Welsh Journals

7. GOVERNANCE AND THE LANGUAGE ColinH. Williams A decade ago I presented an argument for the recognition of new domains of the Welsh language which advocated the passage of a new Welsh Language Act and a form of self-government which would promote national language planning (Williams, 1989). Having established a Language Act, a National Assembly and a language-planning body in the shape of the Welsh Language Board, it is time to assess to what extent new forms of governance will influence the contours of bilingualism in Wales during the next decade. LANGUAGE AND NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS In Europe we have witnessed some five centuries or more of analysis, debate and open conflict regarding the preferred relationship between a state and its constituent language groups. More recently the European Union and the Council of Europe have deliberated upon which languages should be recognized and adopted for official usage within a wide range of domains. A state's language policy may be enshrined within a written constitution and a codified legal system which is subject to occasional judicial review by a parliament or congressional assembly. Or it may be expressed implicitly through usages generally observed in connection with citizen-state relations. Within bilingual or multilingual polities there is often an underlying tension between efficiency and state-unifying arguments favouring the dominance of one administrative language, and social justice-democracy arguments which favour the recognition of a plurality of languages. For example, the American constitution does not specify an official language for the United States, nevertheless English has implicitly acquired such a privileged status through the administration's federal legislation and practices. The rise of the Official English movement within the US is but the