Industrialisation, migration et anglicisation dans le sud du pays de Galles: Treherbert, vallée de la Rhondda, 1861-91

Abstract

This article discusses the Anglicisation of the mining valleys in the South of Wales in the second half of the 19th century. With the aid of nominal censuses of the municipality of Treherbert in the Rhondda Fawr, we will examine the modalities of the rate of penetration of the English language in the Southern Celtic fringe. We concentrated chiefly on the 1891 census, the first to include information on language spoken. Data on language was paired with other data from the census such as age, sex birthplace, family status as well as family migratory strategies. This twinning allowed us to draw a detailed picture of the linguistic transition in the mining valleys. English was introduced in the community of Treherbert by migrants who, for the most part, spoke only English, especially those who had arrived at the end of the 19th century, by the children who went to English school, by capital and by labour. However, as we demonstrate, the family and migratory stategies made possible the linguistic cohesion in the working-class households thus insuring the preservation of the places where Welsh remained a pertinent and living language