Highlands and Islands Student Association calls for action to halt decline of Gaelic language
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The Gaelic language should become part of everyday working and home life to save it from dying out, the president of the Highlands and Islands Student Association (HISA) has said.
In response to the study ‘Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community’ conducted by Gaelic experts and socio-linguists at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI), HISA has called for strong action to save the Gaelic language.
The report found that only 11,000 people were habitual Gaelic speakers, and it forecasts that next year’s national census will find the proportion of people in the Western Isles who speak Gaelic has fallen to as low as 45 per cent.
In the 2011 census of Scotland, 57,375 people reported as being able to speak Gaelic, with 52.2 per cent of people using the language in the Western Isles.
Last week HISA launched a Gaelic Representation Project to enhance the voice of Gaelic-speaking and Gaelic-learning students across the institution, with funding awarded by Bòrd na Gàidhlig and supported by UHI.
HISA president, Florence Jansen, said: "The study by the UHI clearly identifies the need for action to save the Gaelic language.
"At HISA, we believe that the use of Gaelic should be normalised and institutions in Scotland must play their part to be accommodating. We’re currently undertaking a project to establish HISA as a bilingual organisation, a change that will affect the way the organisation is structured and how our staff will work. If students wish to engage their students’ association in the native language of the country, they should be able to do so.
“As the largest students’ association in the Highlands and Islands, we are willing to work with other bodies to encourage the everyday use of Gaelic.
"There are still too many barriers to the use of Gaelic in society. If increased use of Gaelic remains an ambition, institutions must be accommodating to have Gaelic used in formal environments if we expect Gaelic to be also used in social, home and everyday life.”
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