Welsh
The Welsh ( Welsh Cymry , English Welsh or Welsh people ) are a people of around six million people, most of whom live in Wales . Wales is part of the island of Great Britain and one of the countries of the United Kingdom .
History and identity
The Welsh were known as Britons (British) as early as Roman times . The Welsh are counted among the Celtic nations along with the Manx , the Cornish and the Bretons .
The name Cymry is derived from the Welsh word combrogi , which means "compatriots". Interestingly, the English term Welsh is probably derived from the Germanic valha for “foreigner” (compare German: Welsche ), which is due to the Germanic descent of the English . This name also comes from the fact that Wales was never conquered by England after the Romans withdrew from Britain in the early 5th century until the late Middle Ages and so retained its Celtic character and language and therefore its "Welsh" character, which was foreign to the Anglo-Saxons . Even the Normans initially did not subjugate most of Wales after the conquest of England in 1066 , partly because the Welsh allied with the Vikings against the Anglo- Normans at times .
It was not until 1282 that the Welsh were defeated by Edward I under Prince Llywelyn . Wales was finally conquered at the beginning of the 15th century. In 1404 the heir to the throne of the English royal family was crowned Prince of Wales for the first time . In 1536, after the Welsh prince Harri Tewdwr (Henry VII) won the English crown , the political and legal union with the Kingdom of England ensued .
language
The original language of the Welsh is Welsh , one of the island Celtic languages . This British language has been known to have been spoken in what is now Wales at least since the 4th century . In Wales today, as in the whole of Great Britain, English is the most common language. Welsh is still spoken today by around 750,000 people in Wales, around 25% of the Welsh population. Another 30% stated in the 2001 census that they at least understood the language. According to this, more than 1.5 million Welsh people speak Welsh, either actively or passively.
In contrast to Irish Gaelic in Ireland and Scottish Gaelic in Scotland , Welsh was strongly promoted in Wales, including by nationalist movements in the second half of the 20th century ( Plaid Cymru ). That is why it is more widespread than the other Celtic languages in the British Isles, especially among young people. There are areas in the small country of Wales, especially on the west coast, where Welsh is the first actively spoken language for over half the population. In Ireland, on the other hand, there are only a few Gaeltacht regions and around 60,000 native speakers (a total of around 600,000 speakers of Irish Gaelic). In Scotland there are only about 60,000 speakers of Scottish Gaelic (especially in the Outer Hebrides ) and no language support as in Wales and Ireland.
religion
Like all of Britain, Wales was influenced and Christianized in the early Middle Ages mainly by the Irish Scottish Church .
In the course of the Reformation in England , Wales, shortly before legally united with England (Act of Union 1536), went over to Protestantism . The Anglican Church in Wales ( state church until 1920), a subsidiary of the Church of England , the Catholic or the Calvinist Presbyterian Church of Wales , now most of the Welsh people belong. Historically, Wales also had a strong Methodist tradition.
Population development and diaspora
In 1801 there were about 580,000 people in Wales. The number doubled during industrialization to over 1.1 million by 1851 and again to 2.4 million by 1911. About three million people live in Wales today. In addition, 600,000 people in England, around two million in the United States , around 450,000 in Canada and 73,000 in Argentina stated that they were of Welsh descent.
How to live in other parts of the UK today but also many immigrants in Wales, especially from the Commonwealth -Staaten Africa , the Caribbean and in South Asia , but now also from the new EU -countries Central and Eastern Europe , especially from Poland .