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Rhidian Jones
and that retreat continues today. Below are two maps of Wales based on the
Census results of 1991 and 2001. In the dark-colored areas over 70% of inhabitants
were noted as Welsh-speaking and the decline in the size and number of
these communities over the 10 years is evident. The communities where Welsh
is the natural medium of daily life, in the north and west of Wales, are being
eroded, and the 2011 Census is likely to report the disappearance of any areas in
the south that are more than 70% Welsh-speaking.
There are various reasons for this process. We live in a mobile world and
many young Welsh speakers leave their native areas to study or to find work.
Wales’s Gross Domestic Product is lower than in other parts of the UK, and in
south and west Wales it is 71% of the UK average (BBC News, 25 February
2011). Such an economic situation does not help in arresting the brain-drain out
of the Welsh-speaking heartlands, and a statistician for the Welsh Language
Board has estimated that there are 110 thousand Welsh speakers in England
alone (Jones 2007: 10).
An equally significant factor is in-migration, especially from England. The
Welsh-speaking communities have stayed Welsh-speaking largely because of
their isolation, and that isolation is now what is drawing people in – green hills,
relatively cheap property, and a low crime rate. For each year between 1981 and
2005 Wales experienced a net inflow of migrants from the rest of the UK (National
Statistics report 2006: 40) and this was particularly pronounced in areas
such as Ceredigion and Conwy that have traditionally been strongholds of
Welsh. These in-migrants were mainly from older age brackets, while those
who left Wales tended to be younger.
There is no necessity or compulsion for incomers to learn Welsh since the
bilingual nature of the area means they can use English only. Thus, the English
language invades domains where Welsh was the main language, for example in
the yard of the local school or in the pub, and poses a grave threat to the future
of Welsh locally.
Professors John Aitchison and Harold Carter (1994) encapsulated the effects
of immigration on the Welsh heartlands in their study of the geography of
the language:
Cultural and linguistic continuity clearly depends on the relation between the strength of the
host population and numbers of incomers. There is a level where immigrants can be
integrated, and indeed fall under pressure to integrate, and where they can add vitality to a
community. But there is also a level where, because of the relatively high numbers,
absorption does not take place, nor is it seen as necessary. There is a ‘tipping point’ where
the domains of language use become restricted, the supporting cultural environment becomes
attenuated and Anglicization intensifies (Aitchison and Carter 1994: 77–78).