Welsh Language before the Industrial Revolution

The first volume in a pioneering series on the social history of the Welsh language deals mainly with the period between the Acts of Union and the Industrial Revolution. The status of the language in matters relating to politics, administration, and law is discussed, as well as its place in the fields of religion, education, and scholarship. New light is shed on Welsh as a spoken language as well as its geographical distribution, and particular attention is paid to the efforts made to raise the status of the language in order to remove the stigma placed upon it by the celebrated "language clause" of 1536.

Author Biography: Geraint H. Jenkins is director of the Center for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies of the University of Wales.