Cymraeg 2050: July 2024

July 2024

Welcome to the latest newsletter! It’s been a busy time for the Cymraeg 2050 team as we announce exciting technological developments to help more of us use Cymraeg, celebrate ten years of the Welsh Language Charter (Siarter Iaith), and more…

Like Welsh, this newsletter belongs to us all – please read, discuss and share!

Do you have any comments or feedback about our newsletter? Please let us know.

Cymraeg 2050 - Our priorities

The Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Energy and Welsh Language, Jeremy Miles, has outlined his priorities for the Welsh language, with technology a silver thread running through each. They are as follows:

Introducing the Welsh Language and Education Bill in the coming weeks with the aim that all school pupils in Wales become independent and confident Welsh speakers;
Supporting economic development in communities with a high density of Welsh speakers to ensure the Welsh language flourishes alongside economic growth;
Increasing language transmission in the home, between young people, and within communities

Jeremy Miles said:

“Cymraeg belongs to us all, and we all have a duty to protect it and to make sure it grows in all aspects of society. I want to see more Welsh for more people, and the priorities I’m setting out will ensure we’re on the right path to meet our target of a million Welsh speakers and increasing the daily use of the language by 2050.”

“All of us use technology one way or another, and increasingly, we’re seeing AI being used in more situations. I’m excited to see how the new data partnership with OpenAI will lead to improving how AI-technologies work in Welsh. Working with OpenAI in the past, we’ve been able to share Welsh language resources and Welsh Government funded components.”

The partnership will build open data archives to contribute data to the research community, to improve linguistic performance of AI models and applications.

Anna Makanju, VP of Global Affairs at OpenAI, said:

“The Welsh Government has been a great partner in creating an open-source dataset for training language models. At OpenAI, we want our models to understand as many languages and cultures as possible, so they can benefit as many people as possible.”

Since the Welsh Government published its Welsh language technology action plan in 2018, it has funded, created, and worked on many of the digital components that the language needs.

Jeremy Miles added:

“I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved under the Welsh language technology action Plan, but this work is never done and dusted. So, I’m inviting people to submit information or ideas about what technological developments would help them use more Welsh, and what needs to happen to make it easier for them to use technology in Welsh.”

Want to contribute? Here’s the link to the call for information.

If you’d like to learn even more about Welsh language technology, our Helo Blod website is always here to help.

Celebrating 10 years of the Welsh Language Charter

This year, the Welsh Language Charter (Siarter Iaith) celebrates a very important milestone – ten years since it was founded in Gwynedd, before expanding to Anglesey, then the rest of Wales. So it’s been a busy year as we celebrate the successes of the last ten years and move the Siarter forward for the future.

Last September, we published a new National Framework for the Programme – a national document that outlines the programme’s objectives and values. Following this, we’ve reviewed again the programme’s guidance that supports coordinators, teachers and stakeholders when implementing the Siarter Iaith and Siarter Iaith Cymraeg Campus. The documents will be implemented in our schools from September 2024 onwards.

As well as this, we’ve worked with designers to create a range of resources as part of a publicity programme for the Siarter. These include designing new friends for characters Seren and Sbarc; creating a new logo for the Siarter Iaith and Siarter Iaith Cymraeg Campus in secondary schools; a short animation outlining the programme background, along with a national video that includes interviews with contributors across Wales who've benefitted from following the Siarter. All of these resources will be available on the Hwb platfform this year, in due course.

Have your say: Adding more bodies to Welsh Language Standards Regulations

We've published a consultation on adding more bodies to Welsh Language Standards Regulations.

The Welsh Government is committed to bringing more bodies under the Standards regime before the end of the current Senedd term. Over 120 bodies are currently implementing Standards. The next step is to bring more public bodies who provide services to members of the public in Wales under the Standards.

We look forward to receiving the views of stakeholders on the proposals set out in the consultation document.

This consultation will close on 7 October 2024.

If there are any queries about the consultation, please contact us by sending a message to the Cymraeg 2050 team.

Llyfrau Lliwgar

Every so often in this newsletter, we’ll highlight some of the good work that’s happening in Welsh. This time, we celebrated Pride month this year by publishing a case study about the ‘Llyfrau Lliwgar’ (Colourful Books) book club.

Llyfrau Lliwgar is a book club focused on LGBTQ+ literature based in Bangor and Cardiff. They meet once a month to discuss a range of texts with a particular focus on queer Welsh literature.

Watch a film of Gareth Evans Jones, the founder of Llyfrau Lliwgar, and some of its members, discuss the purpose of the club and what it means to them.

Everyone is welcome at these clubs, whether you're LGBTQ+ or not. So, if you'd like to join, or even set up your own branch, please drop a line to llyfraulliwgar@gmail.com or @YLlyfrauLliwgar