Welsh Journals

1. WELSH AND ENGLISH IN CONTEMPORARY WALES: SOCIOLINGUISTIC ISSUES Nikolas Coupland and Martìn J. Ball The decennial Census of Population has most frequently been taken as the departure-point for discussions of 'the language situation' in Wales. As is well known, Census data have shown a dramatic reduction in the numbers of self-reporting Welsh-language speakers, particularly since 1911, to the 1981 figure of around half a million. Interpretations of recent statistical trends differ as to the degree of optimism and pessimism they deem the figures to merit for the language's future. Baker (1985, p.39), for example, finds 'a few silver linings set against the presence of a large foreboding cloud'. The interim report of the National Curriculum Welsh Working Group highlights the growth in the number of Welsh designated bilingual primary schools from 28 to 67 between 1960 and 1987, and from one to 16 over the same period in the secondary sector (Welsh Office, 1988, p.7). The systematic provision of and for Welsh in the National Curriculum, promised though by no means yet established, is clearly one of the principal 'silver linings'. The ineluctable westward retreat of reported Welsh- language usage among adults (and possibly also northwards through Dyfed in the west), plus the prevalence of older speakers among the number of Welsh speakers, are conversely major causes for concern (cf. Stephens, 1979). However crucial the Census data are, they are also recognized to present, beyond their broadest sweep, difficulties of interpretation. C.H. Williams (1989, p.37), for example, notes that 'census data do not permit a comprehensive time-series analysis of change at the local