Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg

From Welshpedia

The Welsh Language Society (in Welsh, Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg) was founded on August 4, 1962.

It is a pressure group that campaigns for equal status for the Welsh language. It is largely thanks to their activities that bilingual road signs are in general use in Wales and that all official and government literature is available in both English language|English and Welsh.

The Society was established in name on 4 August 1962 at Pontarddulais in South Wales, but did not have a constitution until 18 May 1963. The formation was at least partly inspired by the annual BBC Wales Radio Lecture given on the 13 February 1962 by Saunders Lewis and entitled Tynged yr iaith (The fate of the language

The Society's first public protest took place in October 1962 at Pont Trefechan in Aberystwyth, where around forty members and supporters held a 'sit-in' blocking road traffic for half an hour.

The first campaigns were for official status for the language, with a call for Welsh-language tax returns, schools, electoral forms, post office signs, birth certificates and so on. This was done through the formation of 'cells', the first operating in Bangor in April 1963 by Owain Owain who also founded and edited the Society's only publication, Tafod y Ddraig ('The Dragon's Tongue') and logo.

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