Gaelic
I'm one of Scotland's few Gaelic speakers left, and if you want to hear of an endangered language, you have not seen anything until you have seen the sad situation which Gaelic, like its Celtic sisters, faces. I believe that there are three reasons for the near extinction of Europe's most ancient tongues. During the English invasion of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Isle of Man, the Gaelic speakers were denied their heritage, and up until the late 1940's Gaelic and Welsh children where severly punished if they were to speak their native tongue. We had to learn to assimilate and now fewer than 1% of Scotland's population speaks Gaelic. Manx is now officially extinct, and Welsh is slowly starting to retain power again. The unfortunate lack of motivation and love from today's young ones doesn't help the Celtic tongues either. Young Scotsmen and women see Gaelic as too old fashioned, and that it has no place in modern society. Languages like French, German and even Russian are muched prefered, and at the same time the culture and roots are being abandoned as more and more people look away from Gaelic.
Editor's note: The BBC offers a full 24 hours service in Gaelic both online and on radio.
Sent by: Ceasar
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I think all languages should be kept alive because they all have a special meaning to what have happened in history.
I'm half English and half Scottish. I speak Scots-Gaelic, to an intermediate level. I live in the English East Midlands of which has a strong Celtic migrant heritage. I sometimes speak Gaelic round my friends and in small approppriate doses. In my opinion if more peole did it would help keep the languages alive.
If you have Gaelic, speak it! That was the rule in my Donegal family when I was growing up. Gaelic is far from dead. It is still being destroyed by the English. The English speakers in Dublin who replace perfectly good ancient Gaelic words like stad with the English word 'stop' and adding another 'p' onto it = 'stopp'. Just because they wouldn't bother to ask the people who kept the language alive against all odds in the first place.
Haha, I live in the States and my university was looking for an Irish teacher due to student demand. I agree Gaelic needs to be nurtured, but funny how interest in it has spread beyond Irish shores and the UK itself.
Scotland should awaken its children to learn Gaelic. To learn another language broadens one's mind - in each language you learn to think at least a bit differently; it's worth to dig on one's heritage. With each language you learn it becomes much easier to learn yet another one.
Sadly most English people don't speak any language other than English, even when, as many do, they have a Scottish, Welsh or Irish grandparent/greatgrandparent. I have distant family links to both Scotland and Ireland and was motivated in part by this to learn a Celtic language. For practical reasons I chose to learn Welsh as there were lessons available in Derby with the WEA and Wales was easier to reach on a regular basis than Scotland or Ireland in order to attend residential courses. There are in fact at least 15 groups/classes teaching Welsh in England. I would love to see a similar range of Gaelic classes available across England so that people can start learning a show repsect to these ancient languages and the communities where the languages are still spoken.
I agree with some of Ceaser's point, but... 'one of Scotland's few speakers left', just to put this in context there were over 50,000 Gaelic speakers at the last census. The percentage of Gaelic speakers in Scotland is higher than 1%, and we should note that this figure is over 50% in parts of the Highlands and Islands. Blaming 'today's young ones' is ridiulous, young people will speak the language as long as they are brought up speaking the language, and if English is the dominant social language then that is what they'll speak. It's not a question of whether they see it as too old-fashioned or not, it's about which language they acquire first and which language they become fluent in and which language they are more comfortable with. The challenge for us is to ensure that children acquiring their first language acquire Gaelic - please try and stop moaning about young people and blaming them for not speaking Gaelic!
I'm confused. What's the difference between Gaelic and normal Scottish? I'm desperately trying to learn Scottish but all the websites refer to Gaelic. Do you know one that doesn't?
I've been very interested to hear some of the comments about the state of Gaelic in Scotland. It's a very sad thing to hear that it's in the state it is. I know that being a Welsh speaking Welshman the only way forward with reviving these languages to their rightful place is to make them a necessity in everyday life. Meaning that they not only have to be taught in schools but also have to be the language used in the public and private sectors. In effect, I am sorry to say, we need to use a brutality nearer to that used by the English establishment when they began destroying our languages in the first place. That is what is happening in Wales presently with the Welsh language acts. It may be a different case here in Wales as the percentage of Welsh speakers never really fell below 20%. However I think that extreme measures sometimes need to be applied.
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I know that this is an old discussion topic but I'm hoping that someone will read my note. I am an English woman living in the East Midlands with her Scottish boyfriend and, having been to Scotland with him numerous times, I have fallen in love with it and its heritage. I would dearly love to learn Gaelic but I can't find anywhere in this area that offers lessons. I've done the "1 minute Gaelic podcasts" which has only served to leave me wanting more. Does anyone know where I can learn Gaelic in the Notts area?
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