Comment by tsm | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tsm | Hacker News Reader

Seems like a very backwards-looking article. Would've been interesting to hear more about his ideas for the future, such as what this should involve:

> if the new Scottish Languages Bill is to succeed in securing the Gaelic and Scots languages in the face of immense pressures, then the needs of the communities speaking those languages must be at the heart of it

Gaelic advances in the modern era include:

* the foundation of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, a Gaelic-medium university

* the rise of Gaelic-medium education as an option for primary and secondary school

* Gaelic-language radio and TV stations

* The launch, a few years ago, of SpeakGaelic (https://speakgaelic.scot/) with loads of learning materials (mentioned in the OP).

Problems include the continued dilution of Gaelic-speaking communities (native speakers either die or move somewhere with better job prospects; non-speakers buy up holiday homes or Airbnb investment vehicles in the area) and the perception that career prospects are much better for people educated in English (perhaps with a bit of French or similar on the side) than those educated in Gaelic.

In Ireland the creation of a national Irish language TV station is definitely credited with helping keep the language alive, and it is practically the same language. Gaelic language TV in Scotland would also have an audience here, and the two channels might even cooperate in programming.

I can easily see a gritty noir Gaelic language cop show taking the world by storm.

Fís Eireann (Screen Ireland) is another success story. Although they fund Irish filmmaking in any language, there have been a slew of very well received Irish language films lately. Most notably An Cailín Cúin (The Quiet Girl) which made history this year as the first Gaelic film to be nominated for an academy award for best foreign language film.

> In Ireland the creation of a national Irish language TV station is definitely credited with helping keep the language alive, and it is practically the same language. Gaelic language TV in Scotland would also have an audience here, and the two channels might even cooperate in programming.

This is definitely one of these cases where you feel that things that were around in your childhood have been around forever, but things introduced since then are new.

I'd assumed TG4 also dated from the 60s/70s like RTE and was going to comment that the time frames didn't really line up. Turns out it came about in 1996 - still over a decade before the current revival in interest, but much closer in overlap.

I'm old enough that I remember when it started up :)

Raidió na Gaeltachta was founded in 1972 (before my time), I think people often confuse or conflate the history of the two.

What's super confusing is the naming.

There were two stations at the time - rte1 and network2 (really just rte2). The Irish language channel launched as "T na G" or "Telifis na Gaeltacht" in 1996. Then TV3, an independent station, launched in 1998. Later TnaG rebranded as TG4, even though it predated Tv3, which itself has since rebranded as Virgin Media One.

So in chronological order our channels go 1,2,4,1

It's hard, but it's doable. If Jews managed to resurrect Hebrew which was dead for centuries, what would be the reason for Scott not to revive Gaelic if they really wanted to?

One thing they had going for them is that the people who moved (and move) to Israel come from a number of different language backgrounds, so it wasn't the case of make everyone who speaks language A now instead speak language B (as would the the case with Gaelic in Scotland, and was with Irish in Ireland) so much as choose a language all the speakers of A, B, an C can agree to learn and use so that can all talk to each other.

I think it's a very different situation:

- Israel is composed of people from different parts of the world with different languages so as a matter of practical policy they had to standardize on some uniform language for the country. Scotland doesn't have this problem: English is already the uniform standardized language.

- Israel exists in a more "existential" position than Scotland - there is more of a sense that their country and culture could be lost. Thus there is a bigger motivation to preserve what makes them different. I think you see this play out in Ireland, actually: there seems to be more of an interest in the Irish language in Northern Ireland, where the Irish identify is seen as more under threat, than in the Republic, where it is safe.

> I think you see this play out in Ireland, actually: there seems to be more of an interest in the Irish language in Northern Ireland, where the Irish identify is seen as more under threat, than in the Republic, where it is safe.

You have this backwards. Ireland, both Ireland and Northern Ireland, have pockets of interest in the language and culture, but it really is true that the country, culture, and language that was Ireland pre-famine no longer exists. It was successfully and deliberately eradicated.

Well, give it a decade or two, and you'll have the equivalent situation, with no dominant language group and many Pashtu, Hindi, Arab, Polish, Bengali, Farsi, Urdu, and other speakers.

" the perception that career prospects are much better for people educated in English (perhaps with a bit of French or similar on the side) than those educated in Gaelic."

I think that this is the reality, not merely perception. How many college textbooks are even available in Gaelic?

I certainly know of a few written in Welsh

“A Critical Approach to Dragonslaying Theory & Practice, 4th Ed.”

Isn't that more commonly known as "Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools"?

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