LL-L "Language survival" 2005.09.08 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 08.SEP.2005 (05) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West) Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Críostóir Ó Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Language survival" 2005.09.07 (07) [E]


Heather Rendall wrote:
"I have not belittled Welsh - just the means used in the 70s to introduce 
Welsh into primary schools [...] in came the inspectors (into both schools) 
and insisted that the children from English speaking homes should be taught 
separately and kept apart in the school from the Welsh speaking children."

Such a policy could hardly encourage the children of English-speaking homes 
to take up fluent Welsh. Therefore I wouldn't support it.

"At the time I sugegsted that using both languages equally in the school 
would be a better policy if a bi-lingual community was the aim. I and others 
of alike mind were over ruled."

It depends on the linguistic composition of where you lived. If Welsh 
speakers comprised just 30-40 per cent of the area (or less), this sort of 
"bilingualism" would not have worked. English in Wales in the 1970s was 
supreme, and the Welsh-speaking children (who would have known some English) 
would have simply switched to English to keep in wit! h their 
English-speaking peer majority. It was highly unlikely in the 1970s that 
English-speaking children would know any Welsh, or wish to learn it.

"Everything we feared came to pass - the children warred with each other in 
the playground on langauge grounds: friends were split up and told not to 
play with each other. It was not the aim I deplored it was the means."

See above. The simplest situation would be to have two schools in the 
district, one Welsh-speaking and the other English-speaking. Any children of 
whatever linguistic background could be sent to either, but the language of 
instruction in one would be Welsh, and in the other it would be English. 
Parents could then choose which language they wanted their child(ren) 
educated through.

"Please do read without bringing your own prejudices to the text."

I would be unique in the annals of humankind if I could read without any 
prejudice whatsoever, as would you. It is just that I find it very difficult 
to be prejudiced in favour of English.

Go raibh maith agat,

Criostóir.

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