kimkat0267e. Beth yw’r Wenhwyseg? What is Gwentian?
30-07-2018
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1 What is Gwentian?
2. The location of Gwentian in relation to
other Welsh dialects.
3. The boundaries of Gwentian
4. Characteristics of Gwentian.
1/ What
is Gwentian?
Gwentian (in Welsh, Gwenhwyeg, Y
Wenhwyseg) is the dialect of old Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire, and
(probably) the former Welsh-speaking areas of Herefordshire.
In the
south-eastern corner of Wales was the old territory of Gwent. The inhabitants
were called the Gwennwys = the
people of Gwent (Gwent) + (suffix -wys). From this came the adjective and
the noun 'Gwenhwyseg' (Gwenhwys-, the penult form of Gwennwys) + (suffix -eg, used to indicate a language or
dialect).
(At the other end of the country, the inhabitants of Môn / Anglesey have a
similar name in literary Welsh: the Monwys
'people of Môn', singular form: Monwysyn
'man from Môn').
The Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru / Dictionary of the University of Wales notes
that the word Gwenhwyseg is first noted in the 1300s - "mor didlawt ynggwawt yggwennhwyssec" (mor
ddi-dlawd yng ngwawd yng Ngwenhwyseg =
so splendid in praise in Gwentian).
di-dlawd - obsolete word =
rich, splendid; literally ‘unpoor’ (di-
negative or privative suffix) + soft mutation + (tlawd = poor)
gwawd = praise,
exaltation; song of praise; in modern Welsh gwawd has taken on a different meaning = derision, scorn, mockery)
In 1632 it is defined as 'iaith went, Dialectus Ventae prouincie', and
in 1688 as 'Iaith-gwent; the Dialect of Chepstow formerly, and now of all
South Wales'.
The dictionary definition (Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru – University of Wales
Dictionary) is - Tafodiaith Gwent, iaith y Gwennwys yn wreiddiol, ond
bellach y mae'n cynnwys iaith Morgannwg hefyd / The dialect of Gwent.
the language of the Gwentians originally, but now embracing the Glamorgan
dialect.
One hundred years ago this was the majority dialect of Wales - the language of
the industrial valleys. In the 1800s, in addition to immigration from the rest
of the south-east, there had been large-scale immigration from west Wales and
mid-Wales, and to a lesser extent emigration from the north. At first, most
non-Welsh speaking immigrants to south-east Wales (from England, Ireland or
wherever) assimilated to their host communities. The children of the incomers –
whether from other parts of Wales or outside Wales – would almost all have
spoken Welsh, and naturally they would have spoken Gwentian.
In the 1900s for various reasons (but basically because Wales had no political
power to protect its own language, unlike many peoples in mainland Europe in
the 1800s who had been able to gain political independence and resist language
substitution - Czechs, Slovenes, etc) most people in south-east Wales turned
their back on their language. Three major factors were massive immigration,
mainly from England; compulsory education through the medium of English, and
latterly the rise and then the total dominance of Labourism, which did not look
kindly on the Welsh language.
Within a century the major dialect of Wales has all but disappeared. Although
the Welsh language is familiar to a small proportion of the south-easterners,
it is generally learned as a second language, and this acquired language is
quite unlike the traditional form of Welsh.
(However,
the Gwentian dialect of the late 1800s and early 1900s, which is what occurs in
popular writing, and in recorded spoken examples of it from its last speakers
in the 1970s, might have been very different from the dialect that was spoken
in the 1700s or 1800s. orical Gwentian
In the
nineteenth century the traditional Gwentian of the original inhabitants of Sir
Forgannwg and Sir Fynwy (Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire) became confined to
the hill farms and the sparsely-inhabited areas. The industrial settlements saw
the immigration of Welsh people from other parts of Wales, and this influenced
to a degree the Gwentian Welsh spoken there.
This is what T. Jones
commented in 1911:
Tafodieithoedd Morgannwg
(= ‘’Welsh Dialects’.) Author: T. Jones, Ysgol y Cyngor, Dwn-rhefn, Treherbert
Awdur: T. Jones, Ysgol y Cyngor,
Dwn-rhefn, Treherbert
Y Greal, Volume 4, No. 13 (1911).
Y Greal, Cyfrol 4, Rhif 13 (1911).
Cyn dechreu
o'r Goresgyniad Masnachol tua 1760-1795, cawn taw Cymraeg bur oedd i'w chlywed
hyd a llêd y sir. Dyma'r gwrthwynebedd a'r difrodydd mwyaf andwyol ar yr
Wenhwyseg. Newidiodd y dull o fyw, cymerodd masnach lofaol le yr amaethyddol, a
chafodd hyn, felly, effaith ddistrywgar ar fywyd ac iaith amaethyddol y sir.
Ond hyd yn oed pe canieteid hyn, mae ynddi eto ddigon o undeb corfforol i'w
gwneud yn allu nerthol yn y tir.
TRANSLATION: Before the Economic Conquest
around 1760-1795, we find that pure Welsh was to be heard the length and
breadth of the county. This is the most damaging adversity and destruction that
has affected Gwentian ('on the Gwentian'). The way of living changed, the coal
trade took the place of agricultural trade, and so this had a destructive
effort on the agricultural language and life of the county.
2/ The location
of Gwentian in relation to other Welsh dialects.
(delwedd 0082)
The Welsh
language has two basic regional variants - Northern Welsh and Southern Welsh.
Traditionally, these are perceived both to have a western and eastern form. If
Wales is imagined as a square, then the dialects of Wales occupy the top-left
(Y Wyndodeg = the Gwynedd dialect, or Venedotian), top-right (Y Bowyseg = the
Powys dialect, Powysian), the bottom left (y Ddyfedeg = the Dyfed dialect,
Demetian), and the bottom right (Y Wenhwyseg = the Gwent dialect, Gwentian.)
(Note
that all four names are affected by soft mutation of the initial consonant;
such is the case with feminine nouns after the definite article. The radical
forms are Gwyndodeg, Powyseg, Dyfedeg, Gwenhwyseg).
This
division and the number of actual dialects can be disputed (What exactly makes
a regional form distinct from another? Is it possible to draw a boundary at
some point?)
However
it remains a useful framework for understanding the basic distribution of Welsh
dialects.
3/ The Boundaries of Gwentian
Professor John Rhys, in 1897, made a sketch
map with approximate boundaries in a letter in 1897 to Edward Anwyl, and forms
the basis of the map below. As he was acquainted with the different varieties
of Welsh, his intuition as to the division of Wales according to the four
dialects resulted in the following division:
(delwedd 8120)
There are two major dialects each with an
enclave. As he was from Ponterwyd in
central Wales he spoke Powysian, the boundary of which he placed much further
south than one might expect.
Over seventy years later, in The Linguistic Geography of Wales, Gwasg
Prifysgol Cymru, Caer-dydd, 1973 (ISBN: 9780708304464), the author, Alan
R. Thomas, suggested another division, with three major dialects, northern,
midland and southern, each divided into western and eastern parts.
He sees the south-eastern dialect as exending to the town of Cydweli /
Kidwelly, south of Caerfyrddin / Carmarthen, in the west. As the Welsh language
had almost completely disappeared in the east, and no native informants were
located, the map does not attempt to show what dialect was spoken here before
the demise of Welsh in this area.
Gogledd-orllewin = north-west
Gogledd-ddwyrain = north-east
Gorllewin y Canolbarth = west midlands
Dwyrain y Canolbarth = east midlands
De-orllewin = south-west
De-ddwyrain = south-east
Ardal a Seisnigwyd yn enwedig ar ôl 1800 =
area anglicised especially after 1800
In our own map showing the extent of the
Gwentian dialect we have supposed that around 1800 it was more or less the zone
between Abertawe / Swansea and Henffordd / Herford.
In the map below we have shown the area of
the dialect conventionally as coinciding with eight former cantrevs (medieval
administrative divisions), four of which constituted the kingdom of Glywysing,
or later (c950) Morgannwg (Gorfynydd, Penychen, Senghennydd and Gwynllw^g).
(Although suggestions have been made over
many decades that dialect boundaries might coincide with historical
administrative boundaries, this is very much open to debate. But for our
purposes in defining the area of the dialect it is a useful shorthand).
These, with the addition of the western
cantrev of Gw^yr, and the loss of cantrev of Gwynllw^g, later formed the basis
of the county Glamorganshire when Welsh territory was formally annexed to
England in 1535, in the Laws in Wales Acts.
At the same time, the cantrev of Gwynllw^g
was added to those of Gwent Is Coed and Gwent Uwch Coed to form the county of
Monmouthshire.
The areas corresponding to the cantrevs of
Euas and Ergyng became part of Herefordshire.
(delwedd 2353c)
(delwedd
8116p)
By way of comparison, the south-eastern dialect area of the Linguistic Geography of Wales has been superimposed on the
former map. This shows that south-eastern Welsh is more extensive than in our schematisation,
going north into Sir Frycheiniog / Breconshire and west into Sir Gaerfyrddin /
Carmarthenshire.
(delwedd
8116q)
The eastern
extent of Welsh (and thus of the Gwentian dialect) was shown in a map published
in 1892 in ‘Wales And Her Language Considered From A Historical, Educational
And Social Standpoint...’ by John E. Southall, an Englishman and firm supporter
of the Welsh language and the owner of a publishing firm in Casnewydd /
Newport.
(The book is
to be found here: www.kimkat.org/amryw/1_testunau/sion_prys_120_southall_wales-and-her-language_1892_11_0163e.htm
)
(delwedd
5463b)
Western
Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire are considered to be an area where ‘Welsh [is]
understood or spoken by over 60 per cent of the adult population’.
The portion
of the county of Monmouthshire nearest the English border is where ‘No native
Welsh [is] understood or spoken’.
Surprisingly, compared to the present linguistic situation in Gwent, the
western part of the county is labelled
‘Welsh understood or spoken by less than 60 per cent of the adult
population’.
Although
this does not tell us how prevalent Welsh was here (60 per cent in places? Only
5 per cent in other places?) it shows
that this area was felt to be still Welsh-speaking, if only in part.
4/ Characteristics of Gwentian.
There is (or
was) of course no uniform dialect called ‘Gwentian’. In the east the
Welsh-speaking area ended abruptly in present-day England (in Herefordshire)
where it met the English-speaking regions of England; and in the west there
exists a continuum where the further one goes to the Morgannwg (Glamorgan)
border and into the county of Caerfyrddin (Carmarthenshire) defining features
of Gwentian became fewer and cease.
However,
there were features which set it apart from the dialect of the south-west. They
were above all phonological.
1/ provection (in Welsh ‘calediad’ = hardening). Certain initial consonants [b,
g, d] of the tonic syllable become unvoiced [p, k, t].
(cadair >
catar) (= chair),
(trigo >
trico) (= die),
(dwbwl >
dwpwl) (= double).
2/ In a
final-syllable [a] is found instead of the [e] found in south-western Welsh
(seren > seran) (= star).
(This is a
feature shared with north-western Welsh).
3/ Perhaps most noticeable, though of lesser importance as it affects far fewer
words of the language is what is called in Welsh the ‘a fain’ (= the slender
a). A long ‘a’[a:] becomes an open-mid front unrounded vowel. Thus bach [ba:x] (= little, small) is bɛ̄ch [bɛ:x] in Gwentian. This feature is shared with the Welsh spoken
in parts of mid-Wales, from the English border almost to Bae Ceredigion /
Cardigan Bay. It is supposed to be the result of language contact – a feature
from English during the Great Vowel Shift which was imitated by bilingual Welsh
border people.
4/ Loss of
initial [h] is also a notable feature in Gwentian. Again this would seem to be
a feature from English, and is unknown in the other Welsh dialects. In England,
the process has been reversed through spelling pronunciation – apparently the
upper classes began to restore the h present in writing, and through imitation
and universal education it is now seen to be a necessary component of standard
pronunciation.
5/ In some
areas there was palatalisation of initial [k], for example, cefan > ciefan,
etc (< cefn = back). This feature is aslso found in Northern Welsh. Once
again, it is probably a feature borrowed from English.
Another
characteristic feature of Gwentian noted by earlier commentators was the
occurrence of words not found in other dialects, but to be found in medieval
literature. Later on, it was characterised by heavy borrowing from English,
ostensibly an effect of the huge immigration of English-speakers from bordering
English counties, though many borrowings could have been from an earlier
period.
Follow this link to see a
list of material in Gwentian, or about Gwentian, in this website.
Dilynwch y ddolen-gyswllt hon i weld
rhestr o ddeunydd yn nafodiaith Gwent, neu yn ymwneud â’r dafodiaith, sydd yn y
wefan hon.
www.kimkat.org/amryw/1_gwenhwyseg/gwenhwyseg_deunydd_mynegai_1048e.htm
Sumbolau:
a A / æ Æ / e E / ɛ Ɛ / i I / o O / u U / w W / y Y /
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Ȳ /
BREF: ă Ă / ĕ Ĕ / ĭ Ĭ /
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B5237: 
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ә ʌ ẃ ă ĕ ĭ ŏ ŭ ẅ ẃ ẁ
Ẁ ŵ ŷ ỳ Ỳ
wikipedia, scriptsource. org
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ǣ
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Y TUDALEN HWN: www.kimkat.org/amryw/1_gwenhwyseg/beth-yw-r-wenhwyseg_0267e.htm
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Creuwyd: 10-07-2017
Adolygiad diweddaraf: 30-07-2018, 10-07-2017
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