Gaelic on the Isle of Skye: older speakers' identity in a language-shift situation
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Cassandra Smith-Christmas
Abstract
This article examines age and identity in the context of language shift occurring in a community on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Via a language ability test and a language usage survey, 19 speakers were assessed; it was determined that the older (40+) and the younger speakers (<40) in this community are distinguishable on the basis of language ability, particularly in terms of synthetic forms, conditional forms, and post-nominal possession. The usage survey revealed a decline in older speakers' longitudinal use of Gaelic, and although younger speakers are making an effort to speak Gaelic and are not accommodated by older speakers switching to English, we can still conclude that, to some degree, older speakers are somewhat linguistically isolated in this community. Finally, we propose identity negotiation and the possibility of the age and identity correlation as perpetuating factors in the language shift.
© 2009 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin
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- Introduction: aging and language
- Age and speaker skills in receding languages: how far do community evaluations and linguists' evaluations agree?
- Gaelic on the Isle of Skye: older speakers' identity in a language-shift situation
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- First language attrition and reversion among older migrants
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- Beyond stereotypes of old age: the discourse of elderly Japanese women
- The multifaceted category of “generation”: elderly French men and women talking about May '68
- Positioning age: focus group discussions about older people in TV advertising
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Preface: commemorating the 200th issue of IJSL
- Introduction: aging and language
- Age and speaker skills in receding languages: how far do community evaluations and linguists' evaluations agree?
- Gaelic on the Isle of Skye: older speakers' identity in a language-shift situation
- Language choice and code switching of the elderly and the youth
- Intergenerational phonological change in the Famagusta dialect of Turkish Cypriots
- First language attrition and reversion among older migrants
- Managing unavoidable conflicts in caretaking of the elderly: humor as a mitigating resource
- Beyond stereotypes of old age: the discourse of elderly Japanese women
- The multifaceted category of “generation”: elderly French men and women talking about May '68
- Positioning age: focus group discussions about older people in TV advertising
- Age categories as an argumentative resource in conflict talk: evidence from a Greek television reality show
- The politics of language and nationalism in modern Central Europe, by Tomasz Kamusella
