July 04, 2006

Gaelic / Gàidhlig


All the signs in the Scottish Parliament are in both English and Gaelic. Gaelic is the native language of Scotland, although it hasn't been spoken to any great extent in Edinburgh for many hundreds of years. In this part of the country, people spoke/ speak a variety of Scots known as Lallans (Lowland Scots). In common with other Celtic languages, Gaelic was pushed into the corners and so is spoken as a first language in some parts of the Highlands and the Western Isles. So far, Gaelic has survived into the 21st century and with the determined fight of Gaelic campaigners and the support of the Scottish Government, hopefully it has a long and rich future ahead. Anyone want to hazard a guess at what the information on the sign says?

4 comments:

Annie said...

I have no idea what the message is - but I hope that the Gaelic campaigners are successful in their efforts to formalize the language's continuation. In America there are many who think only English should be spoken even in the home, but I am not one of those people.

G Fraser said...

people trying to regulate the language spoken at home...sounds more like Soviet or Nazi official policy rather than the so-called "land of the free."

long live linguistic diversity!

Anonymous said...

It says "Those visitors wishing to consume babies, go left". They are savage bastards those Scots, but at least it's good to see the Parliament it accommodating everyone's needs!

G Fraser said...

the pictures gave it away eh Noles?!