Gaelic-speaking communities ‘will die out’
● Government slammed over focus on schools rather than homes
Social use of Gaelic is at the “point of collapse” and the language will “die out” within ten years, according to a new study.
Researchers found around 11,000 vernacular speakers after interviews in the Western Isles, Staffin in Skye and the Isle of Tiree. They were largely among the over-50s and there were very low levels of the language spoken in the home.
Gaelic in the community will be “moribund” within a decade if current trends continue, the researchers predict.
Scotland’s Gaelic speaking communities will “die out” within ten years unless a radical changes to preserving the language in its heartlands are made, new research has found.
Researchers from the University of the Highlands and Islands Language Sciences Institute and the Soillse research collaboration conducted a series of interviews across the Westerns Isles, Staffin in the Isle of Skye and the Isle of Tiree for the study.
They found social use of Gaelic at the “point of collapse” with around 11,000 vernacular speakers found largely among the over 50s with very low levels of the language now spoken in the home.
It is predicted that the community use of Gaelic in the community will reach the “moribund stage” within ten years if current trends continue, researchers found.
Professor Conchúr Ó Giollagáin at the University of the Highlands and Islands said that the Scottish Government policy to preserve and promote Gaelic had largely focussed on Gaelic in schools, in the media and academia and that it had failed to relate to those living in Gaelic speaking communities.
He said: “It is important that we are clear about the immense scale of the challenges involved in reversing the ongoing decline in the use of Gaelic in these areas.”
Researchers, who have published their findings today in a new book, The Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community, said a Gaelic community trust should be set up in the islands to offer Gaelic-led support around families, employment and young people to help create confident social users.
Prof Ó Giollagáin added: “If
“Yes, we have developed a Gaelic policy but this hasn’t helped to empower the Gaelic speaking communities to take on their own challenges”
CONCHÚR Ó GIOLLAGÁIN
University of the Highlands and Islands
we want Gaelic communities to survive we need to devise a social policy rather than a symbolic policy. If we fail to do that we will have Gaelic learners and Gaelic officials, but no Gaelic community.
“Yes, we have developed a Gaelic policy but this hasn’t helped to empower the Gaelic speaking communities to take on their own challenges. The idea of Gaelic promotion in a Gaelic community is redundant to them, it is an abstract policy, it makes no sense.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Gaelic language is a vital part of Scotland’s cultural identity and ministers support efforts to improve access for speakers to learn and use the language. We are interested in the proposals in the book and look forward to discussing the value of current initiatives and the new structures suggested to strengthen Gaelic in the islands.”