XPost: soc.culture.welsh, soc.culture.cornish, soc.culture.irish   
   XPost: soc.culture.scottish   
   From: innes8@verizon.net   
      
   "The Highlander"  wrote in message   
   news:48q7c3hb12ilm8mm3i9n9ku6lijoagomt6@4ax.com...   
   >   
      
   > Well if it were spelled MacAonghais that would be true.   
      
   good god! and in the year 1000 Hamish & Innes split.... the idiots! - if   
   they had stayed in Ireland for another 800 years they could have been   
   MacGuinneses!   
      
   > But as you   
   > call yourself "Innes", you are in fact using a Lowland version of the   
   > name, presumably intended to provide an English phonetic version for   
   > the benefit of non-Gaels.   
      
   You like Ynys? or Innish? or Ínche?   
      
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Scottish Gaelic has of habitual speakers now just 30,000 persons.   
   >   
   > A total of 58,652 people speak Gaelic in Scotland today according to   
   > the last Government Census. Lots more living outside Scotland also   
   > speak Gaelic, especially in major centres like London, England and of   
   > course overseas in Nova Scotia, Canada where the language is still   
   > spoken on a daily basis, and almost anywhere else where Gaels recently   
   > settled.   
      
   Actually, while that number is true, there are 'habitual users', that is,   
   those who elect to speak that way, and there is 'speak' as in understand   
   Gaelic.   
      
   > There are also many people, paricularly in the US who have learned   
   > Gaelic through evening classes in centres like Seattle and in Boston   
   > where there is a Gaelic-speaking population, mostly Nova Scotians who   
   > moved to the US to find work; etc.   
      
   Yes - and interestingly they have preserved more of the old ways -   
   especially the music culture than Scotland has itself - you might add   
   Newfoundland to the list. I think only Ireland has managed to preserve it   
   folk music relatively unscathed - or so says Doogie MacClane.   
      
   > There are even native Canadians (PC   
   > for Indians) and Americans who speak some Gaelic because of ancestors   
   > intermarrying with Highland emigrants. There are two in the building I   
   > live in, here in Western Canada.   
      
   I used to know a Michael Shaw in the highlands! Is the name adopted into A.   
   Sax? where it has an [uncertain] meaning, that is, several senses which   
   change over time:   
      
       A thicket. The word is often explained a small wood,   
       and in the glossary to Syr Gawayne, a grove or wood.   
       In early English writers it has usually the meaning I have   
       assigned to it, but the other senses are also employed.   
           -- says Halliwell   
      
       "Under the shawe of the wood" Morte d'Arthure   
      
       I wol abide undir the schawe - Gower, MS Soc Antiq   
      
       In somer when the shawes be sheyne, - MS Cantab Ff v 48 f 125   
      
       Abouten the schowe renne, - Reliq. Antiq.   
      
       That sange in the sesone in the schene schawes   
       So lawe in the lawndez so lykand notes.   
           //Md'A. A i 17 f 137   
      
   Another ancient reference is 'to rub the skin off by friction' [with origin:   
   Sweden] and was 'still in use' circa 1840   
      
   > There has been a steady decline in the number of Gaelic speakers in   
   > Scotland in the last hundred years. There were 230,806 Gaelic speakers   
   > in Scotland in 1901 according to the Census. There are a number of   
   > reasons for this decline, including economic ones, but it is hoped   
   > that with more support this decline will be halted.   
      
   The inverse has happened in Cornwall, where study of Cornish language is   
   making great strides. What inhibits it's further popularity seem to be   
   excessive straining of the politicos to encourage les autres.   
      
   > According to the last Census, although there was a fall in the number   
   > of Gaelic speakers from 65,978 (1991) to 58,652 (2001), the rate of   
   > decline was not as steep as it was between 1981 and 1991 when the   
   > number of Gaelic speakers fell from 79,307 to 65,978. In addition to   
   > the people in Scotland who are able to speak Gaelic and were recorded   
   > in the last Census, there is another group of people who can read,   
   > write or understand Gaelic - there are 33,744 of them according to the   
   > last Census.   
   >   
   > Gaelic is still strongest in the Western Isles and West Highlands.   
   > However, there are a significant number of Gaelic speakers in some of   
   > Scotland's cities such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness and almost   
   > half of the Gaelic speakers in Scotland now stay out with the   
   > traditional heartland areas (the local authority areas: Na h-Eileanan   
   > Siar, Highland and Argyll and Bute).   
      
   Ay, I know it - I lived in the highlands - the least populated per sq mile   
   in all Europe. The Grampians provide a little insulation to the madding   
   crowd. Sometimes in the high west you can 10 miles inland and look down into   
   the lock and watch a school of dophins going out to sea. Even the place   
   seems to belong to some time - I don't man C15th - I mean other era,   
   something before the modern world.   
      
   > There are a number of people among the ranks of Gaelic speakers today   
   > who have learnt the language, and Gaelic Medium Education and the   
   > advances in that sector give cause for hope with regard to the future   
   > of Gaelic. There are 3,086 pupils in Gaelic Medium Education at   
   > present (nurseries run by Local Authorities, primary schools, and   
   > secondary schools) and 3,641 take Gaelic as a subject at present in   
   > secondary schools (learners and fluent speakers). Also according to   
   > the last Census the number of Gaelic speakers aged between five and   
   > nine years old rose. There are also nearly 2,000 children registered   
   > in the pre-school groups of Comhairle nan Sgoiltean Àraich (the Gaelic   
   > pre-school organisation).   
      
   Well - since you live on the West coast of the Americas do you know an old   
   friend who now lives there and has written several books on Celtic   
   iconography - his name is Aidan Meehan. I think he travels around a bit and   
   gives talks lectures & workshops. Particularly good, IMO, is his The Tree of   
   Life.   
      
   > Duncan MacNiven, Registrar General for Scotland, said: "This report,   
   > based on detailed analysis of the 2001 Census, shows that Gaelic is   
   > thriving as well as declining. The number of Gaelic speakers fell by   
   > 7,300 during the 1990s. However, the number of Gaelic readers   
   > increased by 3,200 and the number of people able to write in Gaelic   
   > rose by 3,100.   
   >   
   > "The Census suggests that Gaelic is declining in its traditional   
   > heartlands, particularly in the Western Isles, but growing in many   
   > other parts of Scotland - and among young people. Around 430 more   
   > young people, aged five to nine, could speak Gaelic in 2001 than in   
   > 1991. It is moving from being an oral language to being a language   
   > spoken, read and written." (From the Gaelic Report on the 2001   
   > Census).   
      
   I might hope that such enterprise also takes root in its tradition, that is,   
   in the Celtic iconography and special geometric appreciation of nature.   
      
   >>>>> Almost all Scots do not understand the Gaelic, and are no longer   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)