Q: WELSH-speaking Wales does not refer to itself as Wales. Instead the name Cymru is used. Who first introduced the name Wales and why? - Aled Jones, Bridlington.

A: AT the time of the Roman Conquest, the whole of what is now England as well as lowland Scotland, spoke a form of Welsh. We know these Celtic tribal people as the Ancient Britons, but following four centuries of Roman rule, they became the Romano-British.

When the Romans departed in the early fifth Century, the people from Kent to the Firth of Forth still spoke Welsh, although there was some influence from Roman Latin words. In the far northern parts of Caledonia were the Picts, who may have spoken a similar Celtic language to the Britons. In Ireland the people spoke a Gaelic Celtic language which was gradually introduced to Caledonia by an Irish people called the Scots.

Around 450AD, a Germanic people called the Angles and Saxons began to arrive in Britain from northern Germany and southern Denmark and introduced the English language. The native Britons were unable to fend off the Anglo-Saxon invasion and the Welsh language was gradually replaced by English, except in the far west where the Welsh language survived in the country that came to be known as Wales.

It was the Anglo-Saxons who first called the native Britons the Welsh, or more accurately Waelas. This word and the related name Wales comes from a Germanic word meaning stranger and probably has its roots in Voclae, the name the Germans gave to certain Celtic tribes who lived on the Continent. Prior to the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons, the native people of Britain did not refer to themselves as Welsh, since it was not a Celtic word. They probably identified themselves as Britons, or as belonging to a particular tribal group like the Brigantes, who occupied most of the North-East and Yorkshire.

It is quite likely that the Britons called themselves Cymru, pronounced Cumree, the name that Wales and its people use today. This derives from the word cumro meaning companion or friend and probably developed into a more general meaning of people. Of course, the English still use the words Wales and Welsh, as do many English speakers in Wales, but it seems strange that the natives should use a word to describe their own nationality that actually means foreigner.

Published: Monday, February 11, 2002

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