Gaelic Fiction

I heard a Gaelic writer called Martin Macintyre talk last night about the importance of producing novels (and short stories) in Gaelic, to help the language not only survive but to grow. In the last 4 years the Scottish Arts Council has helped fund a publisher produce 12 novels and collections of short stories.

The question is, if only 58000 people speak Gaelic, (fewer can read it), how viable is this project? The only way for these works to gain a respectable readership will be to translate them into English, but does that not defeat the point?

Is that 58,000 people in Scotland? Because I know there are speakers in Canada, USA, New Zealand, Australia, Germany and many other countries, including China.

As a gaelic learner, I'm finding it difficult to find any general reading materials from which to learn. Where I learning French or Spanish, I could start with simple novels, not so with Gaelic.

58000 in Scotland. There are only 2000 Gaelic speakers in Canadian, and that is the second biggest community; the US accounts for roughly 1600; Australia and NZ less than 1000. So it is fair to say that there is less than 90k speakers worldwide.

There is a quip that there is now so much cultural support for Gaelic in Scotland - it even has it's own TV station - that everyone who speaks the language could have a job working for an organisation set-up to promote it.

You could try Sorley Maclean's poetry for reading - the collected poems comes in a dual language edition; and he is one of the greatest poets of the post-war period in the UK.

I find short stories easier Bùrn is Aran is a good starter

Jargoneer,

Thank you for that. I was wondering, however, how many are resident in the UK, outside of Scotland? Do you know?

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The success of the project is up for debate but the merits of the attempt are I believe worthy.

What else can we do?

Languages are disappearing at an alarming rate across the globe for various reasons of which I won't go into here.

It is enough to say that if we lose Gàidhlig we lose a huge part of the Scottish culture.

The fashion of learning/reviving Gàidhlig will wax and wane. I lived in a Donegal gaeltachta for many years and still the English was the lingua franca. We need to work with this fact.

The publication of novels in Gàidhlig can only be a move in the right direction. Raising interest and awareness is key.

Gàidhlig speaking schools is however the best bet, but again that's another debate.

Plenty simple novels and short stories here:
http://www.ur-sgeul.com/digital/index.html

You can also buy Gaelic books from Sandstone Press, in Dingwall.
Here's a link to their Gaelic section: http://www.sandstonepress.com/books/gaelic/

I bought "Cleasan a' Bhaile Mhòir" and "Cogadh Ruairidh" from the Aye Write festival in Glasgow, a couple of years ago. Each chapter contains useful vocabulary, and I like the idea of putting money back into the economy for Gaelic books.

An Cuilean Craicte are translating English books into Gaelic for children, but they are also good for adult, but beginner learners. The Comhairle nan Leabhraichean and Sìol Cultural Enterprises sell fiction titles, the latter out of Canada.

I guess now that there are over 250,000 learners of Gaelic on Duolingo, and lots of requests for books in the learners' groups on social media, one hopes that Gaelic fiction publications will increase.