Life Learning the Language of Welsh

Since we have been in lockdown, one of my activities that I have been doing whilst in exile from Kith and Kin, and work, have to learn our native language, Welsh aka Cymraeg that Janet Davies describes in her excellent book “The Welsh Language, A History” as “Lingua Britannica” which translates as  “The British language”. For me, this is the life continuing process, like “Devolution” is in Wales, however, before I describe my own struggle with this I’ll take through the history of both the language and the people and finally the nation we are in.

The People of Wales
In the Western peninsular of Britain, shaped like a woman sitting and pointing accusingly

Human Beings have lived there for nearly 20,000 years. One of the oldest human remains that were found in Paviland Cave in the Gower peninsula just south of Swansea (see map) he was a young man who was buried in a cave facing the sea 33,000 years ago, he was stained in red ochre, this was during the middle of the last Ice Age when Wales was inhabited by Hunter-Gatherers in the Paleolithic Age. As the ice retreated the population advanced, mostly from the Iberian Peninsular we know bits and pieces about the people that lived in the lady peninsular. What language they spoke, we only can speculate. The oldest language in Western Europe would be Basque, spoke by the people who live in northern Spain and southern France, quite unrelated not to any other language but not a member of the Indo European group. genetically it has been claimed that we (especially in the south-east) related to them perhaps we spoke a language that was closely related to Basque, however, that is purely speculative and can not be proved. 

The Welsh language evolved from what was known as Brittonic (Pretanic is the oldest known word to describe Britain from the 3rd Century BCE) was spoken by the people before the Romans arrived and was never displaced by Latin (unlike Gaulish in France which was extinct by the 5th Century AD), unfortunately, there is very little written down (I think) rather like Gaulish to construct a dictionary. Old Welsh evolved in the 5th Century displacing Latin which was spoken in the large urban areas which disappeared with the arrival of the Yellow Plague. We learn There are written records in Old Welsh as the Poem Y Goddodin written by the Poet Aneurin in the 6th Century. Welsh was the main branch of the languages which became Cumbric (spoken in the north-west of England and now extinct), Cornish, Breton, all of which are still spoken.

Welsh has been the strongest to survive, it was spoken in Wales with up to 90% of the population in the 19th Century, was dismissed as a useless language by much of the English establishment (and Welsh)that was not helpful. Fortunately thanks to a strong intellectual class of Welsh led by members of the Welsh Liberal party that constituted a group known as Cymru Fydd (Young Wales) led by Tom Ellis David Lloyd George, and JO Lloyd. Then by Plaid Cymru founded by Saunders Lewis in 1925. The Welsh language has been revived from possible extinction. It was included in the Education Act of 1944 by the Conservative Secretary of State, RAB Butler who was a strong supporter of the Welsh language. The victory of Gwynfor Evans (who could rightly describe as Tad Cenedl Father of the Nation) won the Carmarthen by-election after the death of Lady Megan Lloyd George for Plaid Cymru, led to the 1967 Welsh Language Act, the 1992 Welsh Language Act which made Welsh compulsory in. Welsh schools, and practically the official language of Wales, Home Rule in 1999, and the dawn of a new nation in a New Millennium.

My Struggle with Welsh 

My life learning Welsh can be split into 3 periods, always described myself and a life long learner of my native language.

1, School

When I was in school (1969-83) Welsh began when you entered Junior school which today would Year 3, at 8 years old. When I began at Cwrt Y Ala Junior School in 1972, my second teacher (as I moved classes in October) was Mr Owen John Thomas (later to become a Plaid AS in 1999-2007 he was the Culture Spokesperson, and remember him heckling Neil Kinnock during a 1979 QT, I remember cheering him on!) no shortage of Welsh history there. Our Welsh teacher was Mr John Blake who left us in the 4th year, or as we called him “flakey Blakey. He was a great teacher, Welsh was one period a day, and I was a semi-active member of the Urdd Gobaith Cymru (Welsh League of Youth)the actual translation is Youth, The Hope of Wales. He told us the Tales from the Mabinogion with his own version of Bran, (in his version Bran’s head is buried in Cardiff ). What I remember was the Welsh we were taught were the formal kind. In Secondary school, it was compulsory until our second year (Year 8). In Glyn Derw High school. Miss Valery Vaughan who was our Form Teacher taught us Welsh, and on the whole, I had good grades, however, when it was an option it was decided to go for French (which I was also good at). I believed later it was a mistake, my French went downhill, I think mainly because the teacher was not that good. The rest is history. Though recently when I was visiting the Museum of Welsh Life at St Fagan's, happen to speak to one of the custodians who I discovered supplied at Cwrt Y Ala in my final year, I thought he looked familiar, and he told me that they focused mainly on the children that had an aptitude for it, and the rest of us were left to flounder, probably what happened with Jason Mohammed who also went to Glyn Drew, I knew his teacher, and believe it to be true. Thus ended part 1 of my struggle to learn my native language.

Part 2 Colorado Welsh Society 

  In 1990 I left Wales and moved to the US, to the great city of Denver, I went there to test my vocation with the Franciscan order at the Anglican Catholic Church of St Mary’s, a former Episcopal Church that left in 1976 over the ordination of women, led by Bishop James Mote, quite a charismatic guy and far more liberal leanings than most people would have guessed. Needless to say, religious life was definitely not for me. I did stay working as a lay assistant, sacristan, acolyte master, Lay Reader/subdeacon etc, quite the life. Worked in the local Roman Catholic seminary of St Thomas in the Library (honorary asst Librarian and bookstore), also completing a Certificate in Biblical Studies in 1995 with Biblical School at the same seminary.

However I am going off on a tangent, so I shall.get back to Welsh. Before I left for the States I checked out the local Welsh society (don't forget this before the Internet). I discovered that there was a Colorado Welsh Society which despite the named membership was drawn from the Denver Metro area, and only met three times a year. The annual meeting that elected the president and Board of Directors, the Davids Day Gymanfa Ganu at the Corona (no virus) Presbyterian Church which was formerly the Corona Welsh Presbyterian Church and had Welsh Language services until 1948, and the Christmas Noson Llawen in December, all great stuff. Small core membership, a choir, there were a couple of native Welsh speakers.

The Kathleen Hughes Welsh Language learning academy

There was a desire for a Welsh Language class to be held. There were 2 ladies who spoke Welsh fluently, the first and oldest was Peggy Brown, Peggy was a war bride who came from Tonypandy, and sounded like she comes from there, the other was Kathleen Hughes, Kathleen was from Abergylowyn in the north, she was a retired nurse who worked at National Jewish Hospital. It was hilarious to hear these two argue about Welsh words because of dialect “Dau! Dou!” “Nawr Rowan!”.People had begged that they start lessons. Sadly Peggy passed away in 1991, which left Kathleen as the potential teacher.  A few of us finally bamboozled her into teaching! she was not keen because she felt it was difficult for a native speaker to teach. She agreed in the end to teach, and a 5 of us started lessons with her as the teacher. It was myself, Betty Foos (From Morganstown who swore blind that “the Englishman that went up the Hill” was true) Betty Brown ( a Spanish speaker who just had problems with pronunciation)Pat Burne (a Spanish speaker who had no trouble) and Dale Summers (He was LDS and did his mission in Cardiff and knocked on our door in 1975). We met on Monday nights at Kathleen’s apartment for an hour and a half using “Teach Yourself Welsh” from October to May (Kathleen spent her Summers in Wales). It did not take long to grow. Within 2 years we had 20 people learning Welsh. When I was “drafted” as president of the Colorado Welsh Society my philosophy was that the KHWLA was an important mission in making the society a strong association which it had not been until then. Frequent meetings of the Language group, of the choir, of talks about Wales and its history (I gave one on Owain Glyndwr) was what was important to raising the profile and teaching our Langauge. The group grew and matured and met in a large room, we divided the class into beginners that were led by Trefor Roberts (Tref picked up the language pretty quickly and was so good he could teach) Kathleen taught the Advanced class until she passed away sadly in 1999. Mine ended around 1997 after I got married and moved away, and the language sadly went away. My wife, Cathy who is a teacher, her great great grandfather, Timothy Thomas was a master silk mercer who was born in Carmarthen. Cathy supplied in Wales and started learning it herself, she is a Spanish speaker, Mother, Mary was a bilingual teacher in the LA area, and fluent in. Spanish, I think foreign languages are taught better in the US. However, The Colorado Welsh Society is thriving as is its Welsh classes and it still needs and it's successful and deserves an award from the Welsh Government for what it has done to promote our native language. For free, no charge/

3.Duolingo 

I have tried Duolingo a number of times and really have not kept up, until now with the Lockdown, I think the fact it is free is a great help, and easy to follow, giving you 3 learning sessions .1 casual 2 serious 3 insane. I found it helpful with a reintroduction to Welsh or Lingua Britannica. 

The Way Forward 

One thing that I believe that the Colorado Welsh Society deserves a shout out for are offering free lessons. Surely this should be explored. Offering free lessons would be a great help in heading towards that goal of 1 mllion speakers. 

      

Jacqui Gasson Cardiff legend

      Cllr. Jacqui Gasson. Cardiff Legend

I was very sad to hear of Jacqui Gasson's passing. I know that she had not been well for a long while, with many trips to Llandough Hospital. I have known her since the 1980s when I was active in the Liberal Party, part of the SDP/Liberal alliance.   I joined the Liberal party in Caerau in 1982, and was a member of the not so active Cardiff West Liberal  Association, Jacqui was a founding member of the Cardiff West SDP, and had a lot more supporters in Caerau than the Liberals did. I can't remember how we met, I don't remember campaigning for Jeffrey Thomas (former Labour MP for Abertillery)who stood in Cardiff West in the tragic 1983 election, where Cardiff turned blue with Stefan Teleszki, it was claimed that people voted for Jeff Thomas because they thought it was George Thomas that they were voting, consequently, David Seligman lost personally I don't buy that, perhaps some people might have thought, that but not enough to cause the effect, it was simply that the Labour vote was divided.

However back to Jacqui, we met and was became part of the "Caerau Contact" team, which was similar to the Liberal party's Focus leaflets, in fact, Jacqui was more of a Liberal embracing the Community Politics of Bernard Greaves, than the stuffy SDP, that tended to look down their noses at Liberals and their practices, Jacqui was active, proactive in Caerau. The Cardiff West SDP was led by Geoff and Marion Drake (Geoff was the Alliance candidate in 1987). I liked them personally, however they were right-wing old Labour, very centralising in outlook and no fans of devolution, they with the rest of the Radyr (and some of the Caerau )followed  David Owen into the so-called continuing SDP, and then I think many of them went back to New Labour. Their departure was a good thing as Geoff had editorial control over the "Contact" leaflet, and the lot of the material that was irrelevant locally, we were now going to make it relevant.

In the 1980s Jacqui was a hardened campaigner. The one that affected me was for new Tesco at Culverhouse Cross, which was opposed by local retailers who feared (understandably)for their businesses and the South Glamorgan County Council planning which opposed the development, the Welsh Office overruled them and it went ahead, providing me with a job, along with 300 others. She worked hard for the local community before she was elected. 

I was a member of the Caerau Contact Team, we met monthly at one house, and then another when she joined the Owenites after the SDP/Liberal merger, which of course became the Liberal Democratic Party we all know and love. We produced a monthly leaflet which went to most homes in Caerau. I was a leaflet coordinator for my part of Caerau, I had 4 individuals delivering leaflets, I delivered quite a few, I got up at 4 am in the morning and delivered them, sun, rain, snow. It was hard work, but as Mike German always said “you don't win where you don't work” and that is true, we had an election to fight in 1987. That year we had a general and a local (city) election. Cardiff City Council and Caerau ward, in particular, was the one we were focussing on. There were 2 seats (Like it is now), Labour of course. Cllr. Bill Carling was local retired postman, former chair of the Housing Committee and a long time veteran, Cllr David Seligman  (remember Cardiff West’s almost MP) who was not local, a Llandaff lawyer, a bit of an arrogant bugger

Party    Candidate    Votes    %    ±
Labour    W. Carling    1,633    46.9    -7.7
Labour    David Seligman *    1,502       
Alliance    Jacqui Gasson    1,914    32.6    +19.0
Alliance    J. Williams    980       
Conservative    C. Trigg    593    17.0    -7.6
Conservative    R. Trigg    587       
Green    G. Jones

Jacqui would be joined later on the with Roger Burley, and she a seat on (defunct) South Glamorgan Council, and begin the hard work of improving the community, where she would lobby to get new schools built, like Trelai Primary school, and improvements on Caerau Infants.

It was hard work but it was a hard nut to crack, but as you can see her personal following was a lot to do with it with a 19% swing equally from Labour and Conservative. The opportunity came the following year when sadly Bill Carling passed away and there was a by-election, we worked hard producing a number of leaflets, quite a bit of door-knocking, a lot of gold banners around the area, something not ever seen. Labour put up Robert Mawn, Bob was a decent man, father of David and Julie, who I was in school with. Jacqui won and became the Liberal Democratic Party’s first elected member in the UK. We were founding members of the Cardiff West Liberal Democratic Party, we founded it in the Canton Liberal Club on Cowbridge Road. 

On a personal note, I attended the Harrogate Liberal Assembly in 1987 when the Liberal Party voted to merge with SDP, which I supported and was interviewed by someone (I have forgotten who she was) from Newsnight about what I thought about the merger and I said to her “it's not the name that is important, Its Liberal values that all that mattered” that night I rushed to the hotel where I was staying to see the interview, alas, no, it was not to be. However, the interviewer sought me out and apologised to me for it not being shown, as it was pushed out by another item. The other thing that had happened was Paddy Ashdown canvassing support for a leadership challenge, and at the time David Steel was nor planning to resign, I was not pleased.

Jacqui’s work began and she worked hard all the 23 years that she served Caerau on the council, however, my time politicking was coming to an end. In 1989 there was that leadership race, the choice was between  Paddy Ashdown and Alan Beith, I supported Beith (though my preference would have been the late David Penhaligon that charismatic Cornishman whose death was tragic). Ashdown won, and I resigned from the party as I had no time for him. However, it would not have mattered as I moved to the US in 1990 and the 1990s was another world. I heard about her hard work on the council standing up for Caerau, strong on issues concerning social services and education, contributing much, criticising when it needed to.

I did meet her again until 2004 when I saw her at Farmfoods in Ely on the site of the old Ely hospital, she asked if I wanted to stand for Lib Dems in Ely in the 2004 local elections, I initially resisted it, I was not politically active, and that time possibly might return to the US (which I did in 2005), and did not want to stand as a “paper” candidate. Against my better judgement I did, there was no real support from Lib Dems, and in Ely, there were a lot of candidates standing against Russell Goodway, and I said they should not have 3Lib Dems standing, because it would split the vote, which it did, my vote was far higher than the other 2 LibDems who were not from Ely. To this day I believe if I had not stood Russell may have lost his seat to Charlie Gale who was only 40 seats behind him. That was the end of that. The Lib Dems won the election and formed a minority administration. Jacqui became the first Liberal Democratic  Lord Mayor and the first Liberal Lord Mayor since the early 20th Century. She did sterling work one piece of controversy was her refusal to host the Evangelical preacher, Luis Palau because of his views on Gays, which to be fair is traditional, but wrong, she got a flack over that, but it was the right call.

She continued as a councillor on the backbenches continuing her hard work. She and Roger Burley’s loss came as a shock but not a surprise. As she pointed out that the coalition with the Tories was very unpopular and cost not only her seat but cost the Lib Dems Cardiff. However, even though the was out of the office she still worked tirelessly for the community she loved.

Her successor Cllr Peter Bradbury has followed her hard-working example and is more Liberal is work ethic than he would care to admit, long may he reign.

It's true, Jacqui could be a prickly character and you might use that rather tiresome cliche “like marmite, you either you liked or not” yes, she was a pain, but that was a part of her that got things done, and yes she did not suffer fools gladly.

Yes, Jacqui, we’ll miss you!

REST IN PEACE! BECAUSE GOD WON’T GET ANY, BECAUSE SHE WILL BOSS HIM ABOUT!