The Slow Extinction of the Gaelic Language - Essay Example

The Gaelic language is under the threat of extinction by the dominance of the English language in the areas of communication, education and transportation. The paper concentrates on the crucial factors that led to the slow extinction of the Gaelic language from the voice of the once dominating Celtic people of Europe. The language had close similarity with Cornish and Breton and gradually developed from the earlier forms of Scottish Gaelic brought into Scotland by the Irish colonists during the latter part of Roman supremacy in Britain. From the summit of its wide acceptance as the principal court language and the most significant form of cultural expression, Gaelic slowly branched off into a number of cognitive linguistic modes of Celtic origin, including Scottish Gaelic, Breton and Welsh. Though these three are still sparsely used in modern communities even today; Gaelic itself slowly drifted out of the limelight of recognition with the gradual Anglicization of the Scottish Court. The English language acquired grounds originally held by the ancient Celtic group of languages with the gradually increasing preferences for an English way of life first seen among the religious hierarchy and the people under the Anglo-Saxon hegemony with the advent of feudalism in tribal Scotland. The paper will however attempt to present a review of its extinction through the annals of history, making way for Norman French and subsequently for English in its place. It will further comment on the wide acceptance of English as the principal form of expression in both regional and global communication, in education and culture. Languages change with the passage of time. Gaelic is undoubtedly one of the oldest languages in the culture of Great Britain. As far as the researches are concerned, it can be stated that Gaelic language has gone down a path of declination with the passage of time. This declination has obviously been catalyzed by the huge influence and popularity of English as an international language. But to understand how the Gaelic language declined one must take a look at the historical journey of this language from the very beginning until now. Recently there has been a rise of series of issues regarding the present condition of this ancient Celtic language. Numerous policies have been taken into consideration by the Scottish government in order to put life into this almost dying language and the ancient culture associated with it. Gaelic is essentially a Scottish language and therefore it can be said that if this language meets its end in this country, it will be very hard to find its trace anywhere else in the rest of the world. The vow to save this language from the probable extinction in the future has been taken even by Prince Charles himself. (BBC, 2004) According to the recent most reports, Gaelic language is spoken by less than 60,000 people all over the world. The day is not very far when the language will become totally extinct and it will be hard to find its existence outside some ancient texts and a few rare modern works. There are however, many instances in the Scottish history when steps to protect the Gaelic language have been taken. One of those steps was seen during the 1860s when The Argyll Commission showed its interest in protecting the Celtic culture. Preserving the Gaelic language was one of the major parts of this project. (Paterson, 45) Despite the numerous projects to preserve this language, English has proved its power all over the world in the field of education, communication and transportation - everywhere. This has ultimately drawn a huge blow upon the development of Gaelic language, first stopping its growth and then by decreasing the number of people using the language. Going by European history one will be able to find the use of Celtic languages throughout the continent. English and French - these two languages came to the forefront with the unparalleled growth of these two countries, especially in the financial field. Many other Celtic languages, like Gaelic went down the path of extinction with the passage of time. Among them the mentionable ones are Cumbric, Cornish and many others as well. All these languages became extinct within the 19th century. Gaelic was undoubtedly one of the strongest languages among them and thus it has been able to survive the journey until now. Yet the danger lies ahead with this language as the number of users is going down day by day. The history of Celtic languages and culture began from the Stone Age. The period is also known as the "Urnfield Periods". But it was not until the year 1609 when the Gaelic language was considered to be an official language of Scotland. Although late, this increased the use of this language and there is no doubt in it. Still this little development is nothing when compared to the huge international success of English. It is clear from the study of linguistic history that Gaelic language has always traded a path of continuous declination. The Highlands or Gaidhealtachd is the place in Scotland where most of the Gaelic speaking people resided. Apart from this, Ireland was another main center for the Celtic languages and culture. All these Celtic languages share a history of about nine hundred years and the advent of French as well as English affected their uses throughout the period. Apart from the Highlands in Scotland, the Gaelic people were also seen in some places in the lowlands of this country but these people's existence faded away after the beginning of the 15th century. (Nettle, 134) On the other hand, the history of Irish Gaelic is comparatively stronger than the Scottish counterpart. Gaelic was in use for the common people of this country till the 17th century in a full fledge. English, until the beginning of the 17th century, was a restricted language in Ireland and the people who spoke English mainly resided at the part called "the pale". The understanding how Gaelic language went down the path of extinction in this part of this country is a topic of linguistic geography. This decline of the language actually started from the time of 19th century. Today, the Isle of Lewis is one of the main places in Scotland where Gaelic language still has its past popularity. Stornoway, the capital of this region, however, does not have any of the Gaelic speakers. There is no single town where all the residents are Gaelic language speakers. The distribution of Gaelic speaking people is not even throughout the country. Most of the Gaelic speaking population belongs to the working class section in Scotland. English in Ireland and Scotland is the language of the high class where the professionals belong. This inequality in the population distribution among the languages is one of the major reasons why a language gets priority and privileges above the others existing in a country. English is always the language used by the powerful class. Therefore everything done by those for the development of the society have been instructed in English. Economy is a big factor that has definitely influenced the growth of a language throughout the history of world. English is always a language of the metropolitan society, which has enough financial stability and power in its pocket. Therefore educational, communicational and transportation related aspects of the Great Britain societies have always been affected by the popularity of English language. Students have not got the chance to learn their original language as their medium of study is English. This is also the reason why they are gradually drifting away from their culture and society. As history of Great Britain shows, the English speaking community took the hold of the most important sectors and therefore they made the opportunities available for the other English speaking people thinking hardly about the people belonging to the Gaelic or other Celtic language groups. English, as it has appeared allover the world appeared here too, as a language of the colonizers. The 17th century Scotland saw many of these English colonies inside the country. While Irish was the second language for the people whose mother tongue was English, Gaelic was completely ignored. English gradually spread into the Welsh population as well. The outcome of the influence of English and French constantly threatened the Welsh and the Gaelic culture and as a result of this, the new generation Gaelic people were soon found to be bilingual. They were very much habituated in using English as a main language of communication among them. From a very close look at the language, it is not hard to decipher the similarities between German and Gaelic. Thus, in many ways, Gaelic is very much different from English. This language actually belongs to the pre Anglo Saxon period. English came into existence with the growth of the Anglo Saxon population. Gaelic was well spoken in Scotland before the arrival of English. It is really a matter of pity that today; even the Scottish language has lost its long glory. The idea of Scottish Standard English is nothing but a reflection of how important English has become in their lives. There were three Germanic tribes who brought English language into the British Isles. They were known as the Angles, Saxons and the Jutes. It is assumed that all these three tribes used to speak a Celtic language although this language did not exist for a long period of time. The very word 'English' took its birth from the word 'Angle' which was pronounced as 'Engle' by the people. In the meanwhile, there were four dialects that came into existence in the English periphery. They were Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon and Kentish. (Kryss Tal, 2008) Northumbrian became the most dominating dialect among all of them. Latin became the main source for borrowing the alphabet and on the other hand, English also borrowed words from some of the Scandinavian languages. Christian missionaries working in Ireland helped the development by bringing the Latin alphabets to the English speaking community. Communication throughout the world is almost impossible today without the knowledge of English. This has become a global language that is practised by people of almost all the countries. British people also had the history of being the rulers and therefore their colonies have all learnt to speak in this language. Presently, the two most powerful and rich countries in world - the United States of America and the United Kingdom, both have English as their main official language. Linguists have pointed out that influence of these two countries on the rest of the world has resulted in the spread of English language all across the globe. This has also helped the above mentioned countries to take the upper hand on the other countries in the economic field as well. English is today, a mark of standard and therefore people who are not native speakers of this language try to learn it. Now this has become almost a global practice and was also true for the Gaelic speaking communities. Members of these communities soon realized the power which lied in the hand of the English speaking people. They successfully learnt English but were not able to retain the glory of their mother tongue. They have also shown how the educational field is constantly dominated by the English language. This dominance has been possible as English is a very popular language in the publishing industry. English also has better chance when it comes to translations from other languages. According to the reports, the number of English translations has increased hugely during the last three decades. This language has a great international market and therefore it is quite obvious for the publishers to choose to work in this language. Survey says that 40% of the international literature was English translations in the 1960s; however, the number has increased many times by the present era. Gaelic was a language which was used mainly by the people of the Highlands. This region was regarded as a different cultural spot and therefore Gaelic did not have the chance to increase its popularity. Colin H. Williams writes: "Evidence for Gaelic's loss of status and its cultural alienation in the middle ages is quite well documented, but the same is not true of the evidence available to understand the actual territorial extent of the Gaelic areas." (Williams 139) It is evident from different sources that half of the Scottish population was habituated in speaking in the Gaelic language. However, it is never clear why Gaelic was never regarded as a language of the elite class. English was the language of this elite class in the Scottish society and those speaking Gaelic were considered to be inferiors. Gaelic was, on the other hand, a language associated with the religious practices and domestic issues. Although the people of Highland tried to learn English for the obvious reason of their social uplift, they were never experts at this language. There are evidences which show that these people were comfortable in doing business in English language but they never understood sermons in it. English intruded in the daily life of the Highland people from the 18th century. However, change was never late to come. English was soon introduced in the churches and the priests started preaching in English leaving Gaelic - the common people's language. People were slowly habituated in this practice and the only area where Gaelic still has its command was gone in this way. This introduction of this language was possible because of the beginning of educational system in English language. The industrialists in Scotland were also the English speaking class and this is why Gaelic people were more interested to learn this new language rather than expertise in their own mother tongue. With the advent of English language, Gaelic experienced a wave of newly used words in the language. As a result the purity of Gaelic was lost very soon. People gradually became more confident in using English words while speaking Gaelic. The process of this change in Gaelic language started from the later part of the 17th century and has continued until the present age. Today, with the increasing amount of mingling of these two languages, Gaelic has lost its beauty completely. There was a huge generation gap between the Gaelic speaking populations as the new age people were more interested in learning English language thinking about the utility of it in their professional career. According to some writers like Gabrielle Maguire, it is of utmost importance to preserve old languages like Gaelic as they are their own languages deeply rooted in their cultures. Therefore several organizations have been established in order to protect these languages on the verge of extinction. Making arrangements for competitions regarding the Gaelic culture and language is one of the prime parts of the projects. One can mention the name of Gaelic Athletic Association which is serving the culture for quite a long time. The reason of choosing competitions as a method of popularizing this language is the way competitions are adored in the Irish culture. The consensus from the year 1881 shows the quick decline of the Gaelic speaking population. According to Gaidhlig Local Studies, there were some regions in Scotland where Gaelic language was adored until the regions were dominated by the English society. The mentionable among the regions and places are Loch Iall, the Beach of Barra, Loch Aineort, Beinn Laoghal and some others as well. There are, as a matter of fact, many instances that Gaelic was a well practiced language until the time of World War II in some of these regions. One can name the harbour of An-t-Oban. But after the Second World War this Gaelic speaking population slowly diminished and by today, there are hardly any people who have Gaelic as their mother tongue. It is believed that the English Education Act of 1870 was a huge blow to the existence of Gaelic language. Soon after the introduction of the educational medium in English, Gaelic became merely a dialect and not a main language in Scotland. There is an unwritten doctrine going throughout the world that one has to write in English if he or she wants to break the boundaries of communication. Now this has become possible as the English speaking community has ruled the world colonizing many countries in each and every continent. Scotland and Ireland being the neighbouring countries of England are heavily influenced by the glory of English culture and administration. Therefore, in search of the international recognition, Gaelic and other native languages hardly have any scope. Ambitious communities have always accepted the truth and they have never cared about their past traditions. The later Scottish and Irish generations have chosen English as their language and today, it is almost their mother tongue. Sticking to the native mother tongue has caused the closing of international doors for some communities and people have taken lessons from these examples time and again. On the other hand, there is no controversy involved in saying that Gaelic is harder to learn than English, which is a more scientific language. This is also why people have gradually inclined to learning this language and making it an integral part of their daily life. There is another accusation which is cast on the English dominance over the other native languages. Many of the native languages including Gaelic have talented writers who are confident to write in their mother tongue. The English dominance is resulting in the ignorance towards these writers who are deprived of the chance to express themselves internationally in their own languages. Most of these writers have to wait for their works to be translated into English in order to come to the limelight. Every language has some beauty of its own and that cannot be expressed with the help of any other language. Therefore English translations of Gaelic literature cannot articulate the exact feelings which are associated with this culture. This inability of expression is resulting in the failure of the writers who have the most number of works done in Gaelic and have attempted their translations. Drifting from the print media, English has always dominated the electronic and visual media throughout the world. Most of the people associated with the electronic media are interested to use English language for making their business international. Native and ancient languages like Gaelic do not have any value in this field. Therefore as far as international popularity is concerned, they are lagging far behind the success of English as a medium of communication. This is the world of Internet. The world is moving fast and there is hardly enough space to think about the languages which are going down the paths of oblivion. Internet - the most effective medium of this age is entirely dominated by the sheer power and popularity of the English language. Internet has built the global village with the help of the world wide net technology. But if someone gives a closer look, he or she will never be able to find any other language in use except English. Of course there are some websites which have the regional languages, yet the site names and programming - all are done with the application of English language. According to some of the recent most reports, two thirds of the world of Internet is based on the use of English language. It is never possible for people of any country or community to avoid the use of Internet and this is what compelling them to learn English language for utter necessity. Therefore, knowing English has become a main criterion for the users of this medium. Now, as Internet has opened up new vistas as far as employment is concerned throughout the world. Professionals have chosen the use of English language out of very obvious reason. In this way, in today's world, languages like Gaelic are hardly remembered and nourished. Multilingualism is now a part of our culture and according to the linguists this is an outcome of the sheer necessity of career opportunities. There are numerous movements going on to bring back Gaelic in its respectable position as it had before the ages of English dominance. However, some of the critics have not said that it is right to introduce Gaelic in the school education. They have some very obvious reasons behind saying so and commercial outlook is one of the main among them. Business, the very concept has gone international today and English is undoubtedly the most effective communicative medium for the businessmen around the world. Gaelic is a tough language and some of the schools in Ireland have reported about the students' inability to learn the language properly even after several years of classes. English, on the other hand, is much more easily understandable. Moreover, the students know it very clearly that English will bring a good future to them - something which Gaelic can hardly do. Therefore a disinterest towards learning this language is very commonly been noticed among them. A survey shows that only 45% of the total Irish population use Gaelic once in a week for communication. (Reform Movement, 2003) Even the Irish and Scottish businessmen do not want the Gaelic speakers to have any extra importance in their concern. Modern parents, because of very obvious reasons do not want their children to waste time learning Gaelic any more. All these are hampering the importance of Gaelic as a heritage language. While being under the constant threat by the English language, the future of Gaelic is today a matter of great concern. There are several movements being conducted throughout Scotland and Ireland. Reviving Gaelic language has become almost an impossible task for the reformers in this age of English communication. The educational system cannot be changed thinking from a practical point of view. The only thing that can be done regarding this matter is to dawn interest about Gaelic language and history in the mind of new generation Scottish and Irish people. The main cause to preserve this language is not anything related to the commercial field, but associated with the great European history. Gaelic language was one of the most influential languages in the European continent and therefore the whole tradition of this place is related to it. Therefore it will be a matter of proud for the young generation to know about their ancient culture and language. It is never possible for the people to shirk the use of English language from their daily life as it has crept into every corner of their existence. This is the language of the new generation educational system and therefore competence in English of this generation is no doubt strong. But accepting Gaelic as a second language will let the students know about the real essence of their culture and they will be able to feel the charm of their country's past. The United Kingdom government has made many arrangements for the promotion of Gaelic language. Among the various projects to take care of this language, the government has made Gaelic details compulsory on the passports of UK people. This has been brought into service from the year 2006. (BBC News, 2005) Alastair Darling, the Scottish secretary has expressed the idea of making Gaelic compulsory in almost all the official documents that are carried by the citizens of the United Kingdom. This has further increased the importance of Gaelic language to the citizens of Ireland, Scotland and of England. The Anglicization of the Scottish court ultimately brought the final blow on the existence of Gaelic language. English was at first taken to be an elitist language and gradually it took the place of a useful language in the daily life of the UK citizens. Today, it has become an international language and therefore compulsory for everyone to learn it. The whole educational system throughout the world is entirely based on English language and therefore it has also become commercially important. The only importance of Gaelic and the few old languages in UK is in their history and heritage. Learning Gaelic will surely inspire them to know more about their cultural and national history. Knowing the country is the very first step of knowing about the world. Gaelic language is one of the rarest elements in Europe which are still to be found and they remind people of the days when this continent was born. People associated with the Gaelic movement believe that learning this language is nothing but showing proper respect to the country's heritage. Every civilized country has this belief that respecting the history takes the nation further ahead in the future. So knowing Gaelic is taken by the activists not as an education that is meaningless in this era, but a well means to look ahead to the future with the knowledge and wisdom gathered from the nation's past traditions. So, no matter how strong English becomes dominant in the international market, Gaelic language will be respected and practised by people who are really interested in it and thus they will keep the culture alive throughout the upcoming ages. References 1. "Ministers Unveil New Gaelic Law". BBC News. 2004. Retrieved from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3695348.stm on December 16, 2008 2. Paterson, Lindsay. Scottish Education in the Twentieth Century. 2003. Edinburgh University Press. 2003. 3. Nettle, Daniel; Suzanne Romaine. Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of World's Languages. Oxford University Press. 2000. 4. "The Origin and History of the English Language". Kryss Tal. 2008. Retrieved from: http://www.krysstal.com/english.html on December 16, 2008. 5. Williams, Collin H. Language in Geographic Context. Multilingual Matters. 1988 6. "Why Gaelic Should Not Be Compulsory in Schools in Ireland" Reform Movement. 2003. Retrieved from: http://www.reform.org/TheReformMovement_files/article_files/articles/irish.htm on December 17, 2008 7. "Gaelic First for UK Passports". BBC News. 2005. Retrieved from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4238991.stm on December 17, 2008 Read More