Scotland's native language is heading for oblivion,

[Harold F. Schiffman]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4604613,00.html

Twilight of the Gaels as ancient tongue falls silent

Scotland's native language is heading for oblivion, census shows

Kirsty Scott
Thursday February 13, 2003
The Guardian

As the Scottish parliament celebrated passing historic legislation on land
reform recently, Alasdair Morrison, MSP for the Western Isles, rose to his
feet and silenced the chamber with the words " tha latha an uachdarain
seachad. Tha e criochnaiche" - "the landowners' day is over. It is done."
It was stirring stuff. But most of his political colleagues and 99% of
Scots did not understand a word, because he spoke in Gaelic - and Gaelic,
Scotland's mother tongue, is dying.

Today, figures from the 2001 census are expected to show that the number
of Scotland's Gaelic speakers has fallen below 60,000 for the first time,
a 15% decline in a decade. If it falls below 50,000 Gaelic will be
considered officially dead. "We are hellishly close to the precipice
edge," said Allan Campbell of Comunn na Gaidhlig (Gaelic Development
Agency). "We are hanging on by our fingernails."

The decline has been slow and steady. Gaelic was introduced to Scotland
from Ireland in the 5th century and remained the main language in most
rural areas until the early 17th century. It was outlawed by the crown in
1616, and suppressed further after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. Less
than 100 years ago children were beaten into speaking English at school.

Now Gaelic is concentrated in a few areas. Almost 68% of Western Isles
residents are fluent in Gaelic, but only 0.8% of people in Strathclyde.
With each generation the number of speakers drops further. "To put it
bluntly, more Gaelic speakers are dying than are being born or learning,"
said Mike Russell of the Scottish National party. "As long as that goes on
the language will disappear."

The only way to preserve it was to protect it in law, he said. He has
introduced a private member's bill at Holyrood to give Gaelic equal status
with English, but so far is being resisted by the Scottish executive.
"Language expresses where you live and your angle to the world; it is a
way of seeing," Mr Russell said. "There are things we say that you can
only express in a certain language. It has huge impact. Are we saying we
can preserve a building here and a bird there but we can't preserve that?"

The executive spends £13m a year supporting Gaelic, of which £8m goes to
the Gaelic broadcasting fund and £3m towards education. A new board was
set up recently to coordinate the work of the various sectors and is
drawing up a national strategy.

"I am not convinced that the only way to preserve Gaelic is with
legislation giving legal status to the language," the culture minister,
Mike Watson, said. "We must press on with a range of measures which we are
already taking. We must strengthen and extend Gaelic in education, and
attract more teachers and learners. We must support the efforts of Gaelic
arts and cultural groups and provide more visible evidence that Gaelic
belongs in Scotland."

In recent years there has been a renewed sense of pride in the language.
Glasgow Gaelic school cannot cope with the demand for places, bands such
as Runrig and Capercaillie have taken the language into mainstream
entertainment, and Gaelic TV programmes are popular. But it has not been
enough to reverse the decline in speakers. Mary-Ann Nicholson, 52, from
Portree in Skye, is a typical Gaelic speaker. It was her first language,
but she uses it infrequently, and her adult daughter knows just a few
words.

"When I was growing up it was spoken in the house all the time and I had
English and Gaelic when I went to school," she said. "It would nice to
keep it up and some people feel quite strongly about it, but that's just
the way it is." Allan Campbell says supporters of the language have been
encouraged by the executive's recent initiatives, but they believe
ministers do not realise how precarious Gaelic's position is.

"It is an incontrovertible fact that Gaelic is a language that belongs to
Scotland," he said. "There may be thousands of Gaelic speakers throughout
the world, but if this language dies here, it dies. End of story."
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