Wales
Wales is a country of lakes and mountains. Its about the half the size
of Switzerland, and it has a population of two and three quarter
million. On the north of Wales is some of the most beautiful scenery in
the British islands, the Snowdon mountain. Snowdon is Britain’s second
highest mountain.
Wales is an not independent nation. In 1292, the English king, Edward I,
invaded Wales and built fourteen huge castles to control the Welsh
people. His son, Edward, became the first prince of Wales, since then
all the kings and queens of England have given their eldest sons the
title, Prince of Wales. Prince Charles became the twenty-first Prince of
Wales. Although the English have ruled Wales for many centuries, Wales
still has its own flag, culture, and, above all, its own language. In
the towns and villages of North Wales, many people speak English only as
a second language. Their first language is Welsh. In Llanberis, a small
town at the foot of Snowdon, eighty-six per cent people speak Welsh as
their first language. At the local primary school children have nearly
all their lessons in Welsh. The children should be bilingual by the time
that they are eleven years old. It is not a problem for children to
learn two languages at the same time. Children have insight into two
cultures, so have all the folk tales of two languages. Children like
Welsh because in Welsh you spell things just how you say them, in
English there are more silent letters.
Welsh is one of the oldest languages in Europe. Its a Celtic language,
like Breton in France, Gaelic in Ireland, or Gaelic in Scotland. Two and
a half thousand years before these languages were spoken in many parts
of Europe. They died out when the Romans invaded these areas, but some
of them survived in the north-west corner of Europe. But over the last
hundred years the number of Welsh-speaker has fallen very quickly. Now
only twenty per cent of Welsh people speak Welsh. Here are some of the
reasons for the decline.
In the nineteenth century people thought that Welsh an uncivilized
language. If you wanted to be successful in life you had to learn
English, the language of the British Empire. So in many schools children
were forbidden to speak Welsh.
At the beginning of the twentieth century many English and Irish people
moved to South Wales to work in the coal mines and steel works. They did
not learn Welsh.
People, especially young people, moved away from the Welsh-speaking
villages and farms of north and west Wales to look for work in the big
towns and cities, so the Welsh-speaking communities became much smaller.
In the 1960s and 1970s many English people bought holiday cottages in
villages in Wales. Most of them did not learn Welsh. This also pushed up
the price of houses so that local Welsh-speaking people cold not afford
them.
English comes into every Welsh home trough the television, the radio,
newspapers, books, etc. There are Welsh-language TV and radio stations,
but far fever than English ones. And now there is cable and satellite
TV, too-in English, of course!
The decline has now stopped, because a lot has been done. Road signs,
bilingual documentation, and there is a Welsh language act. The future
of Welsh is uncertain. The problem is that Welsh has to survive next
door to English, and, as we all know, English is a very successful
language.
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