Ball Martin, M?ller Nicole. The Celtic Languages

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626 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES

Only

Gaelic

Mainly

Gaelic

Both

uall

Mainly

lish

Only

lish

To maternal grandparents

To paternal grandparents

Between parents

To original mother

To original father

To sister

To brother

To present mother

To present father

To spouse/partner

To children

Partner to children

Between children

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Figure 13.20b Western Isles: language use in family, 1994–5 (Euromosaic Survey

N = 130) – percentages

Not

applicable

Only

Gaelic

Mainly

Gaelic

Both

equally

Mainly

English

Only

English

1994–5 EUROMOSAIC

To original father

To original mother

To spouse/partner

To children

Between children

2004–5 WILPP survey

To original father

To original mother

To spouse/partner

To children

Between children

–140 –100 –60 –20 20 60 100 140 180

Figure 13.21a Western Isles: language use in family – Gaelic speakers, 1994–5 and

2004–5 – numerical

SCOTTISH GAELIC TODAY 627

Both surveys explored use of Gaelic in a range of community speech situations. The

Euromosaic survey examined language use in 30 speech situations in 1994–5. Figure

13.22a illustrates nine situations which were strongly Gaelic: retail activities, clergy,

buying a newspaper, asking the time, buying petrol, councillor, teacher, car repair and

pub. Figure 13.22b illustrates ten situations which were moderately strong for Gaelic:

hairdresser, restaurant meal, machine repair, bank, social worker, library, solicitor, sports

activities, doctor and paying the water bill. Figure 13.22c illustrates eleven situations in

which use of Gaelic was minimal: police, buying CD, tax and DSS ofﬁ ces, theatre, report-

ing gas leak or power cut, dentist, phone operator, eye test and booking a holiday.

The WILPP survey ten years later in 2004–5 examined 16 of these situations. It was

decided not to bother with the weakest situations in 1994–5. Figure 13.23a illustrates the

eight situations with the higher use of Gaelic: clergy, councillor, retail activities, buying a

newspaper, car repair, buying petrol, teacher and hairdresser. Figure 13.23b illustrates the

eight situations with lower use of Gaelic: drinking in pub, machine repair, library, sports

activities, asking the time, meal in restaurant, bank manager and doctor.

The rapid weakening of Gaelic speakers’ use of their language over this ten- year

period is very obvious. Recent initiatives to extend the range and use of Gaelic within the

Western Isles communities clearly imply a priority to encourage Gaelic speakers to use

their language to the extent they were doing so ten years previously. It also means that the

circumstances would need to be created in which this was possible, and that encourage-

ment and support would need to be effectively forthcoming for these uses to be enhanced

in the present- day community.

Always

Gaelic

Mainly

Gaelic

Both

languages

equally

Mainly

English

Always

English

1994–5 EUROMOSAIC

To original father

To original mother

To spouse/partner

To children

Between children

2004–5 WILPP survey

To original father

To original mother

To spouse/partner

To children

Between children

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Figure 13.21b Western Isles: language use in family – Gaelic speakers, 1994–5 and

2004–5 – percentages

628 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES

Gaelic can be

and is used

Shopping

Minister/priest

Buying newspaper

Asking the time

Buying petrol

Councillor

Child’s teacher

Car repair

Drinking in pub

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Gaelic could be

but is not used

English only can

be used

Figure 13.22a Western Isles: language use in community, 1994–5 (Euromosaic Survey

N = 130) – higher Gaelic use levels

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Gaelic can be

and is used

Gaelic could be

but is not used

English only can be

used

Hairdresser

Ordering meal

Machine repair

Bank manager

Social worker

Library

Solicitor

Sports club

Doctor

Paying water bill

Figure 13.22b Western Isles: language use in community, 1994–5 (Euromosaic Survey

N = 130) – moderate Gaelic use levels

SCOTTISH GAELIC TODAY 629

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Gaelic can be

and is used

Gaelic could be

but is not used

English only can be

used

Police

Buying CD/HiFi

Tax office

DHSS office

Theatre

Gas leak

Dentist

Phone operator

Power cut

Eye test

Booking holiday

Figure 13.22c Western Isles: language use in community, 1994–5 (Euromosaic Survey

N = 130) – minimal Gaelic use levels

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Gaelic can be

and is used

Gaelic could be

but is not used

English only can

be used

Minister/priest

Councillor

Shopping

Buying newspaper

Car repair

Buying petrol

Child’s teacher

Hairdresser

Figure 13.23a Western Isles: language use in community, 2004–5 (WILPP survey

N = 254) – higher Gaelic use levels

630 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Gaelic can be

and is used

Gaelic could be

but is not used

English only can

be used

Drinking in pub

Machine repair

Library

Sports activities

Asking the time

Ordering meal

Bank manager

Doctor

Figure 13.23b Western Isles: language use in community, 2004–5 (WILPP survey

N = 254) – lower Gaelic use levels

Gaelic can be used Gaelic cannot be used

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Minister/priest

Local councillor

Shopping

Buying newspaper

Car repair

Buying petrol

Child’s teacher

Hairdresser

Drinking in pub

Machine repair

Library

Sports activities

Asking the time

Ordering meal

Bank manager

Doctor

Figure 13.24a Western Isles: Gaelic speakers in community, 2004–5 (WILPP survey

N = 254) – possible Gaelic language use in community situations

SCOTTISH GAELIC TODAY 631

Figure 13.24 (a and b) indicates the difference between possible and actual Gaelic lan-

guage use in these sixteen speech situations. There is a tendency for the situations where

Gaelic is the more possible to be stronger in actual use. But the only situations in which

use of Gaelic was reported as being used by more than 40 per cent of the respondents were

with a hairdresser, a local councillor, or with clergy. On this measure personal grooming

has overtaken the Church (– but very marginally: do not read too much into it). Another

touchstone of changing times was in asking a stranger the time. In 1994–5 this was the

fourth strongest situation for use of Gaelic. Ten years later it had become the fourth

weakest.

In many of these speech situations Gaelic cannot now be used because the signiﬁ cant

person addressed cannot speak Gaelic. Often this is because key positions are not held by

a Gaelic speaker. As Gaelic fails to be used in the community, this is not only because a

non- Gaelic- speaking incomer holds a position in local professional and commercial life,

but because such positions are coming to be held by younger and non- Gaelic- speaking

locals. If shops and post- ofﬁ ces are local focal points where people can speak the commu-

nity language, this changes as soon as a non- Gaelic speaker takes them over. If these key

facilities for the language are to remain places where Gaelic can be and is used, then there

must be some means whereby these businesses can be acquired by Gaelic speakers from

the community.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Minister/priest

Local councillor

Shopping

Buying newspaper

Car repair

Buying petrol

Child’s teacher

Hairdresser

Drinking in pub

Machine repair

Library

Sports activities

Asking the time

Ordering meal

Bank manager

Doctor

Gaelic is actually used Gaelic is not used

Figure 13.24b Western Isles: Gaelic speakers in community, 2004–5 (WILPP survey

N = 254) – actual Gaelic language use in community situations

632 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES

LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE: INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT

Provisions for Gaelic in education and public life have improved considerably since work

was done for the ﬁ rst edition of this book to 1993. As was then noted, Gaelic provision in

education in the late nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries was tokenistic at best. By the

late twentieth century there were bilingual administrative and educational policies in the

Western Isles, and some place for Gaelic in administration and schooling in the then Argyll

and Bute District and the Highland, Tayside and Strathclyde Regions. Some signiﬁ cant

developments in Gaelic education have occurred since 1975, such as bilingual education

in the Western Isles and Skye. A national attitude survey on Gaelic commissioned by An

Comunn Gaidhealach in 1981 (MacKinnon 1981) paved the way for important advances

for Gaelic in the 1980s in public life and education. Building on the introduction of Gaelic

as a second language at primary level, Gaelic- medium primary units were introduced from

1985 and Gaelic nursery schools in 1988. By the late twentieth century there were bilingual

administrative and educational policies in place in the Western Isles, with Gaelic- medium

schooling making headway in Argyll and Bute, Highland, Strathclyde and Tayside Regions,

and the successor local authorities have continued these policies.

At this period, Gaelic had entered the school system in three distinct ways. In the West-

ern Isles and Skye (and in some measure, Tiree) primary education had become bilingual.

Since 1958 Inverness- shire and Ross- shire had developed the use of Gaelic as an initial

teaching medium in the early primary stage in the Gaelic areas. From 1975 the new West-

ern Isles authority developed a pilot bilingual teaching project in thirty- four of its then

ﬁ fty- nine primary schools, which after 1981 was extended to almost every school as its

general policy. A similar scheme has been adopted by Highland Region, ﬁ rst for northern

Skye and in the mid- 80s for the whole island, covering all twenty primary schools.

Gaelic was by 1987 also taught as a second language in seventy primary schools else-

where in Highland Region, thirty in Argyll under Strathclyde Region, and eighteen in

Highland Perthshire under Tayside. In all these cases, primary Gaelic teaching schemes,

whether bilingual or second- language, can be shown to have some stabilizing effect upon

the speech community and to enhance the local proﬁ le of the language (see Figures 13.11

–13.16 above; and MacKinnon 1984a, 1986). Gaelic was also taught as a second language

in about 40 secondary schools in these areas, and three others in Central, Grampian and

Lothian Regions (1987 ﬁ gures).

The third type of schooling is Gaelic- medium education. This was ﬁ rst introduced

after parental pressure in Glasgow and Inverness: both essentially urban centres out-

with the Gaidhealtachd. Gaelic- medium units were established in two schools in 1985

(MacIllechiar, in Hulbert 1985: 28–33). Subsequently, similar units were established in

six further schools in the Western Isles and Skye. In all, thirty- seven Gaelic- medium units

had been established by 1992. The impetus for such schools came from a very successful

Gaelic playgroups movement, getting under way from about 1982, and in the following

ﬁ ve years establishing a national organization. A total of 100 playgroups and parent- and-

toddler groups in both Gaelic- area and urban locations had been established by 1992, with

more currently projected (Scammell, in Hulbert 1985: 21–7).

By the turn of the century, demands for all- Gaelic, Gaelic- medium schools were fol-

lowing upon increasing demand for Gaelic- medium education. This has resulted in a

fourth model for Gaelic schooling. In 2006 an all- through Gaelic- medium school was ini-

tiated in Glasgow, followed in 2007 by another in Inverness. Calls for similar provision in

the Western Isles have not to date (2009) proved successful, although there is now further

discussion of three other such schools in the Highland council area.

SCOTTISH GAELIC TODAY 633

The peculiarity of Gaelic education has been that it has developed vigorously at the

primary and pre- primary stages, but been particularly poorly developed except as a

second language at the secondary stage. There were pilot schemes in the Western Isles,

and a bilingual secondary education unit opened in Glasgow in 1988. There might have

been a bilingual secondary project in the Western Isles leading on directly from bilingual

primary schooling, but the council’s nerve failed in 1979, and the scheme was remitted.

When the council resolved to continue, the government had changed and the Scottish

Education Department insisted on the delaying tactic of an independent evaluation of

the primary scheme. This eventually reported (Mitchell et al. 1987), but no correspond-

ing secondary bilingual project has followed. Meanwhile the Western Isles has internally

funded a more limited project at Lionel in Lewis, and in 1988 the six- year Lionacleit sec-

ondary opened, serving the Uists, in which Gaelic was promised a high proﬁ le. In 1985

the government initiated a speciﬁ c grant fund for Gaelic education – initially of £250,000

– and by 1991–2 this had grown to over £2.2 million which greatly assisted such projects.

By 2007–8) the fund stood at £5.46m.

There are yet further anomalies in Gaelic education. Although pupils can proceed

through Gaelic- medium primary education, most cannot yet undertake the secondary

stage through the medium of Gaelic. However, since 1983 they could receive a tertiary

education through the language, at Sabhal Mór Ostaig Gaelic College in Skye, which was

recognized by the Scottish Education Department and validated by the Scottish Voca-

tional Education Council, initially to undertake full- time HND courses through the

medium of Gaelic in Business, Computing and Gàidhealtachd Studies. The Gaelic Col-

lege has proceeded to develop Gaelic- medium degrees which can now be taken also at

other constituent colleges of the University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium

Institute. Since the 1880s there have been university Celtic degree courses taught through

English – at Edinburgh, Glasgow and at Aberdeen which also offers a single honours MA

in Gaelic Studies with modern emphasis.

Also in 1987, a database project was established at Sabhal Mór Ostaig, the Gaelic col-

lege in Skye. Such a development was long overdue as academic departments of Celtic

had tended to concentrate on historical rather than contemporary lexicography. The Gaelic

Department of the BBC has always played an important role in this respect – and many

Gaelic neologisms in common use today were introduced in broadcasting.

In 1987, Aberdeen and Dundee Colleges of Education merged as Northern College,

and Gaelic teacher training was to alternate in successive years with Jordanhill at Glas-

gow. This would have drastically affected the future supply of registered teachers of

Gaelic – and of other subjects through Gaelic. There have, however, been improvements

in the provision of teacher training for Gaelic and Gaelic- medium teachers, and from 2006

there have been distance- learning schemes which have eased but not yet entirely met the

shortage of specialist teachers of Gaelic and Gaelic- medium.

Since 1891 the principal Gaelic promotional organization was for many years An

Comunn Gaidhealach (‘The Highland Association’), and since 1892 it has been responsi-

ble for organizing the annual Gaelic cultural festival, the National Mòd. It has been active

in educational, publishing and cultural ﬁ elds. With the appointment of a professional

director in 1966, it involved itself in socio- economic issues and in much more active

political pressure on both central and local government. In the mid- 1980s these roles in

public life and education, together with youth work and the media, were taken up by a

new organization, CNAG (Comunn na Gàidhlig, ‘The Gaelic Association’) funded by the

then Highlands and Islands Development Board, a governmental development agency.

This has left An Comunn Gaidhealach with a purely cultural remit. A Gaelic Arts Ofﬁ cer,

634 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES

funded by the Scottish Arts Council, was appointed in 1987 to run the National Gaelic

Arts Project, Proiseact nan Ealan. Concurrently, the Board both assisted the newly estab-

lished Gaelic playgroups organization, Comhairle nan Sgoiltean Àraich, and helped to

establish a Gaelic learners’ organization, Comunn Luchd- Ionnsachaidh.

Since the 1980s the political parties have given increasing attention to Gaelic, with the

Scottish Labour Party and the Scottish National Party coming out with what are argua-

bly the most articulate policy statements. Ofﬁ cial statements of government policy on the

language were made by the Secretary of State in 1985 (at a CNAG conference at Sabhal

Mór Ostaig) and by a Scottish Ofﬁ ce spokesman in 1987 (at the Celtic Film Festival in

Inverness). The statement went little beyond unspeciﬁ c general support. There were then

almost no examples of central governmental ofﬁ cial usage of Gaelic. After some direct

action campaigning the government has acceded to bilingual road- signs in Skye – and

Gaelic-

only signs in the Western Isles. In the 2000s these have been extended to main

roads on the Highland mainland.

Since 1963 a government- assisted Gaelic Books Council has considerably stimu-

lated Gaelic publishing. The ﬁ rst all- Gaelic magazine, Gairm, has appeared regularly

since 1952 and developed a publishing business. After 200 issues it was succeeded by

Gath in 2003. Other ventures in Gaelic publishing have included a bilingual fortnightly

paper in the late 1960s; a book club in the early 1970s (both now defunct); and, most

recently, the Acair publishing house at Stornoway formed by a consortium chieﬂ y for

educational material, and chieﬂ y in Gaelic. There are Gaelic features in local newspapers

such as the Oban Times, West Highland Free Press, Inverness Courier, and Stornoway

Gazette, and the weekend supplement of The Scotsman. In recent years a monthly all-

Gaelic newspaper supplement An Gàidheal Ùr, has been published in the West Highland

Free Press.

Until it became an early victim of local government and Arts Council economies, a

Gaelic theatre company, Fir Chlis (‘The Northern Lights’) based in the Western Isles

toured annually between 1978 and 1982. The 7.84 Company has subsequently toured

with bilingual productions – but its grant was axed by the Scottish Arts Council in 1988,

and its chief executive/playwright resigned. Amateur Gaelic drama has become a vigor-

ous and popular scene over the past decade, and a new Gaelic theatre company, Ordag is

Sgealbag (‘Thumb and Foreﬁ nger’), was formed in 1990, and subsequently, Tosg (‘Emis-

sar’), and Meanbh- chuileag (‘Midge’). A Gaelic community ﬁ lm unit Sùil (‘Eye’) in the

1970s developed into the Celtic Film Festival with headquarters in Inverness. In 1987 a

professional Gaelic ﬁ lm and video unit, Fradharc Ùr (‘New Vision’) was established in

Lewis and was training young Gaels in ﬁ lm and video production. The announcement

early in 1990 of a £9.5 million annual fund for a Gaelic Television service on ITV greatly

stimulated the formation of further independent production companies. This initiative

was overseen and funded by the Gaelic Television Committee, and following inﬂ uential

media reports this developed into the Gaelic Broadcasting Committee (1996), and then

into Gaelic Media Services (2003) and MG Alba (2008). In 2008 a dedicated digital tele-

vision channel, BBC Alba, commenced broadcasting.

Gaelic is very differently associated with the various Highland churches. Catholicism

and Episcopalianism were successively the original religions of the Gaelic people around

and after the time of the Scottish Reformation. These persuasions survive in quite well-

deﬁ ned areas: Catholicism in South Uist and Barra in the outer islands, in Moidart and

Morar on the western mainland, and in the central Great Glen and Strathglass in Easter

Ross (these latter much reduced by the Clearances); and Episcopalianism in Lochaber

and Glencoe (where regular Gaelic services survived into the mid- twentieth century). The

SCOTTISH GAELIC TODAY 635

spread of Presbyterianism as the established Church of Scotland throughout the High-

lands has been well charted by Withers (1984, 1988) and Durkacz (1983). Initially its

efforts were associated with bringing English- language education to the Gaelic commu-

nity, the suppression of Jacobitism and acceptance of economic improvements (Campbell

1950, Durkacz 1983).

In the mid- nineteenth century the legitimation of the Highland Clearances by the

Established Church was undoubtedly a major factor in the Disruption of 1843 when the

Free Church seceded and became the major popular church in the Highlands and Islands

(Hunter 1974). In 1893, a further secession from the Free Church resulted in the forma-

tion of the Free Presbyterian Church, which is more fundamentalistically Calvinist, and

still well represented in the more remote and strongly Gaelic communities, as in Lewis

and Harris. Further splits occurred in both churches in the late twentieth century.

The Protestant churches, notably the Church of Scotland, have designated parish

charges which are ‘Gaelic essential’ and ‘Gaelic desirable’. These have tended to diminish

over the years – and with difﬁ culties of availability of sufﬁ cient Gaelic- speaking ministers

for effective ‘call’ by the Gaelic congregations, there have been vacant charges and non-

Gaelic speakers ﬁ lling ‘Gaelic desirable’ pulpits. Gaelic is now very weak in Highland

Episcopalianism but a revised Gaelic mass was authorized in 1974, and occasional Gaelic

services have been held. The Roman Catholic authorities seem to have the most effective

policy for directing Gaelic- speaking priests to Gaelic- speaking charges in the diocese of

Argyll and the Isles. A revised Gaelic liturgy was available in 1963, and there has subse-

quently been the universal introduction of the vernacular mass, and the adoption of Gaelic

as the language of worship for Gaelic congregations. In recent years the Free Presbyteri-

ans have reported acute difﬁ culty in attracting Gaelic speakers into the ministry, and have

interpreted this in connection with the doctrine of predestination as God’s indication of

the extinction of the Gaelic language. Nevertheless their island congregations are prob-

ably the most strongly and ethnically Gaelic of all the local churches (MacKinnon 1994:

124; 2000b: 616–17). The religious culture of all the Presbyterian churches emphasizes

the reading of scripture, home worship, and in their services the singing of the Gaelic

metrical psalms. Traditional Gaelic literacy has thus been high among all adherents. As

church- going has been near universal in the most strongly Gaelic communities, there has

been a reinforcement of religion, with Gaelic literacy and language in the most strongly

Gaelic communities of northern Skye, Lewis, Harris and North Uist.

GAELIC LANGUAGE- GROUP VIABILITY IN CENSUS PERSPECTIVE:

1961–2001

The Gaelic speech community is on the whole an ageing sector of the population –

although there have been some small increases in Gaelic- speaking abilities e.g. between

1961 and 1971 with a 10 per cent increase in the census ﬁ gures – a feature of Lowland

Scotland exclusively. However, from 1971 to 1981 for the ﬁ rst time there were propor-

tional and numerical increases of Gaelic speakers in the Western Isles and parts of Skye

(together with some other areas attracting oil- related industry, and suburban fringes of

the larger cities). The declining numbers of Gaelic speakers over a century of census

results have been presented in Figures 13.1 and 13.2, above. It will be seen that the over-

all decline has continued through the 1991 and 2001 censuses. The upturn of younger

Gaelic speakers in 1981 associated with primary Gaelic teaching schemes was not con-

tinued in the 1991 census, but some subsequent small increases among young people can