Osprey17
Member
While I'd rather not get involved in the debate surrounding the importance of Celtic languages and which ones should be getting preferential treatment, there is a couple of misconceptions about Scottish Gaelic on here that need discrediting.
This is simply not true. The Glasgow metropolitan area alone has 10% of all fluent Scottish Gaelic speakers and is growing (going off data provided by the 2001 and 2011 census). Edinburgh has a smaller but significant population of speakers as well and is also growing (using the same census data). On a side not the biggest increases in the number of Gaelic speakers between 2001 and 2011 were in Aberdeenshire, which again is a non-traditional area. However due to the total population of these areas, none of this will appear on any language distribution map.
This, frankly, is a load of nonsense. The main Scottish political parties would rather the languages went away entirely so they didn't have to spend money on them and use it elsewhere. However they believe that simply by recognising the language they can win votes in what is viewed as the traditional Gaelic 'heartland'. This is why establishments such as Bòrd na Gàidhlig were created but given meaningless objectives such as 'making Scottish Gaelic have equal respect to English'.
Scottish Gaelic was widely spoken across nearly the whole of Scotland with the only notable exception being the border regions. However it went into retreat in the early 15th century and near total collapse at the end of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th century. Most maps showing the extent of Gaelic orthography are based upon the late 19th century boundaries of the language and are viewed currently in academic circles as being innaccurate after research (which is largely still on-going) looking at the history of place-names in Scotland and historical language records.
So a large majority of these 'fake names' in Gaelic are really just archaic place-names that haven't been used since the 15th century or updated variations of them. The only 'fakery' for the want of a better term is for the very, very few places that have only been around since the the late 19th century or so (which usually places that sprung up as the result of the railways), in which case a literal translation of the English has been used. Simply because the place did not exist at the time that the language was spoken does not mean that the language was never spoken there at all.
This is simply not true. The Glasgow metropolitan area alone has 10% of all fluent Scottish Gaelic speakers and is growing (going off data provided by the 2001 and 2011 census). Edinburgh has a smaller but significant population of speakers as well and is also growing (using the same census data). On a side not the biggest increases in the number of Gaelic speakers between 2001 and 2011 were in Aberdeenshire, which again is a non-traditional area. However due to the total population of these areas, none of this will appear on any language distribution map.
This, frankly, is a load of nonsense. The main Scottish political parties would rather the languages went away entirely so they didn't have to spend money on them and use it elsewhere. However they believe that simply by recognising the language they can win votes in what is viewed as the traditional Gaelic 'heartland'. This is why establishments such as Bòrd na Gàidhlig were created but given meaningless objectives such as 'making Scottish Gaelic have equal respect to English'.
Scottish Gaelic was widely spoken across nearly the whole of Scotland with the only notable exception being the border regions. However it went into retreat in the early 15th century and near total collapse at the end of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th century. Most maps showing the extent of Gaelic orthography are based upon the late 19th century boundaries of the language and are viewed currently in academic circles as being innaccurate after research (which is largely still on-going) looking at the history of place-names in Scotland and historical language records.
So a large majority of these 'fake names' in Gaelic are really just archaic place-names that haven't been used since the 15th century or updated variations of them. The only 'fakery' for the want of a better term is for the very, very few places that have only been around since the the late 19th century or so (which usually places that sprung up as the result of the railways), in which case a literal translation of the English has been used. Simply because the place did not exist at the time that the language was spoken does not mean that the language was never spoken there at all.
)
