topcat(The most tip top) Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 I'm with David Mitchell on this. It's not in any way high on my interest list but if a language can't support itself then it should be left to die.Plenty of art, books, culture, and history tied up with Gaelic, but ultimately a language needs to be able to keep going without state funding. Is there a single book of any significance that was first published in Gaelic? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dorlomin Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 5 hours ago, topcat(The most tip top) said: Official language of China, big place between Japan and India, lots of people, not too many Pandas, you must have heard of it! Its a group of languages and dialects. Perhaps you mean Mandrin. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 33 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said: Is there a single book of any significance that was first published in Gaelic? The Book of Deer? Haven't read it but it sounds riveting. Also it depends what you mean by publishing. If you mean printed works then most of the biggies were probably first published in Latin or German. If you mean written and copied then Arabic, Latin and Greek. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat(The most tip top) Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 The Book of Deer? Haven't read it but it sounds riveting. Also it depends what you mean by publishing. If you mean printed works then most of the biggies were probably first published in Latin or German. If you mean written and copied then Arabic, Latin and Greek. If we’re talking about the same book of deer then that’s in Latin with notes scribbled in Gaelic in the marginshttp://bookofdeer.co.uk/ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat(The most tip top) Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 Its a group of languages and dialects. Perhaps you mean Mandrin. Or rather “Standard Chinese” 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dorlomin Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 Just now, topcat(The most tip top) said: Or rather “Standard Chinese” As opposed to all the other variants. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat(The most tip top) Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 As opposed to all the other variants. Well obviously 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dorlomin Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 9 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said: Well obviously Like Dutch being a variant of German. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 (edited) 15 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said: If we’re talking about the same book of deer then that’s in Latin with notes scribbled in Gaelic in the marginshttp://bookofdeer.co.uk/ I don't think it's fair to slam a language that was mainly used and remembered in oral form and whose priests wrote in Latin for not setting up a publishing industry in Stornoway or wherever. There was a few mad monks writing fictional history in England before they nicked the printing press from Germany, but that was about it, apart from a few Germanic poems or Viking folk tales. err or shit like the Magna Carta etc... Edited May 22, 2018 by welshbairn 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zen Archer (Raconteur) Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 1 minute ago, dorlomin said: Like Dutch being a variant of German. I think they were called collaborators. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat(The most tip top) Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 Like Dutch being a variant of German. No More like other forms of Chinese having little future 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alta-pete Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 What about languages that are deliberately targeted or oppressed? Talk me through your view in more detail please? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 3 minutes ago, alta-pete said: Talk me through your view in more detail please? Fiferish I hope. When did you become a Rangers fan? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacksgranda Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 9 hours ago, dorlomin said: Its a group of languages and dialects. Perhaps you mean Mandrin. Probably Mandarin 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topcat(The most tip top) Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 9 hours ago, welshbairn said: I don't think it's fair to slam a language that was mainly used and remembered in oral form and whose priests wrote in Latin for not setting up a publishing industry in Stornoway or wherever. There was a few mad monks writing fictional history in England before they nicked the printing press from Germany, but that was about it, apart from a few Germanic poems or Viking folk tales. err or shit like the Magna Carta etc... I wasn't actually asking about ancient tomes. I meant "Has the been a single book ever" @pandarilla had suggested there were "Plenty of books tied up with Gaelic" I was expressing scepticism about the existence of a worthwhile Gaelic Literature 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 25 minutes ago, topcat(The most tip top) said: I wasn't actually asking about ancient tomes. I meant "Has the been a single book ever" @pandarilla had suggested there were "Plenty of books tied up with Gaelic" I was expressing scepticism about the existence of a worthwhile Gaelic Literature There has been lots of poetry and a fair few novels and plays. Wiki But considering the Gaelic speaking population is under 60,000 it's a bit like asking if any great novel has come out of Livingstone, that only people in Livingstone could read. Any Gaelic speaking writers in the last few centuries would have written in English if they had any hope of getting published 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsr Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 I understand there are some Welsh people who have Welsh as a first language, English second. Does anyone in Scotland have Gaelic first and English second? If not, there doesn't seem much point in putting it on signs etc - anyone who speaks it will also speak English anyway. Whoever said it's largely for tourism is probably not far off. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Moonster Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 On 21/05/2018 at 20:59, DrewDon said: It seems to annoy the right sort of person, so, on that basis, I'm all for it. On 21/05/2018 at 22:30, chomp my root said: Happy for the teuchtars to hold on to it if it suits them but I'm not for the rewriting of history that its some great Scottish lingua franca-esq part of our history. No problems with train stations etc having the dual languages oop norf but not too sure about some of the lowland ones, especially New Towns it a bit revisionist for this cat. 21 hours ago, banana said: Absolute waste of time unless you live in a Gaelic area. Better off learning Latin, Chinese, or Arabic. DrewDon, spot on. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 31 minutes ago, nsr said: I understand there are some Welsh people who have Welsh as a first language, English second. Does anyone in Scotland have Gaelic first and English second? If not, there doesn't seem much point in putting it on signs etc - anyone who speaks it will also speak English anyway. Whoever said it's largely for tourism is probably not far off. It's about keeping a language and culture alive, not just passing information. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chomp my root Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 45 minutes ago, The Moonster said: DrewDon, spot on. You're really stretching here to make some kind of a point. I salute your effort though. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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