History of Britain and Wales: Language Contact, Language Conflict, Language Death

1
History of Britain and Wales Language Contact,
Language Conflict, Language Death
2
Structure

• History of England 5th - 11th century
• History of England 12th century- today
• History of Wales 6th - 12th century
• History of Wales 13th century - today

3
History of England

• the Angles and the Saxons
• contact with the Vikings
• contact with the Normans
• English re-established
• the Renaissance and Modern English

4
Old English

• 449 Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain
• 680 Beowulf
• 787 Scandinavian Invasions
• 886 Danelaw

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The Anglo-Saxon Conquest
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Celtic Influence

• small (although divergent opinions)
• substratal influence, basically toponyms
• London, Leeds, Dover
• Avon, Dart, Thames
• Kent, Devon, Cornwall

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Scandinavian Influence

• adstratum
• language mixture
• analytical structure
• vocabulary

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Middle English

• 1066 Battle of Hastings Norman Conquest
• 1204 King John loses lands in Normandy
• 1362 English becomes the official
• language of legal proceeding
• 1489 French no longer used as the language of
  Parliament

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The Norman Conquest
10
French Influence

• superstratal influence
• loan words / lexical borrowings
• influence on grammar
• influence on pronunciation and spelling

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Re-establishing of English

• 1362 the Chancellor opened Parliament with a
  speech in English
• 1388 English was gaining on Latin as the
  language of town councils and guilds
• 1425 English has been generally re-adopted
• 1485 Parliament publishes statutes and
  petitions in English and French
• 1489 French is completely eradicated as the
  language of Parliament

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(Early) Modern English

• 1500-1650 the Renaissance
• 1590-1616 Shakespeares main works
• 1600 English trading posts in India
• 1806 British control in South Africa

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The Renaissance

• Strong Latin influence (borrowings)
• purists wanted English terms instead of Latin
• borrowings (so-called ynkehorne terms)

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Latin Borrowings

• Renaissance
• species, focus, genius
• scientific words
• vacuum, equilibrium, hippopotamus
• mathematical
• area, radius, series
• legal terms
• alias
• general vocabulary
• relevant, offensive, relaxation

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Todays English

• heterogeneous vocabulary
• 22 West Germanic
• 70 Romance (in some texts)
• 4 North Germanic
• 4 other languages

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Todays English

• borrowings from other languages
• Afrikaans apartheid
• Chinese ketchup
• Dutch brandy, yacht
• German blitz, ersatz, strafe
• Greek cosmos, pathos
• Indian curry, shampoo, pyjama
• Italian opera, artichoke
• Japanese kamikaze
• Portugese flamingo, mosquito
• Spanish potato, sherry

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Main stages to Modern Welsh

• Indo - European
• Common Celtic
• Brittonic (British, Brythonic)
• NeoBrittonic (6th cent.)
• Primitive Welsh (6th - 8th cent.)
• Old Welsh (8th - 11th cent.)
• Middle Welsh (12th -15th cent.)
• Modern Welsh (16th cent. - )

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Welsh Kingdoms 500 - 700
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Old Welsh

• Tywyn Stone
• 'Cengrui (or tengrui) Cimalted Gu(Reic) Adgan Ant
  Erunc Du But Maricau'
• 'Ceinrwy wife of Addian (lies here) close to Bud
  (and) Meirchiaw'

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9th century

• Surexit memorandum
• 'Surexit tutbulc filius liuit hagener tutri
  dierchim. tir telih. haioid ilau elcu filius
  gelhig haluidit iuguret amgucant pel amtanndi ho
  diued diprotant gener tutri o guir imguodant ir
  degion guragun tagc rodesit elcu guetig equs tres
  uache, tres uache nouidligi namin ir ni be c?s
  igridu dimedichat guetig hit did braut grefiag
  guetig nis minn tutbulc hai centl in ois oisou.'

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Surexit memorandum

• Tudfwlch the son of Llywyd and the son-in-law of
  Tudri arose to claim 'Tir Telych', which was in
  the hand of Elgu the son of Gelli and the tribe
  of Idwared. They disbuted long about it in the
  end they disjudge Tudri's son-in-law by law. The
  goodmen said to each other, 'Let us make peace'.
  Elgu gave afterwards a horse, three cows, three
  newly-calved cows, only in order that there might
  not be hatred ....

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Computus Fragment (10th cent.)

• Ceis inir loyr ha chepi. hinn inguir. ir nider
  uid hinn. hou nit boidin salt hai bid im guar
  phenn circhl naunecant.
• Seek in the chapter on the Moon, and thou wilt
  find this true, for this does not happen except
  in a Saltus year, which is at the end of a
  nineteen-year cycle.

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History of Wales 13th century - today

• Statute of Wales and Llewelyns Princedom
• Henry VIII Act of Unions 1536 and 1542
• Industrial Revolution and the influences on the
  Welsh language
• 1588 translation of the Bible into Welsh
• Non-conformist chapels -gt Sunday Schools
• Education
• Establishment of the Welsh language in the Media

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• 1284 Wales became part of England
• Llewelyn was the last Welsh prince
• Under Henry VIII Wales was united to England in
  1536 and 1542 -gt Acts of Union
• Exclusion of the Welsh language from
  administration and law
• Parliament at Westminster became new power in
  Wales
• Big influence of the Industrial Revolution on the
  Welsh language -gt Diglossia

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Welsh Bible (extraction of Psalm 23, 1588)

• Yr Arglwydd (yw) fy mugail ni bydd eisieu arnaf.
• Efe a bar Im orwedd mewn porfeudd gwelltoc efe
  am tywys ger llaw dyfroedd tawel.
• ...

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• Rejection of the Anglican Church-gt Methodism and
  Nonconformity
• Translation of the Bible into Welsh in 1588 by
  Bishop William Morgan
• Sunday Schools of the nonconformist church
• Education Act 1870 -gt primary school
• Education Act 1890 -gt secondary school
• Second half of 20th century provision of
  bilingual schools
• Establishment of the Welsh language in radio and
  TV

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Literature

• Jackson, Kenneth Language and
• History in Early Britain, Dublin 1994
• Morgan, Kenneth O. The Oxford History of
  Britain. Oxford 1984
• www.genuki.org.uk