Wales
The Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, is a well-known landmark of modern Wales today. In These Stones, Horizons Sing is a piece of music specially written by Karl Jenkins for the Centre's opening in 2004; reflecting the two languages of Wales, the Welsh poem by Gwyneth Lewis has its own message: Creu Gwir fel Gwydr o Ffwrnais Awen means 'creating truth like glass from inspiration's furnace'.[1]
Wales is today regarded as one of the four 'home nations' of the United Kingdom, situated in the west of the island of Great Britain, bordering England, with a population of about three million. For centuries, it was considered a 'principality' rather than a country because it was never a unified state, unlike Scotland - instead, Wales's history is a story of several Celtic kingdoms, invasion and rule by the English, the decline and rise of Welsh language and culture, and finally the emergence, at the close of the twentieth century, of a form of devolved representation unrivalled since the fifteenth, when Edward I brought Wales under English control.
Wales's modern capital is Cardiff, with nearby Swansea also a significant centre. Since the creation of the Welsh Assembly at Cardiff following a narrow 'yes' vote in 1999, Wales has carved out a distinct political identity for itself: its 60 Assembly members have some power to speak, vote and act on domestic matters. Unlike the Scottish Parliament, however, the Assembly has no power to create or amend legislation, nor determine taxation levels. This reflects Wales's different relationship with England from that of Scotland's: Wales's economy and people generally remain more committed to the union with the rest of the UK. Another reason is that, unlike in Scotland, Welsh nationalism is far more associated with speaking the Welsh language, and even with one region rather than the whole nation: North Wales is the home of most Welsh speakers, with South Wales far more Anglicised.
Language
Official signs in Wales must be bilingual, Welsh first. The Welsh Language Act 1993 encourages, but does not require, private companies and organisations to provide Welsh-language material alongside English.
- See also: Welsh language and Welsh English
Today, about 20% of Welsh people identify themselves as Welsh speakers, and the popularity of the language is on the rise - a far cry from the nineteenth century, when children were often punished for speaking the language at school. With most of these speakers in the north, language issues in Wales are as much about the distinctive Welsh accent accompanying the local dialects of the English language: Welsh English, for some still an object of amusement, has become far more acceptable nationwide in recent years, with Welsh accents used on the national news and in television drama.[2]
Welsh, like English, is an Indo-European language, so the two are distant cousins. It is more closely related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic, with its closest relative, Cornish, now extinct. The grammar is relatively different from English: the verb is the first major constituent in the sentence by default, and there are masculine and feminine grammatical genders.
The influence of one language on the other is more one-way than one might assume, given the proximity of England and Wales. Only a handful of Welsh words exist in English (e.g. druid), whereas Welsh has borrowed many loanwords from English. This reflects the differing origins and fortunes of previous generations: Welsh developed from older Celtic tongues, while the precursors to English came to Britain much later, brought by Germanic tribes from continental Europe, whose descendants came to dominate the islands.
Footnotes
- ↑ Gwynethlewis.com: 'Creu Gwir fel Gwydr o Ffwrnais Awen; In these Stones Horizons Sing'.
- ↑ For example, the relaunched flagship science fiction series Doctor Who and its spin-off Torchwood are both made by BBC Wales. Executive producer Russell T. Davies, Welsh-born, has stated as one of his goals that promoting Wales and Welsh TV expertise will have a "normalising" effect, with the Welsh accent no longer seen as strange or ridiculous. See Independent: 'Russell T Davies: The saviour of Saturday night drama'. 10th April 2006.