The Salvation of a Once Endangered Language

By Luke Barbrick

I. INTRODUCTION

For 30 years, the lawmakers of Wales have taken remarkable legal steps to restore their ancient language, Welsh.[1] Welsh is one of six known languages of the Celtic group, a branch of the Indo-European language family.[2] Celtic languages also include Irish, Scots Gaelic, Manx, Cornish, and Breton, most of which are spoken in the British Isles.[3] Many scholars now believe that Celtic developed nearly 6,000 years ago, making it one of Europe’s oldest language groups.[4] For millennia, the Celtic languages enjoyed a rich legacy of songs and stories.[5] For example, the tales of King Arthur, Camelot, and Merlin, first transcribed in Wales, are read and revered by millions around the world today.[6]

Unfortunately, the expansion of English across the British Isles has led to the extinction of Cornish and Manx and a massive decline in Scots Gaelic and Irish.[7] As of 2011, Scots Gaelic and Irish were spoken by less than two percent of their countries’ populations.[8] Also, due to the expansion of French within Brittany, by 2007, only seven percent of Bretons spoke Breton.[9] By contrast, Welsh is now spoken by nearly 900,000 people (approximately thirty percent of Wales’s population).[10] This remarkable rate of Welsh proficiency is largely due to the language’s expansion amongst the younger generation.

II. The Spread of Welsh through Education

The first major step in Welsh expansion occurred with the passage of the Welsh Language Act of 1993 by the UK Parliament.[11] The Act established an administrative council of language officials, known as the “Welsh Language Board” (the Board).[12] The Board’s primary purpose entailed promoting the use of Welsh in Wales’s public sectors, especially public schools.[13]

Pursuant to its statutory authority, the board invested increasingly vast sums to expand the use of Welsh within schools as a medium of education. For example, the Board’s annual grant to local authorities for the promotion of Welsh-medium education rose to £7,522,000 in 2009, nearly four times the amount distributed in 1997.[14] Consequently, more and more young people were educated in their native tongue and, by 2011, approximately thirty-three percent of 16-17-year-olds could speak Welsh.[15] Thus, by 2011, a greater rate of Welsh proficiency existed amongst the younger population relative to the average Welsh citizen.[16]

To further strengthen the language, in 2011, the Welsh Assembly, Wales’s local legislature, passed the Welsh Language Measure of 2011, giving Welsh official status alongside English and replacing the Welsh Language Board with a new administrative council, the Welsh Language Commissioner (the Commissioner). [17] As the Commissioner continued the Board’s policy of investing money in Welsh-medium education, they also expanded the number of courses taught in Welsh for students using Welsh as a primary dialect or a secondary language.[18] Under the Commissioner’s directive, the percentage of students approaching graduation, who took primary language courses in Welsh, rose from fifteen percent in 2011 to seventeen percent in 2016.[19] During this period, the percentage of eleventh year Welsh students taking secondary language courses in Welsh increased from twenty-seven percent to thirty-eight percent.[20] As for the very young, Welsh proficiency grew dramatically amongst individuals aged three and older.[21] Overall, from 2011 to 2019, the efforts of the Commissioner precipitated an increase of over 300,000 Welsh speakers in just eight years, an unprecedented expansion.[22]

Welsh speakers have declined over time, but western Wales (furthest away from England) continues to have more Welsh speakers. Data and graphic from BBC.

The strengthening of Welsh under the Board and the Commissioner has encouraged Welsh leaders to harbor more ambitious plans for the language’s future. In 2017, Welsh Ministers released their Cymraeg 2050 plan which aims to expand the number of Welsh speakers to one million by 2050.[23] Such a number would require a seventy percent proficiency rate amongst the younger population, meaning that young people must continue to have opportunities for speaking and using Welsh even after they leave school. [24] The massive hike in Welsh proficiency suggests that their goal of one million by 2050 remains attainable.[25] The enormous success of the Welsh language laws and policies have led to similar laws being adopted within other Celtic nations, particularly Scotland.

III. The Success of the Welsh Language Model in Scotland

To save Scotland’s Celtic language, Scots Gaelic, in 2005, the Scottish Parliament passed the Gaelic Language Act of 2005.[26] Like the 1993 Welsh Act, the Gaelic Act established an official language council, the “Bòrd na Gàidhlig” (the Bòrd).[27] Like the Welsh Board and Commissioner, Scotland’s Bòrd has focused its efforts largely on education.[28]

In 2013, the Gaelic Bòrd approved the opening of Scotland’s third Gaelic Primary Medium education school in Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city.[29] This opening occurred on the heels of the Glasgow City Council’s commencement of a four year plan to further Gaelic proficiency, pursuant to the 2005 Gaelic Act.[30] Elsewhere in Scotland, enrollment in Gaelic language classes has grown by sixty-four percent since 2010.[31] Moreover, in 1985, only twenty-four pupils were enrolled in Gaelic language classes.[32] By 2018, this number rose to 4,300.[33] More recently, this heightened demand for a Gaelic education led to the opening of Scotland’s Fourth Gaelic college.[34] Due to the newfound demand for their services, Gaelic schools are struggling to find sufficient seating for students.[35] This overall expansion of Gaelic-medium education within Scotland may explain why Gaelic rose to 60,000 speakers in 2020, an increase of nearly 3,000 since 2011.[36] Interestingly, much of this heightened interest in Gaelic occurred during the Bòrd’s many efforts to educate the young in Gaelic.[37]

IV. INSIGHT & CONCLUSION

Although the expansion of Scots Gaelic is slower than Welsh, Scots Gaelic is expanding again and suggests that some of Wales’s language policies are applicable to other nations hoping to save their dialects. To save a language, one generation must pass it on, in ever increasing strength, to the next generation. In strengthening a language, one strengthens the culture safeguarded by that language.[38] In saving their native tongue, the Welsh people may have provided the blueprint for saving hundreds of currently endangered cultures, each blessed with songs and tales every bit as inspiring as those of the Celts.  

[1] See generally Llywodraeth Cymru Welsh Government Cymraeg 2050: A Million Welsh Speakers, Annual Report 2017-18, Welsh Government (Wales) https://gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2019-03/cymraeg-2050-a-million-welsh-speakers-annual-report-2017-18.pdf#:~:text=The%20Cymraeg%202050%20strategy%20was%20launched%20in%20July,realise%20this%20vision%2C%20we%20have%20three%20strategic%20themes%3A.

[2] Peter Berresford Ellis, The Druids 24-25 (1994).        

[3] Id. at 25; Conor White, Map of the Week: Status of the Celtic Languages, UBIQUE (2019),  https://ubique.americangeo.org/map-of-the-week/map-of-the-week-status-of-the-celtic-languages/#:~:text=The%20six%20widely%20considered% 20Celtic%20nations%20are%20Brittany%2C,distribution%20of%20Celtic%20languages%20in%20the%2021st%20Century (Breton, which is spoken in Brittany, France, is the only Celtic language still spoken in mainland Europe.).

[4] BYU Department of Anthropology, Barry Cunliffe: Who Were the Celts?, YouTube (Feb. 4, 2014), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8FM9nMFbfI.

[5] Ellis, supra note 2, at 24 (The Celts’ love of music may go back to the Druids, an ancient priesthood of learned men, poets, priests, and lawgivers.).

[6] Angus Konstam, Historical Atlas of the Celtic World 176 (2001).

[7] Id.

[8] White, supra note 3.

[9] Id.

[10] Welsh Language Data From the Annual Population Survey: April 2020 to March 2021, Llywodraeth Cymru Welsh Gov’t, https://gov.wales/welsh-language-data-annual-population-survey-april-2020-march-2021  (last visited Jan. 25, 2022). 

[11] Colin H. Williams, Chapter 10: The Lightening Veil: Language Revitalization in Wales, 38 Rev. of Rsch. In Educ. 242, 244-45 (2014); Welsh Language Act 1993 c. 38 (UK).  

[12] Welsh Language Act 1993 c. 38 Pt I § 1, Establishment of the Board (UK).  

[13] Welsh Language Act 1993 c. 38 Preamble (UK).

[14] Id. at 245-46.

[15] Llywodraeth Cymru Welsh Gov’t, supra note 1, at 9.

[16] White, supra note 2.

[17] Government of Wales Act 2006, Llywodraeth Cymru Welsh Gov’t, (last visited Nov. 20, 2021); Government of Wales Act 2006 c. 32 (UK); Daithi MacSithigh, Official Status of Languages in the United Kingdom and Ireland, 47 Common L. World Rev. 77, 80 (2018).

[18] Llywodraeth Cymru Welsh Gov’t, supra note 1, at 7-9, 14.

[19] Id.

[20] Id.

[21] Welsh Language Data From the Annual Population Survey, supra note 10.  

[22] Id.

[23] Government Wales Act 2006 c. 32 Pt II § 46, The First Minister (UK); Government Wales Act 2006 c. 32 Pt II § 48, Welsh Ministers (UK) (Welsh Ministers function as high-ranking members or officers of the Welsh Assembly and are chosen by the Assembly’s leader, the “First Minister,” with the consent of the reigning monarch.); Llywodraeth Cymru Welsh Gov’t, supra note 1, at 5.

[24] Llywodraeth Cymru Welsh Gov’t, supra note 1, at 2-3, 5.

[25] Id. at 5; Welsh Language Data From the Annual Population Survey, supra note 10.

[26] Robert Dunbar, The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, 9(3) Edin. L.R. 466, 466-68 (2005).

[27] Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 asp 7 § 1(1)-(2), Constitution and functions of Bòrd na Gàidhlig (Scot).

[28] Emmett McIntyre, Gaelic is Alive and Well in Scotland’s Largest City – Glasgow is Home to 10% of Scotland’s Gaelic Speakers, Transceltic (June 21, 2020, 5:52 PM), https://www.transceltic.com/blog/gaelic-alive-and-well-scotlands-largest-city-glasgow-home-10-of-scotlands-gaelic-speakers. 

[29] Id.

[30] Id.

[31] Id.

[32] Id.

[33] Id.

[34] Id.

[35] Id.

[36] Id.; Chapter I: Introduction in Scottish Government Gaelic Language Plan 2016-2021, Scottish Gov’t, https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-government-gaelic-language-plan-2016-2021/pages/4/ (June 5, 2017).

[37] Id.

[38] Ellis, supra note 2, at 24.