Saving minority languages

will always be an issue I suppose. It is expensive to try and save them. We don't always succeed. People ask, "Why bother?"

There has been an interesting article in "The Times" about a backlash over what are seen as "politically driven" broader use of Gaelic in Scotland. (One of those rare articles not behind a paywall and which I was consequently alerted to by a Gaelic speaker.)

My ancestors spoke Gaelic - and not so very far back. The Senior Cat's father knew some. The Senior Cat's grandmother spoke it fluently. She also spoke English fluently.  I assume her husband, a man who died before the Senior Cat was born, also spoke Gaelic as well as English. One of the cousins has the "family Bible" - it's in Gaelic. 

I know a little about the language but I can only say "thank you" and a few other words. I don't know anyone here now who speaks it fluently.  It isn't a language with which our "Special Broadcasting Service" is concerned. That's not surprising. 

SBS actually provides some content in more than seventy languages. Some of those languages are widely spoken in the community - Italian, Greek, Cantonese, and Vietnamese to name just a few. There are others like Bislama and Tongan which are spoken by very few people here - and elsewhere. Still, a language service is provided. Often it is used to get important information across - the current pandemic has made such things even more important than usual. It is an expensive service to provide. 

There are also arguments that, in providing such services, some people won't bother to learn English and that it divides the community as a result. Yes, there is some truth in both things.

Middle Cat's mother-in-law never really grasped English well. She had just three years of schooling before being apprenticed to a dressmaker.  When dementia set in she lost what English she had fairly quickly. Her husband retained some English to the end he spoke to his family in Cypriot-Greek.

Around the corner from here there was an elderly Greek couple. She spoke almost no English. When her husband died she gave up even trying to speak English. She just relied on her children and, if she wanted me to do some shopping for her, she would give me the empty packet or bottle or some other item and the money. She couldn't read Greek or English. It was a lonely life for her most of the time. I am told that this is another argument to be rid of the languages so few people speak.

But is it really? Being able to speak a second language, and most of us don't, gives people access to another culture, another way of thinking, another set of ideas altogether. If it is the language of our ancestors, it gives us access to a past which should be important to us - because it helps us understand who we are now. 

I keep coming back to that Gaelic proverb,Cuimhnichibh air na daoine bho'n d'thainig sibh

"Remember the people whom you come from".  That should not be seen as backward looking, rather as a past to learn from and build on. If we don't understand that then we have nothing on which to build our future. Bilingualism, even for a minority language, is something for which we should fight. Another language is another life.