Minority Languages of the UK

Minority Languages

As you know, English is a dominant language in the UK. English is very strong and it shortens the number of other language speakers. There are some languages in Britain such as Welsh, Scots and Gaelic. There used to be Manx and Cornish as well; however, those languages had gone. They were extinct, but also the number of people who speak Welsh, Scots and Gaelic is decreasing. Because English is important and necessary language in Britain, many people give up speaking their minority languages. It means that English suppresses those languages. In this posting, I want to write especially about Welsh, because I was interested in the long place name that our teacher told us. I also want to suggest some solutions to protect minority languages.

Welsh
First, I want to write about Welsh. According to The Welsh Language Board, 21.7 % of Welsh people could speak Welsh in 2004. It means about 611,000 of Welsh people could speak Welsh. After Wales and England were merged in 1536, English became a common language in Wales. Speaking Wales in schools was banned, and Welsh was discriminated. Therefore, the number of people who speak Welsh kept decreasing. However, people started to protect this language from 20th century. More and more people speak Welsh recently because of the education and TV programs. Elementary and Junior high schools in Wales started to teach Welsh again, and some TV programs like BBC Wales or ITB Wales which use Welsh started to be broadcasted. While people in South part of Wales do not speak Welsh so much, people in middle or North part of Wales speak it in daily lives. If you are interested in Welsh, click here and study Welsh. You can find English-Welsh dictionary in the site.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Next, I want to write about the second longest place name in the world. The longest place name in the world is officially called "Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu" in New Zealand. People call it "Taumata" though. The second longest place name is in Wales. As you can see the top picture of this posting , the place is called "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch". Originally, this place was called "Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll" until 19 th century, but the name became longer to attract tourists. In order to protect the language and culture, Wales could have needed to attract people in some way. The handout that we were given in the class explains the meaning of this place name as "The church of St Mary in the hollow of write hazel near the rapid whirlpool by the church of St Tysilio of the red cave". People who want to move to Wales take an examination whether they can pronounce this long place name correctly though Welsh people call the place "Llanfair PG" in short; however, this pronunciation examination could be the good first step for people who are interested in Wales to speak Walsh. While pronouncing Maori words is quite easy because they are similar to pronouncing Roman alphabets, pronouncing Wales is difficult because the rule of how to pronounce are complicated. According to the rule, it may be pronounced like "Lanvair pulgwingil gogerahuwarandroubl lantisilio gogogoho" . Still, I do not have confidence. If you want to learn Welsh pronunciation, click here or here(Japanese site).
Promotion

Finally, I want to describe how to revive minority languages. There are many ways to promote them as my classmates discussed in the class. Making TV or radio programs, newspaper, web sites, songs, video games and books are very good ideas, because everyone would be interested in and see or hear them. Also, making opportunity to communicate with minority language speakers is nice for people who cannot speak that language; for instance, people can experience enjoying and studying the language at the same time through joining clubs or parties. It is important to enjoy studying, but also, the government sometimes should be strict to protect the language; for instance, making examination to get citizenship, people who cannot speak those language cannot get credit and so on. It is sad thing that the language dies because it is like the culture dies. Therefore, people must work hard to preserve minority languages.

Opinion

English is convenient to communicate, but it is too strong and endangers other languages. It is sad thing that the languages die because it is like cultures disappear. Fortunately, the situation is getting better in Wales, but Welsh government must promote the language more. I also think that the other minority languages need such promoting activities. I want them to use the ways that I suggested in this essay.

Reference
wikipedia
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%82%BA%E8%AA%9E

Storry, M. and Childs, P. (2007) British Cultural Identities. (3rd Ed.) Routledge.