XPost: alt.usage.english, uk.media.tv.sf.drwho   
   From: YourName@YourISP.com   
      
   On 2026-01-02 17:57:07 +0000, Hibou said:   
      
   > Le 02/01/2026 à 15:37, The Doctor a écrit :   
   >> Hibou wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>> [...] We native English speakers are lucky people.   
   >>   
   >> Exactly!   
   >>   
   >> Still how are the Scots doing to preserve Scottish Gaelic?   
   >   
   > Badly:   
   >   
   >    
   >   
   > There's no percentage scale there, but Gaelic speakers are currently   
   > about 1% of the population - and there's a question about how well they   
   > speak it. No-one in Scotland speaks Gaelic but not English.   
   >   
   > It is essentially impossible to preserve a language like Gaelic. If   
   > it's to handle all aspects of modern life, then it must acquire a mass   
   > of new words, and its nature changes. If one rejects that course and   
   > seeks to preserve it as is, then it becomes limited and obsolete.   
   >   
   > IMHO, it's no use being able to say, "Put some more peat on the fire,   
   > Donald" in Gaelic, and then having to resort to English to discuss   
   > Morag's doomscrolling on Facebook.   
      
   The Maroi language here in New Zealand adds words, but often they're   
   simply "pigeon-English"-like reworking of the English word. For   
   example, the Maori word for a car is simply "motoka" (i.e. a corruption   
   of "motorcar").  :-\   
      
   As usual these days, there is all sorts of politicall correctness   
   stupidity about trying to "save" the Maori language by having street   
   signs in both languages, ranaming government departments (twice - first   
   time to put the Maori version first, and again to put it second),   
   forcing kids to learn Maori in school, etc. The reality is that it's a   
   dying language for a reason, and even most Maori cannot and have no   
   interest in speaking it.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)