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Language: Welsh

  • Apr 20, 2012
  • 06:36 PM

The literary festival breathing life into the Welsh language

Daily Mail
History has tried hard to consign the Welsh language to the linguistic scrapheap. But the launch of Dinefwr Literature Festival packs another punch in the ancient tongue's fightback. The first-ever bilingual Welsh festival will be held over three days from June 29 to July 1 at the National Trust’s rather lovely Dinefwr Park and Castle, in the heart of the Carmarthenshire countryside.
  • Apr 16, 2012
  • 04:37 PM

Labour pulps 5,000 Cardiff council election leaflets criticising Welsh language

WalesOnline
Labour has pulped 5,000 copies of a Cardiff council election leaflet because it contains a resident’s comment that they “can’t apply for most jobs in Wales because you need to speak Welsh”. Last night an angry row erupted between Plaid Cymru and Labour, with Plaid’s deputy council leader Neil McEvoy accusing Labour of seeking to inflame the language issue.
  • Apr 16, 2012
  • 04:03 PM

Plaid Cymru’s Image 2: Welsh-speakers inhabit a networked community

Cynog Dafis / clickonwales
There is no mystery about the close identification of Plaid Cymru and the Welsh language. The party, and to a great extent the home-rule movement which has through devolution given us the ‘civic national identity’ which both Ken and I celebrate, sprang almost exclusively from a Welsh-speaking community acutely aware of its vulnerability amid the rapid change of 20th Century Wales.
  • Apr 12, 2012
  • 01:23 AM

Twitter Gets Help from SLU Prof on How to Deal With Indigenous Tweeters

Nicholas Phillips / Riverfront Times
If you're one of the five remaining speakers of "Yuchi" -- a near-extinct Native American language in Oklahoma -- your tweets will look insane, even to those within your linguistic group. That's because whenever you type in the "@" character, which is a part of your alphabet, Twitter will (wrongly) think you're trying to refer to a different user, such as @Joe_Smith.
  • Apr 11, 2012
  • 04:10 PM

Welsh-only education will damage economy, say business leaders

Rachael Misstear / WalesOnline
A row has erupted over plans to phase out teaching pupils in English at a primary school in a Welsh language stronghold. Business leaders say the move could hinder the economy. Ysgol Gynradd Aberteifi is the last remaining dual language primary school in the Cardigan area, with the nearest school teaching in English more than 20 miles away in New Quay.
  • Apr 10, 2012
  • 05:35 PM

Members united as language group marks anniversary

This is South Wales
Since 1998, Menter Cwm Gwendraeth has been working strategically on the basis of the Welsh Assembly and Carmarthenshire Council's community planning framework, by ensuring the Welsh language is instrumental in the development of every project.
  • Apr 09, 2012
  • 12:03 AM

'Welsh is a wonderful gift': speakers of the language relish new support

Steven Morris / The Guardian
In her first speech as commissioner, Meri Huws spoke of her vision of a Wales where speakers had the confidence to use the language and trust in the law to rectify any prejudice. Her initial focus will be to make sure that the Welsh government and public bodies fulfil their obligations to offer services both in English and Welsh.
  • Apr 04, 2012
  • 04:19 PM

Hazel's remarkable work in Argentine Welsh community

This is South Wales
WHEN Hazel Evans's lifelong dream of visiting Patagonia came true in the 1990s, she had a feeling she would be back. But what she didn't realise was how often she would be back and how large her connection to the Argentinean region would grow. For Mrs Evans, a Welsh teacher now living in Llandybie, has celebrated a decade since the opening of a dedicated Welsh centre in Esquel — a centre which she raised off the ground.
  • Apr 04, 2012
  • 02:10 PM

Business and the Welsh language

Chris Kelsey / WalesOnline
While the Welsh Language Board’s (WLB) efforts have borne fruit as some 500 new voluntary schemes have been adopted, there is scope for the new Commissioner to persuade more businesses to actively embrace the language and to be prepared to offer Welsh services to their customers.
  • Apr 02, 2012
  • 03:33 PM

Welsh Language Commissioner starts work with new powers (video)

Nick Powell / ITV News
The Commissioner has what the Welsh Government calls 'strong enforcement powers' to protect the rights of Welsh speakers to access services in the language and she can launch an official investigation into any interference in people's freedom to speak Welsh to one another. She will start with powers over many public services, not necessarily provided by government or local councils but by businesses licensed by them.
  • Mar 31, 2012
  • 06:48 PM

Dewi Sant church in Toronto looks to Wales for minister's job

BBC News
The only remaining Welsh language church in Canada is advertising for a new minister in newspapers in Wales. Dewi Sant Welsh United Church in Toronto, Ontario, is believed to be one of the few churches in North America still holding services in Welsh.
  • Mar 29, 2012
  • 02:56 PM

Pencae will become a Welsh language institution

Ian Hughes / North Wales Weekly News
A PRIMARY school is to be transformed into a Welsh language school. The Welsh Government has approved plans that will see Ysgol Pencae on Graiglwyd Road in Penmaenmawr become a predominately Welsh language institution in September 2013. Governors say the change from a dual stream to a Welsh medium school will serve to enrich the town, broaden horizons and create future job prospects for pupils.
  • Mar 28, 2012
  • 03:04 PM

Boost for Welsh language skills with success at interpreters' exam centre

The Penny Post
Language skills in Wales have received a boost as the first group of students celebrated passing their Diploma in Public Service Interpreting at Cardiff University. The University’s Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning became Wales’ first examination centre for the Diploma last year. Around 100 students have now completed the first year’s courses, receiving their Diplomas at the Centre’s annual awards ceremony.
  • Mar 26, 2012
  • 08:24 PM

Promoting the use of Welsh in local shops and businesses

Dee / The Penny Post
One of the biggest hurdles when learning to speak Welsh is knowing where you can practise speaking and having the confidence to have a go. It’s not uncommon for a learner to say that they have been going to the same shop for years, but never realised that someone behind the counter could speak Welsh, so they never tried.
  • Mar 20, 2012
  • 07:27 PM

UK journalists held in Libya after Welsh mistaken for Hebrew (video)

BBC News
A Welsh journalist who was detained in Libya says his captors thought he was an Israeli spy because they confused the Welsh language with Hebrew. Gareth Montgomery-Johnson is back home in Nantgaredig, near Carmarthen. He was carrying medical supplies with Welsh words on them when he was arrested in Tripoli last month.
  • Mar 20, 2012
  • 03:22 PM

The importance of bilingual care delivery

Ian Jones / Local Government Chronicle
At the council, we are dedicated to promoting the use of the Welsh language. Using a bilingual mobile device everyday helps us to achieve this and also gives carers an opportunity to develop their Welsh language skills. We can identify whether each carer uses English or Welsh, with the aim of increasing Welsh users over time.
  • Mar 20, 2012
  • 02:01 PM

BBC Radio Cymru job cuts are 'body blow' to Welsh language

Martin Shipton / WalesOnline
Adam Jones, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society) spokesman on broadcasting, said: “We have heard from a very reliable source that the number of staff working for Radio Cymru is to fall from 50 to 42. This is very bad news since it will lead to a an inadequate Welsh language radio service making a situation that is already unacceptable even worse.
  • Mar 19, 2012
  • 08:45 PM

Welsh Primary Schools Win National Language Awards

eGov monitor
Pillgwenlly Primary School in Newport picked up the award for teaching English as an Additional Language and Alderman Davies Church in Wales Primary School, Neath won the Welsh award in the Primary Languages Classroom Awards at the Education Show in Birmingham today.
  • Mar 15, 2012
  • 03:09 PM

Keeping the Welsh language alive (video)

BBC News
At Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw, a Welsh-speaking school, students are celebrating the continued use of the language. It is 50 years since poet, historian and political activist Saunders Lewis warned that the Welsh language might no longer be spoken by the beginning of the 21st century.
  • Mar 13, 2012
  • 12:17 PM

Welsh language 'needs twice as much public money', says WLB

Brendan Hughes / WalesOnline
The statutory body, which is being dissolved at the end of the month, urged the Welsh Government to push its spending on the Welsh language towards the £20m mark over the next five years. It also said developing the language must go hand in hand with improving Wales’ economy, emphasising the need to secure more jobs for those in the traditional Welsh-speaking communities.
  • Mar 12, 2012
  • 01:43 PM

Power to fine public sector bodies £5,000 for failing to use Welsh slammed as ‘tokenism’

Darren Devine / WalesOnline
A spokesperson for the board said the commissioner will be able to prevent Welsh public sector bodies simply paying lip service to the language. These bodies have to set up Welsh language schemes outlining how they will offer their services bilingually and the board can investigate when they breach them.
  • Mar 11, 2012
  • 01:48 AM

Nia Parry out to get more people speaking Welsh in Hwb on S4C

Daily Post
ALL over Wales there are hundreds of people who have lived with the Welsh language all their lives, yet they never speak a word of it. They learned it in school, their parents spoke it, they may even send their children to a Welsh-medium school, but they don’t have the confidence to speak it in conversation. S4C presenter Nia Parry is out to change all that.
  • Mar 09, 2012
  • 04:22 PM

Prisoner Martin Tate's Welsh-speaking ban lifted in telephone calls

BBC News
Prison service officials have confirmed that they have eased restrictions which meant a Welsh-speaking inmate was told to speak English during phone calls. Martin Tate was warned that he must give 48 hours notice to speak Welsh to his relatives in Caernarfon, Gwynedd.
  • Mar 08, 2012
  • 01:19 PM

Nannerch headteacher inspires Welsh language learning

Lois York / Flintshire Chronicle
Jennie Lewis has been nominated for one of the NIACE Inspire Awards for her work in boosting the Welsh language at Ysgol Nannerch. Jennie took over as head of the 72-pupil school three years ago, just before an Estyn inspection which recommended more be done to promote use of the language in the English-medium school.
  • Mar 07, 2012
  • 12:48 AM

In Hebrew's revival, a Nordic people see hope

Daniella Cheslow / The Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) — Norway's Sami people, an indigenous community with roots as reindeer herders in the northern reaches of Scandinavia and Russia, are looking south to Israel for help preserving their fading native language. A Sami delegation spent five days in Israel recently, hoping the Jewish state's experience reviving the once-dormant ancient Hebrew language can provide a blueprint for them.
  • Mar 02, 2012
  • 08:57 PM

New book teaching 'real spoken Welsh' set to upset grammarians

Rachael Misstear / WalesOnline
IT’S a revolutionary Welsh language course that might get traditionalist Welsh teachers balking at its disregard for grammar. The new Live Welsh book has been dubbed the book “learners will love and grammarians will hate”.
  • Mar 02, 2012
  • 08:37 PM

Welsh schools speaking the right language for parents

This is South Wales
With more parents opting to send their children to Welsh-medium schools, Swansea Council has seen a consistent increase in demand for places in the past six years alone. As of January 2010 there were 1,988 full-time pupils in Welsh-medium primary provision, compared with 1,659 in January 2004. Demand is projected to continue to increase to 2,719 by September 2016.
  • Mar 01, 2012
  • 06:33 PM

Welsh Government launches new five-year Welsh language strategy

Matt Withers / WalesOnline
The Welsh Government wants to focus on helping people to use Welsh in everyday life, including through new technology and social media, Education Minister Leighton Andrews said today as he launched a new five-year strategy.
  • Feb 23, 2012
  • 08:25 PM

Wrexham chosen as bilingual town to promote Welsh language

BBC News
Wrexham has become the first location in Wales chosen to be a "bilingual town" in a scheme to promote the use of the Welsh language. The project, drawn up by the Welsh government and Welsh Language Board, hopes to encourage more people to use Welsh in everyday life in the town.
  • Feb 22, 2012
  • 04:40 PM

Wrexham pub hopes to encourage Welsh speakers

news.caterer.com
People in Wrexham pub jobs might consider taking a course in Welsh after the news that a redeveloped pub has reopened its doors as an establishment focused on encouraging pub-goers to speak in their native tongue.
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