New Gaelic Speakers in Nova Scotia and Scotland: Heritage, Motivation and Identity (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781474491631)

What are the main similarities between new cohorts of Gaelic speakers in Nova Scotia and Scotland, and what key differences distinguish them? In Scotland, public policy to support and maintain the language has increased substantially in the past 40 years. In addition to Scotland's 57,602 speakers, however, Gaelic has persisted in Nova Scotia since the 18th century and a third of Nova Scotians are descended from families who spoke the language historically.

As a response to policymakers' language planning priorities in both polities and drawing on three years of ethnographic research in Scotland and Nova Scotia, this book presents a comparative analysis of new speaker motivations, identities and linguistic ideologies. An innovative approach to examining bilingual discourses is employed to demonstrate key distinctions and commonalities among new Gaelic speakers, with a view to informing future policy to generate greater numbers of proficient speakers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Author: Stuart S. Dunmore
ISBN-10: 1474491634
ISBN-13: 9781474491631
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/31/2025
Pages: 192
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.61lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.41d