As many as 20 million Americans claim to be of Scottish or Scots/Irish descent. One of the primary heritage languages of this community is Scottish Gaelic. This language is the medium for a rich culture of literature, song, poetry, history and indigenous knowledge-systems. It also provides an important window into the world-view and culture of the ancestors of the Scottish-American community. At present, the Scottish Gaelic language is severely endangered. There are no monolingual speakers, and the number of speakers who use the language everyday continues to decline. A long tradition of language and cultural suppression dating back to the early 18th century has resulted in a language that, while embraced by an enthusiastic minority, is on the verge of oblivion. The potential loss to our understanding of the culture and background of so many Scots and Scottish Americans is substantial.
One of the first steps towards building a stable linguistic community is to develop materials in and about the language for use of the community of speakers -- both here in the USA and in Scotland -- to use for language teaching. A prerequisite to developing such materials is a proper understanding of the grammar of this language. This grant targets this important first step. Using linguistic field techniques and modern recording devices, Prof. Andrew Carnie of the University of Arizona and Scottish Gaelic native speaker Muriel Fisher will gather data about the language's grammar and words. The results of this fieldwork will be assembled into a web-accessible descriptive grammar of the language. Subsequent to the grant, teaching materials will be developed based on this grammar. A graduate student will be trained in the techniques of grammatical description of an endangered language. This training will allow the student to do similar work on other endangered heritage languages. This timely research project represents our last chance to record the intricacies of a language that resonates throughout a wide range of the U.S. population as well as with that of Scotland.
