Fòram na Gàidhlig

Chaidh litir fhoillseachadh sa Courier Inbhir Nis an diugh - nam bheachsa taigh a' chac air a lethid aineolaich ach feumaidh sinn freagairtean a chur a-steach dhaibh.
Seo an litir:

We can't afford funding for Gaelic minority
Published: 28 September, 2010

Sir, We are going through probably the worst public funding crisis for many years. Pay freezes for local authority workers, reductions in police forces, reductions in public services.
advertising

Yet above all this the minority Gaelic Mafia Gravy Train forges on regardless, with new premises, new initiatives and new staff posts, whilst hard-pressed local authorities and other public funded bodies are forced to spend scarce resources i implementing a Gaelic Plan.

It is time now for the silent majority to be fully informed of the vast amounts of public and other funds spent over the last 10-15 years. Several tens of millions, yet there are relatively no more Gaelic speakers now than 10 years ago. The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 was quietly introduced but now allows those who insist in forcing Gaelic to the fore, far more powers than many of us first envisaged.

The Act needs to be repealed or at least redrafted to stop the provisions being forced on the majority at any cost. We cannot afford the luxury of continually funding a fantasy for the minority. Gaelic is not the first language of Scotland, it never was and never will be, yet the whole country is being forced to adopt this approach to the language.

We cannot afford to have new Gaelic schools with class sizes of 20 or less. Nor can we afford to spend scarce public funds on private transport for those pupils whose parents decide to opt out of the mainstream education stream, and have their offspring educated through the medium of Gaelic.

Why should we all have to pay? Perhaps the forthcoming spending review which is sweeping through the whole country will finally highlight this continuing waste of public funds.

By all means help to preserve the Gaelic language, by for example evening classes, distance learning, and use of the internet, but stop elevating it to a status which is not sustainable, and which is only for the benefit of a minority few, but paid for by the majority.

The politicians are obviously not listening to the voice of the majority, but may need to at the next elections.

Robin Matthew, Inverness, (Full address supplied).

Seo an ceangal gus freagairt a chur a-steach:
http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news ... ority.html

Chuir Art freagairt a-steach agus feadhainn eile cuideachd, amdadain eile nam measg:

Arthur CormackArthur Cormack
View details
Robin Matthew's view of Gaelic's status does not accord with mine. The way Gaelic has been treated is shameful and now that it is getting some recognition, and some effort is being put into revitalising the language, he finds this unacceptable and tries to make out that the support is in some way disproportionate by referring to the 'minority'. Gaelic speakers are a minority in Scotland now but he should think about the considerable support given to many, many minority groups in this country and ponder on why it is acceptable to pick on Gaelic speakers as some kind of wasteful mafia, when Scotland has a very good record of protetcting minority groups of all kinds.

The Gaelic Language Act was not passed quietly. I was in the parliament the day it was passed, unanimously, by all MSPs of all parties. More than 3,000 people took part in the public consultation in the run up to the passing of the Act, so if it has resulted in more powers than many had envisaged they should have been looking out at the time when they had a chance to have a say.

Gaelic sustains jobs the same as the English language does in Scotland. Nobody is arguing that Gaelic should be the first language of a Scotland of the future, nor is anyone being forced to do anything in connection with the language.

To argue that Gaelic could be preserved through evening classes and distance learning shows an astonishing lack of knowledge of how minority languages are revitalised.

To argue that the majority is paying for the minority is a nonsense in relation to Gaelic and Robin Matthew should do some research. The funding Gaelic gets equates to 0.07% of the Scottish budget. That is less than a tenth of one per cent of the budget for a language that is spoken by 1.2% of the population. If the 1.2% of the population were getting 1.2% of the budget spent on their language the sum would be £396m. Of course, we all know that public spending is not compartmentalised in that way.

On class sizes, the average size of a Gaelic class in Highland is 16 while the average size of an English class is only 12. Therefore, the cost per pupil in a Gaelic class is significantly less than the cost of a pupil in an English class, even more so when you consider that Gaelic pupils do not have access to the same number of resources or classroom assistants as their English-language counterparts. There is more English language educational provision with 'class sizes of 20 or less' than there are Gaelic classes with 20 or fewer pupils.
Yesterday, 15:54:24– Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate Niall Gòrdan
Well, actually, we can't afford NOT to promote Scotland/Ireland's language as it brings its own contribution to the country's economy in the way of jobs which pay wages, much in the same way as oilrigs brought workers from southern Scotland.

Why do I bother.............?
Yesterday, 16:47:11– Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate FM
Until less than 100 years ago, Gaelic was widely spoken in the Highlands. Every effort has to be made to keep the language alive - when looking to save, maybe languages which are not spoken by indigenous Scots should be targets for the cuts - people who come to Britain to work should at least have a decent knowledge of our language, we should not have to provide translators at the courts, hospitals - if it was made known to folk deciding to move here that they have to be able to make themselves understood, things would start to get better I feel. Oh I can just hear howls of derision from our liberal friends.....
Yesterday, 17:35:04– Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate An duine eile
Same old bigoted poison from Culloden days dressed up for the new millennium and the credit crunch. Get a life!
Yesterday, 18:06:13– Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate RAY
totaly agree with this letter . language is so everyone can pass information back and forward between individuals. not as a way of keeing secrets. if people want to preserve Gaelic . do it at their own expense.
Yesterday, 19:23:48– Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate Eoghanbeg
Robin Matthew quite rightly states that it is time now for the silent majority to be fully informed of the correct amount of public money being spent on Scottish-Gaelic. The mythological 'vast' amount spent on Gaelic actually amounts to 0.07% of the Scottish Government budget. To put it another way, that trivial sum amounts to less than one tenth of one per cent of the Scottish Government budget.

If Scottish-Gaelic is allowed to die our true Scottish language dies too. Let's recap here. Our country called Scotland was founded by people who spoke Gaelic called Scots. There is no doubt about that. Yet, Mr. Matthews claims that Gaelic is not the first language of Scotland, never was and never will be. Well, your readers can judge for themselves from the following:

"In the late 15th century the best poetry in English came from Scotland. This kingdom, united under Malcolm Canmore in the late 11th century, had four tongues: Highland Gaelic, lowland English, clerkly Latin, and lordly Anglo-Norman French. Since the 7th century, English had been spoken on the east coast from the River Tweed to Edinburgh. Its speakers called the tongue of the Gaels, who since the 5th century had come into Argyll from Ireland, Scottis. A Gael was in Latin Scotus, a name then extended to Lowlanders, who called the northern English they spoke Inglis. After the 14th century, a century of war with England, the Lowlanders called their speech Scottis, and called the Gaelic of the original Scots Erche, later Erse (Irish)."

- from Michael Alexander, the author of A History of English Literature published by Palgrave in 2007, who held the chair of English at the University of St. Andrews.
Yesterday, 20:14:02– Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate Aonghas Caimbeul
I agree with Robin Matthew on this issue, and im a native Gael from South Uist ! Its all to do with Jobs for the boys and off course you cant be negative if your check and bank balance depends on it can you,but the language as i knew it and its culture is practically dead, O yes its used at Feisean,Parties etc ! Blah Blah1 ' Lets have a Ceilidh' at the expense of the taxpayers and here is one Statistic Daliburgh School in South Uist has 125 pupils ,and only 40 of those are being taught in the Gaelic Medium, and seeing South Uist is practically the heartland of Gaelic the fiqures above show otherwise Only one third of the pupils are going for Gaelic Medium Education !! enough said a bhalaich , Soraidh Leibh 's Oidchde Mhath Leibh ,gu dearbh ,
Yesterday, 20:46:13– Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate leodhasach
Away with you, Lewis is the heartland of Gaelic

Disagree with everything else you say too!
Today, 12:05:39– Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate Ferryman
Hear ! hear!, Mr Matthew. The politicians ought to be listening; but wiil they?
Yesterday, 23:30:41– Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate Niall
Gah. Austerity is the dog that ate everyone's homework. As so many people have already said, the same argument of "can't afford it" comes out regardless of the economic climate.

Well sorry, I'm sick of it. I'm not a Gaelic speaker -- don't let the spelling of my name fool you.

Let's construct another equally specious argument.

"The government is wasting billions on promoting English, at a time when other areas are suffering cutbacks. The English language is the best funded language in the world, and more books are published in English than in any other language. Why does the UK government see fit to add to this by publishing so many more documents in English? Why does the UK government waste money by teaching our children English, when they can learn English from their parents, from books, from TV. This is ridiculous. The government is funding the 'hobby' of millions, when it should be looking at value for money."

It's a ridiculous argument, but it's only different in one way: "they all speak English anyway". But choice isn't just about availability -- it's also about preference. Parents can chose their kids' schools. NHS patients chose their dentist. It's not just "your postcode is X, you're going to Mr. Y's practice and your kids are going to Z primary."
Today, 11:56:14– Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate

By all means help to preserve the Gaelic language

Blah blah blah an t-aon rud gach àm. "Chan eil mi an aghaidh na Gàidhlig ACH...."

You know, there was this Irish guy who once said, "The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

Being an American, I try to refrain from commenting on Scotland's politics too much, but wherever I read gòrachd like this, I really wish I could ask the person to his or he face, why bother sustaining a distinct national and cultural Scottish identity if you are not going to preserve those things that make Scotland distinctly Scottish? Why don't you just drop the whole Scottish pretense and call yourselves English?

As American, however, I can say more than a few things about culture loss, and how that is something no society should assume it can afford. All these things that other people like to criticize us Americans for--our materialism, our greed, our consumerism, our power-hungry politicians who OK torture and lie us into war and our ruthless, soulless corporations that want to shape the rest of the world in the image of the US free market--all have their roots in culture loss, directly or indirectly. We are a country that struggles to remember our better qualities because we have no deeply rooted culture to remind us of who we are. If you want your country to be more like the worst the US has to offer, fine, let your culture die.