ABSTRACT
In this chapter we explore a number of associations between employment in the countryside, the way in which it is (and will be) affected by pressures on the rural economy, and the effects that these have on linguistic, cultural and intellectual diversity. The context is Wales, which has perhaps the most viable of all the minority Celtic languages: Welsh is spoken by about half a million people, amounting to roughly 19% of the total population (OPCS 1994). At the beginning of this century, virtually half of the population could speak the language whereas at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the language was spoken by the overwhelming majority, including many monoglot speakers. The marked regional variation in the decline of the Welsh language has been intensively investigated, revealing the progressive shrinkage of a once strong heartland area (see, for example, Aitchison and Carter 1994). In large parts of Wales, particularly in the industrial, urban south and along the border with England, Welsh is spoken by a relatively small proportion of residents: in other localities the language continues to be an integral part of everyday life, as the dominant mode of communication. However, even in the communities where Welsh speakers remain predominant in terms of absolute numbers, a reduction in the relative proportion of people able to speak the language has continued.
