X-Cc: Multiple recipients of list WELSH-L To: Multiple recipients of list WELSH-L In-Reply-To: <199407151128.HAA07022@gibbs.oit.unc.edu> It seems the British government (out of London) has been making a survey of Welsh speakers every ten years. This started in 1891, when there were 910,289 Welsh speakers recorded, which was 54.4% of the population. The last survey was done in 1991, and found 510,920 with knowledge of Welsh; 18.7% of the population. This is a drop from the 18.9% of the 1981 survey, but it's quite a slight drop compared to the earlier losses and may indicate that Welsh is stabilizing. The survey also found what someone on this list had commented on before: children have a higher percentage of Welsh knowledge than the general population. 24.9% of the age group 3-15 had knowledge of Welsh. This is an _increase_ from the 1981 survey, up from 18%. This trend seems to hold both in the predominately Welsh-speaking regions and in the predominately English-speaking regions. It also indicated that Welsh speakers are starting to become more urban, 10% of all Welsh speakers (in Wales) now live within 25 km of Cardiff. I'm trying to finish a thesis on the survival of Welsh, and I'd love to hear comments on these figures, specifically: - How accurate anyone thinks these numbers are. - I really don't know exactly WHO is doing the survey, what branch of government, are the Welsh involved at all, etc. - Survey methods. Apparently in 1991, for the first time, the survey inquired about reading and writing ability in Welsh, not just speaking ability. I would think that this would push the figures down, yet the drop was very slight. Does anyone know exactly what was asked? - How was the survey scored? Can we assume that the 510,920 people are fluent/competant in Welsh, or just have knowledge of it? - The rise of Welsh in the 3-15 age group. Could this just be due to an increase in classes in Welsh, or is this a significant trend? Will these children retain their Welsh? My main source for this (lots of books use these figures) was _The Welsh Language_ by Janet Davies, 1993 (I believe). I'd love to get an official copy of the survey results if anyone knows how. If London has issued a White Paper (or anything else) on the status of Welsh, I'd love to see that too. Tom McClive tommcc@gibbs.oit.unc.edu (my editor is acting strange today, please forgive any oddities)