Contemporary Welsh

From about 1960 onwards, although the numbers of people speaking Welsh continued to fall, the growth of Welsh national consciousness and the rise of a Welsh speaking middle class helped to keep the language alive. People were beginning to ask for public services through the medium of Welsh, for Welsh on roads and public places and for more Welsh language television and radio programmes.

Welsh was also being taught in schools both as first and second language, and the demand for Welsh medium education was beginning to grow, especially in those areas which had become anglicised. The growth of BBC Radio Cymru since the 1970s and S4C – the Welsh Language Television Channel – since the 1980s has helped to raise the status of the language.  

Today there is an increasing interest in Welsh among people of all ages and thousands of people are learning the language. The Welsh language can be seen and heard more widely in the everyday life of the people of Wales and especially in the fields of education, in the media and in public life. In 2011 a law was passed giving the Welsh language an official status in Wales alongside English.

The Welsh that is spoken and written has changed greatly over the last 1500 years. At one time, Wales was a country of many and varied dialects; today, dialectic words and phrases continue to give the language its hues and tones and people use northern or southern language patterns when speaking. 

English words and terms continue to influence the language as they do other languages. Modern technology has broken down the linguistic barriers that at one time created a barrier to understanding and the young, as in other cultures, are bending the language to their own idiom.

As communication technology develops, the Welsh language will have to evolve to make itself fit for life in the twenty first century.