‘Let’s Do Our Best for the Ancient Tongue’: The Welsh Language in the Twentieth Century

This is the sixth volume in a ground-breaking series of studies on the social history of the Welsh language. It provides the first authoritative and thorough analysis of the fortunes of the Welsh language in the most tumultuous period of its history. Twenty-one chapters discuss not only the numerical and territorial decline of Welsh but also its struggle for official recognition and its role in a wide variety of social domains. Of all the memorable phrases coined in the twentieth century, none has had greater resonance for the Welsh speaker than ‘Tynged yr Iaith’ (The Fate of the Language), and this volume provides a stimulating commentary on the processes of linguistic change, decay and revival experienced by the oldest spoken language in Britain.

A Welsh version of this volume is also available:  Eu Hiaith a Gadwant?