On another point, Juliet McLaren wrote "the Welsh have increased
their use of Welsh to the
point where Wales is now only partly bi-lingual (the rest of the
country is Welsh-
speaking)" which may not give the meaning she intended to convey.
Many Welsh are
thoroughly bilingual (Welsh/English), and the promotion, teaching
and use of the Welsh
language is going well in some parts of the country (less so in
others) : it's inevitably
a hard struggle against a dominant majority English culture (TV,
etc.). There can be very
few Welsh indeed who are Welsh-speaking but not bilingual, although
one can still meet
people for whom English is quite clearly their second language, and
one with which they
are not fully at ease.
Tony Curwen
Englishman, married to a Scot, resident in Wales for 35 years.
Consultant, Consortium of European Research Libraries.
Its hard enough to keep to the left but those highway signs???????