Anonymous asked:
“When Scotland’s independent, do you think they’ll go back to speaking Gaelic as a first language and learning English as a second language like every other country in Europe and around the world?”As a lover of languages, I don’t see it ever being a complete reversal back to Gaelic. I would, however, like to see it becoming more prominent in schools. It should be an option at least. I wish I had had the option, if any of you want to teach me Gaelic then give me a shout!
How much I’d love to see more efforts to prevent Gàidhlig from becoming extinct, I don’t see a complete comeback happening either. Never say never though: Hebrew was completely extinct as an everyday spoken language, and yet it is now spoken again by 9 million people!
But wouldn’t it make more sense to teach Scots as the first language? Like in Swiss German, there are different versions of Scots: Insular, Northern, Central, and Southern, with sub dialects within each. In Switzerland however they managed to create a Swiss Standard German, which is used in official publications, newspapers, news broadcasts, loudspeaker announcements in public places …
Maybe it’s time for Standard Scots, to be used in Scotland in the same way as Swiss Standard German is used in the ‘German’ speaking part of Switzerland?