400 Sprache, Linguistik
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The establishment of Scottish Parliament: What difference does it make for the Gaelic language?
(2004)
After the Labour government takeover in Westminster in 1997, followed by the referendum on establishing a Scottish Parliament, hopes for more support for the Gaelic language in Scotland were nourished. In the election campaign to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, all parties which were elected to Parliament had mentioned Gaelic, and all parties except the Conservatives had promised an increase in support for Gaelic (cf. Scottish parties’ election manifestoes, obtainable from the parties or via their web sites). Now that the new Scottish Executive, formed by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, has been in power for some time, it is interesting to see if these hopes have been fulfilled.
The two core questions of this paper will thus be:
1. What is the status of Scottish Gaelic after the devolution process?
2. What difference does the existence of the Scottish Parliament make for the status of Gaelic?
It is important to note that this paper refers to language status and Gaelic’s position from a mere language policy perspective. The results are mostly based on an analysis of Parliament documents, the method of investigation being strictly philological. Empirical research has not yet been undertaken. The reference time of my paper will be the first year of Scottish Parliament and the new executive. Even though this is an arbitrary time break, the first year is a symbolic point of time. As the first legislation period as a possibly more natural reference point is not over yet, this choice seems legitimate.
Das hier vorgestellte Dissertationsvorhaben am Institut für Englische Philologie der Freien Universität Berlin möchte der Frage auf den Grund gehen, welche Veränderungen in der Sprachpolitik gegenüber bedrohten Sprachen durch die Einrichtung dezentraler Parlamente erreicht werden können. Untersucht wird die Sprachpolitik gegenüber der gälischen Sprache in Schottland sowie der samischen Sprache in Norwegen. Kern der Untersuchungen wird dabei die Frage sein, welche politischen Initiativen zur Sprachunterstützung es in den letzten Jahren gegeben hat. Insbesondere soll darauf eingegangen werden, dass es mit dem Schottischen Parlament sowie dem Sameting in Norwegen jetzt parlamentarische Vertretungen gibt, in denen die jeweilige Sprachgruppe wesentlich größeren Einfluss geltend machen kann als dies vormals der Fall war.
Numerous academics and politicians have in recent years contributed to the description and analysis of language policy for the benefit of smaller languages. The present paper tries to add to these by taking up the notion of yet another aspect of politics and language, exemplified by two case studies. The political aspect is the decentralization of parliamentary power for the benefit of minority languages. The two case studies deal with the relationship between the Scottish Parliament and the Gaelic language on the one hand, and between the Norwegian Sarni Parliament, the Sameting, and the Sami language on the other hand. The underlying idea is to consider whether parliamentary bodies may contribute to the empowerment of speakers of minority languages regarding the language of individual choice in as many instances as possible. This applies to any domain of language use, but in particular public bodies, education, and the media, at local, regional and national levels.