Croman Mac Nessa: Gàidhlig News

[Elizabeth J. Pyatt]

From: XPrinceHawkX at aol.com
Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 00:09:58 EDT
Subject: Gàidhlig News
To: gaidhlig4u at lists.sonic.net, GAIDHLIG-B at LISTSERV.HEANET.IE
CC: CELTLING at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG

Experts speak up for status of Gaelic
BRIAN DONNELLY and DAVID ROSS
The Herald. 23rd May, 2002.

Call for act to protect future of language

PRESSURE to pass a Gaelic language act giving legal protection and rights to
Gaelic speakers increased yesterday after experts published a long-awaited
report on the language's future.

The group, appointed by the Scottish Executive, called for legal status to
underpin the Gaelic language and the creation of a quango - Bord na
Gaidhlig - to act as a Gaelic development agency.

This move is seen as "vital" by the Gaelic community and essential for
securing the prosperity of the language, the report said.

However, senior politicians and officials have been reluctant to support any
move to emulate the 1993 Welsh Language Act, fearing it could have huge
financial and legal implications.

The report, by an advisory group set up in December 2000 by Alisdair
Morrison, then the minister with responsibility for Gaelic, also called for
a significant increase in executive funding for Gaelic development.

The executive spends about £4.9m on Gaelic development and the advisory
group, chaired by Professor Donald Meek, recommended that this is increased
to £7.2m in the first year of Bord na Gaidhlig with more cash to come in the
following two years.

The report's most far-reaching recommendation was for secure status for the
language through a Gaelic language act - a move which has so far found
little favour with ministers.

The report said: "A Gaelic act should underpin future Gaelic language
strategies. It should be the first item in a strategy. An act would give
Gaels and learners confidence.

"In Wales the language has stabilised since the act, and (the situation is)
especially encouraging in the under-25-year-old age group."

As part of moves to boost confidence across the Gaelic community, the report
recommended an immediate programme of promotion for Gaelic medium education,
supported by "widespread celebration and touring" for Gaelic music,
literature and drama.

It also said that tourism body VisitScotland should be required
"immediately" to adopt Gaelic in corporate promotions.

Scotland has about 70,000 Gaelic speakers, but the report warns that urgent
action is needed to safeguard its future.

Old Gaelic speakers are dying faster than they are being replaced by a new
generation speaking Gaelic.

While some 250 new Gaelic speakers a year are being created, about 1500 of
the older generation of Gaelic speakers dies over the same period, said the
report.

Professor Meek, chairman of the advisory group, said: "We believe that our
recommendations will attract widespread public support. We are also
confident that given political will, these recommendations are achievable,
and that real progress can be quickly and effectively made to revitalising
Gaelic across Scotland."

Mike Watson, culture minister, pledged to "consider carefully" the report's
proposals. "Gaelic language and culture are essential parts of the heritage
and history of Scotland and in particular the cultural identity of the
Highlands and Islands," he said.

But he was non-committal on whether the executive would consider a Gaelic
language act.

"While I am aware of what the benefits of a language act have been in Wales,
and the benefits are clearly drawn out in this report, at this stage I would
not want to be committed on a language act," Mr Watson said.

Mike Russell, the SNP shadow culture minister, offered his party's
"unequivocal backing" for the report's recommendations.

"I am delighted that secure status for the language is the number one
recommendation in the report, as I have been pursuing this issue for the
whole of the lifetime of the parliament - with constant criticism from
Labour ministers as a result," he said.

"Now their own task force has strongly backed a Gaelic language act, and
fortunately I have a member's bill on this very topic in the last stages of
drafting. If the executive is prepared to support it, we could have a Gaelic
language bill on the statute by next May."

Differing attitudes

Scotland

The Gaelic language in Scotland was brought back from the brink of total
collapse 20 years ago with the establishment of Gaelic medium playgroups and
school units, according to yesterday's report.

But while that move halted the demise of the language, it did little to
increase the numbers of speakers.

Each year, there are only around 250 new Gaelic speakers in Scotland and the
widening void is demonstrated by the fact that 1500 older generation
speakers die annually.

Wales

The Welsh Language Act 1993 put Welsh and English on an equal basis in
public life.

It placed a duty on the public sector to treat both languages equally when
providing services, gave Welsh speakers the right to use Welsh in court and
established the Welsh Language Board to oversee the delivery of those
promises and promote and facilitate the use of the language.

The precursory work to the act in Wales, and the setting up of the board,
helped pave the way for an increase in the numbers of Welsh speakers as a
proportion of population within just a few years.

*******************

Editorial Comment
The Herald. May 23rd, 2002.

The revival of Gaelic
Education, not legislation, will prove most effective

When the Macpherson inquiry published its report into the future of Gaelic
in 2000 it warned that, unless radical action was taken, the language would
be extinct within 50 years. The number of Gaelic speakers has steadily
declined because of the democratic drift from its heartlands and the
hegemony of English, made complete by the impact of television. Today, it is
estimated that there are only some 55,000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland.
Roughly one Scot in 100 speaks the language. Those who believe in the
survival of the fittest languages would say that Gaelic should be left to
die an inevitable death.

But it is a short-sighted argument that would leave Scotland a diminished
place. Gaelic is bound up in Scotland's history and culture. Scottish
identity owes the language a large debt. If we believe in protecting and
promoting cultural diversity, we have a duty to resist the linguistic
Darwinians. The Scottish Executive and most Scots are committed to
supporting Gaelic. That is the easy part. Finding a practical, effective way
to halt and reverse the decline in its fortunes is the difficult job. The
Ministerial Advisory Group on Gaelic, set up last year to take the
Macpherson report forward, came up with radical solutions yesterday. Chief
among them is the recommendation for a Gaelic Language Act to make the
language secure, once and for all.

Wales has its own language act which aims to achieve that goal. It has been
successful in encouraging the uptake of Welsh, now spoken by 20% of the
population. The public sector is legally bound to give the Welsh language
equal validity and status. Each education authority must have a strategy for
teaching Welsh. Could the strategy work in Scotland, where only some 1% of
the population speaks Gaelic in small, concentrated areas? If similar
legislation were enacted here it could result in, say, a Gaelic speaker in
Dumfries who was facing a criminal charge insisting that his case be heard
in his native language; or another Gael in the Borders demanding that her
inquiry to the local council be dealt with in her tongue.

For a small country Scotland has a rich linguistic diversity. Our schools
try within timetable-imposed limits to promote it. Neither the Doric of the
north-east nor the Lallans of the south of Scotland is protected by
legislation yet both dialects (some would say, languages) enrich our spoken
culture. How would their speakers feel if Gaelic had the force of law over
their tongues (and was, by implication, superior to them) when it was not
even spoken where they lived? Not very happy, it is safe to assume.
Legislation would have to be very tightly framed to avoid such anomalies.
Even then, making Gaelic legally enforceable on the basis, say, of tradition
or demand would probably still leave any legislation open to challenge in
potentially risible circumstances, damaging rather than enhancing the
language.

Any law could fall foul of the European Convention on Human Rights if a
relatively new ethnic group in Scotland demanded the same rights for its
native language as granted to Gaels. At this stage, there seem to be too
many potential pitfalls to warrant a Gaelic Languages Act. But Gaelic should
not be allowed to wither and die. The advisory group rightly sees education
as the lifeblood of Gaelic. There is clearly scope for developing
Gaelic-medium education (where subjects are taught in the language) so that
young people are immersed as quickly and effectively as possible in the
tongue, wherever there is sustainable demand. The Irish and the Welsh have
shown how effective investing in that form of language education can be. It
will require time and resources to reap dividends here but it is surely
where our efforts should be concentrated if we are to revive Gaelic.

--
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o

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