Alba ùr ach amaideas seann nos fhathast a' dol

[Gràisg]

Saoil dè cho truagh 's a tha e a bhith glacte leis a leithid bholtaig a tha seo air gach cearn d'inntinn. Duais a'' mhios.

"Published on Monday 7 November 2011 20:31

The replies to Rosemary Macdonald’s letter criticising the setting up and public funding of a Gaelic school in Edinburgh (1 November) were not only patronising but were largely irrelevant.

The government grant of £1.9 million was no “financial drop in the ocean” in this time of austerity but part of a huge sum of £40m that the SNP government is spending annually on promoting Gaelic.

This no doubt helps to explain why conventional state schools in Scotland are not getting the resources which they need and deserve.

Both Kevin Cordell and Alasdair Macinnes (Letters, 2 November) ignore the fact that Gaelic is a commercially useless language that is very difficult to learn and even more difficult – if not impossible for a non-Gael – to spell or pronounce correctly.

Besides, Gaelic was never the national language of Scotland. If anything, that title belongs to Scots, the language of Burns, which was declared by the monarch to be the official language of the Scottish people more than 400 years ago. If people wish to learn Gaelic let them do so, but at their own expense, not that of the tax payer.

WILLIAM GROVES
Stalk Hill
Lanark"

Tuilleadh an seo agus deasbad na chois
http://www.scotsman.com/news/letters/tr ... _1_1952809

[sr3nitygirl]

Agus, Dimairt...


Published on Tuesday 8 November 2011 19:00


MR WILLIAM Groves (Letters, 8 November) points out that Gaelic is very difficult for non-native speakers to spell and pronounce correctly. That is certainly true, but it is at least equally true of French; would he have our schoolchildren stop learning French for that reason?

He argues that Gaelic is commercially useless.


He states that Scots and not Gaelic was declared by “the monarch” to be the national language of Scotland. I don’t know which monarch he is thinking of, but the fact is that no monarch ever made an official policy declaration on the subject of a national language.

Both Scots and Gaelic are national languages of Scotland; neither was ever “the” national language if that is taken to mean the sole language of the entire kingdom.

Most other European countries give active support to their indigenous languages as a matter of course. The fact that it has taken us this long to approach the level of enlightenment which elsewhere is taken for granted is a disgrace; and it is sad to see people in Scotland still whingeing about the progress that is at last being made.

Derrick McClure

Rosehill Terrace

Aberdeen


http://www.scotsman.com/news/letters/na ... _1_1954330