Anniddigrwydd ynglyn a Mesur 'hanesyddol'
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Your support makes all the difference.PLANS TO boost the Welsh language in the principality were unveiled by the Government yesterday. The new Welsh Language Bill aims to give Welsh and English equal status in Wales.
Councils, tax offices, education and health authorities and other bodies will have to provide services for the principality's 500,000 Welsh-speakers, about 18 per cent of the population.
Newly-privatised utilities like water, gas and electricity will be exempt from the requirement, as will the private sector. But Welsh will be used more in the legal system. Anything spoken or written in Welsh would have the same effect as if it were done in English.
Welsh language pressure groups immediately criticised the Government for not going far enough in encouraging a fully bi- lingual policy to promote one of Europe's most ancient tongues.
The Welsh Office Minister, Sir Wyn Roberts, who speaks Welsh, described the Bill's launch as 'a very historic day for Wales'.
Cafodd cynlluniau i roi lle amlycach i'r Gymraeg ym mywyd Cymru eu cyhoeddi gan y Llywodraeth ddoe.
Amcan ei Mesur Iaith newydd yw rhoi'r un statws i'r Gymraeg a'r Saesneg yng Nghymru. Bydd yn rhaid i gyrff fel cynghorau, swyddfeydd treth ac awdurdodau iechyd ac addysg ddarparu gwasanaethau i'r 500,000 o bobl sy'n siarad Cymraeg, tua 18 y cant o'r boblogaeth.
Ni osodir gofynion tebyg ar y cwmniau dwr, nwy a thrydan ac ati sydd newydd eu preifateiddio na chwaith ar y sector breifat. Ond gwneir mwy o ddefnydd o'r Gymraeg yn y llysoedd. Bydd gan unrhyw beth a ysgrifennir neu a ddywedir yn y Gymraeg yr un grym a phe bai yn y Saesneg.
Daeth y Llywodraeth dan lach mudiadau Cymraeg yn syth am beidio a mynd yn ddigon pell i annog polisi dwyieithog llawn i hybu un o ieithoedd hynaf Ewrop.
Dywedodd y Cymro Gymraeg, Syr Wyn Roberts, Gweinidog yn y Swyddfa Gymreig bod diwrnod lansio'r Mesur yn 'ddiwrnod hanesyddol iawn i Gymru'.
Translated into English, the headline reads: Uneasiness over 'historic' Bill.
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