X-Cc: Multiple recipients of list WELSH-L To: Multiple recipients of list WELSH-L In-Reply-To: <199407140924.EAA18149@Paula-Formby.tenet.edu> Concerning your second paragraph, I, as very much an "outsider," noted a clear distinction between not only the incidence of spoken Welsh in the north and the south (with the percentage being much higher in the north, though I didn't take any precise measurements) but also the indigenous view, in the north, that there the language was spoken much more purely -- a situation not unlike the north German view of the northern being much purer than the southern AND also like the same view that prevails (although with less basis in fact than once was) with regard to spoken English in the U.S. As I say, though, I was looking through an outsider's eyes, in 1972. Therefore, my conclusions could have been wrong then; or, even if they were correct then, things could have changed over the intervening years. J. MARSHALL BEVIL, PH.D. Historical and Systematic Musicology British and British-American Studies * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * On Thu, 14 Jul 1994, Justin Fackrell wrote: > Iwan Roberts writes : > > *Consider the following statistics which I heard during the recent coverage > *of this years National Eisteddfod. Apparently 25% of the adult population of > *Wales (Oes rhywun yn gwybod beth yw poblogaeth Cymru ?) speak Welsh as their > *native language. However, 35% of children speak Welsh at Home. > > Is this really true ? Having been born and brought up in the second largest > city in Wales (Swansea) during the 70's and 80's I have to say that I hear > Welsh spoken so rarely that I would be inclined to say that maybe 5% of > people in Swansea (population about 180,000 I think) speak Welsh. At the > age of 16 my family moved to Newport, where Welsh seems even thinner on > the ground. If Welsh is so rarely spoken in two of the largest cities in > Wales, there must be areas (presumably mid and North) where very high > percentages of people speak Welsh to give a 25 % average. Does anyone > have any more statistics on the percentages of the population who speak > Welsh ? > > I had Welsh lessons (compulsory) for 2 years at school in Swansea, but > unfortunately never realised their importance until I left Wales at age 18. > My parents, both Welsh, are mono-lingual English speakers, showed little > interest in what they termed a 'dead' language. I am now starting to learn > again. > > Justin. > > ================================================================== > Justin Fackrell jwaf@ee.ed.ac.uk > Signals and Systems Group > Dept of Electrical Engineering > University of Edinburgh > King's Buildings > Edinburgh EH9 3JL tel: +44 [0]31 650 5655 > ================================================================== >