Gibson Ferguson Language Planning and Education Edinburgh ...

Minority languages and language revitalisation 97
Linguistic factors
One should not forget, however, the role of linguistic influences alongside the more
sociological. The dialectal fragmentation of Breton, mentioned earlier, and the
absence until relatively recently of a widely accepted standard written Breton has
not only hindered the language’s incorporation into formal education but militated
against its use as a regional lingua franca and as a symbol for a pan-Breton identity.
As Jones (1998b: 138) points out, Breton native speakers see in their dialects only an
emblem of a localised identity; for the realisation of a wider identity, they seem
content to rely on French, and it is this, in combination with the perception that
Breton is but a hindrance to progress and to modernity, that constitutes the core of
their psychological representation of the language, a representation that is at the root
of the recent collapse of intergenerational transmission.
It is perhaps ironic, then, that the current demographic weakness of Breton and
its near demise as a language of home and community should coincide with a period
when the French state, as evidenced by its 1999 signing of the European Charter for
Regional and Minority Languages, is at last displaying signs of conceding space to
Breton in the civic realm and of supporting the teaching of the language. Though
belated, this will support the efforts of those activists who have working – for some
time now – for the revitalisation of Breton, a story to which we come presently. First,
however, we return to Welsh and its revitalisation.
4.3.2 The revitalisation of Welsh
For convenience, we divide this brief overview of the revitalisation of Welsh into
two categories: language status planning and institutional support, and language
acquisition planning.
4.3.2.1 Status planning and institutional support
A remarkable feature of the late twentieth century revival of Welsh has been its
transformation from a marginal language restricted to low status domains to a
language that now enjoys official recognition and that has become institutionalised
and legitimised to a degree scarcely imaginable only sixty years ago. Accompanying
this rise in status has been a revalorisation of the language in the public’s eyes: 88 per
cent of respondents in a 1995 opinion survey, for example, agreed that Welsh was
‘something to be proud of’ (May 2000b: 158). Speaking Welsh has acquired something
of a social cachet, especially in middle-class circles, and, as partly evidenced by
the growing willingness of English-speaking parents to enrol their children in Welshmedium
schools, there is an increased awareness of the advantages of a knowledge
of Welsh for careers in the public sector, in education and in the regional media
(Aitchison and Carter 2000: 138).
A convenient starting point for an account of the revival of Welsh, but an arbitrary
one given the prior foundation of the Welsh Nationalist Party (Plaid Cymru) in