XPost: soc.culture.irish, soc.culture.scottish, soc.culture.british   
   XPost: uk.politics.misc   
   From: allan@EASYNET.CO.UK   
      
   "Ciaran"  wrote in message   
   news:45B1C91D.8080500@ciaran.com...   
   > The Highlander wrote:   
   >> On 18 Jan 2007 12:13:48 -0800, "scally"    
   > "That is how we feel about Scottish Gaelic. We have to fight for it again.   
   > A tremendous blow was inflicted on the Gaelic language and culture at   
   > Culloden and the Highland Clearances. The language and culture were   
   > devastated.   
      
   Actually no the language wasn't devastated by Culloden. The population of   
   the Highlands and hence the actual number of Gaelic speakers rose sharply in   
   the century after Culloden. Likewise even after the period commonly called   
   The Clearances the language was still very strong. A more significant   
   turning point may well have been in the 1880s when the Education Act   
   insisted that English was the to be the language of education and supposed   
   furtherment. Gaelic in the end was totally excluded for a short period only   
   (unlike Scots which was virtually excluded for a century) and the   
   authorities (by authorities I mean Scottish) realised total exclusion was   
   impracticle. It was let back into the system but remained greatly neglected   
   and in reality discouraged. Hence many Gaels themselves gradually threw off   
   their own language (just as many Lowlanders discarded Scots) because of the   
   lure of English combined with the neglect and low esteem the authorities   
   gave to the traditional languages of Scotland.   
      
      
   Allan   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)