Mutual preservation of standard language and national identity in Wales

John D. Phillips

The talk will look at the case of standard Welsh, the existence of which long predates

nationalism and the growth of national states, examining particularly one critical period, when

the standard language was both preserved by patriotic feeling, and was itself a major enabling

factor in the preservation of national identity.

Standard Welsh has a continuous history from ancient times. The large corpus of written

Welsh from the mediaeval period covers literary, historical, legal, medical, religious, and other

genres. These texts contain few linguistic clues to their geographical origin, though there must

have been regional differences in colloquial speech, as comparison of modern dialects and

related languages implies a dialect continuum in the middle of the first millenium. The grammar

and vocabulary of the standard changed gradually over the centuries, following changes in the

vernacular, and until very recent times it was used for most writing and for formal speech.

The Act of the English parliament which annexed Wales to England in 1536 explicitly

aimed “utterly to extirpe alle and singular sinister usages and customs” of Wales, including “a

speche nothing like ne consonant to the naturall mother tonge used within this Realme”. The

Act made English the only official language in Wales, with the result that Welsh was excluded

from many of the higher status functions it had previously occupied.

One effect of the Act was that the gentry quickly abandoned Welsh to merge themselves

into the English aristocracy. National feeling was however stronger amongst the middle classes,

as testified by the introductory matter of several printed books of the period.

It was fortunate for the Welsh language that the English government, after Elizabeth’s

accession in 1558, was concerned to propagate the Protestant religion. Wales had remained

thoroughly Catholic, and Welsh politicians were able to persuade the government that religious

uniformity and loyalty was more important than linguistic uniformity. In 1563 an Act was

passed requiring the translation of the Bible and Prayer Book into Welsh. Though Welsh

remained illegal in other official uses, the Act made its use mandatory in the religious sphere.

The translations, explicitly made for reading aloud in churches, looked to the mediaeval

literature for models, and were acclaimed at the time as masterpieces.

The 1563 Act may have seemed a small concession on the part of the government, but its

effect over the centuries was immense. Churchgoers — almost everyone — became accustomed

to hearing the standard language regularly. Though the church was the only governmental

organisation using Welsh, it was extremely influential in that it was anyway the only

governmental organisation with which most people had regular contact.

The wide dissemination of standard Welsh was a main enabling factor for the

subsequent growth of Welsh book-publishing, for the success of nationwide institutions such as

the Eisteddfod, and for a flourishing periodical press later. Thereby Welsh survived in a

comparatively healthy state until the double attack of mass immigration and compulsory

English-medium education in the late nineteenth century.