Minority language revitalisation: The use of Welsh in a public-service context

Why is it so hard to save a threatened language? One simple answer is that majority languages continue to be reinforced wherever people avoid using the minority language unless they are certain that their addressee will understand them. In Wales, the Government aims to break this principle through its 'Cymraeg 2050' strategy, and the public sector contributes by consistently offering Welsh-language services (alongside English). In practice, however, these are frequently ignored, hampering efforts to revitalise the Welsh language. This project aims to identify systematic reasons for this reluctance, using Gwynedd Council as a representative case study located in an area characterised by high sociolinguistic diversity.
Standard (socio-)linguistic methodologies including surveys, interviews, observation, and discourse analysis (with Cognitive Discourse Analysis addressing ways of thinking; Tenbrink 2020) will be used to address relevant questions such as: Are Welsh-medium services sufficiently visible to raise awareness? How do proficient Welsh-speaking customers respond to Welsh-learning staff? How do non-Welsh speakers react to Welsh-medium services in English-dominated areas? What is the role of local dialects in spoken public-service communication contexts? How does the channel (online or in-person) affect choice of language? Which factors determine preferences for digital or printed Welsh- or English-medium communications? What are the effects of low or high formality levels? The resulting insights will be collaboratively translated into policy recommendations for increasing the effects of minority-language revitalisation endeavours, within the Council and beyond.