LL-L "Diversity" 2006.03.06 (05) [E]

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   L O W L A N D S - L * 06 February 2006 * Volume 05
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From: Críostóir Ó Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Diversity" 2006.03.04 (02) [E]


Paul Finlow-Bates wrote:
"But Wales doesn't reciprocate with this recognition of "Legislative" versus 
"Traditional" boundaries. All of Wales uses bilingual signage, including the 
Southwest, Pembroke area. Here all the place names are Germanic - largely 
Anglo-Danish. The area was once termed the "Englishry" as it was always 
inguistically distinct from other parts of Wales. If it important to 
recognise the character of minority areas in the English- German- or 
Dutch-speaking world (and this group surely exists because most members 
believe that?) then the same should apply to other countries. Wales is in 
effect atempting to homogenize the country."

Westminster delimited what is now Wales after the Second World War, and 
Monmouthshire was only attached to Wales the local government 
reorganisations of 1974. Similarly, the bilingual rules came in with the 
1993 Welsh Language Act, also emanating from Westminster in London. Welsh 
MPs only formed 6.1 p! er cent (40 of 659) of the House of Commons in the 
1990s. Therefore this notion of "Wales" grabbing bits of "England" and 
homogenising them in a chauvinist drive doesn't stand up - if anything, 
these were areas that England decided should be "ceded" to Wales and made 
bilingual, largely regardless of Welsh opinion on the matter. In other 
words, blame the English Parliament.

What is more, the notion of "Pembrokeshire" is misleading. There are, and 
have been for about eight hundred years, two Pembrokeshires - a 
Welsh-speaking part to the north and an English-speaking part to the south. 
(This latter area is Paul's "Englishry".) In 1974 none of this mattered 
because all of Pembrokeshire was subsumed with Merioneth and Carmarthenshire 
into the new local government area of Dyfed, which was about 50-60 per cent 
Welsh-speaking. In 1993, as part of Dyfed, "English" Pembrokeshire became 
officially bilingual in Welsh _and_ English, in the same way that histo! 
rically Welsh-speaking parts of Carmartenshire and Merioneth became 
bilingual in English _and_ Welsh. (All areas having previously been 
administered through English with minimal provision for Welsh.)

The suggestion that bilingualism in Wales is homogenising Wales into a 
Welsh-speaking cold house for English speakers is patently absurd given that 
75 per cent of the Welsh population does not know Welsh, and that the whole 
country is officially bilingual, so one is free to use _either_ English or 
Welsh (or both) anywhere in Wales. The reality is that in English-speaking 
areas people continue to use English, and in Welsh-speaking areas people 
continue to use Welsh (although still under threat from English). South 
Pembrokeshire is still an English-speaking area, still "Englishry" through 
and through - just like the Gower - and English speakers are in no way 
discriminated against or "homogenised against" there. Under present 
arrangements no one is! forcing, or could ever force, the "Englishry" to 
speak or use Welsh against their will.

These urban myths about bilingualism being a dichotomous anti-majority 
language / pro-minority language homogenisation help no one.

Go raibh maith agat,

Críostóir.

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From: Críostóir Ó Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Diversity" 2006.03.04 (02) [E]


A minor correction of my earlier post:

Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire were assigned to Dyfed in 
1974. Merionethshire became part of Gwynedd.

Go raibh maith agat,

Críostóir. 

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