MSP’s dismay at ‘sobering’ report warning Scottish Gaelic in crisis

A Scottish Gaelic-speaking MSP has expressed dismay at a report suggesting the language might not survive beyond this decade.

The findings come in a new book entitled The Gaelic Crisis In The Vernacular Community: A Comprehensive Sociolinguistic Survey Of Scottish Gaelic.

The authors said Gaelic is “in crisis, and that within remaining vernacular communities of Scotland, the social use and transmission of Gaelic is at the point of collapse”.

In 2018, Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP Kate Forbes became just the second female MSP and the first in the current Scottish Parliament chamber to deliver a speech in Gaelic during a plenary debate.

She said she wanted to demonstrate it was a living language, with MSPs using headsets to listen to a simultaneous translation.

Ms Forbes, the Scottish finance secretary, told the PA news agency: “One of the communities under research, Staffin in Skye, is in my constituency. When I hold surgeries there, constituents choose to discuss matters in Gaelic with me.

“This isn’t just about preserving our heritage, understanding our culture or sentimentalising our ancestors’ memory – important as all of those are.

“This is about our future, and ensuring that this language is alive and in use for many years to come.

“I cannot overstate how critical the next few years will be. This research is sobering and stark and I think all of us should actively work to ensure these predictions don’t come true.”