The Scotsman

Gaelic dictionary project handed extra £2.5m funding ten years after work began

● Language faces threat of being ‘lost in the mists of time’

- By CHRIS GREEN newsdeskts@scotsman.com

It is a project so complex and time consuming that by the time it is finally finished, some of the people currently working on it expect to have retired – or even died.

More than a decade after they began, Scottish researcher­s working on the most comprehens­ive Gaelic dictionary ever compiled are being given a multi-million-pound funding boost.

Education secretary John Swinney will today announce that a further £2.5 million is being put towards the project, on top of the £2m already given five years ago.

The dictionary, Faclair na Gàidhlig, has the ambitious aim of documentin­g the history, developmen­t and usage of every word in the language.

Researcher­s on the project have already assembled a giant database of continuous Gaelic text made up of some 30 million words, using written sources and audio records.

This “corpus” will inform the compiling of the dictionary’s individual entries, which are eventually expected to number in the hundreds of thousands. However, work on this has yet to begin.

Researcher­s have also focused on creating detailed training materials for the next generation of lexicograp­hers who will have to take their place when they retire.

Professor Boyd Robertson, convenor of the project’s steering committee, said the finished article would be “more like an encyclopae­dia” than a dictionary.

Rather than just simple entries and definition­s, it will provide detailed explanatio­ns of the linguistic roots of each word and various spellings at different times in history.

Researcher­s from the universiti­es of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Strathclyd­e are collaborat­ing on the project alongside the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture.

It is intended that the dictionary will eventually be published online allowing people to use it for free, but it is expected to take at least 25 years to complete.

“I’m about to retire, so it’s unlikely that people of my vintage will be around to see the finished product,” said Prof Robertson. “But neverthele­ss, it’s important for our generation to lay the groundwork for others to build on.”

Lorna Pike, a lexicograp­her and the project’s co-ordinator, said each entry could take anywhere between “a few hours and a couple of months”.

Mr Swinney will announce the new funding for the project as he leads a debate at Holyrood on the National Gaelic Language Plan, intended to rekindle waning interest in the language.

According to the 2011 census, only around 1 per cent of the Scottish population are fluent Gaelic speakers, leading some to question whether the dictionary project is worthwhile.

But both Ms Pike and Prof Robertson defended the work, saying it would give Gaelic speakers an authoritat­ive resource and help preserve an important part of Scottish culture.

“It all comes down to respecting people and culture. This kind of dictionary will mean that the Gaelic culture and language will always be accessible,” Ms Pike said.

“It’s almost more important to do it if Gaelic does die out, because then we will know what kind of people the Gaels were and how they lived. Otherwise they will be lost in the mists of time.”

Prof Robertson added: “For the general populace, it will be a window on our history, heritage and culture.”

 ?? PICTURE: GETTY IMAGES ?? 0 The Scottish Government is to give £2.5m extra funding for ‘authoritat­ive’ Gaelic dictionary
PICTURE: GETTY IMAGES 0 The Scottish Government is to give £2.5m extra funding for ‘authoritat­ive’ Gaelic dictionary

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