Exploring the motivations, practices and ethnolinguistic identities of new Gaelic speakers

• Outlines the history of Gaelic language use in Scotland and Nova Scotia, juxtaposing its historical decline with contemporary revitalisation efforts in both territories
• Situates the discrete settings of Gaelic communities in Scotland and Nova Scotia with rich ethnographic portrayals
• Employs quantitative and qualitative analyses to examine Scottish and Nova Scotian ‘new’ Gaelic speakers’ language practices and the motivational factors underlying these practices

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.