“A revolution is needed” to protect the Welsh language, according to a major new report.
While the number of Cymraeg speakers has remained more or less stable for decades, it has not increased in step with significant population growth, making the language more vulnerable, according to the Welsh Language Commissioner’s five-year report, published on Tuesday.
Commissioner Efa Gruffudd Jones said a “bold and transformative” intervention was needed if the Welsh Government was to reach its target of one million Welsh speakers by 2050.
“It is a legal requirement of this position to publish a report every five years, but I felt strongly that I didn’t want to just publish a snapshot of census information, I wanted to use this as an opportunity,” Gruffudd Jones said. “It is a report on the current state of the language, but it is also an opportunity to build on the good work that has been done in recent years and protect the language in the future.”
The Gruffudd Jones report covers several metrics for measuring language use, which give different results: the Welsh Government’s Welsh Language Use Survey suggests there are 829,000 speakers, while the 2021 census recorded 538,000. These differences are believed to be due to data collection methods.
The report identifies three main areas to strengthen Cymraeg: the education system, protecting communities with large numbers of Welsh speakers and increasing the use of the language in the workplace.
Teacher recruitment and retention is a big issue in Wales and in Welsh medium education, as it is across the UK. Last summer, the Senedd passed the landmark Welsh Language and Education Act, which aims to increase the number of Welsh-speaking teachers through incentives such as bursaries.
Ahead of the Senedd election in May, polls suggest nationalist Plaid Cymru will form the next government, but Reform UK is also likely to win, which would have major implications for Wales.
Nigel Farage, the reform leader, has pledged to eliminate the targeted one million Cymraeg speakers and undo the Welsh Language and Education Act, which campaigners say would threaten Welsh education provision. Demand for Welsh language education already exceeds supply in many areas.
Gruffudd Jones said: “If you look at the smaller languages in the world, where everything is dominated by English and Spanish, Welsh is doing surprisingly well. I’m not saying it’s enough, but I feel positively about it, and the new Welsh Language Act takes many steps in the right direction. The target of one million speakers is perfectly achievable as long as we act on some of the priority areas.”
