Chaque année, plus de 5200 galloisants quittent leur pays

 

The crisis in the housing market is “emptying Welsh speaking villages”, language campaigners have warned.

It is estimated that Wales is losing around 5,200 Welsh speakers a year through out-migration from the country, according to the Welsh language society, Cymdeithas yr Iaith.

The crisis will be the main topic discussed at a conference in Aberystwyth today.

In Ynys Môn, Gwynedd, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire over the last decade, 117,000 young people between 15 and 29 have left, which is over 55% of all the out-migration for every age group, the conference will hear.

In Ceredigion, house prices are more than seven times average wages. Last year, 39% of the homes sold in nearby Gwynedd were either holiday homes or ‘buy to let’ – a rise of 34% from the previous year.

Councillor Loveday Jenkin from Cornwall Council, architect Màrtainn Mac a’Bhàillidh from a Scottish language group and Heddyr Gregory from Shelter Cymru will be among the speakers in the discussion in Aberystwyth organised by Cymdeithas yr Iaith.

Speaking ahead of the event, Jeff Smith from Cymdeithas yr Iaith said: “Between a lack of jobs and out-of-reach house prices, towns and villages in the West and North are suffering terribly linguistically and more generallu because so many Welsh speakers have to move away.

“We really need to get to grips with this so that the language can thrive. We need a property system which ensures that house prices reflect what local people can afford. That’s why we’ve decided that housing, including holiday homes, will be the main focus of the conference today.

“From their higher education fees policy which encourages people to leave the country, to sustaining and supporting a housing market with totally unaffordable prices for local people, Government policies work against the language and community sustainability more generally.

“We hope to learn from other countries what we need to do differently. Some policies in Porth Ia (St Ives) in Cornwall offer an answer to the problems, with restrictions on second homes.

“But, we need to consider other measures in order to bring prices down. One possible answer is to normalise houses as a public service in public hands rather than a private asset.

“Bringing the right to buy to an end was a step in the right direction, but how do we bring the present private housing stock back into the hands of local communities?”

Use of Welsh language in assembly defended by Carwyn Jones

 

 

Budget insuffisant pour l'enseignement du gallois

Vast amounts of money earmarked for use within Welsh medium education have not been touched by a number of Welsh councils, it has emerged.

The £1.4bn Welsh Government pot has been largely used on English language schools – raising calls for a review of school funding in Wales.

The money has been allocated to councils under the 21st Century Schools and Education Capital Programme. The programme was launched in 2011 to update and re-build school and post-16 college buildings. But just 30% of the funding pot has been spent on Welsh medium schools.

Among Wales’ 22 local authorities, six have spent little or no money on Welsh medium schools, according to the campaign group RhaG (Parents for Welsh Medium Education).

Blaenau Gwent and Flintshire have spent none and earmarked none, while Rhondda Cynon Taf has earmarked just 0.5% of its £160m allocation from the programme on Welsh language education. Monmouthshire has spent just 1% of its £93m.

In contrast, Anglesey and Gwynedd have earmarked all their allocation under the programme to Welsh medium schools, Carmarthenshire spent 80% and Cardiff and Swansea 22%.

The figures do not show how much of the money allocated to councils under the programme, aimed at updating school and post-16 college facilities, has been spent – only the intention.

 

 

 

Less than half of Welsh teenagers think they'll speak the language as adults. By Daniel Evans

Education

18 November 2015

Teenagers are apathetic about learning Welsh. Can we keep the language alive

Teenagers in Wales believe it is important that Welsh remains a living language, but fewer than half believe they will go on to speak it as adults. This is what we found when we surveyed over 800 young people from across Wales about their attitudes to the language.

Our initial results show that despite the Welsh government’s efforts to create an “infrastructure” for the language so that Welsh speakers can use it on a daily basis, there is still a lot of work to be done. The narrow vote in favour of Welsh devolution in 1997 was seen as a defining moment in the history of the Welsh language. The Welsh Assembly was heralded as the ultimate tool to safeguard the language, which had consistently been declining throughout the 20th century.

Initially, things looked very promising. The 2001 census results seemed to mark a historic turnaround in fortunes for the language, showing a 13 per cent increase in the number of Welsh speakers since 1991.

Yet this proved to be a false dawn. In 2011, the numbers of Welsh speakers had again declined, with 19 per cent of the population “able to speak Welsh” compared with 20.8 per cent in 2001. Disappointingly, this decline also included the younger age groups, aged between five and 15, which had shown slight increases in ability in previous years.

To address this decline, in 2011 the Welsh government published the policy document Living language: a language for living. Its aim was to ensure that Welsh remains a living language used in everyday life – as opposed to a language merely associated with school or “high culture”.

Over the past few years my colleagues and I at WISERD Education have been visiting schools (both primary and secondary, Welsh and English medium) across Wales surveying different groups of children as they pass through key phases in their education. In one survey done between April and July 2013, we asked 849 students, drawn from Years 8 and 10 (aged 12-13 and 14-15), their views on the Welsh language.

Attitudes v practice

The students were generally positive towards the language, with 75 per cent feeling that it is important that Welsh “remains a living language”. Of those we surveyed, 65 per cent of students claimed it was important for them to learn Welsh – a positive sign for the Welsh government’s strategy – although only 59 per cent stated it was important to “actually speak Welsh”. This also raises the spectre of a disjuncture between attitudes and practice.

 

 

 

 

Fiche synthétique

 

PAYS DE GALLES

CYMRU (gallois)

KEMBRE (breton)

WALES (anglais)

 

Superficie:    20 276 km2      /  Bretagne: 34 200 km2

Population :  env. 3 millions d'habitants  / Bretagne : plus de 4 millions

Capitale:  Cardiff  , jumelée avec Nantes, Bretagne

Jumelages: A ce jour, 44 villes bretonnes jumelées avec des villes galloises.

Langues: le gallois, langue celtique, comme le breton : 19% de la population parlent le gallois; l'anglais .

Universités: Cardiff, Aberystwyth et Bangor constituent l'Université Nationale du Pays de Galles.

Administration: 8 comtés.

Statut particulier: Assemblée nationale galloise (référendum du 18 septembre 1997). Voir détail ci-joint.

Economie: Industrie (construction navale, sidérurgie, ardoisières, tourisme, agriculture, artisanat). Agriculture (élevage de moutons essentiellement).

Partis politiques: outre les partis politique britanniques (Labour, Tories, Libéraux), le Plaid Cymru est un parti autonomiste qui a plusieurs députés à Westminster.

Drapeau: «  Y Ddraig doch » le Dragon Rouge (emblème du Roi Arthur)

Hymne: Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (le vieux pays de mes pères) Paroles: Evan James/Ieuan ap Iago; musique: James James(fils de Evan)/Iago ap Ieuan. 1856. Traduit en breton par François Jafrennou, barde Taldir sous le titre « Bro Gozh ma zadoù » en 1902.

Fête nationale: le 1er Mars, jour de la Saint-David, patron du Pays de Galles.

Religion: Plusieurs églises protestantes en majorité (Anglicans, Méthodistes, Non-Conformistes, Presbytériens, Calavinistes) et Catholiques.

Traditions: Puissante culture traditionnelle qui atteint son summum avec la grande fête de la culture galloise , 'l'Eisteddfod ' qui rassemble près d'un million de personnes au début du mois d'août .

Sport: le rugby est un sport national de renommée mondiale.

Boissons: la bière, le thé

Climat: doux et humide

Montagnes: le Snowdon (Parc Naturel de Snodonia , au nord du Pays de Galles). Les Black Mountains, au  sud .

Musique: la harpe est l'instrument le plus pratiqué. Les chorales galloises font le tour du monde...

Bilinguisme: toutes les pancartes sont bilingues. L'enseignement en gallois est généralisé. Tous les documents officiels sont en gallois.
La télévision a un chaîne entièrement en gallois , la S4C (Sianel Pedwar Cymru).

Littérature: plusieurs trésors de la littérature médiévale occidentale, en particulier les Quatre Branches des Mabinogi /Pedair Cainc y Mabinogi, (Pwyll, Branwen, Manawydan, Math), et d'autres textes : Culluwch et Olwen, le Rêve de Mascen Wledig, Lludd et Llefelys, Peredur, le rêve de Rhonabwy, Owein, Gereint et Eneid et l'histoire de Taliesin ,  traduits en anglais par Charlotte Guest en 1838 et 1849 qui réunit tous ces textes sous le titre des Mabinogion.