XPost: soc.culture.irish, soc.culture.scottish, soc.culture.british   
   XPost: uk.politics.misc   
   From: ciaran@ciaran.com   
      
   allan connochie wrote:   
   > "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   
   >   
   >   
   So the crime of more recent origin - all the more reason for just   
   compensation for the wrongs done to the Scots.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)