INNIU, 1976

The Gordian Knot of Welsh Culture -
Bilingualism or developing the Heartland

Review by P�l � Duibhir

(English language translation by the author)


Over the centuries the Welsh-speaking people have never lacked writers - poets, literature, composers of hymns, etc. Though this group succeeded in gaining a certain respect for Welsh culture among the public at large, their native words were not accompanied by the required action and the self respect of Welsh speakers was being slowly eroded by English language respectability.

A new movement started when Saunders Lewis raised the Welsh language flag in 1962 and inspired the idealistic young generation into action on behalf of the language - campaigns to restore the ancient tongue in those fields of community life from which it had been long excluded, if it was ever there in the first place: the courts, civil service, education, state companies etc.

There has been much progress in these fields since 1962 and native pride and community feeling are awakening among Welsh speakers, although their number has fallen from 26% of the population in 1961 to 21% in 1971.

Two Camps

But the language movement is now on the brink of a split on one of the major questions of the revival: on the one side, those who favour a policy of bilingualism throughout the country; and on the other side, those who would first strenghten the heartland and leave the rest of the country free to do as it liked subject to certain basic facilities being made available to those Welsh speakers who requested them.

In the heartland - those areas where over 70% of the population are Welsh speakers - Welsh would be compulsory in all aspects of life and immigrants would be required to conform.

Drawing on his own experience, on Welsh academic studies, the examples of Ireland and Quebec and numerous other sources, Clive Betts gives us the argument for strengthening the heartland.�

The Heartland

After discussing various theories of bilingualism he surveys the present state of Welsh in various fields of Welsh life: education (three levels); national and local Government; the press and politics.

It is clear from the survey, and in particular from the duplicity, the hypocrisy and the fear which it reveals, that the majority of Welsh people would not accept Welsh as their vernacular and that the future of the language, for the moment at any rate, is in the heartland.

But the heartland itself in is danger because its people do not realise the danger of the survival of the language from English immigrants who settle in the towns or buy up "summer houses" in Welsh villages.

Welsh speakers are so polite (or is it an inferiority complex) that a group of them will immediately turn to English as soon as an English speaker joins the company.

Nor do they realise the danger from the mass media.

A primary schools organiser was visiting a primary school in a Welsh speaking area and she heard some children playing in English. "But don't you speak Welsh?" she asked. "Oh, yes Miss, we do, but we are playing Indians." Diaglossia?

The heartland is very different from the Irish Gaeltachta�. Our main Gaeltachta� are separated from one another on three peninsulas; in Wales we are talking about a continuous region and this is a great advantage from the point of view of linguistic environment etc.

The heartland is mainly rural, however, and its population is ageing. Betts tells us that there will be a net loss of 74,000 native speakers between 1971 and 1981 (the next year in which the census will carry a language question).

This loss must be made up by learners if the numbers of native Welsh speakers are to be kept at their 1971 level, not to mention increasing them, and as things stand at the moment it is only in the heartland schools that this can be done on a sufficiently large scale, because it is only here that the English speakers can be assimilated into a Welsh speaking environment

A Lesson for Us

Every Irishman should read this book despite its (almost unreadable) English in places. The argument is clearly laid out, except for the first chapter on linguistic theories.

The author shows a deep understanding of the Irish case, rare in a Welshman, and we have a lot to learn from the Welsh experience as set out in this book.

Anyone with a genuine interest in the question of language and community cannot but read this basic textbook on the current state of the Welsh language.