Welsh
Cymraeg, y Gymraeg
Pronunciation	[kəmˈrɑːɨɡ]
Spoken in	Wales  Argentina
Region	Spoken throughout Wales, and in the Chubut province of Argentina.
Native speakers	480,000  (2004) — Wales: 315,000 fluent speakers[1] — England: 150,000 [2] — Chubut Province, Argentina: 5,000 [3] — United States: 2,500 [4] — Canada: 2,200 [5]
Language family	Indo-European Celtic Insular Celtic Brythonic Welsh
Writing system	Latin (Welsh alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Wales
Regulated by	Meri Huws, the Welsh Language Commissioner (since 1 April 2012)[6] and the Welsh Government (Llywodraeth Cymru)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	cy
ISO 639-2	wel (B) cym (T)
ISO 639-3	cym
Linguasphere	50-ABA
Percentage of Welsh speakers by principal area
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Welsh (Cymraeg or y Gymraeg, pronounced [kəmˈrɑːɨɡ, ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]) is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina).^[7] Historically, it has also been known in English as "Cambrian",^[8] "Cambric"^[9] and "Cymric".^[10]

The Welsh Language Board^[1] indicated in 2004 that 611,000 people (21.7% of the population of Wales in households or communal establishments^{[clarification needed]}) were able to speak the language. This figure marks a 0.9 percentage point increase when compared with a figure of 20.8% from the 2001 census, and an increase of approximately 35,000 in absolute numbers within Wales.^[1] Of those 611,000 Welsh speakers, 57% (315,000) considered themselves fluent, and 78% (477,000) consider themselves fluent or "fair" speakers. 62% of speakers (340,000) claimed to speak the language daily, including 88% of fluent speakers.^[1]

A greeting in Welsh is one of 55 languages included on the Voyager Golden Record chosen to be representative of Earth in NASA's Voyager program launched in 1977.^[11] The greetings are unique to each language, with the Welsh greeting being Iechyd da i chwi yn awr ac yn oesoedd which translates into English as "Good health to you now and forever".^[12]

The Welsh Language Measure 2011 gives the Welsh language official status in Wales.^[13]

History[link]

Welsh emerged in the 6th century from British, the common ancestor of Welsh, Breton, Cornish, and the extinct language known as Cumbric.

Like most languages, there are identifiable periods within the history of Welsh, although the boundaries between these are often indistinct.

The name Welsh originated as an exonym given to its speakers by the Anglo-Saxons, meaning "foreign speech" (see Walha). The native term for the language is Cymraeg, and Cymru for "Wales."

Distribution of Welsh speakers[link]

Bilingual road markings
near Cardiff Airport, Vale of Glamorgan

Welsh has been spoken continuously in Wales throughout recorded history, but by 1911 it had become a minority language, spoken by 43.5% of the population.^[14] While this decline continued over the following decades, the language did not die out. By the start of the twenty-first century, numbers had begun to increase again. The 2004 Welsh Language Use Survey showed 21.7% of the population of Wales to be Welsh speakers,^[1] an increase from 20.5% in the 2001 census, and from 18.5% in 1991. The 2001 census also showed that about 25% of Welsh residents were born outside Wales. The number of Welsh speakers in the rest of Britain has not yet been compiled for statistical purposes. In 1993, S4C, the Welsh-language television channel, published the results of a survey into the numbers of people who spoke or understood Welsh, which estimated that there were around 133,000 Welsh-speakers living in England, about 50,000 of them in the Greater London area.^[15]

Historically, large numbers of Welsh people spoke only Welsh,^[16] and there are still monoglot Welsh speakers.^[17] Most Welsh speakers in Wales also speak English (while in Chubut Province, Argentina, most speakers can speak Spanish - see Y Wladfa). However, many first language Welsh speakers are more comfortable expressing themselves in Welsh than in English. A speaker's choice of language can vary according to the subject domain and the social context, even within a single discourse (known in linguistics as code-switching).

Welsh as a first language is largely concentrated in the north and west of Wales, principally Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire (Sir Ddinbych), Anglesey (Ynys Môn), Carmarthenshire (Sir Gâr), north Pembrokeshire (Sir Benfro), Ceredigion, parts of Glamorgan (Morgannwg), and north-west and extreme south-west Powys, although first-language and other fluent speakers can be found throughout Wales.

Official status[link]

Although Welsh is a minority language, support for the language grew during the second half of the 20th century, along with the rise of organisations such as the nationalist political party Plaid Cymru from 1925 and Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) from 1962.

The Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the Welsh and English languages be treated equally in the public sector, as far as is reasonable and practicable. Public bodies are required to prepare for approval a Welsh Language Scheme, which indicates their commitment to the equality of treatment principle. This is sent out in draft form for public consultation for a three month period, whereupon comments on it may be incorporated into a final version. It requires the final approval of the now defunct Welsh Language Board (Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg). Thereafter, the public body is charged with implementing and fulfilling its obligations under the Welsh Language Scheme. The list of other public bodies which have to prepare Schemes could be added to by initially the Secretary of State for Wales, from 1993–1997, by way of Statutory Instrument. Subsequent to the forming of the National Assembly for Wales in 1997, the Government Minister responsible for the Welsh language can and has passed Statutory Instruments naming public bodies who have to prepare Schemes. Neither 1993 Act nor secondary legislation made under it cover the private sector, although some organisations, notably banks and some railway companies, provide some of their literature through the medium of Welsh.^{[citation needed]}

On 7 December 2010, the Welsh Assembly unanimously approved a set of measures to develop the use of the Welsh language within Wales.^[18][19] On 9 February 2011, this measure received Royal Approval and was passed, thus making the Welsh language an officially recognised language within Wales.^[20] The Measure:

• confirms the official status of the Welsh language;
• creates a new system of placing duties on bodies to provide services through the medium of Welsh;
• creates a Welsh Language Commissioner with strong enforcement powers to protect the rights of Welsh speakers to access services through the medium of Welsh;
• establishes a Welsh Language Tribunal;
• gives individuals and bodies the right to appeal decisions made in relation to the provision of services through the medium of Welsh
• creates a Welsh Language Partnership Council to advise Government on its strategy in relation to the Welsh language;
• allows for an official investigation by the Welsh Language Commissioner of instances where there is an attempt to interfere with the freedom of Welsh speakers to use the language with one another.^[21]

With the passing of this measure, public bodies and some private companies will be required to provide services in it, though it remains to be seen which companies will have to comply. The Minister for Heritage, Alun Ffred Jones, said, "The Welsh language is a source of great pride for the people of Wales, whether they speak it or not, and I am delighted that this Measure has now become law. I am very proud to have steered legislation through the Assembly which confirms the official status of the Welsh language; which creates a strong advocate for Welsh speakers and will improve the quality and quantity of services available through the medium of Welsh. I believe that everyone who wants to access services in the Welsh language should be able to do so, and that is what this government has worked towards. This legislation is an important and historic step forward for the language, its speakers and for the nation."^[21] The measure was not welcomed warmly by all supporters; Bethan Williams, chairperson of language campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, gave a mixed response to the move, saying, "Through this measure we have won official status for the language and that has been warmly welcomed. But there was a core principle missing in the law passed by the Assembly before Christmas. It doesn't give language rights to the people of Wales in every aspect of their lives. Despite that, an amendment to that effect was supported by 18 Assembly Members from three different parties, and that was a significant step forward."^[22]

On 5 October 2011, Meri Huws, Chairwoman of Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg was appointed the new Welsh Language Commissioner.^[23] In a statement released by her, she said that she was "delighted" to have been appointed to the "hugely important role," adding, "I look forward to working with the Welsh Government and organisations in Wales in developing the new system of standards. I will look to build on the good work that has been done by the Welsh Language Board and others to strengthen the Welsh language and ensure that it continues to thrive." First Minister Carwyn Jones said that Meri will act as a champion for the Welsh language, though some had concerns over her appointment; Plaid Cymru spokeswoman Bethan Jenkins said, "I have concerns about the transition from Meri Huws's role from the Welsh Language Board to the language commissioner, and I will be asking the Welsh government how this will be successfully managed. We must be sure that there is no conflict of interest, and that the Welsh Language Commissioner can demonstrate how she will offer the required fresh approach to this new role." She started her role as the Welsh Language Commissioner on 1 April 2012.

Local councils and the National Assembly for Wales use Welsh as a quasi-official language, issuing their literature and publicity in Welsh versions (e.g. letters to parents from schools, library information, and council information) and most road signs in Wales are in English and Welsh, including the Welsh placenames. However, some references to destinations in England are still given in English only, even where there are long-established Welsh names (e.g. London: Llundain; The [English] Midlands: Canolbarth Lloegr).

Since 2000, the teaching of Welsh has been compulsory in all schools in Wales up to age 16, and that has had a major effect in stabilising and to some extent reversing the decline in the language. It means, for example, that even the children of non-Welsh-speaking parents from elsewhere in the UK grow up with a knowledge of or complete fluency in the language.^{[citation needed]}

Although most road signs throughout Wales are bilingual, the wording on currency is in English only. The one exception is the legend on Welsh pound coins dated 1985, 1990 and 1995 (which are legal tender in all parts of the UK): Pleidiol wyf i'm gwlad, which means "True am I to my country") and derives from the national anthem of Wales, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau. The new British coinage from 2008 will not bear any Welsh language at all, despite being designed by a resident of North Wales and being minted at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, South Wales. Although many shops employ bilingual signage, Welsh still rarely appears on product packaging or instructions.^{[citation needed]}

The UK government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of Welsh.^[24]

Bilingual road sign
near Wrexham Central station in 2009

The language has greatly increased its prominence since the creation of the television channel S4C in November 1982, which until digital switchover in 2010 broadcast 70% of Channel 4's programming along with a majority of Welsh language shows^[25] during peak viewing hours. The all-Welsh-language digital station S4C Digidol is available throughout Europe on satellite and online throughout the UK. Since the digital switchover was completed in South Wales on 31 March 2010, S4C Digidol became the main broadcasting channel and fully in Welsh. The main evening television news provided by the BBC in Welsh is available for download.^[26] There is also a Welsh-language radio station, BBC Radio Cymru, which was launched in 1977.

There is, however, no daily newspaper in Welsh, the only Welsh-language national newspaper Y Cymro ("The Welshman") being published once a week. A daily newspaper called Y Byd ("The World") was scheduled to be launched on 3 March 2008 but has been scrapped,^[27] owing to poor sales of subscriptions^{[citation needed]} and the Welsh Government deeming the publication as not meeting the criteria necessary for the kind of public funding it needed to be rescued.^{[citation needed]}

Since December 2001 the British Government has planned to ensure that all immigrants speak English. It remains to be seen if Welsh will be considered a separate case. At present, knowledge of Welsh, English or Scottish Gaelic is sufficient for naturalisation purposes and it is believed that this policy will be continued in any proposed changes to the law.^{[citation needed]}

Vocabulary[link]

Welsh vocabulary draws mainly from original Brythonic words (wy "egg", carreg "stone"), with some loans from Latin (ffenestr "window" < Latin fenestra, gwin "wine" < Latin vinum), and English (silff "shelf", giat "gate").

Orthography[link]

Welsh is written in a Latin alphabet traditionally consisting of 28 letters, of which eight are digraphs treated as single letters for collation:

a, b, c, ch, d, dd, e, f, ff, g, ng, h, i, l, ll, m, n, o, p, ph, r, rh, s, t, th, u, w, y

In contrast to English practice, "w" and "y" are considered vowel letters in Welsh along with "a", "e", "i", "o" and "u".

The letter "j" is used in many everyday words borrowed from English, like jam, jôc "joke" and garej "garage". The letters "k", "q", "v", "x", and "z" are used in some technical terms, like kilogram, volt and zero, but in all cases can be, and often are, replaced by Welsh letters: cilogram, folt and sero.^[28] The letter "k" was in common use until the sixteenth century, but was dropped at the time of the publication of the New Testament in Welsh, as William Salesbury explained: "C for K, because the printers have not so many as the Welsh requireth". This change was not popular at the time.^[29]

The most common diacritic is the circumflex, which disambiguates long vowels, most often in the case of homographs, where the vowel is short in one word and long in the other: e.g. man "place" vs mân "fine", "small".

Grammar[link]

Phonology[link]

The phonology of Welsh is characterised by a number of sounds that do not occur in English and are typologically rare in European languages, specifically voiceless sonorants such as the voiceless lateral fricative [ɬ], voiceless nasal stops [m̥], [n̥], and [ŋ̊], and voiceless rhotic [r̥]. Stress usually falls on the penultimate syllable in polysyllabic words, while the word-final unstressed syllable receives a higher pitch than the stressed syllable.

Morphology[link]

Welsh morphology has much in common with that of the other modern Insular Celtic languages, such as the use of initial consonant mutations, and the use of so-called "conjugated prepositions" (prepositions that fuse with the personal pronouns that are their object). Welsh nouns belong to one of two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine, but are not inflected for case. Welsh has a variety of different endings to indicate the plural, and two endings to indicate the singular of some nouns. In spoken Welsh, verb inflection is indicated primarily by the use of auxiliary verbs, rather than by the inflection of the main verb. In literary Welsh, on the other hand, inflection of the main verb is usual.

Syntax[link]

The canonical word order in Welsh is verb–subject–object.

Colloquial Welsh inclines very strongly towards the use of auxiliaries with its verbs. The present tense is constructed with bod ("to be") as an auxiliary verb, with the main verb appearing as a verbnoun (loosely equivalent to an infinitive) after the particle yn:

Mae Siân yn mynd i Lanelli

Siân is going to Llanelli.

Here mae is the third-person present form of bod, and mynd is the verb meaning "go". The imperfect is constructed in a similar manner, as are the periphrastic forms of the future and conditional tenses.

In the preterite, future, and conditional tenses, there are inflected forms of all verbs (which are invariably used in the written language). However, it is more common nowadays in speech to use the verbnoun together with the inflected form of gwneud ("to do"), so "I went" can be Mi es i or Mi wnes i fynd. Mi is an example of a preverbal particle; such particles are common in Welsh.

Welsh lacks pronouns for constructing subordinate clauses; instead, preverbal particles and special verb forms are used.

Other features of Welsh grammar[link]

Possessives as direct objects of verbal nouns[link]

The Welsh for "I like Rhodri" is Dw i'n hoffi Rhodri ("I am in liking [of] Rhodri"), where Rhodri is in a possessive relationship to hoffi. With personal pronouns, the possessive form of the personal pronoun is used, as in "I like him" : Dw i'n ei hoffi – literally, "I am in his liking" – "I like you" is Dw i'n dy hoffi ("I am your liking").

Pronoun doubling[link]

In colloquial Welsh, possessive pronouns - whether used to mean "my", "your", etc., or to indicate the direct object of a verbal noun - are commonly reinforced by the use of the corresponding personal pronoun after the noun or verbal noun: ei dŷ e "his house" (literally "his house of him"), Dw i'n dy hoffi di "I like you" ("I am [engaged in the action of] your liking of you"), etc. It should be noted that this "reinforcement" (or, simply, "redoubling") adds no emphasis in the colloquial register. While the possessive pronoun alone may be used (as is especially common in more formal registers, as shown above), it is considered incorrect to use only the personal pronoun; such usage is nevertheless sometimes heard in very colloquial speech, mainly among young speakers: Ble 'dyn ni'n mynd? Tŷ ti neu dŷ fi? ("Where are we going? Your house or my house?").

Counting system[link]

The traditional counting system used by the Welsh language is vigesimal, which is to say it is based on twenties, as in standard French numbers 70 (soixante-dix, literally "sixty-ten") to 99 (quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, literally "four twenties nineteen"). Welsh numbers from 11 to 14 are "x on ten", 16 to 19 are "x on fifteen" (though 18 is deunaw "two nines"); numbers from 21 to 39 are "1–19 on twenty", 40 is "two twenties", 60 is "three twenties", etc. This form continues to be used, especially by older people, and it is obligatory in certain circumstances (such as telling the time).^[30]

There is also a decimal counting system, which has become relatively widely used, though less so in giving the time, ages, and dates (it features no ordinal numbers). This system is in especially common use in schools due to its simplicity, and in Patagonian Welsh. Whereas 39 in the vigesimal system would be pedwar ar bymtheg ar hugain ("four on fifteen on twenty"), in the decimal system it would be tri deg naw ("three tens nine").

While there is only one word for "one" (un), it triggers the soft mutation (treiglad meddal) of feminine nouns, other than those beginning with "ll" and "rh". There are separate masculine and feminine forms of the numbers "two" (dau and dwy), "three" (tri and tair) and "four" (pedwar and pedair), which must agree with the grammatical gender of the objects being counted.

Dialects[link]

Dialectal differences are very pronounced in the spoken and, to a lesser extent, the written language. A convenient, if slightly simplistic, classification is into North Walian and South Walian forms (or Gog and Hwntw based on the word for North, gogledd, and the word Hwynthwy which means 'They Themselves' or 'Them'). The differences between dialects encompass vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar, although particularly in the last regard they are in fact fairly minor.

An example of the difference between North and South Walian usage would be the question "Do you want a cup (of tea)?" In the north this would typically be Dach chi isio panad? while in the south the question Ych chi'n moyn dishgled? would be more likely (though in the South one would not be surprised to hear Ych chi isie paned? among other possibilities). An example of a pronunciation difference between Northern and Southern Welsh is the tendency in southern dialects to palatalise the letter "s", e.g. mis (month), would tend to be pronounced [miːs] in the north, and [miːʃ] in the south. This normally occurs next to a high front vowel like /i/, although exceptions include the pronunciation of sut "how" as [ʃʊd] in the south (compared with northern [sɨt]).

Much more fine-grained classifications exist beyond north and south: the book Cymraeg, Cymrâg, Cymrêg: cyflwyno'r tafodieithoedd,^[31] about Welsh dialects was accompanied by a cassette containing recordings of fourteen different speakers demonstrating aspects of different dialects. The book refers to the earlier Linguistic Geography of Wales^[32] as describing six different regions which could be identified as having words specific to those regions. An alternative traditional classification was of four dialects - Y Wyndodeg, the language of Gwynedd; Y Bowyseg, the language of Powys; Y Ddyfedeg, the language of Dyfed; and Y Wenhwyseg, the language of Gwent and Morgannwg.^[33]

Another dialect is Patagonian Welsh, which has developed since the start of the Welsh settlement in Argentina in 1865; it includes Spanish loanwords and terms for local features, but a survey in the 1970s showed that the language in Patagonia is consistent throughout the lower Chubut valley and in the Andes.

Registers[link]

Modern Welsh can be considered to fall broadly into two main styles—Colloquial Welsh (Cymraeg llafar) and Literary Welsh (Cymraeg llenyddol). The grammar described on this page is that of Colloquial Welsh, which is used in most speech and informal writing. Literary Welsh is closer to the form of Welsh standardised by the 1588 translation of the Bible and is found in official documents and other formal registers, including much literature. As a standardised form, literary Welsh shows little if any of the dialectal variation found in colloquial Welsh. Some differences include:

Amongst the characteristics of the literary, as against the spoken, language are a higher dependence on inflected verb forms, different usage of some of the tenses, less frequent use of pronouns (since the information is usually conveyed in the verb/preposition inflections) and a much lesser tendency to substitute English loanwords for native Welsh words. In addition, more archaic pronouns and forms of mutation may be observed in Literary Welsh.

Examples of sentences in literary and colloquial Welsh[link]

In fact, the differences between dialects of modern spoken Welsh pale into insignificance compared to the difference between some forms of the spoken language and the most formal constructions of the literary. The latter is considerably more conservative and is the language used in Welsh translations of the Bible, amongst other things (although the Beibl Cymraeg Newydd – New Welsh Bible – is significantly less formal than the traditional 1588 Bible). Gareth King, author of a popular Welsh grammar, observes that "The difference between these two is much greater than between the virtually identical colloquial and literary forms of English".^[35] A grammar of Literary Welsh can be found in A Grammar of Welsh (1980) by Stephen J. Williams, or more completely in Gramadeg y Gymraeg (1998) by Peter Wynn Thomas (no comprehensive grammar of formal literary Welsh exists in English).

Most Welsh writing, especially that found on the Internet or in magazines, is closer to colloquial usage, though it is often argued^{[by whom?]} that this preference results in questionable orthographical and grammatical choices. This is also becoming more common in artistic literature, where the parallel with the well-known works of Irvine Welsh or Niall Griffiths may be helpful to understand the effect, and the controversy.

Ultimately, the labels Colloquial and Literary may be no more (or less) than convenient approximations: the spoken (i.e. colloquial) language naturally permits the use of formal as well as informal registers, and written (i.e. literary) conventions are likewise flexible in use of registers.

Welsh in education[link]

Sign promoting the learning of Welsh

The decade around 1840 was a period of great social upheaval in Wales, manifested in the Chartist movement, which culminated in 20,000 people marching on Newport in 1839 resulting in a riot when 20 people were killed by soldiers defending the Westgate Hotel, and the Rebecca Riots when tollbooths on turnpikes were systematically destroyed.

This unrest brought the state of education in Wales to the attention of the English establishment, as social reformers of the time considered education as a means of dealing with social ills. The Times newspaper was prominent among those who considered that the lack of education of the Welsh people was the root cause of most of the problems.

In July 1846, three commissioners, R. R. W. Lingen, Jellynger C. Symons and H. R. Vaughan Johnson, were appointed to inquire into the state of education in Wales; the Commissioners were all Anglicans, and presumed^{[by whom?]} to be unsympathetic to the non-conformist majority in Wales.

The Commissioners presented their report to the Government on 1 July 1847 in three large blue-bound volumes. This report quickly became known as Brad y Llyfrau Gleision (The Treachery of the Blue Books)^[36] as, apart from documenting the state of education in Wales, the Commissioners were also free with their comments disparaging the language, non-conformity, and the morals of the Welsh people in general. An immediate effect of the report was for a belief to take root in the minds of ordinary people that the only way for Welsh people to get on in the world was through the medium of English, and an inferiority complex developed about the Welsh language whose effects have not yet been completely eradicated. The historian Professor Kenneth O. Morgan referred to the significance of the report and its consequences as "the Glencoe and the Amritsar of Welsh history".^[37]

In the later 19th century virtually all teaching in the schools of Wales was in English, even in areas where the pupils barely understood English. Some schools used the Welsh Not, a piece of wood, often bearing the letters "WN", which was hung around the neck of any pupil caught speaking Welsh. The pupil could pass it on to any schoolmate heard speaking Welsh, with the pupil wearing it at the end of the day being given a beating. Many tried in vain to get rid of this bigotry. One of the most famous Welsh born pioneers of higher education in Wales was Sir Hugh Owen. He made great progress in the cause of education, and more especially the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth, of which he was chief founder. He has been credited^{[by whom?]} with the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889, following which several new Welsh Schools were built. The first was completed in 1894 and named Ysgol Syr Hugh Owen.

Towards the beginning of the 20th century this policy slowly began to change, partly owing to the efforts of Owen Morgan Edwards when he became chief inspector of schools for Wales in 1907.

The Aberystwyth Welsh School (Ysgol Gymraeg Aberystwyth) was founded in 1939 by Sir Ifan ap Owen Edwards, the son of O. M. Edwards, as the first Welsh Primary School. The headteacher was Norah Isaac. Ysgol Gymraeg is still a very successful school and now there are Welsh language primary schools all over the country. Ysgol Glan Clwyd was established in Rhyl in 1955 as the first Welsh language school to teach at the secondary level.

Welsh is now widely used in education, with 20% of all pupils in Wales being taught at Welsh-medium schools.^[38] Under the National Curriculum, it is compulsory that all students should study Welsh up to the age of 16, either as a first language or a second-language.^[39] Many students choose to continue with their studies through the medium of Welsh for the completion of their A-levels as well as during their college years. All Local Education Authorities in Wales have schools providing bilingual or Welsh-medium education.^[40] The remainder study Welsh as a second language in English-medium schools. Specialist teachers of Welsh called Athrawon Bro support the teaching of Welsh in the National Curriculum. Welsh is also taught in adult education classes. The Welsh Government has recently set up six centres of excellence in the teaching of Welsh for Adults, with centres in North Wales (learncymraeg.org), Mid Wales, South West, Glamorgan, Gwent and Cardiff. The ability to speak Welsh or to have Welsh as a qualification is essential or desirable for certain career choices in Wales, such as teaching or customer service.^[41] All universities in Wales teach some courses in Welsh (most notably Bangor University and Aberystwyth University), but the majority of courses are taught through the medium of the English language.

Welsh in information technology[link]

As with many of the world's languages, the Welsh language has seen an increased use and presence on the internet, ranging from formal lists of terminology in a variety of fields^[42] to Welsh language interfaces for Windows 7, Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, Microsoft Office, LibreOffice, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox and a variety of Linux distributions, and on-line services to blogs kept in Welsh.^[43] A variety of websites are also available in Welsh: the social networking site Facebook has offered a Welsh version since 2009, and Wikipedia since July 2003.^[44]

Mobile phone technology[link]

In 2006 the Welsh Language Board launched a free software pack which enabled the use of SMS predictive text in Welsh.^[45] At the National Eisteddfod of Wales 2009, a further announcement was made by the Welsh Language Board that the mobile phone company Samsung was to work with the network provider Orange to provide the first mobile phone in the Welsh language,^[46] with the interface and the T9 dictionary on the Samsung S5600 available in the Welsh language. The model, available with the Welsh language interface, has been available since 1 September 2009, with plans to introduce it on other networks.^[47]

Welsh in warfare[link]

Secure communications are often difficult to achieve in wartime. Cryptography can be used to protect messages, but codes can be broken. Therefore, little-known languages are sometimes encoded, so that even if the code is broken, the message is still in a language few people know. For example, Navajo code talkers were used by the United States military during World War II. Similarly, the Royal Welch Fusiliers, a Welsh regiment serving in Bosnia, used Welsh for emergency communications that needed to be secure.^[48] Welsh was not used in the Falklands campaign because of the Welsh-speaking Argentine population in Patagonia.

Use of Welsh at the European Union[link]

In November 2008, the Welsh language was used at a meeting of the European Union's Council of Ministers for the first time. The Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones addressed his audience in Welsh as his words were interpreted into the EU’s 23 official languages. The official use of the language followed years of campaigning. Jones said "In the UK we have one of the world’s major languages, English, as the mother tongue of many. But there is a diversity of languages within our islands. I am proud to be speaking to you in one of the oldest of these, Welsh, the language of Wales." He described the breakthrough as "more than [merely] symbolic" saying "Welsh might be one of the oldest languages to be used in the UK, but it remains one of the most vibrant. Our literature, our arts, our festivals, our great tradition of song all find expression through our language. And this is a powerful demonstration of how our culture, the very essence of who we are, is expressed through language." ^[49]

See also[link]

Wales portal

Listen to this article (info/dl)

This audio file was created from a revision of the "Welsh language" article dated 2005-05-12, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)

More spoken articles

• Association of Welsh Translators and Interpreters
• English and Welsh
• Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion
• Languages in the United Kingdom
• Welsh-language media
• List of Welsh films

• List of Welsh-language authors
• List of Welsh-language poets (6th century to c. 1600)
• List of Welsh people
• List of Welsh principal areas by percentage Welsh language
• Welsh literature
• Welsh Bible
• Welsh Language Board
• Welsh placenames
• Welsh Tract
• Welsh (surname)

Notes[link]

References[link]

• J.W. Aitchison and H. Carter. Language,Economy and Society. The changing fortunes of the Welsh Language in the Twentieth Century. Cardiff. University of Wales Press. 2000.
• J.W. Aitchison and H. Carter. Spreading the Word. The Welsh Language 2001. Y Lolfa. 2004

External links[link]

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Welsh/Pronunciation

Welsh language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Welsh language

Wikibooks has more on the topic of Welsh language

For a list of words relating to Welsh, see the Welsh language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikisource has several original texts related to: Welsh language

Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011

• Available in Welsh and English.
• Welsh Language Commissioner

Statistical data

• Welsh Language Board: The Vitality of Welsh: A Statistical Balance Sheet, August 2010
• Link for Welsh language statistics from the Welsh Assembly Government (accessed 10 January 2009)
• Example knowledge of Welsh (KS25) data (Newport) from the Office for National Statistics

Dictionaries

• Welsh Phrasebook at Wikitravel
• Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru: University of Wales Dictionary of the Welsh Language, a historical dictionary of Welsh (with a second edition in progress, including an embryonic on-line version)
• Welsh Lexicon, an online Welsh-English and English-Welsh resource

Conversational groups

• Mwydro Ynfyd Dedwydd Conversational Society
• Cymdeithas y Dysgwyr Conversational Society

Courses

• Say Something in Welsh, an online beginning Welsh language course
• Learning resources on the BBC website (includes several beginner's courses and a Colloquial Welsh grammar guide)
• Welsh Grammar (Lessons in Welsh with audio)

• Clic Clic Cymraeg (a course in North Welsh)
• A grammar of the Welsh language (by Thomas Rowland, 1853) (Literary Welsh)
• A guide to Welsh (by Thomas Jones, 1900): Part 1, Part 2 (Literary Welsh)

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James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed such classics as Frankenstein (1931), The Old Dark House (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Whale directed over a dozen films in other genres, including what is considered the definitive film version of the musical Show Boat (1936). He became increasingly disenchanted with his association with horror, but many of his non-horror films have fallen into obscurity.

Born into a large family in Dudley, England, Whale early discovered his artistic talent and studied art. With the outbreak of World War I, Whale enlisted in the British Army and became an officer. He was captured by the Germans and during his time as a prisoner of war he realized he was interested in drama. Following his release at the end of the war he became an actor, set designer and director. His success directing the 1928 play Journey's End led to his move to the United States, first to direct the play on Broadway and then to Hollywood to direct motion pictures. Whale lived in Hollywood for the rest of his life, most of that time with his longtime companion, producer David Lewis. Including Journey's End (1930), Whale directed a dozen films for Universal Studios between 1930 and 1936, developing a style characterized by the influence of German Expressionism and a highly mobile camera.

At the height of his popularity as a director, Whale directed The Road Back, a sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front, in 1937. Studio interference, possibly spurred by political pressure from Nazi Germany, led to the film's being altered from Whale's vision and The Road Back was a critical and commercial failure. A string of commercial failures followed and, while Whale would make one final short film in 1950, by 1941 his film directing career was over. Whale continued to direct for the stage and also rediscovered his love for painting and travel. His investments made him wealthy and he lived a comfortable retirement until suffering strokes in 1956 that robbed him of his vigor and left him in pain. Whale committed suicide on 29 May 1957 by drowning himself in his backyard swimming pool.

Whale was openly gay throughout his career, something that was very unusual in the 1920s and 1930s. As knowledge of his sexual orientation has become more common, some of his films, Bride of Frankenstein in particular, have been interpreted as having a gay subtext and it has been claimed that Whale's refusal to remain in the closet led to the end of his career. However, Whale's associates dismissed the notions that Whale's sexuality informed his work or that it cost him his career.

Early years[link]

Whale was born in Dudley, England, the sixth of the seven children of William, a blast furnaceman,^[1] and Sarah, a nurse.^[2] He attended Kates Hill Board School, followed by Bayliss Charity School and finally Dudley Blue Coat School. His attendance stopped in his teenage years because the cost would have been prohibitive and his labor was needed to help support the family. Thought not physically strong enough to follow his brothers into the local heavy industries, Whale started work as a cobbler, reclaiming the nails he recovered from replaced soles and selling them for scrap for extra money. He discovered he had some artistic ability and earned additional money lettering signs and price tags for his neighbors.^[3] Whale used his additional income to pay for evening classes at the Dudley School of Arts and Crafts.^[4]

Cartoon by Whale of theatrical rehearsals in Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp.

World War I broke out in 1914. Although Whale had little interest in the politics behind the war, he realized that conscription was inevitable so he enlisted in the Army. Considered because of his age a good candidate for officer training, Whale joined the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps in October 1915 and was stationed in Bristol. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Worcestershire Regiment in July 1916.^[5] He was taken a prisoner of war during the course of the Flanders Campaign in August 1917 and was held at Holzminden prisoner-of-war camp, where he remained until December 1918.^[6][7] While imprisoned, he became actively involved, as an actor, writer, producer, and set-designer, in the amateur theatrical productions which took place in the camp, finding them "a source of great pleasure and amusement".^[8][9] He also developed a talent for poker, and after the war he cashed in the chits and IOUs from his fellow prisoners to serve as a nest egg.^[10] During his imprisonment, Whale conceived an abiding hatred of Germany.^[11]

Career[link]

Theatre[link]

After the armistice he returned to Birmingham and tried to find work as a cartoonist. He sold two cartoons to the Bystander in 1919 but was unable to secure a permanent position.^[10] Later in 1919 Whale embarked on a professional stage career. Under the tutelage of actor-manager Nigel Playfair, Whale worked as an actor, set designer and builder, "stage director" (akin to a stage manager) and director.^[12] In 1922, while with Playfair, Whale met Doris Zinkeisen. The two were considered a couple for some two years, despite Whale's living as an openly gay man. The couple was reportedly engaged in 1924 but by 1925 the engagement was off.^[13]

Colin Clive in Whale's 1929 stage production of Journey's End.

In 1928 Whale was offered the opportunity to direct two private performances of R. C. Sherriff's then-unknown play Journey's End for the Incorporated Stage Society, a theatre society that mounted private Sunday performances of plays.^[14] Set over a four-day period in March 1918 in the trenches at Saint-Quentin, France, Journey's End gives a glimpse into the experiences of the officers of a British Army infantry company in World War I. The key conflict is between Captain Stanhope, the company commander, and Lieutenant Raleigh, the brother of Stanhope's fiancée.^[15] Whale offered the part of Stanhope to the then-barely known Laurence Olivier. Olivier initially declined the role,^[16] but after meeting with the playwright agreed to take it on.^[17] Maurice Evans was cast as Raleigh.^[18] The play was well received and transferred to the Savoy Theatre in London's West End, opening on 21 January 1929.^[14] A young Colin Clive was now in the lead role,^[19] Olivier having accepted an offer to take the lead in a production of Beau Geste.^[17] The play was a tremendous success, with critics uniform and effusive in their praise and with audiences sometimes sitting in stunned silence following its conclusion only to burst into thunderous ovations.^[20] As Whale biographer James Curtis wrote, the play "managed to coalesce, at the right time and in the right manner, the impressions of a whole generation of men who were in the war and who had found it impossible, through words or deeds, to adequately express to their friends and families what the trenches had been like".^[21] After three weeks at the Savoy, Journey's End transferred to the Prince of Wales Theatre,^[14] where it ran for the next two years.^[22]

With the success of Journey's End at home, Broadway producer Gilbert Miller acquired the rights to mount a New York production with an all-British cast headed by Colin Keith-Johnston as Stanhope and Derek Williams as Raleigh.^[23] Whale also directed this version, which premiered at Henry Miller's Theatre on 22 March 1929.^[14] The play ran for over a year and cemented its reputation as the greatest play about World War I.^[23]

Hollywood[link]

The success of the various productions of Journey's End brought Whale to the attention of film producers. Coming at a time when motion pictures were making the transition from silent to talking, producers were interested in hiring actors and directors with experience with dialogue. Whale traveled to Hollywood in 1929 and signed a contract with Paramount Pictures. He was assigned as "dialogue director" for a film called The Love Doctor (1929).^[24] Whale completed work on the film in 15 days and his contract was allowed to expire. It was at around this time that Whale met David Lewis.^[25]

Whale next went to work for independent film producer and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, who planned to turn the previously silent Hughes production Hell's Angels (1930) into a talkie. Hughes hired Whale to direct the dialogue sequences.^[26] With work completed, Whale headed to Chicago to direct another company of Journey's End.^[27]

Having purchased the film rights to Journey's End, British producers Michael Balcon and Thomas Welsh agreed that Whale's experience directing the London and Broadway productions of the play made him the best choice to direct the film. The two partnered with a small American studio, Tiffany-Stahl, to shoot the film in New York.^[28] Colin Clive reprised his role as Stanhope,^[29] and David Manners was cast as Raleigh.^[30] Filming got underway on 6 December 1929^[31] and wrapped on 22 January 1930.^[32] Journey's End was released in Great Britain on 14 April and in the United States on 15 April.^[33] On both sides of the Atlantic the film was a tremendous critical and commercial success and placed Whale at the top of the British film industry.^[34]

Whale directed the iconic horror film Frankenstein (1931)

Universal Studios signed Whale to a five-year contract in 1931 and his first project was Waterloo Bridge.^[35] Based on the Broadway play by Robert E. Sherwood, the film stars Mae Clarke as Myra, a chorus girl in World War I London who becomes a prostitute. It too was a critical and popular success. At around this time, Whale and Lewis began living together.^[36]

In 1931, Universal chief Carl Laemmle, Jr. offered Whale his choice of any property the studio owned. Whale chose Frankenstein, mostly because none of Universal's other properties particularly interested him and he wanted to make something other than a war picture.^[37] Casting the familiar Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein and Mae Clarke as his fiancée Elizabeth, Whale turned to an unknown actor named Boris Karloff to play the Monster. Shooting began on 24 August 1931 and wrapped on 3 October.^[38] Previews were held 29 October,^[39] with wide release on 21 November.^[40] Frankenstein was an instant hit with critics and the public. The film received glowing reviews and shattered box office records across the country,^[41] earning Universal $12 million on first release.^[38] It is one of only a few of Whale's films that has remained in the public eye and is regarded as a classic of the horror genre.

Next from Whale were Impatient Maiden and The Old Dark House, both in 1932. Impatient Maiden made little impression but The Old Dark House is credited with reinventing the "dark house" subgenre of horror films.^[42] Thought lost for decades, a print was found by filmmaker Curtis Harrington in the Universal vaults in 1968 and restored by George Eastman House.^[43]

Whale's next film was The Kiss Before the Mirror (1933), a critical success but a box office failure. Whale next turned his attention to The Invisible Man (1933). Shot from a script approved by H. G. Wells,^[44] the film was a blend of horror, humor and confounding visual effects. The film was critically acclaimed, with The New York Times listing it as one of the ten best films of the year,^[45] and broke box office records in cities across the country. So highly regarded was the film that France, which restricted the number of theatres in which undubbed American films could play, granted it a special waiver because of its "extraordinary artistic merit".^[46]

Also in 1933 Whale directed the romantic comedy By Candlelight which got good reviews and was a modest box office hit.^[47] In 1934 he directed One More River, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by John Galsworthy. The film tells the story of a woman desperate to escape her abusive marriage to a member of the British aristocracy. This was the first of Whale's films for which Production Code Administration approval was required and Universal had a difficult time securing that approval because of the elements of sexual sadism implicit in the husband's abusive behavior.^[48]

Bride of Frankenstein was Whale's next project. Whale had long resisted doing a sequel to Frankenstein as he feared being pigeonholed as a horror director. Bride hearkened back to an episode from Mary Shelley's original novel in which the Monster promises to leave Frankenstein and humanity alone if Frankenstein makes him a mate. He does, but then destroys the female without bringing it to life. The film was a critical success and a box office sensation, having earned some $2 million for Universal by 1943.^[49] Lauded as "the finest of all gothic horror movies",^[50] Bride is frequently hailed as Whale's masterpiece.^[51][52]

With the success of Bride Laemmle was eager to put Whale to work on Dracula's Daughter, the sequel to Universal's first big horror hit. Whale, wary of doing two horror films in a row and concerned that directing Dracula's Daughter could interfere with his plans for the remake of Show Boat, instead convinced Laemmle to buy the rights to a novel called The Hangover Murders. The novel is a comedy-mystery in the style of The Thin Man, about a group of friends who were so drunk the night one of them was murdered that none can remember anything.^[53] Retitled Remember Last Night?, the film was one of Whale's personal favorites,^[43] but met with sharply divided reviews and commercial disinterest.^[54]

With the completion of Remember Last Night? Whale immediately went to work on Show Boat (1936). Whale gathered as many of those as he could who had been involved in one production or another of the musical, including Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, Charles Winninger, and, as Magnolia, Irene Dunne, who believed that Whale was the wrong director for the piece.^[55] The 1936 Show Boat is considered the definitive film version of the musical,^[56][57] but became unavailable following the 1951 remake.^[55] This was the last of Whale's films to be produced under the Laemmle family; the Laemmles lost control of the studio to J. Cheever Cowdin, head of the Standard Capital Corporation, and Charles R. Rogers, who was installed in Junior Laemmle's old job.^[58]

Career in decline[link]

Whale's career went into sharp decline following the release of his next film, The Road Back (1937). The sequel to Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, which Universal had filmed in 1930, the novel and film follow the lives of several young German men who have returned from the trenches of World War I and their struggles to re-integrate into society. The Los Angeles consul for Nazi Germany, George Gyssling, learned that the film was in production. He protested to PCA enforcer Joseph Breen, arguing that the film gave an "untrue and distorted picture of the German people".^[59] Gyssling eventually met with Whale but nothing came of it.^[60] Gyssling then sent letters to members of the cast, threatening that their participation in the film might lead to difficulties in obtaining German filming permits for them and for anyone associated in a film with them.^[61] While the low volume of business conducted by Universal in Germany made such threats largely hollow, the State Department, under pressure from the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League and the Screen Actors Guild,^[62] stepped in and the German government backed down.^[63] Whale's original cut of the film was given generally positive reviews but sometime between preview screenings and the film's general release Rogers capitulated to the Germans, ordering that cuts be made and additional scenes be shot and inserted.^[36] Whale was furious,^[64] and the altered film was banned in Germany anyway.^[65] The Germans were successful in persuading China, Greece, Italy and Switzerland to ban the film as well.^[61]

Following the debacle with The Road Back, Charles Rogers tried to get out of his contract with Whale; Whale refused. Rogers then assigned him to a string of B movies to run out his contractual obligation. Whale only made one additional successful feature film, The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), before retiring from the film industry in 1941.^[4]

Post-film life[link]

With his film career behind him, Whale found himself at loose ends. He was offered the occasional job, including the opportunity to direct Since You Went Away for David O. Selznick,^[66] but turned them down.^[67] Lewis, meanwhile, was busier than ever with his production duties and often worked late hours, leaving Whale lonely and bored. Lewis bought him a supply of paint and canvasses and Whale re-discovered his love of painting. Eventually he built a large studio for himself.^[68]

With the outbreak of World War II, Whale volunteered his services to make a training film for the United States Army. Whale shot the film, called Personnel Placement in the Army, in February 1942. Later that year, in association with actress Claire DuBrey, Whale created the Brentwood Service Players.^[69] The Players took over a 100–seat theatre. Sixty seats were provided free of charge to service personnel; the remaining were sold to the public, with the box office proceeds donated to wartime charities.^[70] The group expanded to the Playtime Theatre during the summer, where a series of shows ran through October.^[71]

Whale returned to Broadway in 1944 to direct the psychological thriller Hand in Glove.^[72] It was his first return to Broadway since his failed One, Two, Three! in 1930.^[73] Hand in Glove would fare no better than his earlier play, running the same number of performances, 40.^[74]

Whale directed his final film in 1950, a short subject based on the William Saroyan one-act play Hello Out There. The film, financed by supermarket heir Huntington Hartford, was the story of a man in a Texas jail falsely accused of rape and the woman who cleans the jail. Hartford intended for the short to be part of an anthology film along the lines of Quartet.^[75] However, attempts to find appropriate short fiction companion pieces to adapt were unsuccessful and Hello Out There was never commercially released.^[76]

Whale's last professional engagement was directing Pagan in the Parlour, a farce about two New England spinster sisters who are visited by a Polynesian whom their father, when shipwrecked years earlier, had married. The production was mounted in Pasadena for two weeks in 1951. Plans were made to take it to New York, but Whale suggested taking the play to London first.^[77] Before opening the play in England, Whale decided to tour the art museums of Europe. In France he renewed his acquaintanceship with Curtis Harrington, whom Whale had met in 1947. While visiting Harrington in Paris, Whale went to some gay bars. At one he met a 25-year-old bartender named Pierre Foegel,^[4] who Harrington believed was nothing but "a hustler out for what he could get".^[43] The 62-year-old Whale was smitten with the younger man and hired him as his chauffeur.^[78]

A provincial tour of Pagan in the Parlour began in September 1952 and it appeared that the play would be a hit. However, Hermione Baddeley, starring in the play as the cannibal "Noo-ga," was drinking heavily and began engaging in bizarre antics and disrupting performances. Because she had a run of the play contract she could not be replaced and so producers were forced to close the show.^[79]

Whale returned to California in November 1952 and advised David Lewis that he planned to bring Foegel over early the following year. Appalled, Lewis moved out of their home.^[80] While this ended their 23-year romantic relationship, the two men remained friends. Lewis bought a small house and dug a swimming pool, prompting Whale to have his own pool dug, although he did not himself swim in it. Whale began throwing all-male swim parties and would watch the young men cavort in and around the pool.^[81] Foegel moved in with Whale in early 1953 and remained there for several months before returning to France. He returned in 1954 permanently,^[81] and Whale installed him as manager of a gas station that he owned.^[82]

Whale and Foegel settled into a quiet routine until the spring of 1956, when Whale suffered a small stroke. A few months later he suffered a larger stroke and was hospitalized.^[82] While in the hospital he was treated for depression with shock treatments.^[83]

Upon his release, Whale hired one of the male nurses from the hospital to be his personal live-in nurse.^[84] A jealous Foegel maneuvered the nurse out of the house and hired a female nurse as a non live-in replacement.^[85] Whale suffered from mood swings and grew increasingly and frustratingly more dependent on others and his mental faculties were diminishing.^[86] Whale committed suicide by drowning himself in his swimming pool on 29 May 1957 at the age of 67.^[87] He left a suicide note, which Lewis withheld until shortly before his own death decades later. Because the note was suppressed, the death was initially ruled accidental.^[88] The note read in part:

"To ALL I LOVE,
"Do not grieve for me. My nerves are all shot and for the last year I have been in agony day and night—except when I sleep with sleeping pills—and any peace I have by day is when I am drugged by pills.
"I have had a wonderful life but it is over and my nerves get worse and I am afraid they will have to take me away. So please forgive me, all those I love and may God forgive me too, but I cannot bear the agony and it [is] best for everyone this way.
"The future is just old age and illness and pain. Goodbye and thank you for all your love. I must have peace and this is the only way.
"Jimmy"^[83]

Whale was cremated per his request and his ashes were interred in the Columbarium of Memory at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. Because of Whale's habit of periodically revising his date of birth, his niche lists the incorrect date of 1893.^[89] When his longtime companion David Lewis died in 1987, his executor and Whale biographer James Curtis had his ashes interred in a niche across from Whale's.^[90]

Sexuality[link]

James Whale lived as an openly homosexual man throughout his career in the British theatre and in Hollywood, something that was virtually unheard of in the 1920s and 1930s. He and David Lewis lived together as a couple from around 1930 to 1952. While he did not go out of his way to publicize his homosexuality, he did not do anything to conceal it either. As filmmaker Curtis Harrington, a friend and confidant of Whale's, put it, "Not in the sense of screaming it from the rooftops or coming out. But yes, he was openly homosexual. Any sophisticated person who knew him knew he was gay."^[43] While there have been suggestions that Whale's career was terminated because of homophobia,^[91][92] and Whale was supposedly dubbed "The Queen of Hollywood",^[93] Harrington states that "nobody made a thing out of it as far as I could perceive".^[43]

With knowledge of his sexuality becoming more common beginning in the 1970s, some film historians and gay studies scholars have detected homosexual themes in Whale's work, particularly in Bride of Frankenstein in which a number of the creative people associated with the cast, including Ernest Thesiger and Colin Clive,^[94] were alleged to be gay or bisexual. Scholars have identified a gay sensibility suffused through the film, especially a camp sensibility,^[95] particularly embodied in the character of Pretorius (Thesiger) and his relationship with Henry Frankenstein (Clive).

Gay film historian Vito Russo, in considering Pretorius, stops short of identifying the character as gay, instead referring to him as "sissified"^[96] ("sissy" itself being Hollywood code for "homosexual"). Pretorius serves as a "gay Mephistopheles",^[97] a figure of seduction and temptation, going so far as to pull Frankenstein away from his bride on their wedding night to engage in the unnatural act of non-procreative life. A novelisation of the film published in England made the implication clear, having Pretorius say to Frankenstein "'Be fruitful and multiply.' Let us obey the Biblical injunction: you of course, have the choice of natural means; but as for me, I am afraid that there is no course open to me but the scientific way."^[98] Russo goes so far as to suggest that Whale's homosexuality is expressed in both Frankenstein and Bride as "a vision both films had of the monster as an antisocial figure in the same way that gay people were 'things' that should not have happened".^[99]

The Monster, whose affections for the male hermit and the female Bride he discusses with identical language ("friend"), has been read as sexually "unsettled" and bisexual.^[94] Writes gender studies author Elizabeth Young: "He has no innate understanding that the male-female bond he is to forge with the bride is assumed to be the primary one or that it carries a different sexual valence from his relationships with [Pretorius and the hermit]: all affective relationships are as easily 'friendships' as 'marriages'."^[100] Indeed, his relationship with the hermit has been interpreted as a same-sex marriage that heterosexual society will not tolerate: "No mistake—this is a marriage, and a viable one", writes cultural critic Gary Morris for Bright Lights Film Journal. "But Whale reminds us quickly that society does not approve. The monster—the outsider—is driven from his scene of domestic pleasure by two gun-toting rubes who happen upon this startling alliance and quickly, instinctively, proceed to destroy it."^[94] The creation of the Bride scene has been called "Whale's reminder to the audience—his Hollywood bosses, peers, and everyone watching—of the majesty and power of the homosexual creator".^[94]

However, Harrington dismisses this as "a younger critic’s evaluation. All artists do work that comes out of the unconscious mind and later on you can analyze it and say the symbolism may mean something, but artists don’t think that way and I would bet my life that James Whale would never have had such concepts in mind."^[43] Specifically in response to the "majesty and power" reading, Harrington states "My opinion is that’s just pure bullshit. That’s a critical interpretation that has nothing to do with the original inspiration."^[43] He concludes, "I think the closest you can come to a homosexual metaphor in his films is to identify that certain sort of camp humor."^[43]

Whale's companion David Lewis stated flatly that Whale's sexual orientation was "not germane" to his filmmaking. "Jimmy was first and foremost an artist, and his films represent the work of an artist—not a gay artist, but an artist."^[101] Whale's biographer Curtis rejects the notion that Whale would have identified with the Monster from a homosexual perspective,^[102] stating that if the highly class-conscious Whale felt himself to be an antisocial figure, it would have been based not in his sexuality but in his origin in the lower classes.^[103]

Film style[link]

James Whale memorial statue in Dudley, England.

Whale was heavily influenced by German Expressionism. He was a particular admirer of the films of Paul Leni, combining as they did elements of gothic horror and comedy. This influence was most evident in Bride of Frankenstein.^[104] Expressionist influence is also in evidence in Frankenstein, drawn in part from the work of Paul Wegener and his films The Golem (1915) and The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920)^[105] along with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) from Robert Wiene, which Whale reportedly screened repeatedly while preparing to shoot Frankenstein.^[106] Frankenstein roughly alternates between distorted expressionistic shots and more conventional styles, with the character of Dr. Waldman serving as "a bridge between everyday and expressionist spaces".^[107] Expressionist influence is also evident in the acting, costuming and the design of the Monster.^[108] Whale and makeup artist Jack Pierce may also have been influenced by the Bauhaus school of design.^[109] The expressionist influence lasted throughout Whale's career, with Whale's final film, Hello Out There, praised by Sight & Sound as "a virtuoso pattern of light and shade, a piece of fully blown expressionist filmmaking plonked down unceremoniously in the midst of neo-realism's heyday".^[110]

Whale was known for his use of camera movement. He is credited with being the first director to use a 360-degree panning shot in a feature film, included in Frankenstein.^[111] Whale used a similar technique during the Ol' Man River sequence in Show Boat, in which the camera tracked around Paul Robeson as he sang the song. Often singled out for praise in Frankenstein is the series of shots used to introduce the Monster: "Nothing can ever quite efface the thrill of watching the successive views Whale's mobile camera allows us of the lumbering figure".^[112] These shots, starting with a medium shot and culminating in two close-ups of the Monster's face, were repeated by Whale to introduce Griffin in The Invisible Man and the abusive husband in One More River. Modified to a single cut rather than two, Whale uses the same technique in The Road Back to signal the instability of a returning World War I veteran.^[55]

Legacy[link]

Influential film critic Andrew Sarris, in his 1968 ranking of directors, lists Whale as "lightly likable". Noting that Whale's reputation has been subsumed by the "Karloff cult", Sarris cites Bride of Frankenstein as the "true gem" of the Frankenstein series and concludes that Whale's career "reflects the stylistic ambitions and dramatic disappointments of an expressionist in the studio-controlled Hollywood of the thirties".^[113]

Whale's final months are the subject of the 1995 novel Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram. The novel focuses on the relationship between Whale and a fictional gardener named Clayton Boone. Father of Frankenstein served as the basis of the 1998 film Gods and Monsters with Ian McKellen as Whale and Brendan Fraser as Boone.^[114] McKellen was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Whale.^[115]

A memorial statue was erected for Whale in 2002 on the grounds of a new multiplex cinema in his home town of Dudley. The statue, by Charles Hadcock, depicts a roll of film with the face of Frankenstein's monster engraved into the frames and the names of his most famous films etched into a cast concrete base in the shape of film canisters.^[116]

Filmography[link]

Notes[link]