Gaelic Language attack

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Well put, Graham.

[creagdhubh]

http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/index_en.html

(The link above) Enough said. I am learning the language of my Macpherson ancestors as we speak. Gaelic is far from being dead.



Slainte mhath beannacht libh,

[BoldHighlander]

http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/index_en.html

(The link above) Enough said. I am learning the language of my Macpherson ancestors as we speak. Gaelic is far from being dead.

Thanks for the link Kyle!

We have a sizeable community of Scottish Gaelic speakers in the Seattle /Tacoma area (primarily), in a group called Slighe nan Gaidheal. I know only a few words of Gaelic, and would love to learn the language of my ancestors. I have even tried (for a few years now), to get a study group organized in Bellingham, but without any success as there seems little interest on the local level .

[xman]

Wow, what a thread.

IMO;

Culture, in all its forms should be cherished and nourished. It is the essence of humanity and its destruction and decay are our own demise.

[denmcdough]

Well said, Xman!!! I agree!! I'd rather put tax dollars on the preserving of language than making bombs.

[Coinneach]

As one who studied Latin and Ancient Greek at University, I think it's a bit premature to call Gaelic a dead language. I am happy I had a terrific teacher in high school who opened up that world to me.

[McClef]

The issues raised appear to me at least to be less about the survival of the Gaelic language and more to do with the economics.

Official recognition and usage of a language costs money - literature, signage, broadcasting facilities, educational facilities etc. All these then have to come from the public purse.

And it's very common for those who only speak English to query or begrudge so much money being spent on what is often a minority language that is confined to small areas as the first language of the population.

They will argue, as a friend of mine does, though he was born in Cardiff but does not speak a single word of Welsh, that if people want to learn and use a language at their own expense that is all well and good, but that it should not be imposed upon those who have no interest, nor should it make a demand upon their pockets.

In other words, a viewpoint that minority languages need to sell themselves in an open market and encourage people to take them up rather than be propped up artificially.

Such a viewpoint puts cultural arguments upon a low list of priority though it will also claim that enough people would volunteer to learn to keep that culture alive.

Here in Wales all children are taught Welsh as a compulsory subject and indeed there are many schools now, even in English speaking areas, where they are taught through the medium of Welsh. But once they get outside school there is a clear divide between English and Welsh speaking areas. There was an interesting recent programme on BBC Wales that showed that those children in English speaking areas reverted to using English not only with their non-Welsh speaking parents but also with each other outside of school, whereas those in Welsh speaking areas would keep to using Welsh outside of school as the language of preference.

You will see many job adverts throughout Wales where it states "the ability to communicate both orally and in writing in English and Welsh would be an advantage." I don't believe this appears as often in Scotland regarding Gaelic apart from in certain areas of the highlands. Signage in Scotland is only bilingual in certain areas unlike Wales or indeed the Irish Republic. In Wales you will know from the road signs whether or not you are in a Welsh speaking area by which language is first on the road signs!

S4C, the Welsh language broadcaster, is currently having a major financing crisis. Until recently it was the only Channel 4 service available in Wales and broadcast English content as well as Welsh content. Then with the advent of the changeover to digital broadcasting and Channel 4 itself becoming available in Wales, it no could longer attract English speaking audiences and ceased carrying programming in English - most of the ads are also now only in Welsh (though not all). Despite offering subtitles, live ones are very slow and poor (as indeed are many of the programmes) and it relies upon BBC Wales for its flagship soap Pobl Y Cwm and for its news and weather as well the radio channel Radio Cymru is produced by the BBC. I suspect that even many Welsh speakers have deserted it for Channel 4 programming.

BBC Alba is experiencing similar audience desertions. Not that it is universally available in Scotland to begin with (unlike S4C here in Wales.)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle5627346.ece
http://blogs.dailyrecord.co.uk/webed...e-year-on.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...-BBC-Alba.html

And even though the language is supported in the Scottish Parliament, the translation of a report from English to Gaelic was recently outsourced to India - to save money.

The 2001 Census recorded that less than 2% of the Scots population had some form of fluency in the Gaelic language compared with 21% with Welsh in Wales. It will be interesting to see what the results of the 2011 Census are.

No language is dead whilst there are people who use it and speak it. But how much life support can be given is a moot point.

They call Latin a "dead language" yet it still survives although few speak it as their first language.

As a schoolboy once wrote about his Classical education:

Latin is a dead tongue
As dead as dead can be
It killed the ancient Romans
And now it's killing me!

Gaelic will always survive in a similar way because of the history and the culture attached to it, but whether its general decline can be reversed remains to be seen.

[Tobus]

Official recognition and usage of a language costs money - literature, signage, broadcasting facilities, educational facilities etc. All these then have to come from the public purse.

And it's very common for those who only speak English to query or begrudge so much money being spent on what is often a minority language that is confined to small areas as the first language of the population.

They will argue, as a friend of mine does, though he was born in Cardiff but does not speak a single word of Welsh, that if people want to learn and use a language at their own expense that is all well and good, but that it should not be imposed upon those who have no interest, nor should it make a demand upon their pockets.

In other words, a viewpoint that minority languages need to sell themselves in an open market and encourage people to take them up rather than be propped up artificially.

All very good points! And I usually tend to support free-market solutions for anything (as I generally despise the act of taxation and 'income redistribution').

However... for the sake of discussion...

The decline of Gaelic is, in no small degree, the result of government interference (specifically, programs over the last few centuries aimed directly at wiping it out in favor of English). One could argue that this puts the onus on government now to help save it. Unless, of course, their goal is still to wipe out that language and that culture.

Furthermore, I understand the desire of any taxpayer not to want to pay for something he's not interested in. But that's an inconsistent argument. I'd bet that less than 2% of the population cares anything about art history or Medieval literature or Latin or any number of culturally-significant subjects that are still funded to this day. Why aren't they calling for those programs to be ended too? Why not just cut funding to everything that isn't of majority interest?

In my opinion, these calls for ending public funding to Gaelic are based in cultural bias against those Gaelic-speakers who are frowned upon by progressive society. Budget concerns are merely the vehicle through which such bigotry can be safely voiced.

If Gaelic can survive (and thrive) on its own, without public funding, great! I'd wish for those in government to at least take this into account, though, before deciding that it's unworthy of funding. Maybe the subject should be studied first? But to axe the program in such a callous manner, without regard to what effect it may have on the culture of the region, seems a bit cold-hearted.

[Oldhiker]

I wrote him an email explaining I was neither a voter nor a native. I was writing him explaining it is NOT a dead language but alive and growing in many places around the world. Seattle is a small group, right up the road in BC is another small group plus a huge group in Nova Scotia.

There are places in the budget to get the funding to improve education of all types. I am refering to the bazillions of dollars that we are pouring into sandy and rocky places on this earth that are not improving our lives.

It is a lovely language and I plan on making sure it doesn't die.

I appreciate those who took the time to send him a note and respect the opinions of those who didn't. Thanks for at lest reading the issue, awarness is half the battle.

[Oldhiker]

S'e amadan a th'ann. Bith mi a'sgriobhadh ris gun teagamh!

Figheadair
tha aontaich Amadan Mhor