European parliament working paper
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- The use of the language in various fields
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
WelshIntroductionWelsh was the principal language of communication in Wales and the only language of the majority of its population until around the middle of the 19th century. Its literary tradition is unbroken since the 7th century, and contains both fine medieval and modern poetry and prose. However, the so-called Acts of Union (1536 and 1542), when Wales was legally incorporated into England declared English to be the official language of administration and of the courts in Wales. Nevertheless, Welsh did receive a small measure of statutory encouragement in 1563, when an Act of Parliament gave permission for the translation into Welsh of the Bible and the official Anglican prayer book. The first full translation of the Bible into Welsh appeared in 1588, with an authorised version published under state auspices in 1620, only nine years after the Authorised English Version. Up to the middle of the 19th century, there was a gradual decline in the proportion of Welsh-speakers, although Welsh still dominated in many areas of life over much of the country. By 1900 only half the population (648,919 of a total population of 1,864,696) spoke Welsh. Although the Welsh Courts Act 1942 and the Welsh Language Act 1967 made some provision for use of the language in the courts and the public sector more generally, and despite the existence of an increasingly popular Welsh-medium education system, the 1980s (when census figures noted 20% of the population as Welsh-speakers) saw increasing political pressure for further measures to safeguard the future of the language. The advisory Welsh Language Board212 was established by the Government in 1988. The Board’s duties included advising the Government on matters that required administrative or legislative action and promoting the use of Welsh in the public sector, in the private sector and amongst voluntary sector bodies. In 1989, the Board also published The Welsh Language: a Strategy for the Future, which, for the first time ever, set out detailed proposals for the promotion and increased use of Welsh. The 1991 census indicated that 510,920 (18.7%) of the population of Wales spoke Welsh, and that the overall decline had been arrested, mainly because of increasing numbers of schoolchildren receiving their education through the medium of the language. There remains, however, concern about intergenerational language transmission and the declining number of high-density Welsh-language speech communities. Growing language group exogamy may be partially responsible for this. Yet increasingly, in families where only one parent speaks Welsh, the parent transmits the language to the next generation. In all, almost a third of school-age children now speak Welsh, but only a quarter of those learned it at home (see below). The use of the language in various fieldsThe Government was eventually convinced of the need for legislation to strengthen the situation of Welsh, and introduced a new Welsh Language Act, which came into force in December 1993. The Act created a statutory Welsh Language Board with the overarching function of ‘promoting and facilitating the use of the Welsh language’. The Board has statutory powers to require public bodies to prepare language schemes, detailing how they will treat the Welsh and English languages on a basis of equality in providing services to the public. The Government of Wales Act 1998 (which created the devolved National Assembly for Wales) states “the Assembly may do anything it considers appropriate to support the Welsh language”. The Board is now answerable to the Assembly. Status bilingualism is widespread, and the state-administered linguistic landscape is increasingly bilingual. Road signs, public information campaigns and official forms are now in Welsh and English. The National Assembly for Wales supplies all public documents in bilingual form, and the Welsh language may be freely used in Courts in Wales (via simultaneous translation where all present are non-Welsh-speaking), although there is no right to be tried by a Welsh-speaking jury. Education: The Welsh Language Board has been charged with taking a strategic overview of Welsh language provision in education, but the actual provision and associated policy is the prerogative of each County Council’s Local Education Authority. The majority of such authorities in Wales have agreed a Welsh medium education scheme with the Board, setting targets for a three-year implementation cycle. The Welsh-medium pre-school movement was founded in 1972. Since only 6.3% of 3-year old children in Wales speak the language as a mother tongue, such agencies have a crucial role to play in producing the language if the level of competence is to survive. In 1984 120 Nurseries and 160 Mother and Toddler groups operated through the medium of Welsh. By 1996 the respective figures were 645 and 407, with a total number of 1028 operating across Wales in 2001. A voluntary activity committed to stressing the importance of pre-schooling for immersion education has therefore become a fully-fledged professionally-run organisation managed by 13 full-time staff and some 30 development officers, supported by the Welsh Language Board, and other sources. Activities vary from Mother and Toddler groups which teach non-Welsh-speaking parents some Welsh and actual Welsh classes are also offered to parents who want them. The organisation also publishes books and other resources associated with Welsh medium early year’s provision. Welsh as a subject was included in the National Curriculum in the Education Act of 1988, which also defined Welsh-speaking schools for the first time. 27% of the maintained primary schools in Wales now teach mainly or entirely through the medium of Welsh, and in a further 7% of schools it is used as a medium of instruction for part of the curriculum. There is Welsh-medium and bilingual provision for pupils in the primary and secondary sectors, though the catchment areas of Welsh-medium schools are much larger than those of English-medium schools, and there are some problems with continuity of provision due to a number of factors. The aim is to make Welsh-medium education at primary and secondary levels available to all parents in Wales who wish this for their children, within a reasonable travelling distance from the child’s home. Currently, of the 229 secondary schools in Wales, the National Assembly for Wales defines 52 as Welsh-medium schools. All other schools teach Welsh as a second language to pupils up to the age of 16. Teaching through the medium of Welsh in the Higher Education sector is limited (1.6% of students followed their courses partly or entirely through Welsh in 1996-97). As a result, the Federal University of Wales has appointed a Welsh-medium teaching development officer. The Education Committee of the National Assembly for Wales is currently undertaking a review of the Welsh language in education in all spheres and will produce a report during summer 2002. The Courts and Public Authorities and Services: See above. Mass Media and Information Technology: Radio broadcasting in Welsh began in 1923, and TV in 1958. A dedicated Welsh-language TV channel, S4C213, was set up in 1981. It broadcasts 4 hours daily during peak hours via its analogue service, and 12 hours daily via its first digital channel (founded in 1998). Viewers in Wales also have access to course content of the Wales Digital College via S4C digital 1. Its second digital channel provides live coverage of the debates of the National Assembly for Wales. The BBC also provides a radio service entirely in the language, which is simultaneously broadcast on the World Wide Web and on satellite television. Although there is no Welsh language daily newspaper, the BBC news website provides daily news services in Welsh. Two weekly paper-based journals and many periodicals are in Welsh. Though individual readership is not large, the Welsh language community newspapers have over 200,000 readers. Work has been done to develop information technology relevant for the entry of Welsh into e-Europe and similar networks. The existing ICT tools needed to develop machine translation and voice recognition and synthesis include spellchecker (including facilities for Microsoft Office XP), grammar, corpus and dictionary. Recent developments have stopped short of developing full machine-translation capacity, focusing on developing specialist electronic dictionaries and computer aided translation facilities. Although translation memory software networks are in their infancy, plans are afoot for resource sharing and standardisation of terminology to enable consistency of translation and to avoid duplication of work. The Cymru’n Creu project also plans to digitise Wales’ cultural resources, for content development. The Business World: Most work through the medium of Welsh is in the public sector. But use of translation ensures that Welsh is institutionalised in these, and other contexts. Although the private sector is not legally obliged to conform with the Welsh Language Act 1993, many organisations in this sector embrace the spirit of the legislation. There is some political pressure to extend the Act into the private sector. Family and Social Use: In the community, the social practices that focused on the centrality of religion (within which Welsh was stabilised) are declining. In the past, secular community social activity was often linked to religious institutions. Because of rapid secularisation and changes in entertainment habits, communities have lost much social relevance, and the Welsh-language practices now replacing the community focus on the media and associated activities. The social organisation has changed, as has the spatial range of its constitution. There are many community regeneration and development initiatives; they include the 22 Menter Iaith (local language initiatives) promoted by the Welsh Language Board. Also worth mentioning are Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg/the Welsh Language Society214, which has been actively and successfully promoting the language at grassroots level since the 1960s, and the recently founded Welsh-language civil rights movement Cymuned215. ConclusionAlthough Welsh is better placed than most other lesser-used languages of the European Union, its long-term future is by no means assured. Non-reproduction of the language continues to be problematic, although the decline in numbers appears to have been arrested. One of the main challenges of the language is the weakening of high-density speech communities, where Welsh is used as a language of day-to-day action. Much work also remains to be done in realising the potential of the large numbers of new Welsh-speakers, created via the Welsh-medium education system. Most research shows positive attitudes towards Welsh and its promotion. However, further work is needed to exploit the possible link between positive attitudes and concrete language behaviour. Detailed action related to the report of the National Assembly for Wales’ review of the Welsh language is also eagerly awaited. BibliographyAitchison, J. & Carter, H. (2000) Language, Economy and Society: the Changing Fortunes of the Welsh Language. UW Press, Cardiff. Jenkins, G.H. (2000) Welsh in its Social Domains. UW Press, Cardiff. Jones, K. & Ioan, G. (2000), Venturing Onwards: Research Report on the Mentrau Iaith (Language Initiatives), Welsh Language Board, Cardiff (http://bwrdd-yr-iaith.org.uk/docs/mentrauiaith2001/dechrau-e.htm). National Assembly for Wales: http://www.wales.gov.uk/keypubassemculture/ Welsh Language Board community language planning multilingual website http://www.cymuned.org.uk Welsh Language Board website: http://www.bwrdd-yr-iaith.org.uk Williams, C.H. & Evas, J.C. (1997) The Community Research Scheme, Cardiff, Welsh Language Board (http://www.bwrdd-yr-iaith.org.uk/html/cyc/cyc-e.htm). Williams, C.H. (ed.) Language Revitalisation: Policy and Planning in Wales. UW Press, Cardiff. Williams, G. & Morris, D. (2000) Language Planning and Language Use: Welsh in a Global Age. UW Press, Cardiff.
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