Welsh councils should delay implementing new local development plans until new government guidelines on their Welsh language impact are published, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg has insisted.
Oh, for...!
Toni Schiavone, the language group's sustainable communities spokesman, says Cymdeithas members will seek meetings with council leaders, chief executives and planning officers to call for the postponement.
Well, will you be speaking English to do that? Because otherwise, no-one'll understand you!
They also want local reports on the state of the Welsh language locally and to set targets to increase the number of Welsh speakers in each community.
If your minority language needs government help to survive, it's time to face facts. It's dying.
Mr Schiavone said: "All this delay in publishing these new guidelines is a mystery.
''It's causing frustration, but most importantly, it is highly damaging to the Welsh language," he added.
*shrugs*
Schiavone - is that Italian for Jones?
ReplyDeleteI'm of Welsh extraction, and 'Toni Schiavone' doesn't strike me as a particularly Cymric name....
ReplyDelete@Lynne & Robert - According to Himself...who is a Gog of Anglesey descent and considers Himself to be more Welsh than Welsh 'cos yes, there IS a hierarchy...Anglesey was host to lots of italian prisoners of war during WW2 who bred with locals.
ReplyDeleteThe place is awash with wierd and wonderful mixes of Welsh and Italian names.
cyfan yr ydym ei angen yw google gyfieithu, broblem ei datrys - ta dah
ReplyDeleteGuide me Oh thou great Jehovah,
ReplyDeletePilgrim through this barren land.
At least the Welsh language nutters wish to speak Welsh in their own country. In London - apparently the capital of the ostensibly English-speaking UK - Bengali is the language of choice in Tower Hamlets Council. I suspect that within the next 10 years, council literature will be printed in Bengali and English translations (if available) will have to be applied for at Tower Hamlets Town Hall.
ReplyDeleteset targets to increase the number of Welsh speakers in each community
ReplyDeleteGroan.
@Umbongo
ReplyDeleteNot helped by all the Labour MPs Wales constantly re-elect.
This reminds me of my irritation, at first, at being taught Latin. Unlike Welsh, though, Latin proved useful.
If their dying language is so important to them, why doesn't Antonio ask _why_ it's dying?
His attitude alone spells out why Wales is dying, as though England has appendicitis.
What's Welsh for 'shaddupayouface'?
In the interests of inclusivity meetings should be held in Urdu - the New Welsh - which is spoken by more and more people.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Old Welsh, which is in decline because of first cousin inbreeding in the isolated valleys of North Wales.
The New Welsh find the pagan content of eisteddfods offensive, and see the "grooming" of young participants as child abuse.
Local development and planning? That's for things like buildings. Like houses. What the fuck has that got to do the Welsh Language. Are they just another group of people desperate for more milk from Nanny's nipple that they will give a hissy fit when they aren't the centre of attention, or am I talking bollocks?
ReplyDeleteWelsh, its all Dutch to me.
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, the language should be preserved. Have you ever tried chatting up a sheep in English?
Don't understand the hostility, learn the language of the community you are in or leave, sentiments wholeheartedly supported elsewhere here.
ReplyDelete"Schiavone - is that Italian for Jones?"
ReplyDeleteHeh! But as Tatty points out, Italian-sounding names are indeed prevalent in parts of Wales.
"cyfan yr ydym ei angen yw google gyfieithu, broblem ei datrys"
/applause It works, too! :)
"At least the Welsh language nutters wish to speak Welsh in their own country."
True enough!
"Local development and planning? That's for things like buildings. Like houses. What the fuck has that got to do the Welsh Language."
Beats me! Though I suspect you hit the nail firmly on the head...
"Don't understand the hostility, learn the language of the community you are in or leave..."
ReplyDeleteHow much of it is truly 'the language of the community' though? If it needs government help to be so...
Very simply, Welsh now is a rural language, its not majority in a single major urban community (I use major in a Welsh sense) when a new influx of people come in who don't speak the language but a tongue foreign to the area threaten the indigenous culture.
ReplyDelete@Tatty: Yes, I'd forgotten about the Italians. Ice-cream sellers, most of them, IIRC.
ReplyDelete