Ludo Thierry
Ed: Thought I should translate ‘Surge in Gaelic’ into Gaelic so I did.
STV News picks up on the story of the surge in interest in learning Gaelic that is becoming evident. Link and snippet below: (I wouldn’t anticipate this info getting an airing on beeb Scotland – but we live in hope):
https://news.stv.tv/west-central/enormous-interest-in-gaelic-language-over-last-18-months?top
A surge in the number of people taking up Gaelic in the last 18 months has raised fresh hopes for the revival of the historic Scots language.
Community leaders say interest is at its highest in the past decade and are welcoming the introduction of online learning platforms, which are helping to swell the numbers of speakers.
One factor being credited with a recent spike is online language tutorial service, Duolingo. The global service launched a Gaelic version on November 30.
Around 200,000 people have signed up to learn the language in just 11 weeks.
Hugh Dan MacLennan of the Royal Celtic Society said: “There’s a very much more widespread interest in Gaelic than there has been over the last ten years.
The last census in 2011 showed 60,000 people spoke the language.
Registrations for Gaelic classes from Glasgow Life have doubled in the last two years with around 400 people engaging in weekly classes throughout the city.
Organisers say demand is currently outstripping supply, with waiting lists for beginners’ classes.
A fourth Gaelic school is also in the pipeline for Glasgow due to demand for Gaelic medium education.
At the turn of the century more than 230,000 people spoke Gaelic, with around 30,000 using it as their only language. (I’m suspecting this is loose language – and that the 230,000 speakers refers to the year 1900 rather than the year 2000 – but I’d like to be wrong!)
The number of speakers has gradually declined in the intervening years and was at its lowest in 2011.
But a rising interest in the past decade has led to major interventions to sustain the level of new speakers, including a recent decision by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar to make Gaelic the default language until primary four in all schools.
Children will still be taught in English if the parents choose to opt out.
It’s hoped the surge in interest might be reflected in the census of 2021, which could result in the number of speakers increasing for only the second time since the turn of the 20th century.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I can just remember a census, 1951 probably, where the advice on how to fill up the form described a scenario of a fictitious family with a husband, wife, a couple of children and the husband’s mother. This lady spoke only Gaelic, the husband was bi-ligual and the wife English only.
It made the news as people realsied that the situation in the kitchen might be a bit awkward at times.
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With Independence hopes in Scotland at an all time high, we must build the cultural base for Independent nationhood. A new survey of our history, language and traditions is in order. Gaelic supplanted Pictish very naturally in pre-historic times, and was the language of most of present Scotland for many centuries. After 1745 it was effectively suppressed in a number of ways by the Westminster Parliament which has never promoted a Union of equals between England and Scotland. Throughout the C20th upward social mobility required embracing Queen’s English and disinheriting Gaelic connections. Only the outer Hebrides, the “long island” of Harris and Lewis etc were immune from this tendency. Awareness of human rights of self determination has arisen since 1960, and nowadays Gaelic inheritance individuals see espousing Gaelic as an appropriate act of rebellion against a failed UK.
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And the chances, in those days, of the kids being brought up bilingual were next to zero with the then current practice of English only, and only “proper” English.
It’s a shame, as learning a second language (irrespective of which one) has proven educational and life benefits.
I’m pleased to say I’m one of the new learners via Duolingo. I already speak Spanish but don’t anticipate visiting Spain too frequently in the future. I’m now much more likely to be visiting the West Highlands and the Islands in the next few years, so why not learn Gaelic?
You can also have a go on Duolingo for free.
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I am also learning Gaelic on Duolingo. The value of using the language for visiting West Highlands is considerable – I heard a Church lesson read in Gaelic on Lismore last summer. To use the Gaelic in its native arena will affirm the social pride of the Gaedhealtact, though I think the exercise will be instructive for the visitor, as local dialects will all diverge from the mainstream educational idioms of Duolingo. The stronger case for learning Gaelic, I suggest, is to allow those with Gaelic as first language to travel throughout their country speaking their language with their fellow countrymen wherever they go. Initially, this will be via a network of Gaelic speaking groups, which Duolingo should now make possible. I am trying to form such a group in the Eyemouth area, where Gaelic was never historically the first language, unlike most of Scotland. If we reclaim the linguistic base of Scotland for the Scots, we have made a stride towards Independence aside from the ballot box. We can similarly develop wider cultural, educational and utility separation from England, all making political autonomy easier once Independence is achieved. The current political stalemate between Holyrood and Westminster looks like a long-term standoff, so these other directions of separation would seem more productive for our emotional energy than beating our heads against a brick wall politically.
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