Fòram na Gàidhlig

The Scotsman
08 October 2010

Open letter to Education Secretary Mike Russell

I am dismayed the Scottish Government has decided to cease all funding for the
wonderful programmes that TAIC/CSNA have developed for Gaelic language
revitalisation.

As a scholar and language advocate who has worked for more than 40 years for the
survival of endangered languages, I have been following TAIC's innovative
programmes with great interest. They are popular and effective in both Scotland
and your sister speech communities in Nova Scotia, and are a great model for the
rest of the world.

Language revitalisation is a strong and growing movement around the world, and
Scotland's new approach to bringing it back into the family and community for
daily communication is one of the best. I have been honoured to have TAIC
director Finlay McLeod write a chapter for my forthcoming edited book, Bringing
the Language Home, about families who use their endangered languages at home
with their children. His chapter is about TAIC's family language programme, one
of the few in the world designed specifically to help families regain Gaelic as
their home language.

How can Scotland give such a blow to its own heritage language?

Leanne Hinton

Department of Linguistics

University of California at Berkeley

SeoLeanne Hinton air Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leanne_Hinton

Agus seo ollamh Ameireaganach, a th' air rannsachadh cleachdmhor a dhèanamh air cànanan tùsail Chalifornia, a' dèanamh mearachd ann an ainm buidheann Fhionnlaigh chòir (CSNA an àite CNSA). Chan fhaic mi gun soirbhich a litir.

Oh s*d this. Time to move the debate on to pastures new.

Saoilidh mi nach bi ùidh agad na tha ri leughadh san Albannach an-diugh Nèill? Saoilidh mi gu bheil beagan chliù agus 'clout' fhathast aig Mgr Fishman.

'Now Pro Joshua Fishman, the world authority on endangered languages, has called for funding to be restored and increased. In a letter to Mr Russell he said: "It is a shock to me to learn that there is a plan to dismantle funding for TAIC, one of the few successful language revitalisation efforts in the entire world." '

http://news.scotsman.com/gaelic/Anger-a ... 6572977.jp