Cymry Cymraeg of Wales

About the Cymry Cymraeg of Wales

Who are the Cymry Where do the Cymry Cymraeg? Cymraeg live?

Many people think that English is the Though Welsh speakers can be found only language of the United Kingdom anywhere in Wales (and in growing and Wales in particular. In reality, Welsh numbers in the large cities), most Welsh is spoken by nearly a quarter of the speakers live in Western part of Wales. Welsh population. Welsh is one of the Welsh speakers make up a large part of six living Celtic languages that has been the population in Gwynedd, Anglesey, spoken since 250 B.C. Welsh is as Cardigan, North Pembroke and different from English as Arabic, French, Carmarthen Counties. Greek, or Hebrew.

John 3:16 in Cymraeg:

Do, carodd Duw y byd gymaint nes iddo roi ei unig Fab, er mwyn i bob un A linguistic map of Wales, showing where there are high sy’n credo ynddo ef beidio â mynd i concentrations of Welsh speakers (red - darker = higher concentration) ddistryw ond cael bywyd tragwyddol. Ioan 3:16

Those who speak the Welsh language are known as the Cymry Cymraeg. According to the 2001 Census, there are 2,805,701 people in Wales over the age of 3. There are 797,717 people in Wales with some ability in the language. However, some unofﬁcial surveys indicate that the inﬂuence of the language may reach many more people.

6 The Six Modern Celtic Languages:

Welsh (Cymraeg)Speakers: 500,000 -1,000,000

Irish (Gaelige) Speakers: 300,000 -1,600,000

Scottish Gaelic (Gaidhlig) Speakers: 80,000-150,000

Breton (Brezhoneg) Speakers: Social Overview 150,000-320,000

Cornish (Kerneweg) Speakers: Wales is a beautiful land of mountains, 2,500-5,000 rivers, rolling hills, and extraordinary coastlines. It is a land of song and Manx (Gaelg) Speakers: poetry and tradition. 2,500-5,000

Shelta/Cant Speakers (Irish Travellers): 30,000-100,000

7 Historically, Wales has also been a somewhat poor and secluded area of the world and has had a history marked by accidents, usually mining, and an occupation mentality. Many Welsh people emigrated to places around the world, and the fact that many “American” names such as Jones, Williams, Hughes, Roberts, Davis, etc, are actually Welsh is testimony to this. The situation has now changed in some ways. Though economically, Wales trails behind other areas in the United Kingdom, it is now a Where once the Coal mine or Slate/ very modern country with a new sense of Granite Quarry was the center of the itself. There is a newly found pride in society in many places in Wales, these being Welsh, especially for young communities have now lost their sense people, which has given rise to the of themselves, with the closure of most phenomenon known as “Cool mines and quarries in recent years. This Cymru” (Cymru, being the Welsh word fact, compounded by the ever for Wales). Wales has been home to decreasing influence of the Chapels, has many entertainers of national and produced an interesting sociological shift international renown, such as actors: in that, for many people in Wales, sport, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Anthony Hopkins, especially rugby clubs in the South, has and musicians: Stereophonics, Shirley become the new social center. In many Bassey, and Tom Jones. Whereas places, there is not much for young mining, farming and fishing once people to do, and there are growing sustained most families (and farming and problems in Wales with drug use fishing are still important), today tourism (especially among the young) and anti- and industry drive the economy. This social behavior. However, the new Wales economic change has drastically is very aware of the outside world and is changed the social structure in Wales. playing a more active role in many arenas. In spite of everything, many Welsh families now have enough money to travel and see the world, and the world is becoming more aware of Wales.

8 Wales has also been marked by several, dramatic spiritual Revivals. These have occurred at various times over the past 250 years, the last of which, occurring in 1904. However, at present, very few people attend any kind of church (5% of the total population of Wales). Most active church or chapel-goers are elderly, and the vast majority of Welsh young people have little or no knowledge of the Gospel.

Spiritual Overview At present, only about 1-2% of the Welsh population would consider themselves to Traditionally, Wales has had a very be Evangelical Christians, and those strong religious identity. The “Non- numbers are rapidly decreasing each conformists” (denominations such as year. Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Congregationalists, etc.) have made up the bulk of not just the Christian community, but also the general population. In fact, a hundred years ago, well over 90% of the Welsh population would have been active, Non-conformist Christian. Non-conformists call their meeting places “Chapels,” which is both a theological and cultural designation. There is also a strong Anglican tradition in Wales (known as “The Church in Wales”), who tend to call their meeting places “Church.” Traditionally, Roman Catholicism has not been as strong as the Anglican and Non-conformist traditions.