What Dictated The Attitude Of Government Towards Minority Languages?
First of all, a language can be suppressed because the government, (usually the representatives of the speakers of the majority language), considers that the majority language is in some way ‘superior’ to the minority languages. This is a belief, which has no basis in linguistics fact. How can it be possible, objectively speaking, for one language to be superior to another? Such ideas stem from a much more subjective view that the speakers of one language are in some way superior to the speakers of another, usually because they are the politically dominant group. This was the main reason for the suppression of the Celtic languages of Welsh and Scottish Gaelic by the English speaking majority in the Britain. Now that this view has been unmasked and seen for what it is, many parents in all parts of Wales are regretting the loss of the mother tongue of their ancestor, and, seeing the acquisition of the Welsh language as a matter of national pride, are now sending their children to Welsh-m
