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A “revolution is required” 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 risen in line with significant population growth, making the language more vulnerable, according to the Welsh language commissioner’s five-year report, published on Tuesday.
The commissioner, Efa Gruffudd Jones, said that “bold and transformative” intervention was needed if the Welsh government was to meet its target of a million Welsh speakers by 2050.
“It’s a statutory requirement of this position to publish a report every five years, but I felt strongly I didn’t want to just publish a look at census information, I wanted to use this as an opportunity,” Gruffudd Jones said. “It’s a report on the state of the language today, but it’s also a chance to build on the good work that’s been done in the past few years and protect the language in future.”
Gruffudd Jones’s report encompasses various metrics for measuring language use, which give differing results: the Welsh government’s Welsh Language Use survey suggests there are 829,000 speakers, whereas 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, safeguarding communities with high numbers of Welsh speakers, and increasing the language’s use in the workplace.
Teacher recruitment and retention is a huge issue in Wales and 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 May’s Senedd elections, polls suggest the nationalist Plaid Cymru will form the next government, but Reform UK is also in with a chance of winning, which would have significant implications for Welsh.
Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, has pledged to scrap the million Cymraeg speakers target and undo the Welsh Language and Education Act, which campaigners say would threaten the provision of Welsh-medium schooling. Demand for Welsh language education already outstrips supply in many areas.
Gruffudd Jones said: “If you look at smaller languages around the world, with everything dominated by English and Spanish, Welsh is doing surprisingly well. I’m not saying that’s enough, but I feel positively about it, and the new Welsh Language Act takes a lot of steps in the right direction. The goal of a million speakers is perfectly achievable as long as we act in some of the priority areas.”
