No Longer Skye

[emanday]

I can't quote from "statistics" or refer to "studies" but while living on the Isle of Seil I was surprised by the number of people who could not only speak Gaelic, but used it naturally within their homes and amongst friends and relatives, reverting to English only when non-Gaelic speakers were in their company.

Travel on the island bound CalMac ferries and the Gaelic language can be heard in regular use. There are even Gaelic schools in Glasgow.

Oban High school has many children fron outlying islands attending who live in "hostels" or board in the town during term time, and their first language is the Gaelic. While shopping in the nearby Tesco where they often go for lunch snacks, they can be heard chattering away to each other in their own language.

It is anything but a dead language to them.

[StewL]

David wrote

much snipped


...I use to hold fairly strong views about the amount of money being spent on a "dying language" until genealogy took me into history, and especially the activities of the English and Lowland Scots ever since Culloden in 1746, - some would argue before, - to "extirpate", - I use the word wisely in terms of 18th century and 19th century attitudes, - the Scottish Gaelic culture.
Yes a common theme of the British influence worldwide.

The Irish Gaelic, Erse, was, until a few decades ago, on the same downward spiralling slope, but has recovered to the point where 260,000 currently speak Erse... I worked with two Irish sisters older than me for whom the Gaelic was a first language until they left the Emerald Isle.

In no way am I arguing that all Scots should be able to speak the Gaelic, as, with one exception, it was never the language of Lowland Scotland...proabably an impossible task if they even tried
...I can only encourage the continuing support for the whole Gaelic culture, especially while there are still substantial numbers of Gaelic speakers. I recall seeing a programme where they had established a university course in the Gaelic based somewhere in the Isles.

The last thing I'd want to see is a situation similar to that in the Isle of Man and Cornwall where there are no longer any speakers of the relevant gaelic languages ... This is happening here with the Aboriginal languages.
If a language dies, a whole culture can most often go with it !!

Fortunately, some at least of those memories have been recorded, although academics in general dismiss them as the records are purely verbal, and not on paper Yes indeed a point to shed tears over, at least over here they are recording the languages where they can. Argh! academics and evidence based practice, said with BSW hat on too!

David

[Thrall]

Hi Stewie, can´t agree more with you! As we say here " a good poem is never said too often".

On a more serious note, we are now, here, waging the battle fought and it would seem lost to a great extent in the last century in the west of Scotland, and English is taking over.

I´m grateful no one has yet pointed to North Rona which does not at all look like its more southerly sister as I remember them; there the etymology is not at all so obvious, unless ron (a seal in Gaelic) and a(y) (an island in Norse) have done a wee bit of mating. There is however little more dubious than amateur attempts at origins of names.

Guid hunting,

Thrall

[wini]

Makes me a bit sad that I never learned to speak Gaelic. My mother obviously spoke the language as her mother was from Kilmuir by "oo-ig" and her father was from Durness.
I never understood half of what my grandmother was saying as she was an old lady when I was a child. I now realise that as she became more senile she reverted to Gaelic, which would have been her first language.
I suppose you are never too old to learn, should I try and get some tapes??

wini

[LesleyB]

Hi Wini
Save some of that dosh (it will disappear quickly enough on SP! ) - try here first!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/alba/fogh ... air_bheag/
or
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/colinandcumberland/

Best wishes
Lesley

p.s. 'S toigh leam gin agus tonic!! Clearly some words just dinna translate!! At least I'd be able to order a decent drink!

[wini]

Lesley,

You don't have to remind me of disappearing SP Credits, especially when you get on a roll.

I'll have a try at the recommended sites.
I wonder if my pronunciation will be as good as my French, no one in France can understand that and my Cantonese which I learned from 2 ladies in my local Asian shop, it gives them a giggle anyway.

wini