From: librik@cory.Berkeley.EDU (David Librik)
Subject: Re: Cymraeg! (was: Re: Cookbooks or Recipes?)
Organization: University of California, at Berkeley
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 02:11:22 GMT

kakleman@acpub.duke.edu (Kubilay Akleman) writes:

>Discussion topic: Quebec-like laws making it compulsory for ALL commercial
>signs to include Welsh - or even be in Welsh ONLY - that'd certainly bother
>the Saxon!

(try hitting return at the end of each line, it makes it a lot easier to read)

The problem with "Welsh ONLY" all over Wales is that it ignores the Welshless
Welshmen, who are -- as Robyn Lewis pointed out -- as much "second-class
citizens" under current policies as the Welsh-speaker.  A proper policy to
save and use the language has to recognize that Wales is now fragmented into
essentially three areas: Y Fro Gymraeg - the Welsh-speaking heartland;
transitional areas where Welsh and English coincide (say 50%-70%); and
Anglo-Wales.  In addition, there are also Anglicized heartland towns
like Bangor, Aber, Holyhead, Carmarthen, etc.  (This classification comes
from Clive Betts of the Western Mail).

Effort and energy should be spent on the heartland areas, and the Anglicized
towns within them.  It's hard to think of areas with 50% Welsh-speakers as
"Anglo-Wales", but in these areas -- Glamorgan, Gwent, most of Powys -- the
language is in a plunge for which no remedy is known.

With this in mind, the policy can be something like this:

Welsh-speaking heartland areas: Welsh first and primary, possibly Welsh-only,
in government, education, health, etc.  Provisions made for English-speaking
services in the Anglicized heartland towns.  (But what to do about industry?)

Transitional areas: Welsh first, but the language of work will probably
be English, with the establishment of Welsh units in government and local
services.  Schools would be basically English-medium, with compulsory Welsh
lessons, though there should also be totally-Welsh schools.  (This is taken
from the Canadian model; in Canada there are also "immersion" schools for
English-speaking children, I believe).

Anglo-Wales: Bilingual signs and forms, English-language education (with
Welsh-medium schools for Welsh-speakers: they may have to be bussed to them,
though).

(This is adapted from a series of articles by Clive Betts in the Western Mail,
 published as _Culture in Crisis_, 1976.  His original ideas were hopelessly
 optomistic, though; he hadn't seen the 1980 census statistics on the decline
 of the language.)

The basic idea here is that language revival only works if you have a solid
heartland that uses the language in ordinary and official life.  The usual
suggestions, in which Welsh is "forced" on the half of Wales which has been
English-speaking for two centuries, will go down like a lead balloon and won't
do anything to keep the keep the language alive on the lips of those who live
in "y Fro Gymraeg".

Any comments?  I'm not wedded to these ideas.  And I don't see them coming
about under the current stranglehold of Tory government.  (It might be
far more worthwhile, for instance, to work for the Property Act that has
been recently suggested and supported in Wales: in Welsh-speaking areas,
preference in buying houses should go to Welsh-speakers.  The current
situation, wherein rich folks from outside Wales buy half the houses in
the heartland "because they make such cheap holiday homes" is shattering
Welsh-speaking communities.)

- David Librik
librik@cory.Berkeley.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.celtic