How has the Welsh language survived?

Welsh is a Celtic language native to Wales. Even though Wales was annexed by England over 700 years ago, today the Welsh language not only has survived, but remains the second most widely spoken language in the UK. The language boasts upwards of 900,000 speakers, roughly 30% of the Welsh population, and is the only Celtic language not considered endangered, despite Wales being the first territory outside England to fall under English rule. This sparks the question: How has the Welsh language survived?

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Made with Google Earth.

[Gilboy]

The Welsh language is thriving in Newport. My daughters speak Cymraeg. It’s awesome!

[starinvader]

I am going to be a film director when I’m older, am planning on having all my films in the Welsh language, and will not influence the English language, unless I’m making a dub.
I like my country and I want to help it.

[Pining_for_the_fjords]

I love the Welsh language, it sound so pretty and poetic, and I love the music of Cerys Matthews.

[patbutcher]

I'm dysgu siarad cymraeg, only half gwaed but drawn more to my welsh heritage. So thankful to one set of great grandparents for their economic choices and for the others sacrifice of sight due to an accident in the mines. Pride in heritage has always been a source of the survival of the language, and I can feel why even though I'm a londoner. Cymru am byth, one day I hope to settle our family back in the rhondda and fulfill their dreams

[GazD]

I'm so happy that Im two years into learning Welsh.
For me personally, I felt extremely disrespectful to live in a country and not know the native tongue. I never realised what a beautiful and rich culture it was before.

[hariowen]

The Welsh language's decline was rescued by Gwynfor Evans, a Welsh politician, lawyer and author.
He was President of the Welsh political party Plaid Cymru.
In the 70s when a 4th TV channel was introduced in the UK, during Margaret Thatcher's premiership, Gwynfor Evans staged a hunger strike to persuade Thatcher to not renege on the promise to give Wales its own Welsh only TV channel and she relented, giving rise to the creation of the welsh only TV channel S4C (Sianel Pedwar Cymru.) Which succeeded in making speaking Welsh fashionable by promoting the development of a wide variety of modern culture, pop music, TV drama etc., etc.

[markjones]

Both my parents came from large families in villages where Welsh was and still is spoken as the first language, both in Gwynedd, and it always makes me happy that when visiting all my family, cousins, aunties, uncles in the area that the language used for their general everyday conversation is Welsh, only reverting to English as a courtesy when there's a known non-Welsh speaker in the room, you can walk around the villages of Llanberis and Blaenau Ffestiniog and hear plenty of Welsh conversation going on around you. I've travelled around Ireland and Scotland a fair bit during my life, and maybe I'm just unlucky, but I've never encountered one native Gaelic speaker in the flesh, it would be nice to see the other native languages of the UK spoken as extensively as Welsh is too. One other thing about Wales is that we really do cherish native languages and customs, and not just our own, but that of languages and customs across the globe, every year since 1947 we've hosted the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod where people from almost every country in the world send representatives to sing and dance in their native tongue and traditional dress, it really is a stunning event which promotes keeping these native languages and customs alive, and I'd urge anyone who's never been to the Eisteddfod to go at least once as it will blow you away, it's a truly magical event!

[isitwasit]

The oldest traceable dna of Britain is welsh…. Don’t forget only as recently as the 1960s the English gov attempted a bill to ban the welsh language again.. welsh are the true indigenous people yet the least considered by parliament in London

[catintheoven]

Gaelic was only briefly the majority language in Scotland taking over from Brythonic/Cumbric (like old welsh), Pictish and Scots (old English offshoot) in different areas and it was supplanted politically before the UK formed. Scotlands story is an incoming irish language replacing two brythonic languages in terms of political prestige but being beaten by a germanic laguage that arrived about the same time. Welsh/Brythonic replacement in england was also sometimes about integrating into the new saxon society, theres accounts of people still speaking it in the fens after the norman conquest. Farmers still count sheep in Cumbric (like old welsh) in northern england.

[DylanSargesson]

4:45, it it isn't called the Welsh Assembly, its called the Welsh Parliament, or (in Welsh) Yr Senedd Cymru. Its former name was the National Assembly for Wales (Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru).

[henry_illenberger]

Welsh/Cymraeg is the language of Britain, the true native language of the land.

[robbpatterson]

There were plenty of Welsh rebellions; most were quashed though. How come no mention of the Welsh nott, or Aberfen, or the villages destroyed for England to get water...and then never used

[matthewprice]

The Welsh language is growing as are the number of people in Wales wanting independence away from the UK. Hopefully Ireland can be unified one day and the three countries in GB can be independent. A lot of English people say they hate us Welsh and Scots so just let us go. (Wales and Scotland would then charge for the water and electricity though...and you'd need to pay Scotland for the oil.)

[SusanReeves-ftsg]

Thank You. This is very interesting. I am from Wales but I didn't learn Welsh.

[yizhou]

I'm not that optimistic about the 900, 000 speakers. Probably, a lot of students in Wales learned Welsh and passed their GCSE, then stopped learning and using Welsh, and then they gradually forgot how to speak Welsh. I tend to think fluent Welsh speakers are about 600, 000-700, 000 places). The Welsh government still seems worried about its goal of 1 million speakers by 2050.
I'm learning Welsh now. One day, I'll be fluent.
Dw i'n hoffi Cymraeg!

[MAR]

I grew up knowing I had some English and Irish but found out I am also Welsh.

[gwynwilliams]

Welsh is a native language to Britain not just Wales it was spoken in England and Scotland

[seosamhodubhghaill]

Highly informative - much I did not know. Well done!

[DoctorCymraeg]

1:48 Quick note that Pentreath was the last Cornish-only speaker, and Madrell was the last native speaker of Manx. They are nowhere near being the “last” speakers of their respective languages.

[hunterluxton]

To correct you aout so called "angliciseation", Welsh people feel separate and their culture is different on so many levels to the English. The idea of separateness involves embracing your mother tongue and this has been a prime factor together with the large number of rural communities who do not wish to (to use a borg term)be assimilated.