A Conservative MSP has said his party wants to work with the Scottish Government “to find a workable and enduring solution” to help preserve Scottish Gaelic.
Earlier this week, a new book – entitled The Gaelic Crisis In The Vernacular Community: A Comprehensive Sociolinguistic Survey Of Scottish Gaelic – suggested the language might not survive beyond this decade.
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”.
READ MORE: Alan Simpson: It is time to rip up the Gaelic blueprint and start again
Highlands and Islands MSP Donald Cameron admitted the issue had been overly politicised in recent years but has offered to try to find a consensus to help Scottish Gaelic grow again.
He said: “Over the years, the Gaelic issue has been overly politicised on all sides, and that’s something everyone needs to own up to.
“While that has been going on, this report reveals how much the language has suffered, and indeed declined.
“We need to know why, after considerable investment, that situation has unfolded and how we can urgently rectify it.
“We want to work with the Scottish Government to find a workable and enduring solution, so that we can not only preserve the language but hopefully grow it too.
“We’re now reaching out to the SNP Government to see if we can all find a consensus on this vital matter.”
According to the last census in 2011, 57,375 people could speak Scottish Gaelic.
Discussing the new book, Professor Conchur O Giollagain, professor of Gaelic research at the University of the Highlands and Islands, 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.
“Our statistical evidence indicates that the Gaelic vernacular community is comprised of around 11,000 people, of which a majority are in the 50 years and over age category.
“The decline of the Gaelic community, as especially shown in the marginal practice of Gaelic in families and among teenagers, indicates that without a community-wide revival of Gaelic, the trend towards the loss of vernacular Gaelic will continue.
“We found a mismatch between current Gaelic policies and the level of crisis among the speaker group which must be addressed to face the urgency of the language loss in the islands.
“The primary focus of Gaelic policy should now be on relevant initiatives to avert the loss of vernacular Gaelic.”
Meanwhile, language learning app Duolingo this week has 393,000 active Scottish Gaelic learners from 418,000 course starts since it launched on St Andrew’s Day last year.
Today is International Mother Language Day, which celebrates linguistic diversity and multilingualism. From Arabic to Guaraní and Chinese to Scottish Gaelic, we're proud to teach nearly 40 different languages! 🌏🌍🌎
Which language will you be practicing today? pic.twitter.com/QQusG72fZ2
— Duolingo (@duolingo) February 21, 2020
A spokesman said they expected to pass the 400,000 mark over the following days.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The Gaelic language is a vital part of Scotland’s cultural identity.
“Ministers support efforts to improve access for speakers to learn and use the language, and we are always keen to work with all interested organisations, stakeholders and parties in doing so.
“We are interested in the proposals in the University of the Highlands and Islands Language Sciences Institute and Soillse book and look forward to discussing the value of current initiatives and the new structures suggested to strengthen Gaelic in the islands.
“Although the Gaelic language is in a fragile condition, there are a range of policies and interventions in place to promote the learning, speaking and use of Gaelic and these are constantly kept under review.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel