XPost: soc.culture.welsh, soc.culture.cornish, soc.culture.irish   
   XPost: soc.culture.scottish   
   From: micheil@shaw.ca   
      
   On Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:05:46 GMT, "Chess One"    
   wrote:   
      
   >   
   >"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.   
      
   In the Highlands, people look down into a loch, not a lock. How long   
   did you live in the Highlands - a weekend?   
      
   >   
   >> 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.   
      
   No I don't and I have never heard of him. If he ever attended a Gaelic   
   meeting such as a Mod, I feel fairly sure that I would have heard of   
   him.   
   >   
   >> 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   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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