‘Defnyddiwch y Gymraeg’¹: community sport as a vehicle for encouraging the use of the Welsh language

Abstract

Despite cultural and statutory changes, including significant investment in Welsh medium education, latest census data show a drop in the percentage of Welsh speakers. Moreover there is a concern that many of those who are able to speak Welsh are not using it – the language is not ‘alive’. The Welsh Language Commissioner has identified sport as a space where Welsh can be used, encouraged and promoted. The aim of this study was to investigate whether community sport clubs can provide a space to encourage the use of Welsh. Using qualitative methods we found that strategies to promote Welsh in sports clubs are potentially divisive. The dominant and ‘operational’ language of many community sport clubs is English. Increasing the use of Welsh in these clubs risks excluding non-Welsh speakers, but ignoring the language denies Welsh speakers the opportunity to participate in Welsh.

Keywords:

• Community sport
• social inclusion
• Welsh language
• young people
• minority language

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences, Cardiff Metropolitan University and Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, for supporting and funding the principal researcher’s PhD. We would like to thank all organizations and individuals who have supported and participated in this research. We are grateful also to the editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Translation – ‘Use Welsh’.

2 A Welsh speaker is defined as an individual able to hold a conversation through the medium of Welsh.

3 Urdd Gobaith Cymru is a Welsh Government funded organisation which aims to provide opportunities through the medium of Welsh for children and young people. These opportunities comprise cultural and sporting activities.

4 Endorsed language -here we simply mean the de jure or de facto language of the context. Apart from the school, the Urdd and perhaps the family, English is the endorsed language of the case study area.