MOTHER TONGUE WELSH SPEAKERS AND WELSH SPEAKING COUPLES

Views expressed in this paper are the personal views of the author. The 1992 Welsh Social Survey was the largest survey ever, with the exception of the Census of Population, to enquire into the Welsh language abilities of the populace. Whereas the Census asks only of an individual's current use of Welsh the 1992 Welsh Social Survey asked also about the language used at home as a child. This permits analysis of mother tongue speakers of Welsh, a mother tongue speaker being defined here as someone who as a child spoke more Welsh than English at home. The paper presents results pertaining to the characteristics of mother tongue speakers in terms of current ability in Welsh and the language of their parents. The percentage of mother tongue speakers by age of speaker is graphed and the validity of the results assessed by comparison with an alternative source of statistics. The prevalence of Welsh speaking couples, a determining factor for the continuance of mother tongue speakers, is examined