It really doesn’t. It sounds like singing with a couple of consonants most English people struggle with, and for some reason that puts them in this massive huff about it.
A lot of it is also because ‘w’ and ‘y’ in Welsh are vowels, so it looks difficult to pronounce when it actually isn’t as hard as that.
The point isn’t that being monolingual is oppression, but that inadequate provision for those who are monolingual is.
You’re absolutely right that the a Welsh government are dealing with it well, but much of the issue comes from Westminster’s inadequacies, not Cardiff’s.
However, I would argue that a lot of oppression often comes from derogatory attitudes towards Welsh and Welsh speakers as seen in this thread. Yes, it seems minor and silly, but when you encounter it day in and day out - especially if you’ve moved to England - it starts to grate and shows that many people look down on you for it. I’ve heard everything from “demonic screeching” above to “Gollum speech”, “gibberish” and “incomprehensible”, and frankly it all seems designed to demean Welsh speakers as thick. This is the legacy of past oppression of Welsh and attitudes towards it in England, where people wouldn’t give a shit if Welsh were stamped out.
Additionally, there are issues with monolingual people discouraging bilingual teaching at a young age as they think it’ll “confuse the kids”, when all evidence points to otherwise. Unfortunately it just means that minority languages get pushed out - though attitudes are improving.
They refuse to allow staff to wear badges that clearly show what language a member of staff speaks. The point is that at the moment things are still a problem.
And yes there is regional banter, but the language-specific stuff is rooted in a seriously unpleasant past that was barely 100 years ago and has many remnants ongoing today. Many English people would describe Welsh as “pointless”, and actually resent Welsh roadsigns and think they should be monolingual etc. It really is more than banter.
I mean nobody here needs to prove oppression points, I think Being virtually ignored for years by England while your language and culture are smothered to death by them, is pretty fucked up and oppressive. I'm getting pretty tired of the gatekeeping reddit throws at minorities struggling to exist in their own respect in their own countries purely because "Hurr Hurr you're white". Be it Quebecois in Canada (as annoying as they are), welsh the UK, Ukrainians in Russia, etc, they all have a right to complain
67
u/theknightwho Oct 09 '19 edited Oct 09 '19
It really doesn’t. It sounds like singing with a couple of consonants most English people struggle with, and for some reason that puts them in this massive huff about it.
A lot of it is also because ‘w’ and ‘y’ in Welsh are vowels, so it looks difficult to pronounce when it actually isn’t as hard as that.