Our Language - Ein Hiaith

Welsh is one of the oldest languages in Europe, spoken today by over 800,000 people. It has survived attempts to snuff it out, for example with the use in Victorian schools of the infamous 'Welsh not', and is still the butt of many a tired cliché and ignorant jokes. But it has many less well-known claims to fame - such as the fact that Wales was one of the first countries to create laws using its own language - and in 2020 singer and language campaigner Dafydd Iwan's rousing hit 'Yma o Hyd' (Still Here) reached number one in the UK iTunes chart, and has since been adopted by the Welsh national football team and its 'red wall' of fans as its anthem. This collection includes works both in and about the Welsh language, the tone varying from serious and sobering to witty and light-hearted. Topics range from speakers' feelings about the state of their mother tongue (we hear from children and young people, writers and artists), to the challenges and frustrations of keeping a fragile language alive in the shadow of a dominant, global one.