To: Multiple recipients of list WELSH-L Why the Welsh need Welsh There are several reasons put forward for the differing attitudes to language and nationalism in Wales and Scotland. 1) Welsh has always had higher esteem than Scots or Gaelic have had for hundreds of years. Gaelic has only gained prestige of a sort in the last twenty years - Scots still has almost no prestige and its existence is routinely denied by many of its millions of native speakers. 2) Scotland has always been a multilingual country even before the imposition of English - Pictish, British, Norse (Norn), Gaelic and Scots as well as the non-native French and English. Wales has had only one native language for at least a millenium and a half. 3) Wales has been much more completely assimilated into the British state while Scotland has maintained its own institutions - Law, Church, Education System better - until WWII there was less cultural assimilation all round. Wales has had only its language to serve as a line of defence against English culture. 4) Points 3 and 4 have meant that Scottish nationalism has never except in the case of a few individuals been tied to language 5) On less secure ground you could argue that the Scottish Nationalist movement has tended to be philistine, emphasising economics and politics rather than the culture of Scotland - this is a commonly levelled accusation which I largely agree with :-( - a can't speak for the Welsh nationalists. Sorry my Welsh isn't up to writing this in Welsh, I strayed from Gaelic-L. George Halliday