I heard a piece on Radio 4 this morning about the predicted death of 50% of the worlds languages over the next century, and have just read the related article on their website. Welsh interestingly is quoted as a success story, though in one response on the website, a correspondant from Cardiff suggests preserving 'dead' languages is through teaching them as a secondary language in schools, as with Welsh he goes on to say! ...not quite sure he understands the concept of Welsh medium education. Others clearly welcome the demise of minority languages as a positive thing and look forward to a world where we can travel without the inconvenience of encountering different tongues.
Clearly the most endangered languages are in remote areas where tribes have little autonomy and whos language is seen as a hinderance to progress, or to finding employment/education in rapidly changing cultures. This takes us back to Welsh in a way, a language that was seen as a hinderance by some and not passed on by parents, where they felt it would stop them getting on. This attitude to a smaller extent continues I'm sure. I remember a friend (a first language Welsh speaker) from Holyhead but living here being asked to say something in Welsh once, his mumbled reply was something like "Why, do you want to talk about combine harvesters?". This always struck me as strange, as if he was embarassed by his culture (past?) and associated Welsh as an agricultural language.
Thankfully though attitudes are changing, and Welsh has seen a small yet significant revival, on paper at least. Welsh is seen to be of value by many these days, and there is a confidence in Wales that no one could have dreamt of before 1998.
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