh in North America, Utah". Ligtel.com. Archived from the original on 24 September 2009. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- "Welsh immigration from Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 3 August 2003". Teara.govt.nz. 13 October 2009. Archived from the original on 13 April 2009. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- "Estimated from population of Wales from 2001 census (2,903,085Census 2001 Wales". Statistics.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 17 November 2009. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- "Was there an Indian tribe descended from Welsh explorers to America?". Straight Dope. 8 September 2006. Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2009.
- "John Hughes". /wales south east. BBC. 14 February 2009. Archived from the original on 14 February 2009.
- Sources
- Davies, John (1994). A History of Wales. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-014581-8.
Further reading
- Davies, Norman (1991). The Isles. Papermac. ISBN 0-333-69283-7.
- Williams, Gary (1982). The Welsh in their History. Croom Helm. ISBN 0-7099-3651-6.
- del Giorgio, J F (2005). The Oldest Europeans. A. J. Place. ISBN 980-6898-00-1.
- Hastings, Adrian (1997). The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion, and Nationalism. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62544-0.
- Capelli, Cristian; et al. (2003). "A Y Chromosome Census of the British Isles" (PDF). Current Biology. 13 (11): 979–984. doi:10.1016/s0960-9822(03)00373-7. PMID 12781138. S2CID 526263.
- Leslie, Stephen; et al. (2015). "The fine-scale genetic structure of the British population". Nature. 519 (7543): 309–314. Bibcode:2015Natur.519..309.. doi:10.1038/nature14230. PMC 4632200. PMID 25788095.
External links
- BBC Wales: Welsh Comings and Goings: The history of migration in and out of Wales
- BBC News report: The Numbers of Welsh (and Cornish)