Increasingly, it is recognised that the opportunity to engage with one's own culture and language is beneficial for an individual's well-being. Research among indigenous communities in North America, Australia, Scandinavia, and New Zealand, have illustrated the importance of culturo-linguistic congruity. In Wales, the Well-being of Future…

This paper seeks to explain the migration decisions of minority language speakers by investigating motivating factors. Viewed through a language planning lens, the study pushes the parameters of some of the discipline's more recent agency concepts within the context of migration. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 60 Welsh speakers…

This paper presents a thematic analysis of public sector discourse on the values assigned to regional minority and community languages within the UK and Finland. This paper draws from semi-structured interviews conducted in Manchester, Cardiff, Helsinki, and Rovaniemi. Two key themes emerged from the interview data: "Language as a Resource…

This article compares the immersion-education systems in Brittany and Wales. The number of Welsh speakers is growing thanks to its well-developed immersion-education system. Brittany has a much less well-developed system and the number of Breton speakers is falling dramatically. Urgent action is needed if Breton is to survive. Using an approach…

In 1999, devolved governance was established in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland which altered the contours of language recognition in the United Kingdom. Whilst much focus has been placed on how devolution improved the status of Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, and Irish, less attention has been placed on those minority vernaculars with 'contested'…

This paper examines overt and covert Welsh-language policy and planning processes in private businesses in Cardiff. As part of an ongoing broader critical discourse-analytical study on the discursive construction of the promotion of Welsh in the private sector in Wales, a critical examination of language policy, ideology and perceived practices in…

The attitudes and behaviours of majority language speakers have an important impact on minority languages, and it has been claimed that the long-term success of minority language initiatives may only be achievable if some degree of favourable opinion, or "tolerability", of these initiatives is secured among majority language speakers.…

The aim of this paper is to clarify some notions about image and prestige planning. Starting from the Welsh example of language policy aiming to revitalise a language in danger of further decreasing in number of speakers and in centrality to Welsh life, definitions of four related terms are explored: image, status, prestige and identity. Paired…

This paper comprises a brief examination of the approach taken by the Welsh Language Board, as the principal language policy and planning body in Wales, with regard to aspects of prestige planning and the Welsh language. It describes how devolution and the recent, and first ever, national review by the Welsh Assembly Government of Welsh language…