Diolch am darllen ac am eich sylwadau, Ceri!

I am currently learning Icelandic as I hope to live there for a while (so I can learn MORE Icelandic) I already speak Welsh (it’s my first language) and I am finding it helps a great deal with the phonetics of Icelandic.. We have a LOT of the same sounds!

Hi Edeyrn. Yes, we have to be careful with bilingualism. In some contexts, it’s progress. Othertimes it can be used as an idiology to undermine a minoritised langauge.

Ann … good points…but dont miss the point of this article …. to instill believe that things dont have to be so colonised.

“Bilingualism” in a place like Wales…just means the majority language dominates overwhelmingly….maybe Gwynedd – Welsh is doing okish but even them modern tech is mainly English

Yes, Icelandic certainly faces challenges. Welsh is ahead of Irish in some ways, behind in others, so far as I can tell. I got the impression that in terms of teaching the language to adult learners, Wales is ahead of Iceland. It’s only relatively recently that what you might call “lay” foreigners (as opposed to linguists and people into the sagas etc) have started to learn Icelandic and of course some of the Welsh materials have been produced as part of the “revival” attempts and aimed mainly at Welsh people who’ve lost the language (whereas in Iceland, that’s not needed). It can be really discouraging to Welsh learners in Wales if they don’t have an obvious opportunity to use the language. I think helping them form networks and find opportunities is really important.

Thanks for reading and commenting, Ann. Both Icelandic and Welsh (unlike Breton and Basque) have very strong and very old literate cultures so there are certainly comparisons to be made notwithstanding the differences. Also, there are over twice as many Welsh speakers as Icelandic speakers yet the argument against Welsh language provision is often that the absolute numbers do not justify x, y or z in Welsh. We get this constantly in third sector education or in publishing or broadcasting. My point therefore in drawing this comparison is to show what could be done in terms of size of population if some of the colonial influences you highlight were reversed. Looking at Iceland really does flag up that it’s colonisation which has marginalised Welsh. When it comes to how you change things, I agree absolutely with you that looking to the Basque country becomes more appropriate. Both Iceland and the Basque country have valuable lessons to teach. Iceland also faces some of the same problems as both in the face of the spread of global English culture, it seems.

It is much more valid to do comparisons with Breton or Basque where the colonising countries actively suppressed the native languages.

Hello Gareth and Swimmingly,
this post reminds me of an article I read recently in Sion Jobbin’s “The Phenomenon of Welshness II” (which believe you may have had a hand in Gareth 🙂 ), in which he compared the state and status of the Welsh language to Faroese. One main take-away from that was that having Welsh-language media would create jobs in Wales, because the jobs couldn’t really be done elsewhere due to the language requirement, and this would boost the country. So chicken and egg situation? Another case of the short-term investment required being used as an excuse, thus forgoing the long-term economic benefits to the economy as a whole?

Good points, all, Swimmingly and thanks for the comment. I agree Basque shows the way for Welsh. The key point for me with Icelandic is the size of the absolute numbers – HALF the numbers of Welsh or Basque speakers. For me that blows out of the water any argument that the numbers in Welsh are too small for, say, a second TV channel or a full university or a translation of the complete works of whoeveryoucaretoname, irrespective of geographical distribution or levels of bilingualism (not that both of those are not very important for the wider language planning picture).