“How very rude to be speaking Welsh.”

That was the complaint a stranger directed at Patsy, a Welsh learner featured in my latest book, after overhearing her family speaking Welsh in a Cardiff cafe. She could hardly believe it: “But you’re in Wales. What are you talking about?”

Wales has come a long way since the days of the Welsh not, a wooden token often accompanied by corporal punishment that was used in some 19th-century schools to discourage children from speaking Welsh. The Welsh language is now more visible, more widely supported and more politically protected than at any point in history.

But my ongoing research of Welsh-speaking families living in Cardiff suggests that while attitudes have improved dramatically, some linguistic prejudice still lingers beneath the surface. The pattern is not unique to Wales. I found similar experiences among Finland’s Swedish-speaking minority, where official recognition of the language has not always translated into acceptance in everyday life.

Several of the Welsh-speaking parents I interviewed had experienced negative attitudes towards Welsh when they were growing up in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. One father remembered being verbally abused for speaking Welsh in Cardiff as a child. Yet he was clear that things had changed.

Other participants described being stereotyped or made to feel uncomfortable because they spoke Welsh. They felt that such prejudice was less obvious today, but could still........

© The Conversation