Gwilym yn Cymreigio?

Prince William learning Welsh
Some of you may have heard the rumours that Tywysog Gwilym was intending to learn Welsh for his official role (Prince William of Wales) This would be a very welcome move. There is a sense that Welsh speakers are more conservative than English speakers, more linked in to the History of our Island, certainly Loyalty, as seen by service in the forces, is 50% higher in Wales. One could be forgiven for believing that all Welsh speakers are raving antimonarchists after the Queen was refused entry to the opening ceremony for the National Library of Wales because of a few student protesters. The issue there however was one of Language not of pro or anti Royal. Of course the provision for Welsh Medium education within the University of Wales is so poor that William may find it hard to get a course anyway. He could always have a word with the Chancellor (his father).

A quick look at the royal.gov.uk website will show you some of the Queen and Charles' pages are available in Welsh (not all) but none of Williams or other members of the Family. This begs the question of why such key resources are not available in Welsh - can we really expect Welsh children doing royalty research projects to provide their own translations. The attitudes have changed and the absence of Welsh, whilst probably an oversight, can be read as a slight.

Bank of England supports Welsh

The Bank of England rep in Wales was recently encouraging business in Wales to use more Welsh, a nice gesture indeed. However apart from a few factsheets aimed at 9 year olds the 'central bank for the UK' has no Welsh on its website, clearly it needs all the money to buy Northern Rock. Does this body actually serve the Welsh people, does it serve the thousands of Welsh speakers in England? These old beurocratic attitudes - ignoring, delaying and fogging are not acceptable in the 21st century. I am awaiting a reply to my email...

On the issue of Blogio yn y Gymraeg Draig Wen reader rhys wynne said... "I wouldn't hold my breath for a Welsh version of Blogger, even though it's available in 40 languages now. If you're after a blogging service in Welsh try www.nireblog.com/cy
or www.cy.wordpress.com" thanks for that Rhys.

Bank of England supports Welsh

The Bank of England rep in Wales was recently encouraging business in Wales to use more Welsh, a nice gesture indeed. However apart from a few factsheets aimed at 9 year olds the 'central bank for the UK' has no Welsh on its website, clearly it needs all the money to buy Northern Rock. Does this body actually serve the Welsh people, does it serve the thousands of Welsh speakers in England? These old beurocratic attitudes - ignoring, delaying and fogging are not acceptable in the 21st century. I am awaiting a reply to my email...

On the issue of Blogio yn y Gymraeg Draig Wen reader rhys wynne said... "I wouldn't hold my breath for a Welsh version of Blogger, even though it's available in 40 languages now. If you're after a blogging service in Welsh try www.nireblog.com/cy
or www.cy.wordpress.com" thanks for that Rhys.

dot cym camapign

The unused .cym for the Cayman Islands is by right ours for Wales/Cymru and for all Welsh language users around the world. The Cayman Islands, with just a few thousand people, very nice ones, actually have two .names .cym and .km - they use the .km in fact. Whereas cars all over Wales drive around with cym on the back oblivious to the existance of the Cayman Islands as a country.

Bancio yn y Gymraeg HSBC

I recieved a recent phonecall from my bank as I had completed a Direct Debit (debyd uniongyrchol) in Welsh - no - not to say it was not valid but rather to offer me the option of all my statements (cyfriflenni) in Welsh from now on. I now get my monthly statement just in Welsh, admittedly the branch (cangen) is in Wales and I am in London (Llundain) but it is a good service (gwasanaeth) that I appreciate. Diolch i HSBC. Why not ask your bank to match this service - if no-one ever asks then it will never happen.

TV licencing in Welsh

You can buy a TV licence in Welsh over the counter at Welsh Post offices, though they do make a fuss if you try, and Wrexham post office had no forms available when I last tried. Thus if you live in England your Welsh Trywydded Teledu will still be in Welsh. However you can also use the Welsh Language phone line to renew - the speakers quality of Welsh is variable as they live and work in Bristol but it's a service. 0870 601 1130. Use it for enquiries too and don't forget to ask for the paper licence to be in Welsh. The staff are freindly (cyfeillgar) and keen (frwd) to help. So it goes to show we can have bilingual services for those who speak Welsh even from bodies based in England. Write the number in your phone list for next time...

Blogio yn y Gymraeg

High time that Blogger was available in Welsh, certainly Welsh Wicipedia is amongst the strongest languages, and use of Welsh on the Web is exploding. Campaigns for a Welsh domain name .cym (cymru) are well advanced and .cy (cyprus) is being used by many people already. The Welsh Facebook campaign has 1000s of signatures and Welsh is definitely very active on facebook.
At some future date teh Welsh assembly will assume responsibility for regulating IT, businesses and services and at this point legal and social pressures for the inclusion and normalisation of Welsh will be strong.