More Welsh Speakers than Previously Believed. S4C (The Welsh TV channel) has today published the results of a survey into the numbers of people speaking/understanding Welsh and to what extent. The last (1991) census recorded that there were 530,000 people in Wales who could speak Welsh. The survey suggest it is more like 750,000, and that up to 1,500,000 can 'understand' Welsh. Over 65 percent of households in Wales have at least one Welsh speaker in them. In addition, there are an estimated 133,000 Welsh-speakers living in England, about 50,000 of them in the Greater London area. S4C intend to use the information as the basis for deciding new policy - it is likely that more programmes will be available with English subtitles, either on Teletext or on the repeats, in an effort to attract more of those who can 'understand and speak some Welsh', but have trouble with things like the news. (Apparantly even some native speakers in the Caernarfon area had complained that they couldn't understand the news!) S4C are also trying to get one of the English stations to take the S4C soap opera 'Pobl y Cwm' in the light of the findings about speakers in England (after all, it's got to be better than all that Aussie rubbish.....at least I can understand Welsh! :-) ) (Above based on articles in the Western Mail ('Llais y Sais') on 25 & 26/3/93, and interviews heard on Radio Cymru) Nigel Callaghan (ncallaghan@cix.compulink.co.uk)