English is the dominant language in the British Isles, also in their Celtic fringe – Ireland, Scotland, Wales. In Scotland but mainly in Ireland, some territorial measures have been taken to protect the indigenous language, especially in the areas where it remains strongest.
Those areas in Ireland are called the Gaeltacht, a collection of non-contiguous rural and mainly western ‘islands’ where Irish Gaelic is the official first language. In Scotland, an almost similar term, Gàidhealtachd, is used to describe the area in the northern Highlands where Celtic culture is strongest – Scottish Gaelic even there being almost extinct.
In Wales, which for centuries formed one legal entity with England (but since a few years elects its own Welsh assembly, which has limited powers), no such ‘language reservation’ has been designated yet. An advocacy group called Cymuned (Welsh for ‘community’) campaigns for setting up an area similar to the Irish Gaeltacht. As with the Celtic languages in Ireland and Scotland, Welsh is under constant assault from English, not just culturally, but also in an economic/demographic way: many English move into Wales, lured by the lower cost of housing.
Cymuned claims an area, to be called Fro Gymraeg and with special provisions for the survival and promotion of the Welsh language (Cymraeg), is necessary, because only 17 Welsh-speaking communities (i.e. with over 80% of Welsh-speakers) remain in Wales.
The Fro Gymraeg is to be made up of those areas where at least 50% of the natives speak Welsh. Those areas are marked red on this map. Unfortunately, no explanation is given for the difference between dark red and light red, although it is reasonable to assume the darker areas count a higher proportion of Welsh-speakers.
In the darker green areas, over 20% of Welsh-born people speak Welsh, and “support should be made available for them to work towards becoming part of the Fro if that is what they desire,” this website states. Inside the Fro Gymraeg, Cymuned would like to implement, among others, these measures:
• An elected Statutory Council to represent the Fro
• Planning permission in the Fro Gymraeg for local people only
• Cymraeg to be the internal language of local government in the Fro Gymraeg
• That individuals who provide statutory public services in the Fro Gymraeg should speak Cymraeg
• Welsh history and language citizenship lessons should be available for incomers to the Fro Gymraeg
• Cymraeg should be the medium of education for all students between 3 and 16 in the Fro
• To aim at extending the Fro Gymraeg through helping electoral wards outside the Fro to vote to become a part of the Fro
The map was taken here, the main site for Cymuned (”Do you want to live in Wales or in West England?”) is here.
The dark red areas are the 80% zones.
Oh, and the area is actually called the “Bro Gymraeg” in English; the B mutates to an F after the Welsh definite article – so it’s “Bro Gymraeg” but “Y Fro Gymraeg.”
Comment by Jim — June 4, 2007 @ 8:58 am
Living in Aberystwyth, I’ve found that national pride is a big thing. If you’re Welsh you’ll be voting Plaid Cymru (The Party of Wales) most of the time.
Also interesting pronunciation guide:
f is pronounced v
y is prounouced uh
dd is pronounced th
w is pronounced oo
u is pronounced ee
ll is pronounced cl (but more throaty)
I think these are all right, but would need a Welsh speaker to confirm!
Comment by Jack Hynes — June 4, 2007 @ 10:40 am
And here’s me living in Aberystwyth too – small world :)
Your pronunciation guide is close, but here’s a better one:
a – as in matter
c – always hard
ch – as in Scottish “loch”
dd – “th” as in “this”, not “thin”
e – more broad and open than English, a bit like like vowel in “pair” only shorter.
f – as v
g – always hard
i – as “pin”
ll – not throaty at all ;) put your tongue behind your teeth as if you’re going to say “l”, but blow out around the sides of your tongue as you make the “l” sound. Sounds like “hl..” more than anything else
r – rolled
rh – rolled more!
u – as “ee”
w – as oo
y – as u in “fun” when stressed, as i in “pin” when unstressed.
Stress always on the penultimate syllable.
The oddest thing about Welsh, though, is the mutations I mentioned before – because of this you get:
cegin – kitchen
y gegin – the kitchen
fy nghegin i – my kitchen
dy gegin di – your kitchen (inf.)
ei gegin e – his kitchen
ei chegin hi – her kitchen
yn nghegin John – in John’s kitchen
o gegin – from (a) kitchen
The rules for mutation are complicated; I’m only a learner. But then again, my wife is a first-language welsh speaker, and she has no idea what the rules are, she just goes with what “sounds right”. Which is, after all, how language works.
Comment by Jim — June 5, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
What would be the definition of “Welsh speaking” that is used here? One would get a much larger area if it is defined as “capable of holding a simple conversation in Welsh” than if it is defined as “knowing and using Welsh as a first language or a nearly equal level”
Comment by Andre Engels — June 6, 2007 @ 10:40 am
I’d imagine here it means pretty much fluent – you’d get a much higher set of percentages otherwise because Welsh is taught at school until age 16, so most natives can at least hold a simple conversation.
And the impression Cymuned may want to give is that of a language in danger, so they might use the more conservative figures.
One thing that does raise the figures, though is the “welsh-born” stipulation. I’m a welsh-speaker (more or less) but if I wasn’t, it wouldn’t matter for the purposes of the map – I was born in England. This certainly makes a difference here in Aberyswyth (half way down the west coast) – a large percentage of the population are students or ex-students.
Comment by Jim — June 6, 2007 @ 10:51 am
I’ve grandparents from Ireland, Scotland and Wales and never heard any use the term, “Celt.” They’d always referred to themselves (and me) as “Gael” or “Gaelic,” based upon the language of our ancestry.
Comment by Baby Sprite — June 12, 2007 @ 2:32 pm
Londoners with satelite television (Sky service, I think is the brand) can watch the Welsh channel. I don’t know if, in purely visual terms, this channel’s weather maps are strange enough for you, but it’s fascinating to listen to someone using that many distinct words for (to them) distinct levels of precipitation and/or overcastness.
I’ve never commented before, but I really do enjoy the site!
Comment by Jennifer Ting — July 2, 2007 @ 10:20 pm
As someone who 50 Irish 25 Welsh that map is pretty cool.
Comment by cyclepromo — November 5, 2007 @ 2:29 pm
Worth noting that the specific divisions used on the map appear to be council wards. Being a Swansea boy, comes as no surprise that the only place over 50% in the county is Mawr ward, which contains the smaller inland villages.
Having looked closely, it would appear one of the areas coloured dark green is, in fact, a river estuary. I’d be interested in how they established the proportion of Welsh speakers in a body of water.
Comment by Anonymous — April 11, 2008 @ 3:52 pm
The idea that Welsh language is under assault due to English people moving into Wales doesn’t stack up when you look at the statistics.
The areas with the highest number of residents born in Wales are Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Rhonda Cynon Taff and Naath Port Talbot, (see http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=445) none of these would qualify as members of Fro Gymraeg.
The area of Swansea, I live in has a higher percentage of first language English speakers than some inner-city areas in England. Why isn’t it the influence of Welsh English speakers which are affecting the Welsh language?
The reality is the spread of English is more complicated than the movement of people e.g. 90% of all children in schooling in the entire world now learn English.
Comment by Rob — April 22, 2008 @ 3:54 pm
Following on from the comments of Rob. He is correct with regard to the highest number of Welsh born people living in districts such as Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr, Caerphilly, RHonnda and Neath/Port Talbot. The reason though that they are heavily Anglicised was because of the mass immigration into the valleys in the 19th and early 20th century as a result of the industrial revolution when workers came here to work in the mines and other industries such as copper and iron. The result of this mass migration into the valleys was the decline in Welsh. In the same period the mainly rural areas remained wholly Welsh speaking.
Today though, there is a mass migration into the Welsh speaking (Y Fro Gymraeg) areas. People are moving into these areas attracted by the natural beauty and therefore are not attracted by places such as Merthyr and Port Talbot. So, although the number of Welsh speakers is increasing, the increases are in the South Wales valleys but Y Fro continues to shrink because of the mass immigration from England.
To give one example. In 1991 58% of the population of Ceredigion spoke Welsh. In 2001 this was reduced to 51%. The census of 2001 revealed that 37% of the population were born in England.
The mass immigration which almost killed the language in the valleys is now threatening Y Fro and Welsh will be consigned to the same fate as Scots and Irish Gaelic if this trend is not stopped.
Comment by Stifyn — June 21, 2008 @ 12:08 am
Y mae o ddiddordeb na fod unrhywun yn gadael sylwadau yn Gymraeg yma.
“Carwch eich iaith, a DEFNYDDWCH hi” dweuddodd fy nghyfaill Howard Huws, Mudiad Adfer.
Mae’r iaith yn bwysig, oherwydd y mae’r dywylliant a’r treftadaeth Cymru ynddo — ac y mae’r treftadaeth hwn yn drysor yn perthyn i’r byd i gyd.
Eric Bowen
ericjbowen(at)comcast.net
Comment by Eric Bowen — September 25, 2008 @ 5:02 am
thanks alot
Comment by Tony — May 4, 2009 @ 2:49 am
thanks for this map..
good
luck
Comment by Solomon — May 11, 2009 @ 7:40 am
merci
Comment by aspicco . — May 17, 2009 @ 5:25 am
teşekkür ederim
Comment by yory — June 12, 2009 @ 9:34 pm
Vielen Dank
Comment by moon — July 3, 2009 @ 4:16 am
Muchas gracias
Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 6:58 am
Look along the north coast. In much of these areas those born in Wales are less than 50%. Welsh born are actually a minority. Census 2001 shows for some areas Welsh born to be around 45% and Welsh speakers to be around 25%. Making a crude estimate, should you exclude those born outside of Wales, you can see that Welsh speakers would number more than 50%.
The situation is different for different areas. While the south is due to a influx of people helping the industrial revolution boom, much of the north east is being used as a commuter belt for cities in the north west of England, including Chester, Liverpool and Manchester.
Comment by Huw Waters — July 7, 2009 @ 11:36 pm