Welsh Journals

LANGUAGE CONTACT AND LANGUAGE CHANGE IN WALES, 1901-1971: A STUDY IN HISTORICAL GEOLINGUISTICS* THE question of maintaining a living language is often perceived by an ethnic minority as being crucial to its survival as a distinct social group. Attempts at language maintenance are diverse and compli- cated, and suggest a concern with identity preservation and cultural enrichment. In the past, as many studies have shown, the Welsh language has been regarded as a badge of Welsh nationality. Today the relationship between language and nationality is severely weak- ened, despite nationalist attempts to argue that linguistic charac- teristics are the defining criterion of nationhood and should be recognized in the establishment of an independent Welsh state. The aim of this paper is to trace the main stages in language change during the twentieth century through a geolinguistic analysis of the census evidence for the period 1901-71. It will focus on the objective, demographic characteristics of change amongst the Welsh-speaking population and will not consider the political and economic factors which have influenced language choice during this period. The latter will be dealt with in a subsequent paper. Geolinguistics Geolinguistics is a developing branch of human geography which reflects the increasing concern of its parent discipline with social problems and with devising more appropriate methodologies for the analysis of time-honoured questions of social investigation. Its specific concern is with the relationship between languages and their physical and human settings. Thus it seeks, for example, to illumine the socio-spatial context of language use and language choice; to measure language distribution and variety; to assess the relative practical importance, usefulness and availability of different languages from the economic, political and cultural standpoints of specific speech milieux; to understand their basic grammatical, I wish to thank my colleague Mr. O. Ashton, and Dr. W. T. R. Pryce of The Open University in Wales, for reading an earlier draft of this paper and for suggesting valuable improvements. 1 This paper is based upon chapter four of my Ph.D. thesis, 'Language Decline and Nationalist Resurgence in Wales', 2 vols. (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Wales, 1978).