ABSTRACT
It is a minor miracle that Welsh has survived to this day. Throughout fourteen centuries of its existence the Welsh language has been under siege and during that period whenever bilingual and linguistically mixed communities have come into being, linguistic erosion has occurred with a resultant rejection of Welsh as the primary language. In the sixth century Welsh was spoken, not only in the area currently known as Wales, but also in the West Midlands of England, and then northwards through present-day Lancashire and Yorkshire into the lowlands of Scotland. Indeed the earliest Welsh poetry originated in Southern Scotland and is ascribed to poets living in that area (the Old North) in the sixth century. When the Anglo-Saxons gained a victory at the battle of Chester in 615 they effectively drove a wedge between the Welsh speakers of Wales and their compatriots in the North. The loss of political independence accompanied by a lower social and economic status ultimately resulted in an erosion of Welsh outside the borders of Wales. Enforced bilingualism for utilitarian reasons and the absence of an institutional framework to bolster the language eventually resulted in a language shift. The Welsh language became confined within the borders of Wales.
