91-629: The Glamorganshire Canal ( Welsh : Camlas Morgannwg ) in South Wales, UK, was begun in 1790. It ran along the valley of the River Taff from Merthyr Tydfil to the Bristol Channel at Cardiff . The final section of canal was closed in 1951. Construction started in 1790; being watched over by the wealthy ironmasters of Merthyr Tydfil, including Richard Crawshay of the Cyfarthfa Ironworks ,
182-441: A Welsh Language Scheme, which indicates its commitment to the equality of treatment principle. This is sent out in draft form for public consultation for a three-month period, whereupon comments on it may be incorporated into a final version. It requires the final approval of the now defunct Welsh Language Board ( Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg ). Thereafter, the public body is charged with implementing and fulfilling its obligations under
273-586: A Welsh-language edge inscription was used on pound coins dated 1985, 1990 and 1995, which circulated in all parts of the UK prior to their 2017 withdrawal. The wording is Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad (Welsh for 'True am I to my country'), and derives from the national anthem of Wales, " Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau ". UK banknotes are in English only. Some shops employ bilingual signage. Welsh sometimes appears on product packaging or instructions. The UK government has ratified
364-647: A census glossary of terms to support the release of results from the census, including their definition of "main language" as referring to "first or preferred language" (though that wording was not in the census questionnaire itself). The wards in England with the most people giving Welsh as their main language were the Liverpool wards of Central and Greenbank ; and Oswestry South in Shropshire . The wards of Oswestry South (1.15%), Oswestry East (0.86%) and St Oswald (0.71%) had
455-414: A number of nonconformist chapels that were established in the nineteenth century. Most had closed by 2000, including Bethania (Independent), Calfaria (Baptist) and Tabernacle (Calvinistic Methodist). The village was the terminus of the world's first steam railway journey when on 21 February 1804 the inventor Richard Trevithick drove a steam locomotive hauling both iron and passengers travelled from
546-614: A pupil of the canal engineer James Brindley , arrived on site, with Thomas Sheasby , his son Thomas Dadford, Jr. , and a team of workmen. Construction started from the Merthyr Tydfil end. An extension from Merthyr to Crawshay's Cyfarthfa Ironworks was also built, although payment for it resulted in a dispute which was eventually resolved by arbitration. A plan to build a branch to the Dowlais and Penydarren Ironworks , which would have risen 411 feet (125 m) in only 1.75 miles (2.82 km)
637-479: A single discourse (known in linguistics as code-switching ). Welsh speakers are largely concentrated in the north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd , Conwy County Borough , Denbighshire , Anglesey , Carmarthenshire , north Pembrokeshire , Ceredigion , parts of Glamorgan , and north-west and extreme south-west Powys . However, first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales. Welsh-speaking communities persisted well into
728-634: A time it was known as "Navigation" and the Navigation Hotel, which was originally the headquarters of the Glamorganshire Canal, still bears this name. Unusually for a village, until early 2008, it had two railway stations . One was on the line from Cardiff to Aberdare , namely Abercynon North . The other, Abercynon South, was on the Cardiff to Merthyr Tydfil line. Following major work, the North station
819-995: Is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people . Welsh is spoken natively in Wales , by some in England , and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province , Argentina ). It is spoken by smaller numbers of people in Canada and the United States descended from Welsh immigrants, within their households (especially in Nova Scotia ). Historically, it has also been known in English as "British", "Cambrian", "Cambric" and "Cymric". The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 gave
910-456: Is a village and community (and electoral ward ) in the Cynon Valley within the unitary authority of Rhondda Cynon Taf , Wales. The community comprises the village and the districts of Carnetown and Grovers Field to the south, Navigation Park to the east, and Glancynon (or Aber-taf) to the north. The population of Abercynon was recorded as 6,428 in the 2001 Census, decreasing to 6,390 at
1001-539: Is available throughout Europe on satellite and online throughout the UK. Since the digital switchover was completed in South Wales on 31 March 2010, S4C Digidol became the main broadcasting channel and fully in Welsh. The main evening television news provided by the BBC in Welsh is available for download. There is also a Welsh-language radio station, BBC Radio Cymru , which was launched in 1977. Abercynon Abercynon ( Welsh pronunciation: [abɛrˈkənɔn] )
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#17328452377941092-667: Is considered to have lasted from then until the 14th century, when the Modern Welsh period began, which in turn is divided into Early and Late Modern Welsh. The word Welsh is a descendant, via Old English wealh, wielisc , of the Proto-Germanic word * Walhaz , which was derived from the name of the Celtic people known to the Romans as Volcae and which came to refer to speakers of Celtic languages, and then indiscriminately to
1183-505: Is the label attached to the Welsh of the 12th to 14th centuries, of which much more remains than for any earlier period. This is the language of nearly all surviving early manuscripts of the Mabinogion , although the tales themselves are certainly much older. It is also the language of the existing Welsh law manuscripts. Middle Welsh is reasonably intelligible to a modern-day Welsh speaker. The Bible translations into Welsh helped maintain
1274-704: The Cynfeirdd or "Early Poets" – is generally considered to date to the Primitive Welsh period. However, much of this poetry was supposedly composed in the Hen Ogledd , raising further questions about the dating of the material and language in which it was originally composed. This discretion stems from the fact that Cumbric was widely believed to have been the language used in Hen Ogledd. An 8th-century inscription in Tywyn shows
1365-494: The 2016 Australian census , 1,688 people noted that they spoke Welsh. In the 2011 Canadian census , 3,885 people reported Welsh as their first language . According to the 2021 Canadian census , 1,130 people noted that Welsh was their mother tongue. The 2018 New Zealand census noted that 1,083 people in New Zealand spoke Welsh. The American Community Survey 2009–2013 noted that 2,235 people aged five years and over in
1456-461: The 2021 census , 7,349 people in England recorded Welsh to be their "main language". In the 2011 census, 1,189 people aged three and over in Scotland noted that Welsh was a language (other than English) that they used at home. It is believed that there are as many as 5,000 speakers of Patagonian Welsh . In response to the question 'Does the person speak a language other than English at home?' in
1547-572: The Bute Docks Feeder with a small aqueduct built in the late 1830s, at the north-east corner of Cardiff Castle . The feeder fed the Bute Docks , having extracted water from Blackweir on the River Taff. There was an overflow from the canal into the feeder. 1876 was the first year when the canal company was unable to pay the full eight per cent dividend, and profits fell rapidly after that. The canal
1638-525: The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of Welsh. The language has greatly increased its prominence since the creation of the television channel S4C in November 1982, which until digital switchover in 2010 broadcast 70 per cent of Channel 4's programming along with a majority of Welsh language shows during peak viewing hours. The all-Welsh-language digital station S4C Digidol
1729-521: The Glamorganshire Canal Act 1796 ( 36 Geo. 3 . c. 69), was obtained on 26 April 1796, which enabled the canal to be extended by half a mile (0.8 km), ending in a sea lock in Cardiff docks. This was opened in June 1798 when the event was celebrated by a naval procession and the firing of ships' guns The total cost of the canal was £103,600, which included the costs of buying the land, as well as
1820-692: The Penydarren ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil to the basin of the Glamorganshire Canal at Abercynon. There are memorials to Trevithick's journey at Penydarren and outside the fire station at Abercynon. The village developed as a transport interchange being at the junction of the Merthyr and Aberdare branches of the Glamorganshire Canal and the Merthyr and Aberdare branches of the Taff Vale Railway . For
1911-727: The Polish name for Italians) have a similar etymology. The Welsh term for the language, Cymraeg , descends from the Brythonic word combrogi , meaning 'compatriots' or 'fellow countrymen'. Welsh evolved from Common Brittonic , the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons . Classified as Insular Celtic , the British language probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and
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#17328452377942002-900: The Powell Duffryn empire pre- World War II , it was in 1973 joined with the Lady Windsor Colliery at Ynysybwl . Known as the Abercynon Lady Windsor Colliery, it closed in 1988. A memorial marks the location of the colliery in the Navigation Park. Abercynon used to have three primary schools and a secondary school but this has now been reduced to one English medium school and one Welsh medium primary school. Local secondary schools are Pontypridd High School and Mountain Ash Comprehensive School with Cardinal Newman Roman Catholic School, Rhydyfelin and St John
2093-618: The United States spoke Welsh at home. The highest number of those (255) lived in Florida . Sources: Calls for the Welsh language to be granted official status grew with the establishment of the nationalist political party Plaid Cymru in 1925, the establishment of the Welsh Language Society in 1962 and the rise of Welsh nationalism in the later 20th century. Of the six living Celtic languages (including two revived), Welsh has
2184-573: The "hugely important role", adding, "I look forward to working with the Welsh Government and organisations in Wales in developing the new system of standards. I will look to build on the good work that has been done by the Welsh Language Board and others to strengthen the Welsh language and ensure that it continues to thrive." First Minister Carwyn Jones said that Huws would act as a champion for
2275-589: The 1880s identified a small part of Shropshire as still then speaking Welsh, with the "Celtic Border" passing from Llanymynech through Oswestry to Chirk . The number of Welsh-speaking people in the rest of Britain has not yet been counted for statistical purposes. In 1993, the Welsh-language television channel S4C published the results of a survey into the numbers of people who spoke or understood Welsh, which estimated that there were around 133,000 Welsh-speaking people living in England, about 50,000 of them in
2366-522: The 1993 Act nor secondary legislation made under it covers the private sector, although some organisations, notably banks and some railway companies, provide some of their information in Welsh. On 7 December 2010, the Welsh Assembly unanimously approved a set of measures to develop the use of the Welsh language within Wales. On 9 February 2011 this measure, the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 ,
2457-659: The 2011 Census, despite more than a hundred additional households built over this period (from 2,582 in 2011 to 2,694 by 2011). The electoral ward of Abercynon includes both the community of Abercynon, but also takes into account the nearby villages of Pontcynon , Ynysboeth and Tyntetown further north. Abercynon is approximately 16 miles (26 km) north of Cardiff and approximately 40 miles (64 km) from Swansea. The rivers Taff and Cynon converge at Watersmeet near Martin's Terrace. Abercynon used to have many churches, chapels and pubs. There are now only four public houses left - The Thorn Hotel, The Navigation, The Top Club and
2548-481: The Assembly which confirms the official status of the Welsh language; which creates a strong advocate for Welsh speakers and will improve the quality and quantity of services available through the medium of Welsh. I believe that everyone who wants to access services in the Welsh language should be able to do so, and that is what this government has worked towards. This legislation is an important and historic step forward for
2639-837: The Baptist School, Aberdare providing faith based education. Post-16 education is provided at Coleg y Cymoedd in Nantgarw with other campuses in Aberdare, Rhondda and Ystrad Mynach. Abercynon's rugby league side are called the Valley Cougars and play in the Welsh Conference Premier . The local rugby union team is Abercynon RFC and during the 1970s the team won the Glamorgan County Silver Ball Trophy on two occasions. Abercynon's suburb of Carnetown has
2730-539: The Board of Trade, and so must have been built after that date. Traffic on the rest of the canal continued to decline, and when a breach occurred at Cilfynydd in 1915, the company decided not to invest in its repair, but instead built a wooden flume around the breach, so that water from the Elen Deg feeder could still reach the rest of the canal. A further breach occurred on 25 May 1942, near Nantgarw and, although engineers examined
2821-648: The Carne Park Hotel. The only churches still left are St. Donat's Church in Wales, its daughter church, St. Gwynno's, St. Thomas' Roman Catholic Church and the Methodist church in Martin's Lane. The Church in Wales church is St Gwynno and the Roman Catholic church is St Thomas. A shrine and a grotto were built in 1925 on the bank of the River Taff with links to St Thomas' church. It was the idea of Father Carroll Baillie,
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2912-539: The Greater London area. The Welsh Language Board , on the basis of an analysis of the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study, estimated there were 110,000 Welsh-speaking people in England, and another thousand in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In the 2011 census , 8,248 people in England gave Welsh in answer to the question "What is your main language?" The Office for National Statistics subsequently published
3003-559: The Park and Ride scheme at Abercynon Railway Station to provide more than 300 new parking spaces. A new parking facility will be built at Navigation Park, on the former Abercynon Colliery site a short walk from Abercynon Railway Station. It will include 310 new spaces including seven disabled bays and 15 motorcycle spaces and a bus stop will be added to the existing car park adjacent to the train station to encourage integration between bus and rail services. Rhondda Cynon Taf Council secured £787,000 from
3094-526: The River Taff aqueduct. Water for the top of the canal was obtained from the tail races from Cyfarthfa ironworks, which had previously been fed back into the River Taff, so that it could be reused by the Plymouth ironworks. In order to safeguard this supply, all water discharged from the third lock was supposed to be fed into the Plymouth feeder, rather than the canal below it. This was a source of dispute for some years, with legal action instituted by both sides and
3185-758: The Welsh Government's Local Transport Fund towards the overall cost of £1.2m. Abercynon lies just off the A470 road between Pontypridd and Merthyr Tydfil . Other road links include the A472 road which provides a cross valley link to Ystrad Mynach and the A4059 road to Mountain Ash and Aberdare . Abercynon Colliery was sunk by the Dowlais Ironworks in 1889 to supply a steel works in Cardiff. Employing nearly 3000 men and part of
3276-489: The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, all new signs have Welsh displayed first. There have been incidents of one of the languages being vandalised, which may be considered a hate crime . Since 2000, the teaching of Welsh has been compulsory in all schools in Wales up to age 16; this has had an effect in stabilising and reversing the decline in the language. Text on UK coins tends to be in English and Latin. However,
3367-673: The Welsh Language Scheme. The list of other public bodies which have to prepare Schemes could be added to by initially the Secretary of State for Wales, from 1993 to 1997, by way of statutory instrument . Subsequent to the forming of the National Assembly for Wales in 1997, the Government Minister responsible for the Welsh language can and has passed statutory instruments naming public bodies who have to prepare Schemes. Neither
3458-641: The Welsh language official status in Wales. Welsh and English are de jure official languages of the Welsh Parliament, the Senedd , with Welsh being the only de jure official language in any part of the United Kingdom, with English being merely de facto official. According to the 2021 census , the Welsh-speaking population of Wales aged three or older was 538,300 (17.8%) and nearly three quarters of
3549-445: The Welsh language, though some had concerns over her appointment: Plaid Cymru spokeswoman Bethan Jenkins said, "I have concerns about the transition from Meri Huws's role from the Welsh Language Board to the language commissioner, and I will be asking the Welsh government how this will be successfully managed. We must be sure that there is no conflict of interest, and that the Welsh Language Commissioner can demonstrate how she will offer
3640-426: The Welsh of the 16th century, but they are similar enough for a fluent Welsh speaker to have little trouble understanding it. During the Modern Welsh period, there has been a decline in the popularity of the Welsh language: the number of Welsh speakers declined to the point at which there was concern that the language would become extinct. During industrialisation in the late 19th century, immigrants from England led to
3731-429: The Welsh-speaking heartlands, with the number dropping to under 50 per cent in Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire for the first time. However, according to the Welsh Language Use Survey in 2019–20, 22 per cent of people aged three and over were able to speak Welsh. The Annual Population Survey (APS) by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that as of March 2024, approximately 862,700, or 28.0 per cent of
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3822-403: The boatmen to pull by hand for the remainder of the tunnel. The canal was around 25 miles (40 km) long with a drop of around 542 feet (165 m), requiring 50 locks. It clung to the western side of the valley down to Navigation (now called Abercynon ) where it crossed the River Taff on an aqueduct, to cling to the eastern side for most of its route to Cardiff . A second act of Parliament,
3913-404: The canal as his own. His attempts to squeeze the profits of the other ironmasters led to them proposing a Tramroad from Merthyr to Cardiff, to compete with the canal. Crawshay resisted this, and the canal tolls were reduced somewhat, but the ironmasters on the east side of the Taff Valley soon built the Merthyr Tramroad, which opened in 1802 and linked their iron works to the canal at Abercynon, near
4004-412: The canal from the River Taff. Located not far from the Melingriffith Tinplate works located directly between the River Taff and the Glamorganshire Canal, it was built in 1807, but the origins of the water pump are disputed; historians believe it was designed by either Watkin George of Cyfarthfa Ironworks (1793), or John Rennie (1795). The Company of Proprietors of the Glamorganshire Canal Navigation
4095-433: The canal was thought up as a solution to the issue of transporting the goods (iron ore, coal and limestone) from the valleys to Cardiff, where they would be shipped around the world. Thomas Dadford was hired to inspect and plan a route for the canal and, with support from Lord Cardiff, the canal was authorised by an act of Parliament, the Glamorganshire Canal Act 1790 ( 30 Geo. 3 . c. 82) on 9 June 1790. Almost £90,000
4186-408: The census. In terms of usage, ONS also reported that 14.4 per cent (443,800) of people aged three or older in Wales reported that they spoke Welsh daily in March 2024, with 5.4 per cent (165,500) speaking it weekly and 6.5 per cent (201,200) less often. Approximately 1.7 per cent (51,700) reported that they never spoke Welsh despite being able to speak the language, with the remaining 72.0 per cent of
4277-466: The contract with the Dadfords. Although the Dadfords left the canal under a shadow, their work was vindicated by Whitworth, and they went on to build other canals in neighbouring valleys, while their achievement was summed up by John Bird in 1796: "The canal is brought through mountainous scenery with wonderful ingenuity". Richard Crawshay was the principal shareholder in the canal company, and seems to have used his influence to his own advantage, treating
4368-414: The course of the 20th century this monolingual population all but disappeared, but a small percentage remained at the time of the 1981 census. Most Welsh-speaking people in Wales also speak English. However, many Welsh-speaking people are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain and the social context, even within
4459-489: The creation of Old Welsh, Davies suggests it may be more appropriate to refer to this derivative language as Lingua Britannica rather than characterising it as a new language altogether. The argued dates for the period of "Primitive Welsh" are widely debated, with some historians' suggestions differing by hundreds of years. The next main period is Old Welsh ( Hen Gymraeg , 9th to 11th centuries); poetry from both Wales and Scotland has been preserved in this form of
4550-408: The decline in Welsh speakers particularly in the South Wales Valleys. Welsh government processes and legislation have worked to increase the proliferation of the Welsh language, for example through education. Welsh has been spoken continuously in Wales throughout history; however, by 1911, it had become a minority language, spoken by 43.5 per cent of the population. While this decline continued over
4641-430: The engineer Robert Whitworth judged largely in the Dadfords' favour, and only £1,512 was refunded. The canal followed the Queen Street Tunnel in central Cardiff, which crossed Queen Street opposite The Friary, and under what is now the St David's shopping centre. The tunnel was 105 metres (115 yd) long and 3.89 metres (12 ft 9 in) wide. It had a towpath for 21 metres (69 ft) long and had chains for
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#17328452377944732-409: The final mile above the sea lock, while it was used by sand traders. An attempt to evict the sand traders failed when the Ministry of War Transport invoked section 27 and ruled that the sea lock pound must be kept navigable until six months after the present emergency ended. The war emergency was not declared to have ended until 8 October 1950. Meanwhile, the two sand and gravel firms continued to use
4823-447: The first priest of Abercynon who came to minister to migrant Italian and Irish miners and the small local Welsh catholic population. It was built to occupy unemployed miners during the 1926 United Kingdom general strike . The miners used crowbars and ropes to haul huge blocks of stone from the riverbed, then strengthened the banks and terraces with a sloped wall. It was based on the shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes in France. Abercynon had
4914-431: The following decades, the language did not die out. The smallest number of speakers was recorded in 1981 with 503,000 although the lowest percentage was recorded in the most recent census in 2021 at 17.8 per cent. By the start of the 21st century, numbers began to increase once more, at least partly as a result of the increase in Welsh-medium education . The 2004 Welsh Language Use Survey showed that 21.7 per cent of
5005-411: The highest number of native speakers who use the language on a daily basis, and it is the Celtic language which is considered the least endangered by UNESCO . The Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the Welsh and English languages be treated equally in the public sector, as far as is reasonable and practicable. Each public body is required to prepare for approval
5096-413: The highest percentage of residents giving Welsh as their main language. The census also revealed that 3,528 wards in England, or 46% of the total number, contained at least one resident whose main language is Welsh. In terms of the regions of England , North West England (1,945), London (1,310) and the West Midlands (1,265) had the highest number of people noting Welsh as their main language. According to
5187-400: The history of Welsh, with rather indistinct boundaries: Primitive Welsh, Old Welsh, Middle Welsh, and Modern Welsh. The period immediately following the language's emergence is sometimes referred to as Primitive Welsh, followed by the Old Welsh period – which is generally considered to stretch from the beginning of the 9th century to sometime during the 12th century. The Middle Welsh period
5278-527: The language already dropping inflections in the declension of nouns. Janet Davies proposed that the origins of the Welsh language were much less definite; in The Welsh Language: A History , she proposes that Welsh may have been around even earlier than 600 AD. This is evidenced by the dropping of final syllables from Brittonic: * bardos 'poet' became bardd , and * abona 'river' became afon . Though both Davies and Jackson cite minor changes in syllable structure and sounds as evidence for
5369-431: The language, its speakers and for the nation." The measure was not welcomed warmly by all supporters: Bethan Williams, chairman of the Welsh Language Society, gave a mixed response to the move, saying, "Through this measure we have won official status for the language and that has been warmly welcomed. But there was a core principle missing in the law passed by the Assembly before Christmas. It doesn't give language rights to
5460-449: The language. As Germanic and Gaelic colonisation of Britain proceeded, the Brittonic speakers in Wales were split off from those in northern England, speaking Cumbric, and those in the southwest, speaking what would become Cornish , so the languages diverged. Both the works of Aneirin ( Canu Aneirin , c. 600 ) and the Book of Taliesin ( Canu Taliesin ) were written during this era. Middle Welsh ( Cymraeg Canol )
5551-468: The modern period across the border in England. Archenfield was still Welsh enough in the time of Elizabeth I for the Bishop of Hereford to be made responsible, together with the four Welsh bishops, for the translation of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Welsh. Welsh was still commonly spoken there in the first half of the 19th century, and churchwardens' notices were put up in both Welsh and English until about 1860. Alexander John Ellis in
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#17328452377945642-448: The number of Welsh-language speakers to one million by 2050. Since 1980, the number of children attending Welsh-medium schools has increased, while the number going to Welsh bilingual and dual-medium schools has decreased. Welsh is considered the least endangered Celtic language by UNESCO . The language of the Welsh developed from the language of Britons . The emergence of Welsh was not instantaneous and clearly identifiable. Instead,
5733-437: The occasional bout of vandalism to ensure water actually flowed to the Plymouth works. The situation was eased with the opening of the Merthyr Tramroad, as there was less traffic on the upper section, and therefore less water used by the locks. The canal was profitable for many years. Dividends were limited to eight per cent by the authorising act of Parliament, and so between 1804 and 1828 the profits were used to give refunds to
5824-402: The people of Wales in every aspect of their lives. Despite that, an amendment to that effect was supported by 18 Assembly Members from three different parties, and that was a significant step forward." On 5 October 2011, Meri Huws , Chair of the Welsh Language Board , was appointed the new Welsh Language Commissioner. She released a statement that she was "delighted" to have been appointed to
5915-412: The people of the Western Roman Empire . In Old English the term went through semantic narrowing , coming to refer to either Britons in particular or, in some contexts, slaves. The plural form Wēalas evolved into the name for their territory, Wales. The modern names for various Romance-speaking people in Continental Europe (e.g. Walloons , Valaisans , Vlachs / Wallachians , and Włosi ,
6006-436: The population in Wales said they had no Welsh language skills. Other estimates suggest that 862,700 people (28.0%) aged three or older in Wales could speak Welsh in March 2024. Almost half of all Welsh speakers consider themselves fluent, while 20 per cent are able to speak a fair amount. 56 per cent of Welsh speakers speak the language daily, and 19 per cent speak the language weekly. The Welsh Government plans to increase
6097-471: The population not being able to speak it. The National Survey for Wales, conducted by Welsh Government, has also tended to report a higher percentage of Welsh speakers than the census, with the most recent results for 2022–2023 suggesting that 18 per cent of the population aged 3 and over were able to speak Welsh, with an additional 16 per cent noting that they had some Welsh-speaking ability. Historically, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh. Over
6188-502: The population of Wales aged 3 and over, were able to speak the language. Children and young people aged three to 15 years old were more likely to report that they could speak Welsh than any other age group (48.4 per cent, 241,300). Around 1,001,500 people, or 32.5 per cent, reported that they could understand spoken Welsh. 24.7 per cent (759,200) could read and 22.2 per cent (684,500) could write in Welsh. The APS estimates of Welsh language ability are historically higher than those produced by
6279-407: The population of Wales spoke Welsh, compared with 20.8 per cent in the 2001 census , and 18.5 per cent in the 1991 census . Since 2001, however, the number of Welsh speakers has declined in both the 2011 and 2021 censuses to about 538,300 or 17.8 per cent in 2021, lower than 1991, although it is still higher in absolute terms. The 2011 census also showed a "big drop" in the number of speakers in
6370-432: The problem, no work was carried out. Cardiff Corporation moved quickly, and agreed to buy the canal for £44,000. This proposal was enshrined in the Cardiff Corporation Act 1943 ( 6 & 7 Geo. 6 . c. xvi) of August 1943, allowing them to take control of the canal on 1 January 1944, and immediately declare it closed, most business having effectively ceased in 1942. However, section 27 of that act prevented them from closing
6461-409: The required fresh approach to this new role." Huws started her role as the Welsh Language Commissioner on 1 April 2012. Local councils and the Senedd use Welsh, issuing Welsh versions of their literature, to varying degrees. Road signs in Wales are in Welsh and English. Prior to 2016, the choice of which language to display first was the responsibility of the local council. Since then, as part of
6552-402: The sea lock and the pound to carry on their business. However, the end came on the night of 5 December 1951, when a steam suction dredger, called Catherine Ethel and weighing 154 tons, crashed into the inner lock gates. The gates collapsed, and all of the water in the mile-long section (1.6 km) emptied into the estuary. The gates were never repaired and the difficult job of closing the canal
6643-627: The shift occurred over a long period, with some historians claiming that it had happened by as late as the 9th century , with a watershed moment being that proposed by linguist Kenneth H. Jackson , the Battle of Dyrham , a military battle between the West Saxons and the Britons in 577 AD, which split the South Western British from direct overland contact with the Welsh. Four periods are identified in
6734-438: The then Arriva Trains Wales rail franchise and Network Rail, the park-and-ride facility was built on former scrubland situated between the River Taff and Abercynon Station. A new bridge with paved footways either side was built to link the park and ride with Navigation Business Park. A direct access through a new upgraded subway was also provided to Abercynon Station. In 2018 Rhondda Cynon Taf Council announced proposals to expand
6825-440: The town's most successful football team, Carnetown FC, formally Carnetown Boys and Girls Club, with teams from mini age groups under 7's through to two senior teams. Abercynon also has a leisure centre which opened in the 1970s. It is run by RCT Council who invested £1.7 million in 2016. Facilities include a 25-meter swimming pool, a gym, squash courts and sport halls. An all-weather multi use 3G sports pitch at Y Parc Abercynon
6916-409: The traders, periods when no tolls were charged, and others when they were reduced to one quarter of the rate fixed by the act. From 1841 railways began to encroach onto the canal's territory, when the Taff Vale Railway opened to Merthyr. The canal held its own for another twenty years, but in the 1870s the ironworks started to close, while some moved to the manufacture of steel. The canal passed over
7007-518: The use of Welsh in daily life, and standardised spelling. The New Testament was translated by William Salesbury in 1567, and the complete Bible by William Morgan in 1588. Modern Welsh is subdivided into Early Modern Welsh and Late Modern Welsh. Early Modern Welsh ran from the 15th century through to the end of the 16th century, and the Late Modern Welsh period roughly dates from the 16th century onwards. Contemporary Welsh differs greatly from
7098-507: The village of Aberfan. The takeover of the canal by the Marquess of Bute was a little too late to have any great effect. Improvements at Cardiff involved the construction of a new lock, Number 51, which raised the water level between there and Crockherbtown lock, so that the junction canal and the East and West Bute docks were all on the same level. The new lock was not included in the 1888 returns to
7189-487: Was authorised to raise £60,000 in capital to build the main canal, with a further £30,000 if necessary, together with branch canals as required, and feeder railways linking the canal to any works within 4 miles (6 km) of its course. These railways were deemed to be part of the canal itself, and so land for their routes could be obtained by compulsory purchase if required. Construction began in August 1790, when Thomas Dadford ,
7280-692: Was closed and its services moved to the South station, now named simply Abercynon . Trains are operated by Transport for Wales as part of the Merthyr Line service. A park and ride scheme funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and the European Regional Development Fund and delivered by Rhondda Cynon Taf Council with capacity for 160 cars and free parking was opened in 2010. Designed by Capita Glamorgan Consultancy and supported by
7371-608: Was complete by around AD 550, and labelled the period between then and about AD 800 "Primitive Welsh". This Primitive Welsh may have been spoken in both Wales and the Hen Ogledd ('Old North') – the Brittonic-speaking areas of what are now northern England and southern Scotland – and therefore may have been the ancestor of Cumbric as well as Welsh. Jackson, however, believed that the two varieties were already distinct by that time. The earliest Welsh poetry – that attributed to
7462-460: Was dropped, and was replaced by two tramroads, one from each works. The Merthyr to Newbridge (later renamed Pontypridd ) section was completed by June 1792, and the rest of the canal was progressively opened to Pwllywhyad ( Treforest ) in January 1793 and Taffs Well by June 1793. By this time the project was well over budget, and although the final section to Cardiff was opened on 10 February 1794, it
7553-803: Was later moved to North Road, Cardiff. The machine was presented to the British Transport Commission in 1955 and was re-erected at the Stoke Bruerne Canal Museum in Northamptonshire in 1964. In 2013 it was moved to the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea. 51°45′N 3°23′W / 51.750°N 3.383°W / 51.750; -3.383 Welsh language Welsh ( Cymraeg [kəmˈraːiɡ] or y Gymraeg [ə ɡəmˈraːiɡ] )
7644-504: Was not well constructed, and there were several stoppages for repairs during 1794. The canal breached in December, but Dadford refused to start repairs without payment, despite the terms of his contract, and promptly dismissed his workforce and walked away from the job. The canal company attempted to recover £17,000 from the Dadfords, and had them arrested, but two independent surveyors employed by
7735-478: Was opened by Rhondda Cynon Taf Council in 2018. Llancaiach Fawr Manor , a Tudor manor house , lies nearby. The village of Abercynon is also home to the Thorn Hotel, which was once used by Tom Jones to practise his performances. He also used rooms at the now demolished Ynysmeirig Hotel, known locally as "The Spy", one of a number of pubs in the village now no longer in existence. Abercynon Workingmen's Hall
7826-518: Was passed and received Royal Assent, thus making the Welsh language an officially recognised language within Wales. The measure: The measure required public bodies and some private companies to provide services in Welsh. The Welsh government's Minister for Heritage at the time, Alun Ffred Jones , said, "The Welsh language is a source of great pride for the people of Wales, whether they speak it or not, and I am delighted that this measure has now become law. I am very proud to have steered legislation through
7917-505: Was probably spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth . During the Early Middle Ages the British language began to fragment due to increased dialect differentiation, thus evolving into Welsh and the other Brittonic languages. It is not clear when Welsh became distinct. Linguist Kenneth H. Jackson has suggested that the evolution in syllabic structure and sound pattern
8008-494: Was raised in preparation of constructing the canal and would be linked to any works within four miles of the canal, through branch canals and linking railways. However, during the few miles approaching Cardiff, the canal suffered from severe water shortages, resulting in goods not arriving in Cardiff on time. To solve this problem, the Melingriffith Water Pump was installed, with the main purpose being to provide water to
8099-485: Was sold to the Marquess of Bute in 1885, who made some improvements at the Cardiff end, but six railway companies were serving Merthyr by 1886, all competing for traffic. The upper sections, particularly the 4-mile (6 km) pound at Aberfan , was suffering from severe subsidence as a result of the coal mining. An inspection was carried out, and the canal was closed from Merthyr to Abercynon on 6 December 1898, to safeguard
8190-657: Was solved overnight for the Cardiff Corporation. Today, limited traces of the canal remain, about one half being covered by the A470 Cardiff to Merthyr Tydfil trunk road, which was constructed in the 1970s. Much of the Taff Trail between Abercynon and Merthyr Tydfil follows the line of the canal. The section from Tongwynlais to the Melingriffith Tin Plate Works at Whitchurch has been retained in water and
8281-484: Was used for fishing, but is now the Glamorganshire Canal local nature reserve . In addition, there are a few bridges and locks which have not been destroyed. There are also short stretches in water at Nightingales Bush and at Locks 31 and 32 in Pontypridd and there are plans for restoration here. A boat weighing machine, one of only four known to have existed on British canals, was originally installed at Tongwynlais and
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