3 - ENGLISH IN WALES

Summary

Introduction

The social factors which brought about the dominance of English in Wales, and which have set in motion the process of language shift, have been political, economic and educational. The process of language planning – for political, rather than educational aims – effectively began with the political Acts of Union in 1536 and 1542, which were, ostensibly, to ensure equal rights for the Welsh with the English under the Tudor monarchy. The Welsh gained representation in Parliament, while Welsh laws and customs were abolished in favour of those of England. With this political and legal uniformity came the imposition of English as the official language of Wales. The Acts denied office under the Crown to all who had no mastery of English. Many Welsh people took advantage of the opportunities for advancement thus opened to them, becoming prominent courtiers and scholars who saw the adoption of the English language as a prime route to the cultural, social and political emancipation of the Elizabethan Age (see Hughes 1924: 11-15). The process was to be continued with the dominance of English in the development of industrialisation, and with conscious educational policy, which sought further to secure the position of English, to the exclusion of Welsh, as the language of commerce, government and education during the nineteenth century.

However, the English language had been making inroads into the indigenous Welsh-language speaking community since the fourteenth century, initially through the settlement of English colonies in the major townships.