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A little in Welsh – promoting the language in our valley communities
GUTO DAVIES asks how Welsh language-speaking can be promoted in areas where English tends to prevail and Welsh speakers are lacking in confidence
Wales

THE Hedley Gibbard Memorial Lecture, organised by Cymdeithas y Cyfieithwyr Cymru / The Association of Welsh Translators and Interpreters, at this year’s National Eisteddfod in Pontypridd, was delivered by local Communist Party member and trade unionist Guto Davies. The following is a translated precis of the lecture.

The title of my talk, “A Little In Welsh,” is in contrast to the powerful past slogan of the Welsh Language Society “Everything In Welsh — Popeth yn Gymraeg” and reflects the struggle to promote the language on its boundaries, in its no-man’s land where it is not at its strongest.

I have worked and lived in this community, which is mainly English-speaking, but which bears an affinity towards a language which has been lost to so many of the population.

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