Seachtain na Gaeilge (Irish-language week), Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, 2022
This article considers the main differences between the situations of the Irish language in Irela... more This article considers the main differences between the situations of the Irish language in Ireland and the closely related Gaelic language in Scotland. The linguistic and political histories of the two countries are significantly different, and provision to support the maintenance of Irish much more extensive. The key reason for this divergence is that Irish is much more connected to Irish national identity than Gaelic is for Scotland, largely through the impact of the revivalist ideology that became dominant in the early 20 th century. The article reviews the comparative history of the two languages and the demographic trajectory in recent centuries and considers the linguistic relationship between the two varieties and the corpus planning issues that have come to the fore. A central difference between the two cases is the much more extensive provision for Irish in the education system. Almost all school pupils study Irish until the end of secondary school, while only a very small minority in Scotland study Gaelic. This has significant consequences in terms of the societal awareness of the language and willingness to accept public expenditure to support it. It is difficult to calculate the level of expenditure on language policy measures but it is clear that provision in Ireland is much more substantial. Irish also has a higher international profile than Gaelic does, partly because the Irish Government provides different kinds of supports, including funding the teaching of Irish at foreign universities. For Gaelic, though, the survival of Gaelic in Nova Scotia plays an important role for which there is no real Irish counterpart.
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