Editing Welsh language (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of the Welsh language}}
The language of the Welsh developed from the language of [[Celtic Britons|Britons]].<ref>{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AK_yn7Q3_x0C&q=Wales%20and%20the%20Britons%2C%20350%E2%80%931064&pg=PA75 |title=Wales and the Britons, 350–1064 |page=75 |chapter=2: Britons and their Languages |last=Charles-Edwards |first=Thomas M |author-link=Thomas Charles-Edwards |date=2013 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-821731-2 |edition=1st |oclc=823319671}}</ref> The emergence of Welsh was not instantaneous and clearly identifiable. Instead, the shift occurred over a long period, with some historians claiming that it had happened by as late as the [[9th century]], with a watershed moment being that proposed by linguist [[Kenneth H. Jackson]], the [[Battle of Deorham|Battle of Dyrham]], a military battle between the [[Wessex|West Saxons]] and the Britons in 577 AD,<ref name="koch" /> which split the South Western British from direct overland contact with the Welsh.

Four periods are identified in the history of Welsh, with rather indistinct boundaries: Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh. The period immediately following the language's emergence is sometimes referred to as Primitive Welsh,<ref name="koch">{{cite book |last= Koch |first= John T. |author-link=John T. Koch |title= Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |location=[[Santa Barbara, California|Santa Barbara]] |year=2006 |page=1757 |isbn= 9781851094400 |oclc= 266510465 |url=https://archive.org/details/celticculturehis0001unse |url-access=registration}}</ref> followed by the [[Old Welsh]] period – which is generally considered to stretch from the beginning of the 9th century to sometime during the 12th century.<ref name="koch"/> The [[Middle Welsh]] period is considered to have lasted from then until the 14th century, when the [[History of the Welsh language|Modern Welsh]] period began, which in turn is divided into Early and Late Modern Welsh.

The word ''Welsh'' is a descendant, via Old English {{Lang|ang|wealh, wielisc}}, of the [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] word {{lang|gem-x-proto|*[[Walhaz]]}}, which was derived from the name of the [[Celts|Celtic people]] known to the Romans as {{lang|la|[[Volcae]]}} and which came to refer to speakers of Celtic languages, and then indiscriminately to the people of the [[Western Roman Empire]]. In [[Old English]] the term went through [[semantic change|semantic narrowing]], coming to refer to either Britons in particular or, in some contexts, slaves.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Miller |first= Katherine L. |date=2014 |title=The Semantic Field of Slavery in Old English: Wealh, Esne, Þræl |type=Doctoral dissertation |publisher=[[University of Leeds]] |url= https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/8031/1/Katherine%20Miller%20Semantic%20Field%20of%20Slavery%20in%20Old%20English%20v%203.pdf |pages=81–83 |access-date=8 August 2019}}</ref> The plural form {{lang|ang|Wēalas}} evolved into the name for their territory, Wales.<ref name="Wales Hist 71">[[John Davies (historian)|Davies, John]] (1994) ''[[iarchive:historyofwales0000davi g1b0|A History of Wales]]''. Penguin: p.71; {{ISBN|0-14-014581-8}}.</ref>

The modern names for various [[Romance languages|Romance-speaking]] people in [[Continental Europe]] (e.g. [[Walloons]], [[Valaisan]]s, [[Vlachs]]/[[Wallachia]]ns, and {{lang|pl|Włosi}}, the [[Polish language|Polish]] name for Italians) have a similar etymology.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/welsh |title=Welsh (adj.)  |website=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=18 November 2019 |quote=As a noun, "the Britons," also "the Welsh language," both from Old English. The word survives in Wales, Cornwall, Walloon, walnut, and in surnames Walsh and Wallace.}}</ref> The Welsh term for the language, {{lang|cy|Cymraeg}}, descends from the [[Common Brittonic|Brythonic]] word {{lang|cel|combrogi}}, meaning 'compatriots' or 'fellow countrymen'.<ref>{{cite web |title=Welsh: the only Celtic language not classified as "endangered" by UNESCO |url=https://unric.org/en/welsh-the-only-celtic-language-not-classified-as-endangered-by-unesco/ |website=UN Regional Information Centre for Western Europe |publisher=The United Nations |access-date=30 November 2019 |date=5 February 2015 }}{{Dead link|date=December 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

===Origins===
{{see also|Celtic languages#Classification}}
[[File:1588 First Welsh Bible.jpg|thumb|upright 0.75|The 1588 Welsh Bible]]
Welsh evolved from [[Common Brittonic]], the Celtic language spoken by the ancient [[Celtic Britons]]. Classified as [[Insular Celtic languages|Insular Celtic]], the British language probably arrived in [[Great Britain|Britain]] during the [[Bronze Age]] or [[British Iron Age|Iron Age]] and was probably spoken throughout the island south of the [[Firth of Forth]].<ref name="KochBritons">Koch, pp. 291–292.</ref> During the [[Early Middle Ages]] the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, thus evolving into Welsh and the other Brittonic languages. It is not clear when Welsh became distinct.<ref name="koch" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32WuBwAAQBAJ |title=The Welsh Language: A History |last=Janet |first=Davies |isbn=978-1-78316-019-8 |publisher=[[University of Wales Press]] |location=[[Cardiff]] |oclc=878137213|date=2014-01-15 }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Higham |first=Nicholas |date=1 April 2014 |title=T. M. Charles-Edwards. ''Wales and the Britons, 350–1064'' |journal=[[The American Historical Review]] |volume=119 |issue=2 |pages=578–579 |doi=10.1093/ahr/119.2.578 |issn=0002-8762 }}</ref>

Linguist [[Kenneth H. Jackson]] has suggested that the evolution in [[syllable|syllabic]] structure and sound pattern was complete by around AD 550, and labelled the period between then and about AD 800 "Primitive Welsh".<ref name="Koch1757">Koch, p.&nbsp;1757.</ref> This Primitive Welsh may have been spoken in both Wales and the {{lang|cy|[[Hen Ogledd]]}} ('Old North') – the Brittonic-speaking areas of what are now northern England and southern [[Scotland]] – and therefore may have been the ancestor of [[Cumbric]] as well as Welsh. Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time.<ref name=koch/>

The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to the {{lang|cy|[[Cynfeirdd]]}} or "Early Poets" – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was supposedly composed in the {{lang|cy|Hen Ogledd|italic=no}}, raising further questions about the dating of the material and language in which it was originally composed.<ref name=koch/> This discretion stems from the fact that Cumbric was widely believed to have been the language used in Hen Ogledd. An 8th-century inscription in [[Tywyn]] shows the language already dropping [[inflection]]s in the declension of nouns.<ref name="Jenkins">{{cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Jenkins |title=Wales: Churches, Houses, Castles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NFk3AQAAIAAJ |year=2008 |publisher=[[Allen Lane (imprint)|Allen Lane]] |page=244 |isbn=9780141024127 |oclc=751732135}}</ref>

Janet Davies proposed that the origins of the Welsh language were much less definite; in ''The Welsh Language: A History'', she proposes that Welsh may have been around even earlier than 600 AD. This is evidenced by the dropping of final syllables from Brittonic: {{lang|cel|*bardos}} 'poet' became {{lang|cy|bardd}}, and {{lang|cel|*abona}} 'river' became {{lang|cy|afon}}.<ref name=":1" /> Though both Davies and Jackson cite minor changes in syllable structure and sounds as evidence for the creation of Old Welsh, Davies suggests it may be more appropriate to refer to this derivative language as {{lang|la|Lingua Britannica}} rather than characterising it as a new language altogether.

=== Primitive Welsh ===
The argued dates for the period of "Primitive Welsh" are widely debated, with some historians' suggestions differing by hundreds of years.

===Old Welsh===
{{main|Old Welsh}}
The next main period is [[Old Welsh]] ({{lang|cy|Hen Gymraeg}}, 9th to 11th centuries); [[poetry]] from both Wales and [[Scotland]] has been preserved in this form of the language. As [[Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain|Germanic]] and [[Gaels|Gaelic]] colonisation of Britain proceeded, the Brittonic speakers in Wales were split off from those in northern England, speaking Cumbric, and those in the southwest, speaking what would become [[Cornish language|Cornish]], so the languages diverged. Both the works of [[Aneirin]] ({{lang|cy|Canu Aneirin}}, {{circa|600}}) and the ''[[Book of Taliesin]]'' ({{Lang|cy|Canu Taliesin}}) were written during this era.

===Middle Welsh===
{{main|Middle Welsh}}
Middle Welsh ({{lang|cy|Cymraeg Canol}}) is the label attached to the Welsh of the 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of nearly all surviving early manuscripts of the {{lang|cy|[[Mabinogion]]}}, although the tales themselves are certainly much older. It is also the language of the existing [[Welsh law]] manuscripts. Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible to a modern-day Welsh speaker.

<gallery mode="packed" heights="150" caption="Languages of Wales 1750–1900">
File:Map o ieithoedd Cymru (A map of the languages of Wales) - 1750.svg|1750
File:Map o ieithoedd Cymru (A map of the languages of Wales) - 1800.svg|1800
File:Map o ieithoedd Cymru (A map of the languages of Wales) - 1850.svg|1850
File:Map o ieithoedd Cymru (A map of the languages of Wales) - 1900.svg|1900
</gallery>
{{align|center|'''Key''': • Welsh {{color box|#80c040}} • Bilingual {{color box|Pink}} • English {{color box|White}}}}

=== Modern Welsh ===
{{More citations needed section|date=December 2017}}
[[File:Still surviving... - geograph.org.uk - 406078.jpg|thumb|[[Bible translations into Welsh|Welsh Bible]] of 1620, in [[Llanwnda, Pembrokeshire|Llanwnda]] church, rescued from the hands of French invaders in 1797<ref>{{cite news |title=Llanwnda Bible damaged in last invasion of Britain on display |work=BBC News |date=3 January 2018 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-42548146 |access-date=18 November 2019}}</ref>]]
The [[Bible translations into Welsh]] helped maintain the use of Welsh in daily life, and standardised spelling. The [[New Testament]] was translated by [[William Salesbury]] in 1567,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.library.wales/discover/digital-gallery/printed-material/william-salesburys-new-testament |title=William Salesbury's New Testament &#124; The National Library of Wales |publisher=Library.wales |access-date=2020-06-01}}</ref> and the complete Bible by [[William Morgan (Bible translator)|William Morgan]] in 1588.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Morgan-Welsh-bishop |title=William Morgan &#124; Welsh bishop |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=2020-06-01}}</ref> Modern Welsh is subdivided into Early Modern Welsh and Late Modern Welsh.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://whywelsh.wordpress.com/2013/08/20/welsh-is-the-oldest-language/ |title=Is Welsh the oldest language? |last=Llŷr |first=Dylan |date=2013-08-20 |access-date=2018-09-10 |df=dmy-all |website=Why Welsh? }}</ref> Early Modern Welsh ran from the 15th century through to the end of the 16th century,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/themes/guide/ch14_culture_and_religion.shtml |title=History – Themes – Chapter 14: Culture and religion in early modern Wales |publisher=[[BBC Wales]] |date=1970-01-01 |access-date=2020-06-01}}</ref> and the Late Modern Welsh period roughly dates from the 16th century onwards. Contemporary Welsh differs greatly from the Welsh of the 16th century, but they are similar enough for a fluent Welsh speaker to have little trouble understanding it.

During the Modern Welsh period, there has been a decline in the popularity of the Welsh language: the number of Welsh speakers declined to the point at which there was concern that the language would become extinct. During industrialisation in the late 19th century, immigrants from England led to the decline in Welsh speakers particularly in the South Wales Valleys.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Migration |url=https://www.agor.org.uk/cwm/themes/life/society/migration.asp |access-date=2023-12-27 |website=www.agor.org.uk}}</ref> Welsh government processes and legislation have worked to increase the proliferation of the Welsh language, for example through education.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brant |first=Colin |date=Spring 2020 |title=Communication and Culture: The Role of Language Policy on Regional Minority Languages in the Reduction of Political Conflict |url=https://scholarship.rollins.edu/honors/104/ |journal=Applied Linguistics Commons |pages=1–77 }}</ref>