She sees it as a priority for public funding to support the language in the areas where it is still spoken — and where there are a wealth of dialects with their own idioms and sayings. Her family has farmed locally through the generations for nearly two centuries. Today, eldest son Donald runs a nearby croft but rather than fishing or weaving, his other job is presenting Farpaisean Chon-Chaorach — a series about sheepdog trials on BBC Alba.
Two of his brothers are also in jobs where Gaelic is essential. Latest research into the Gaelic language labour market identifies the key sectors as public administration, creative industries, education and tourism. Women are taking up more of these jobs than men. This is probably because many new posts are in education, early learning and childcare — sectors employing a higher proportion of females. The study by Skills Development Scotland projected that 98, new jobs would be created across the country between and While Gaelic was written out of business for centuries, recent research into Irish Gaelic — closely related to Scottish Gaelic — reveals that this exclusion brings its own surprising advantages.
Translated into English? It's a concept understood the world over but certainly the Irish Gaelic word is a neat distillation. So, this summer, when I wander along a beach on the island of Islay in the Southern Hebrides, and feel the white sand between my toes, I will think of my forebears and their wealth of words yet unknown to me.
To comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Capital, please head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. Share using Email. By Lennox Morrison 1st August Finding the value in an ancient way of speaking. Scottish Gaelic is considered at risk of dying out. This is a new service. Your feedback will help us to improve it. Dark mode. Home Census results At a glance Languages. Last updated 3 Aug Speaking, reading and writing English More than 1.
Just over 57, people said they could speak Gaelic. British Sign Language. She said the current strategy, focusing on schooling, had been agreed after widespread consultation.
This article is more than 1 year old. Language is used routinely only by a diminishing number of elderly islanders. A border sign, including Gaelic, on the A1 north of Berwick on Tweed. Inspecting it, I discovered myself to be a citizen of Teyrnas Gyfunol Prydain Fawr a Gogledd Iwerddon as well as of Rioghachd Aonaichte Bhreatainn is Eireann a Tuath — what tricky words these are to type — which is how the United Kingdom translates into Welsh and Scottish Gaelic on the passport's title page the days of the French alternative are long gone.
But the Welsh and Gaelic phrases on the passport are surprising. They don't answer to this present Britain. They exist in a more historical landscape, to redress old rural grievances rather than to express new metropolitan demands. The European charter for regional or minority languages calls them "autochthonous", which strictly means native, but now also carries the suggestion of a language that's been displaced in importance by a more popular newcomer.
The charter, which the UK ratified in , asks that all be encouraged to survive. Two of them, Scots and Ulster Scots aka Ullans , would be contested as languages separate from English or each other, and some might argue that Ullans was invented for purely political reasons, as a Protestant counterweight to the Irish Gaelic that was recognised by Northern Ireland's peace agreement.
But then most language lobbies are as much political as cultural: at their most powerful, they have helped break up polyglot empires and kingdoms, and redrawn the boundaries of nation states. Of this particular kingdom's minority languages, I can understand Scots and Ulster Scots — if languages, and not dialects, are what they are. With a little practice and recollection, remembering the words and expressions my parents and grandparents used and looking up others in a dictionary, I might even be able to speak the first, while a reasonable impersonation of Ian Paisley would bring me within shouting reach of the second.
All the Celtic languages are a mystery.
0コメント