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Wales /'we?lz/ (lang-cy Cymru; pronounced /'k?mr?/) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. Wales has a population estimated at three million and is officially bilingual; both Welsh and English have equal status and bilingual signs are the norm throughout the land. For the majority English is their only language, although the once-steady decline in Welsh speaking has reversed over recent years, with the total of Welsh speakers currently estimated to be around 20% of the population.
During the Iron Age and early medieval period Wales was inhabited by the Celtic Britons. A distinct Welsh national identity emerged in the centuries after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, and Wales is regarded as one of the modern Celtic nations today.[Davies, John, A History of Wales, Penguin, 1994, "Welsh Origins", p. 54, ISBN 0-14-01-4581-8][title=Welsh Assembly Government: Minister promotes Wales’ status as a Celtic nation][url=www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/1939/] In the 13th century, the defeat of Llewelyn by Edward I completed the Anglo-Norman conquest of Wales and brought about centuries of English occupation. Wales was subsequently incorporated into England with the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, creating the legal entity known today as England and Wales
. Distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century, and in 1881 the Welsh Sunday Closing Act became the first legislation applied exclusively to Wales. In 1955 Cardiff was proclaimed as the capital city and in 1999 the National Assembly for Wales was created, which holds responsibility for a range of devolved matters.
The capital Cardiff (lang-cy Caerdydd) is Wales's largest city with 317,500 people. For a period it was the biggest coal port in the world[Wales] and, for a few years before World War I, handled a greater tonnage of cargo than either London or Liverpool.[Cardiff - Coal and Shipping Metropolis of the World] Two-thirds of the Welsh population live in South Wales, with another concentration in eastern North Wales. Many tourists have been drawn to Wales's "wild... and picturesque" landscapes. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the "land of song", attributable in part to the revival of the eisteddfod tradition.[The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press 2008] Actors, singers and other artists are celebrated in Wales today, often achieving international success. Cardiff is the largest media centre in the UK outside of London.
Llywelyn the Great founded the Principality of Wales in 1216. Just over a hundred years after the Edwardian Conquest, in the early 15th century Owain Glyndwr briefly restored independence to what was to become modern Wales.[page=459 ] although this has no modern geographical or constitutional basis.
EtymologyHistory of the term Vlach
WalesThe English name Wales originates from the Germanic words Walh (singular) and Walha (plural). The Ænglisc-speaking Anglo-Saxons used the term Waelisc when referring to the Celtic Britons, and Wealas when referring to their lands.
The same etymology applies to walnut (meaning "foreign (Roman) nut") as well as the wall of Cornwall and Wallonia. Old Church Slavonic also borrowed the term from the Germanic, and it is the origin of the names Wallachia and its people, the Vlachs.[first=John][first=John Ronald Reuel][ first = Michael]
CymruThe modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is Welsh for "Land of the Cymry". The etymological origin of Cymry is from the (reconstructed) Brythonic word combrogi, meaning "compatriots", in the sense of "fellow countrymen".[, A History of Wales, 400–800.]
The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the post-Roman Era relationship of the Welsh with the Brythonic-speaking peoples of northern England and southern Scotland, the peoples of Yr Hen Ogledd (lang-en The Old North). In its original use, it amounted to a self-perception that the Welsh and the "Men of the North" were one people, exclusive of all others. In particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to both the Welsh and the Men of the North. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century. It is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan written c. 633.
In Welsh literature the word Cymry was used throughout the Middle Ages to describe the Welsh, though the older, more generic term Brythoniaid continued to be used to describe any of the Britonnic peoples (including the Welsh) and was the more common literary term until c. 1100. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh. Until circa 1560 Cymry was used indiscriminately to mean either the people (Cymry) or their homeland (Cymru).
The Latinised form of the name is Cambria. Outside of Wales this form survives as the name of Cumbria in North West England, which was once a part of Yr Hen Ogledd. It is used in geology to represent a geological period (the Cambrian) and in evolutionary studies to represent the period when most major groups of complex animals appeared (the Cambrian explosion). This form also appears at times in literary references, perhaps most notably in the pseudohistorical Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth, where the character of Camber is described as the eponymous King of Cymru.
It has occasionally been suggested, both in outdated historical sources and by some modern writers, that the Cymry were somehow linked to the 2nd century BC Cimbri or to the 7th century BC Cimmerians because of the phonetic similarity. Such suggestions have long been dismissed by scholars on etymological and other grounds.
HistoryPrehistoric origins
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