Bi-lingual Scotland

[An t-Ileach]

From E-mails from two friends of mine in the last couple of days:

1. "When I was in the Glasgow city centre branch of HSBC [Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation - used to be The Midland Bank] I found a particularly poignant sign of the progress the Gaelic language lobby are making in Scotland: the envelopes provided for paying in cheques were bilingual....in Welsh and English! Good news for the Welsh, as it came first and English was relegated to second place, but a slight slap in the face for Gaelic. Did HSBC just think 'any old Celtic language will do'?!"

2. "This may not be as unusual as you might think. In Aberdeen last week I walked past a building site with health and safety notices both in English and Welsh. Whats going on? or in my best Doric fits gaan oan?"

And Tony Blair says that both Welsh and Gaelic are foreign languages as he has to refer to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for translations!

Through the Looking Glass, anyone? :confused:

[MacTavishOfJapan]

I plan to study Gaelic once I am back home in Scotland. Saw an article about the decline of Gaelic and how it could be heading towards being a dead language. That can't happen.

Why exactly does Welsh seem to be getting so much more attention? Good on them by the way, it just seems strange, are there more Welsh speakers than Gaelic?

[An t-Ileach]

There are now. About 28 percent of the population of Wales can now carry on a conversation in the language. It's taken a long time - my mother says that they were arguing for it back in the 1920s, and finally (after the Devolution thing) businesses and so on have had to come up with realistic programmes for implementing bi-lingualism. Also all schools have to teach Welsh up to a certain level.

In Scotland, the Scottish Parliament is dragging its feet about requiring similar programmes, and is reluctant to put money into teaching the language. With great difficulty the municipal authorities in Inverness were persuaded to have bilingual road signs, for example. The Scottish parliament building in Edinburgh makes a great display of having bilingual signs in the public/tourist areas (but inside, away from the common herd, there isn't a word of Gaelic to be seen).

In Ireland, however, the Dail has passed an Act requiring maps to have the place names in Irish Gaelic and road signs to be in Irish not English. Here in London, the Irish Centre in Hammersmith runs courses to teach Irish - subsidised by the Irish government.

There is a very large number of Scots in the London area, and several very old Scottish associations (such as Comunn na Gaidhlig Lunnainn - the Gaelic Society of London (dating from the 18th Century) - or the Coisir Lunnainn - the London Gaelic Choir (115 years old this year)) which get virtually no support (if any) from the Scottish Parliament. The City Literary Institute runs a course in teaching Scottish Gaelic, which gets no subsidy and is always teetering on the brink of collapse.

Nevertheless, there are positive signs - nearly all to do with the wearing of the kilt.

As the kilt becomes more of an All-Scottish national symbol, and as the cheaper kilts become more readily available (cheapo kilt shops are proliferating) - one can pick one up for around £50 - so more and more people are becoming interested in the wider Scottish heritage, and Gaelic is a central part of that.

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

Interesting post. Since I work for the company mentioned, I might try and see if there was a reason for including Welsh and not Gaelic. However, I am not sure that I will be able to track down an answer. It's a big company.

[Red Lioness]

When the U.S. Air Force asked me what it would take to get me to stay in, I told them I'd reenlist if they let me crosstrain as a Gaelic linguist.

They said no.

[McClef]

I think that there is a lot of history and geography involved in the difference between the relative success of Welsh and Gallic.

In Wales there are several strongly delineated areas where Welsh is the first language and even those those areas now anglicised there is a long tradition until the nineteenth century. The valley where I live was Welsh-speaking until the coming of the mines for example.

There are long standing Bardic traditions such as Eisteddfodau and also there were people prepared to fight for a fair share in the media which culminated in the foundation of a Welsh language channel (probably the most heavily subsidised in the Word) - Sianel Pedwar Cyrmu or S4C for short. Campaigns were also fought for bilingual road signs and the Welsh Language Society (Cymdeithas yr Iaith Cymraeg) had long been a vociferous campaigner for offical bilingual use.

In Scotland there was the fact that English has been predominant in the Lowlands for centuries - albeit in the dialect known as Scots, and after 1745 even in the highlands and the prohibitions which followed regarding the wearing of highland dress, Gallic's retreat was profound. No doubt it was made even worse by the scandal of the Victorian Highland Clearances also so that today it is only in the Islands of the West that you have a chance of hearing it in everyday usage.

Sure you get the bilingual road signs in the Highlands, but in July I heard no Gallic spoken at all and my friend in Ullapool said you had to go to the Western Isles to hear it on a frequent basis. Grampian TV does have a Gallic soap opera but I don't know how popular it is.

There are the Mods, which are the Gallic equivalent of the Eisteddfodau, but they don't seem to get the same media coverage from what I can gather.

I guess you have a far higher chance of hearing Gallic spoken in Cape Breton Island than you do in Edinburgh or Inverness.

[Tattoo Bradley]

When the U.S. Air Force asked me what it would take to get me to stay in, I told them I'd reenlist if they let me crosstrain as a Gaelic linguist.

They said no.

Never heard of a GAELIC linguist. :rolleyes: Then again, I spent my time on the flight line knee deep in grease, oil, and hydraulic fluid!