Wenglish: The Dialect of the South Wales Valleys

RR 2010/174 Wenglish: The Dialect of the South Wales Valleys Robert Lewis Y. Lolfa Talybont 2008 320 pp. ISBN 978 1 84771 030 7 £9.95

Keywords English language, Wales

Review DOI 10.1108/09504121011045700

Wenglish is the name adopted by John Edwards in the 1980s to denote the distinctive dialect form of English spoken in the South Wales valleys, an erstwhile coal-mining area of worldwide importance. John Edwards' Talk Tidy books (Edwards, 1985, 1986) and recordings describing this form of English are deservedly popular. Wenglish combines the intonations, expressions, and accents of the two dialects (Thomas and Thomas, 1989) of the Welsh language, spoken from Carmarthenshire eastwards to Monmouthshire, with the speech rhythms of English. It originated, developed, and spread in and from the booming coal-mining valleys (such as Gwendraeth, Aman, Afan, Llynfi, Ogwr, Elai, Rhondda, Cynon, Rhymni, Sirhowy, Ebbw). Many thousands of workers from all over Britain, Ireland, Spain and elsewhere came to work in these valleys as coal miners or iron workers, especially from about 1850 onwards to the Great War of 1914-1918. Today Wenglish is still spoken to some degree by well over a million people.

"Wenglish developed among ordinary working people and as such possesses a directness, a warmth and humour - sometimes intentional . . . It is a...