English in Wales and a ‘Welsh Valleys’ accent

1467-971X

Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005

English, American Studies

The topic of this paper is ‘Welsh English’. Firstly, a brief historical account is given of the growth of English in Wales, because it has only recently supplanted Welsh as the dominant language and the topic of ‘Welsh English’ can scarcely be approached without some understanding of the interaction between the two languages. Then, a short description is given of an accent in the industrialized ‘Valleys’ area of South Wales, where less than 10 per cent of the population can now speak Welsh. Its phonology is examined to see what are its defining characteristics and also ‘how Welsh it is’, i.e. the extent of influence of the Welsh language upon it. It appears that the strongest and most enduring Welsh language influence on the accent is found in its prosodics–its rhythm, the way that stress is realized and intonation.

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