In 2005, the Gaelic Language Act established a committee, known as the Bòrd na Gàidhlig, to improve the status and increase the use of the Gaelic language in Scotland. Scottish Gaelic is a traditional language of Scotland, but its use has been steadily declining for more than 100 years. According to the 2001 Census, only 1.2% of the Scottish population spoke Gaelic. The Bòrd na Gàidhlig aims to prevent the decrease in speakers by actively promoting the use of the language. They intend to do this by improving the status of the language, increasing education, and changing signage across Scotland to be in both English and Gaelic. It is this last goal that was the subject of a BBC article about Glasgow's Gaelic Language Plan. Over the next three years, the city of Glasgow will open a second Gaelic language school, increase bilingual signage, and increase the use of bilingual government communications. In its plan, the Bòrd recognizes the need to increase the use of Gaelic for it to remain relevant. As a result, the Bòrd has outlined several initiatives to increase quotidian use of Gaelic in the workplace and in homes.
The desire to improve the status of Scottish Gaelic and increase its usage is similar to attempts by Ireland to increase the use of Irish (also known as Gaelic) there. Irish is the primary language for 3% of the country's population. However, through wide spread teaching of Irish, the language is now widely spoken. Largely because it is a mandatory subject in middle school, around 40% of Ireland's population consider themselves able to speak Irish.
Though the Scottish Bòrd does not explicitly aim for such widespread usage, it seems that the logical extreme of a desire to reintroduce Gaelic into Scottish culture would be to implement a program similar to Ireland's. In this way, a large bilingual portion of the population would be able to carry on the usage of Gaelic, something the Scottish parliament presumably thinks is important to maintaining Scottish culture.
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This seems to be a common theme that we have explored within the class - that some determined ethnic groups are fighting against globalization, desperately trying to maintain their native language. However, how effective do you think these strategies will be? Does changing signage to include Gaelic really matter if it is also in english? Are there any other methods that you would suggest to ensure that this language does not die out?
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of an article I read in which one of the Chinese governmental departments requested that the country's broadcasters refrain from using English-based acronyms. It is interesting to see how the policymakers of different countries react to the influence of English. In the case of Scotland, it seems more to be a matter of preserving its cultural legacy. However, in China's case, I felt that it was a deliberate attempt to limit the influence of the West by limiting the use of something that, to me, seems so trivial. It seemed like they were going out of their way to foster a nationalistic sentiment within its people for the purpose of reasserting China's dominance over Western influence within its country.
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