The use of Gaelic in Scottish newspapers
- 1 January 1995
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
- Vol. 16 (4) , 269-280
- https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.1995.9994607
Abstract
This paper examines the various strategies by which Gaelic has been employed in the newspaper press in Scotland. By using the notion of language display, the use of Gaelic in both daily and weekly papers is examined and it is noted how little serious news is given in the language, with most newspaper uses being more concerned with the language's symbolic role as a signifier of Scottish or Highland identity. This is as true of the local papers directly serving the Gaelic‐speaking areas as it is of national papers or local papers which serve the areas which are peripheral to the core Gaelic regions. The prospect for a monolingual or bilingual newspaper is considered and although very major problems would face such a publication, it should be seen as a desirable part of the expanding Gaelic media. There follows some comparison with the uses of Gaelic on radio and television in which the shortcomings of Gaelic in newspapers are made evident.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- Problems of Minority Language Broadcasting: Gaelic in ScotlandEuropean Journal of Communication, 1993
- Language display: Authenticating claims to social identityJournal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1993
- Publishing in Scottish GaelicJournal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1984