BREXIT and Celtic Languages

On July 6th, 2016, for the first time in the history of Football, A National anthem sung in a Celtic language will be heard in the semi-final of a UEFA European Championship. Welsh Players and Fans will sing “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau” , their beloved National anthem . During the referendum for Brexit, while most people followed the news about the final results of the referendum in English, inside Britain, some people were reading in the news or listening to the words: “Cymru`n pleidleisio o blaid GADAEL”.  

Those are examples of a Celtic language, Welsh language, that despite the difficult times, it is showing the rest of Europe that is alive. However, there are some concerns among some academic and political groups that Celtic Languages may not go through an easy time after the Brexit. Although the future of the Celtic languages after the Brexit is not a main issue in the News, and we do not think that will be a main point of negotiation when EU and Britain talk about their separation, geographically and politically speaking, Brexit will have a big impact in this already delicate group of languages.

Celtic Languages form a branch of the Indo-European family.  All Celtic languages spoken today are minority languages and subject to effort of revitalization. 6 languages are part of the Celtic Branch and they are simultaneously divided in 2 groups: Brittonic and Goidelic.

Brittonic languages are:

-Welsh (Cymraeg): Mainly spoken in Wales, one of the 4 countries of the UK. There are also speakers spread among the UK, mainly in England, and there is a settlement in the province of Chubut in Argentina, that is referred as “Y Wladfa”. According to the UK government and the “Llywodraeth Cymru” (Welsh Government), from data of the 2011 census, there are almost a million Welsh speakers in the world, around  562.000 are Native speakers. Welsh, is the only Celtic Language not classified any more as endangered language by UNESCO.   

-Breton: This language is spoken in Brittany, North west of France. According to the “Ofis ar Brezhoneg” (Public office for the Breton Language), there are around 356.000 speakers, More or less 206.000 are native speakers.  

-Cornish (Kernewek): This language is spoken in the County of Cornwall, SW of England. Numbers from the British Council say that there are around 3000 speakers.    

Goidelic languages are:

-Irish (Gaeilge): this language is spoken mainly In Ireland. There are also speakers spread among the UK and the US. According to the Central Statistic Office of Ireland, from 2011 Census, there are around 1.774.437 speakers, but less than 100.000 are native. Irish language is official language in the EU.

-Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig): According to Scotland Census of 2011, around 87.000 people can speak this language and there are around 57.375 native speakers.

-Manx (Gaelg): This language is spoken in the Isle of Man, a self governed Crown dependency of the UK  between the Great Britain and Ireland. It has an area of just 547 km². According to data from the 2011 census, there are around 1823 speakers. Not long ago, there were no Native speakers, but now there are reports of around 100 children of Parents who are speakers who are being raised speaking Manx and English.

Beside the situation of the languages, publications like Quartz and The Herald Scotland, write that minority languages in the UK will stop receiving funds from the EU, leaving them at mercy of the British government. Considering that this year, the British government cut off funding for Cornish language. Academics are concerned that Brexit will incentive distancing the UK from any agreement designed to promote minority languages.     

In my personal opinion, the impact of the Brexit exists over the Celtic languages, but I think that most of analysis rely on funding from the EU and is not considering other factors that exist in Celtic Languages areas.

Welsh Language has been increasing in number of speakers and there are organizations that are promoting the use of this language as official language of Wales. Welsh people can also use National services at UK level using their language, like pay taxes, apply for a passport. There are Newspapers in Welsh, Radio and TV stations that Broadcasts in Welsh and BBC has TV programs and its Web page in Welsh. The sense of pride of Welsh people make for them unacceptable to use a different language than welsh in their National anthem (Irish and Scottish National anthems are sung in English in international competitions).  Welsh people have the ability to keep their language alive and use it more frequent in their everyday life. Welsh language is Co-oficial language of the EU. According to the web page of the European commission, this means that Welsh as official language in use can be authorised on the basis of an administrative arrangement concluded between the Council and the requesting Member State. This status will be lost with Brexit, but I am not sure is there is any real economic impact in this or how many jobs will be lost. Interesting to note that Wales voted for leave the EU, although some numbers suggest that communities with more welsh speakers voted to remain.

From 2007, Scottish Gaelic speakers are able to communicate with the EU using their own language. This ability will be lost with Brexit. There is a very small network of broadcasters in this language including BBC Alba. At British level, speakers of Gaelic can also enjoy government services in their language. However, statistics shows that the numbers of speakers of Scottish Gaelic are in decrease since long time ago, and the Membership in the EU did not change this trend, except for more funding and international recognition of this language.  

Situation is more complex for Cornish speakers. They were given Minority status just in 2014. Some works are performed to improve the conditions of this language in terms of education, access to services in this language. Due to such small numbers of Speakers, I am afraid that much more is needed to raise the numbers of speakers, already in decline despite the good intentions of the EU.

Manx is spoken in the Isle of Man that is not subjected to the regulations of the EU. Brexit will have little impact here.  

Irish Language is an Official language of the EU and will be so after Brexit. It may lose some Funding to Irish language initiatives in the Northern Ireland but not in the Republic Of Ireland. But my concern regarding the language is some information from the Census 2011 stating that Irish language is the 3^rd most used language in its own country, after English and Polish. This conclusion is disputed, but I don´t think Brexit is related with this

Finally our friends in the French Brittany are not having a good time keeping their language. Numbers of Breton speakers are in decline and they are going to be still in the EU as part of France. EU funding is not enough or not the main factor to keep a language alive.