Surge in Scots Gaelic Speakers Points to Historic Revival of the Language

There has been a surge in interest in Scots Gaelic in recent years and observers are pointing to a tipping point having been reached. Interest in Gaelic is increasing at the same time polling shows renewed support for Scottish Independence.

The website for STV, the Scottish television network, recently ran a story titled “A surge in the number of people taking up Gaelic in the last 18 months has raised fresh hopes for the revival of the historic Scots language”. One could dispute that the language is far from “historic” in that the latest census numbers show 60,000 are fluent in the Celtic Tongue.

As evidence of the vitality of Gaelic in Scotland the article cites that “around 200,000” people have signed up to learn Scots Gaelic on the online language tutorial “DuoLingo”.  Duolingo launched its Gaelic service in November 2018.

The most significant indicator of a brighter future for Scots Gaelic is the explosion of Gaelic Medium education in the past 15 years. This phenomenon has been widely discussed. The base line for comparison in the analysis of the growth of Gaelic education is the year 1985. In that year there were 24 pupils enrolled in Gaelic Language classes. Compare that questionably small number to the 4,300 pupils enrolled in 2018 and you get a sense of the dynamic at play. By any measure a significant increase.

The 2018 enrollment figures show a 64% increase over 2010 enrollment. The increase is accelerating. Combine the thousands of fluent speakers being turned out of the Scottish educational system with the support for the language by the Scottish National Party and Scottish Parliament, it becomes clear that there is cause for optimism.

Not included in the above numbers are the graduates of Scotland’s three Gaelic Colleges. Students at these institutions of higher learning are taking their degrees through the medium of Gaelic.

Hugh Dan MacLennan of the Royal Celtic Society has made the following observation on the acceleration of interest in Gaelic: “There’s a very much more widespread interest in Gaelic than there has been over the last 10 years. There are some initiatives actually triggering that and some are some building on other initiatives, which have happened over a period of time.”

Glasgow has seen a significant increase in Gaelic speakers. In 2020 a fourth Gaelic median school is in the works for Glasgow in response to demand. The city boasts the largest number of Scots Gaelic speakers outside the Highlands and Islands.  The number of Gaelic speakers in Glasgow has reached such a critical mass that “Glaswegian Gaelic” is on its way to becoming its own dialect.

Glasgow Gaelic made the news in a 2016 “Herald Scotland” article "Research Claims New Gaelic Speakers Are Developing a Glasgow Accent”. The story reported on the findings of a Lancaster University linguist. Dr. Clare Nance authored a four-year study on Gaelic usage in Scotland’s largest city and identified shifts in vowel usage and intonation between Glaswegian and the Gaelic spoken in the Hebrides, the stronghold of Scots Gaelic. Dr. Nance is quoted; " I interpreted my findings in a positive way in that Gaelic is being adapted and used for different purposes and for different reasons and in different places. And the world has changed - the future of Scotland is multilingual rather than monolingual so Gaelic is changing and adapting to reflect this.”

Another sign of the bright future of Scots Gaelic is the shortage of places for students wanting a Gaelic education and the teaching staff to man the Gaelic Medium schools.

In 2016 the website Bella Caledonia offered up an analysis of the impact the comeback of Scots Gaelic is having in Scotland's two largest cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. "Local authorities are having to scramble to meet demand for education delivered in the Celtic tongue. This demand has resulted in a Teacher shortage but a more pressing problem is finding students seats in Gaelic Medium classrooms. There is a looming crisis in the number of places available for students wishing a Gaelic Medium education. "Such is the rising popularity of a Gaelic language school environment, that in Glasgow, even children brought up with Gaelic as a first language are unable to secure a place at a school a mile and a half away."

https://news.stv.tv/west-central/enormous-interest-in-gaelic-language-over-last-18-months?top

https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/does-scotland-have-enough-gaelic-teachers-1403766

https://www.transceltic.com/blog/gaelic-alive-and-well-scotlands-largest-city-glasgow-home-10-of-scotlands-gaelic-speakers