WALES
is situated in the west of Great Britain. It is a hilly and
mountainous country and Snowdon, the highest peak, is in the Snowdonia national park in the , north west.
Most of the population and industry is in the southern valleys and along the
coast.
The chief cities are Cardiff,
which was chosen as capi 919h71j tal in 1955, Swansea
and Newport.
THE
WELSH LANGUAGE
Welsh is an
ancient Celtic language similar to Breton, spoken in Brittany, France.
In the '60s Welsh was given equal status with English as an official language
and is now used in the law courts; road signs are bilingual, it is taught in
schools and some TV programmes are in Welsh.
HISTORY
Together with the people from Cornwall,
Western Scotland and the Isle of Man, the
Welsh are the originai Britons. In fact, the Celts were inhabitants of Britain long before the invasion of the Romans,
Anglo-Saxons and Normans.
They came from the Iberian peninsula
and are shorter, darker and
stockier than the
Anglo-Saxons.
Wales
is a land of legends - their heroes are famous for fighting the Saxon invaders.
William the Conqueror did not attempt to
conquer Wales though he gave the border lands to his lords and invited them to
build castles and help themselves to Welsh lands. Edward I finally conquered Wales
in the 13th century. The Welsh king, Llewellyn, was killed and Edward promised
the people a Prince of Royal Blood, with spotless character, who spoke neither
English nor French. He then named his one-week-old son the Prince of Wales! The
tradition continues today; in fact, Prince Charles has the title. He takes his
role very seriously and has even studied the Welsh language.
Rebellions continued and peaceful union did not
come until the 15th century, during the reign of Henry VII, who was Welsh by
birth and education, and was proud of the arts and history of his people. He
and his son Henry VIII brought peace and order to the land of their fathers. In
1536 Wales
agreed to
be governed
by England.
There is a strong musical tradition in Wales: Welsh choirs are highly regarded in Britain
and special festivals known as Eisteddfodau encourage the traditional arts of
literature and music. Rugby may be considered
the national sport.
ECONOMY
The traditional industriaI activities in Wales
were based on coal, iron, steel and tinplate. The depression in the 1920s and
'30s led to high unemployment and a lot of emigration to London and other English cities. Now most of
the coal-mines have been closed. However, Wales,
like Scotland,
has become an important centre for electronics and high technology industries.
Financial and busi- ness services are also expanding rapidly. Agriculture is
stilI a vital part of the economy, accounting for about 80% of land use. The
main activities are sheep and cattle rearing in the hill regions and dairy
farming in the lowlands. Timber production is also significant, accounting far
about 20% of Britain's
total.
Some Welsh
words and their meanings
Cymrlt Wales
Plaid party (political )
Croeso welcome
Cymraeg Welsh
Llan
church/saint
bore da
good day
aber mouth of the river
Exercises
1. Put the correct
names by the dots on the map
below.
2. Write in your own words how the Prince of
Wales was chosen.
3. Tick the correct phrase and complete the sentences:
The Welsh nome for Wales is
a) Cmyru. b) Cymru. c) Cmruy.
2. Wales
lies fo fhe
a) east. b) south. c) west of England.
3. Cardiff
a) is b) has been c) was the capital
since 1955.
4. The Welsh
Nationalist Party wants Wales
to be
a) autonomous. b)
dependent on the UK. c) dependent
on Scotland
5. The official importance of Welsh, compared to English,
is...
a) greater. b) less
c) equivalent.
4. Write the events that took place:
a) in the 13th
century
.............................................................................................................................
b) in the 15th century
.............................................................................................................................
c) in 1536 ...............................................................................................................................................
d) in 1955 ..............................................................................................................................................
e) in the 1960s
.......................................................................................................................................
