Thread by @jackpulsla

1\Bore da @inthelandscape #HiddenLandscapes! Here’s my Twitter paper about a linguistic boundary in West Wales.
Beyond Little England Beyond Wales: questioning the existence of the Landsker Line
#pembrokeshire #linguisticlandscapes #landsker #littleenglandbeyondwales #cymraeg

2\I’m a PhD student @ysgolygymraeg researching pronunciation in adult learners of Welsh. This paper looks at 1 focus area, Pembrokeshire. I aim to challenge the received & widely accepted idea Pembs is neatly linguistically divided a long an invisible line #HiddenLandscapes

3\Positionality statement! Welsh-speaker raised in N Pembs to 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 parents, attended Welsh-medium primary & bi-ling secondary schools. Grandma from S Pembs. I consider Pembs as home & my connection to the county to be an important aspect of my identity #westisbest #HiddenLandscapes

4\Received idea= a linguistically & culturally divided county. ‘Everyone in Pembrokeshire knows that the county is divided into two regions of approximately equal size’ John (1976). 'Invisible but definite' line dominating for >1000yrs Wight (1947) #HiddenLandscapes

5\This division is called the Landsker Line & stretches from St Bride’s Bay, Pembs to Amroth, Carmarthen Bay & bisecting Narberth- a statue marks the spot! Disputed etymology (Norse/Saxon) but very long history as word for agri/admin boundaries (Awbery 1991) #HiddenLandscapes

6\The word's age isn’t matched by its use to describe division of Pembs. 1st use in this linguistic/cultural context is 1939; doesn’t appear in any glossaries of Pembs Welsh/English (Awbery 1991). Few living on the line in the 70s recognised the word (John 1972) #HiddenLandscapes

7\ South Pembs has been Eng-speaking since the Norman invasion of Wales. William Camden referred to the area as ‘anglia transwalliana’ (England beyond Wales) in 1590. Pembs native George Owen described south Pembs' distinctive Englishness in 1602/3 #HiddenLandscapes

8\ N Pembs traditionally regarded as Welsh heartland area or part of ‘y Fro Gymraeg’, defined as communities with >60% of residents speaking Welsh (Aitchison & Carter 2004). Welsh retains daily community-level functions & is the default language in many villages #HiddenLandscapes

9\The linguistic division is prominently reflected in the contemporary linguistic landscape. Drive from Cilgerran in the north to Tenby in the south & you’ll almost immediately notice a switch to English place names after the frontier town of Narberth #HiddenLandscapes

10\Church architecture is another prominent difference between the 2 Pembs. Castellated Norman churches typically near English-style village green in S. Towerless Celtic-style low churches set outside settlement areas in N. Johnston (S) and Llanwnda (N) #HiddenLandscapes

11\‘Why waste money on Welsh this is south Pembs’
2020 consultation on more Welsh medium edu in S Pembs generated emotive/provocative responses. 'Elitism’&‘apartheid’ appear multiple times, leading to calls for an investigation by a Cllr tinyurl.com/y3343jrd #HiddenLandscapes

12\1st glance at edu seems to support the existence of the Landsker. 36/39 schools in S Pembs are English medium, only 2/20 in N Pembs. But this doesn't mean that 18/20 schools in N are Welsh Medium. S Pembs' 1st WM primary opened in 2016, WM secondary in 2018 #HiddenLandscapes

13\Press overstated the objections to increasing primary WM provision in S Pembs- majority of parental respondents to the consultation were in favour (PCC 2020b). The educational Landsker Line is being eroded with parental and local government support #HiddenLandscapes

14\Landsker supported by 3🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Model which divides country into 3 parts: Y Fro Gymraeg, Welsh Wales & British Wales. S Pembs = British Wales, N Pembs = Y Fro Gymraeg. Researchers also highlight that the original survey conflated lang & cultural attachment #HiddenLandscapes

15\Is N Pembs a Welsh-speaking heartland? Certain maps generated from census data show a misleading Landsker. Zoom in on NP & we see a few communities with non-Welsh speaking majorities. NP saw a decrease %Welsh speakers 2001>11. What will 2021 census show? #HiddenLandscapes

16\There’s a perception that langs have ‘sharp edges’ (Urciuoli 1995). But the Landsker is far from sharp. Minority langs abroad have been ‘deterritorialized’ to urban areas (O’Rourke 2018). We could argue Pembs is experiencing a deterritorialization of Welsh #HiddenLandscapes

17\Landsker represents the idea that Welsh or bilingualism doesn’t have a place in “Little England”. This idea is challenged by lang policies at local and national govt level like #cymraeg2050 that seek to increase bilingualism & use of Welsh in society as whole #HiddenLandscapes

18\Diolch yn fawr am ddarllen🟦🟨🟥⬜️🟩Thanks for reading! I’ll leave you with my favourite North Pembs view from Foel Eryr in @PembsCoast looking southwards #HiddenLandscapes Refs: tinyurl.com/y52kxax3