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Book offers hope to the "Celtic Six" languages 27/6/2005
The 11th of July sees the release of Rebuilding the Celtic Languages, the first comprehensive survey of the current state of all six Celtic languages with detailed proposals and a plan of action for the revival of each language.
The principles invoked are those offered by Professor Joshua Fishman, the world renowned authority on language revitalisation, who has contributed a preface.
In it, he emphasises the importance of transferring a language from mother to child if an endangered language is to survive and prosper. "I consider intergenerational mother-tongue transmission to be the core and the bedrock of security for threatened languages, while fancy footwork and computerized theatricals to be marginal."
He also stresses that language supporters themselves should take responsibility rather than placing their "trust in princes" - a reference possibly to government handouts.
He also warns against "becoming miniaturized versions of the majorities." He says, "Minorities… should also be multilingual and multicultural carriers of a life-style that is distinctively and historically their own."
The book is edited by Canadian Diarmuid Ă“ NĂ©ill and includes contributions by prominent Celtic sociolinguists such as Colin Williams, Pawl Birt, Kenneth MacKinnon, Brian Stowell and Marcel Texier.
As well as chapters on the Celtic languages in the native territories there is a chapter on the case of Welsh in Chubut Province, Argentina and Gaelic in Nova Scotia. Over recent years there has been a surge of interest in the Celtic languages and their well being.
This book will prove to be essential reading to those involved in language planning at local and national levels, as well as by language activists in the Celtic nations and further a field.
Rebuilding the Celtic Languages - Reversing Language Shift in the Celtic Countries (£19.95), Diarmuid Ă“ NĂ©ill (ed) is published by Y Lolfa and is available on Y Lolfa's web site - www.ylolfa.com
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