The Status of the Welsh language in 1750

This map was published on the Heritage and History of Wales Facebook page.  Interesting!  It goes back to the mid-eighteenth century -- a period for which there is not much reliable data.

This is interesting, when we focus on Pembs.  The Landsker is shown as very sharp, with just a narrow band of "bilingual" population between the monolingual (Welsh) north and the monolingual (English) south.  Over time this band of terrain in which the two languages were used got thicker, of course, and the gradual decline of Welsh and the inexorable rise of English can be seen on the langualr maps of the 1800's and 1900's.

I'm interested that on this map we see a stretch of territory northwards to Fishguard in which the two languages were used.  But the Englishry is shown as extending all the way to Laugharne in Carmarthenshire.

Of course things weren't quite as simple as they appear.  There always were Welsh speakers in the south, and English speakers in the north -- the latter mostly associated with the immigration of English speaking wives and husbands who married into the minor gentry.

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Background info:

Map of Welsh languages 1750. Key: Green: Welsh monolingual population; Pink: Bilingual population; White: English monolingual population. (A map of the languages of Wales 1750. Key: Green: monolingual Welsh population; pink: bilingual population; white: monolingual English population. )

The data is based on research by W.T.R. Pryce - first published in (Data is based on the research of W.T.R. Pryce. It was first published in):
Pryce, W.T.R. (1978). "Welsh and English in Wales. 1750-1971: A spatial analysis based on the linguistic affiliation of parochial communities". Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies 28: 1-36.
Pryce, W.T.R. (1978). "Wales as a culture region: Patterns of change 1750-1971". Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, Session 1978: 229-261., revised and reprinted in: Pryce, W.T.R. (1986) "Wales as a culture region: Patterns of change 1750-1971" in The Welsh and Their Country: Selected Readings in the Social Sciences, Gomer Press ISBN: 9780863832451.

Colin H. Williams gives an overview of research, analysis and Pryce Pryce (Colin H. Williams gives an overview of Pryce's research, grassholysis and methology):
Williams, Colin H. (1990) "The Anglicisation of Wales" in English in Wales: Diversity, Conflict, and Change, Multilingual Matters, pp. 23-30. ISBN: 9781853590313.
Academic works resurfacing Pryce's 1750 language map (Academic works republish Pryce's 1750 language map):
Jones, Mari C. (1998) Language Obsolescence and Revitalization: Linguistic Change in Two Sociolinguistically Contrasting Welsh Communities, Clarendon Press, p. 9. ISBN: 9780198237112.
Cunliffe, Barry W. (2001) The Penguin Atlas of British & Irish History, Penguin, p. 118. ISBN: 9780140295184.
Davies, Jane (2014) The Welsh Language: A History, University of Wales Press, p. 51. ISBN: 9781783160204.

Note: Welsh language data before the census exists in archives such as the church and similar sources. This is the source of W.T.R. Pryce: what was noted by the clerics of the different periods about the language of their churches. From that information, Pryce created four maps for the years: 1750, 1800, 1850 and 1900, showing the distribution of the Welsh speakers as a language every day, areas that were bilingual and monolingual areas English.
Pryce used a point symbols to show his data regarding the language within the parish churches. Lest you complicate the maps, I have not done it. Instead I have focused only on how the linguistic situation was spreading.

My maps, so, are set up on Pryce maps, and reprintments from his maps. By comparing these, it was possible to check my maps. Pryce had blocks of grey and black, and the point symbols - who do the action of analysing them quite difficult, especially from people who haven't used to the subject, data or maps! Because of this, I decided to use color. To make sure the locations are correct I used to use gartograffig software such as Google Maps, Open Street Map and Bing Maps.

Note: Pre-census data on the Welsh language exists in archives such as the church and similar sources. This is the source of W.T.R. Pryce: what the clergy of the different periods noted about the language of their church members. From that information, Pryce created four maps for the years: 1750, 1800, 1850 and 1900, showing the distribution of Welsh speakers as a daily language, bilingual areas and English only areas.
Pryce also used point symbols to show his data regarding the language within the parish churches. I haven’t, as to not over complicate the maps. Instead I have focused only on how the language situation was spreading.

My maps are, therefore, based on Pryce's maps, and reprints of his maps. By comparing these, it was possible to check my maps. Pryce had blocks of gray and black, and the point symbols - which makes the task of analyzing them quite difficult, especially for people who are not used to the topic, data or maps! Because of this, I decided to use colour. To make sure the locations were correct I used cartographic software such as Google Maps, Open Street Map and Bing Maps.

Date 1 September 2020
Source Own work
Author Resnjari