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.
