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thelinguist.uberflip.com OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016 The Linguist 27 FEATURES TRADITIONAL DANCE Keltika Highland dancers at the annual Festival Interceltique de Lorient in Brittany These words in Welsh and Scottish Gaelic give a cursory indication of the relationship between Celtic languages. 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 water sea bridge wine juice Scottish Gaelic aon dà tri ceithir cóig sia seachd ochd naoi deich uisge muir drochaid fion sùgh Welsh un dau tri pedwar pump chwech saith wyth naw deg dwr mor pont gwin sudd CELTIC SIMILARITIES schools – often achieve significantly better academic results than neighbouring English-language schools. More importantly, however, as Ken MacKinnon 1 has remarked in the Scottish context: "Every family with a Gaelic speaker is a potential mini-Gaidhealtachd." He argues for "taking 'heartland' and 'urban Gaidhealtachd' into 21st Century realities". The old distinctions – still sometimes rather romantically viewed – of mother-tongue Celtic areas versus the rest have changed hugely in the last few decades. In Ireland, there is sometimes heated debate about the historical supremacy of the Gaeltacht and its native speakers regarding Irish-language authenticity. Communication The Insular Celtic languages have ancient literary traditions, but also a respectable book publishing history, from the first Bible translations to the language revivals in the 19th century. There was a further minor – but very significant – print revolution in the 1970s with the availability of cheap photocopiers and, in Wales particularly, the rise of community newspapers. With comparatively small circulations, these helped to strengthen the Celtic identity in those areas where the languages were spoken by significant numbers but not served by traditional newsprint. Broadcasting and digital media have been some of the most positive influences on Celtic cultures and languages. Most important of all is the influence of ICT (information and communication technology), digital media and the web. According to David Crystal, "an endangered language will progress if its speakers can make use of electronic technology". 2 For endangered and minority languages, access to web pages, native Wikipedia versions, and social media can be extraordinarily empowering – and might represent the last hope for some tongues. Computer forums and automatic translation (however inadequate) are particularly helpful in supporting novices or less confident users. The convergence of television, the internet and mobile apps can only improve this. As the BBC Director for Wales, Rhodri Talfan Davies, said: "Just as lives in Wales are becoming more messy, media services are more rigid and uniform". 3 They are either English or Welsh language and, he argued, they provide too few access points for people who speak a bit of Welsh. If we wish to preserve, enhance and encourage minority languages, maybe there is something to be said for fighting against separation, or even ghettoization, and looking more towards plurality. One interesting feature of the use of the internet by Celtic speakers is the significant number of participants outside the home nations. It does appear that digital technologies have helped create a sense of unity within the Celtic diaspora. Devolution Devolution of limited powers to the Celtic areas of the UK has a complex history. The Scottish Parliament was elected in 1999 after a successful referendum in 1997. A Welsh Assembly, supported by a much narrower majority, was also set up, but with more limited powers. Northern Ireland had possessed its own Parliament after the division of Ireland in the 1920s, but this was suspended owing to the civil unrest known as 'the Troubles'. After various unsuccessful attempts at devolution, the current Northern Ireland Assembly was established after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Devolution has had various consequences for Celtic languages and language planning. In Scotland, government policies and various bodies have been established to further the development of Gaelic. The place of Irish in Northern Ireland is complex, but there are attempts to (re)introduce it to some extent. Wales has gone furthest, with all public bodies required to offer bilingual services, including communication with the public by letter, telephone, email and websites. An increasing number of private institutions adopt a similar approach, even when not required to by law. Bilingual signage is now virtually universal. Many aspects of globalisation are extremely deleterious for minority languages, particularly where they have to compete with major world languages such as English. But where local political independence – even if only partial – can be combined with the resources to use modern digital techniques in broadcasting, social networking and web access, it could be the saving of a number of languages that are currently thought to be on the verge of extinction. This is a revised version of a paper presented at ISSEI 2014, Porto, 4-8 August 2014. Notes 1 MacKinnon, K (2012) Gaelic Media, Community, and Runaway Language Shift, Report to the Gaelic Board 2 Crystal, D, (2000) Language Death, Cambridge University Press 3 Davies, R T (1/5/2013) The Guardian 4 See www.omniglot.com/language/numbers/ celtic.htm for further examples A Welsh MP threatened to fast to death in 1980 if Welsh was not accorded reasonable rights