People keep asking me why the Scots all speak in different dialects, languages or accents, and its right enough people in Dunfermline speak different from people in Kelty and they speak different from other parts of Scotland it all started in The 18th century and the upheaval of the Union changed Scotland’s political landscape as no other period had done before and the culture of the country was radically altered. Internecine and feudal conflicts, the Reformation and dynastic intrigue through the centuries were as nothing compared to the Union and its institutionalised destruction of the Scottish national identity. An almost totally anglified ruling caste proceeded in implementing a policy of systematic anglicisation, strengthening a shift in values that had already been initiated with previous Scottish monarchs. Gaelic suffered as it had never suffered before. Divide-and-conquer politics enabled the English government to secure the support of key Lowland interests in their campaign to root out dissent in those areas of Scotland, especially the Highlands, still culturally and therefore politically antagonistic to pan-English rule. "Improving", "enlightened" and in the end, traitorous Scottish aristocrats saw to the implementation of such policies notably after the last Jacobite Rising of 1745-1746.

Culloden marked the end of traditional Gaelic society in Scotland and what genocide could not complete, ethnocide and the "Clearances", encouraged by SSPCK and other religious interests, finished off. As Scotland grew more industrialised, rural migration to the cities became a way of life. Landlords in the Highlands saw to it that sheep and sporting estates replaced the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people. Displaced, cleared and emigrant Scots now viewed their Gaelic language as an impediment to their "improvement". A demoralised people, more often than not, turn against their own culture and this most definitely occurred with Highlanders in the 19th and early 20th centuries. "You’ll not get anywhere with that Gaelic tongue in your head" became an educational stick-literally-with which to beat any lingering cultural dissent out of Highland Scottish minds.

Gaelic suffered immeasurably at the hands of Scoto-British education, and this destructive process, though relenting, has by no means disappeared. The establishment of a compulsory, national education system, determined ultimately by British imperatives at Westminster, introduced in effect an anti-Scottish institution in the heart of Scottish life. In schools throughout Scotland, emphasis was and still is on Anglo-British culture, English history, English literature and the English imperial world-view.

Gaelic in this context, along with Scottish literature and history, has been at best ignored and at worse repressed. Inferiorisation of all aspects of Scotland’s Celtic identity has been ruthlessly pursued by anglicised educationalists loyal to Britain and its vested cultural interests.

Scotland, in this respect, has been no different to other colonised societies. As Scots, we have had to endure British/English propaganda in education and the media distorting our history and culture, dismissing its most salient and distinctive features and promoting, on the other hand, colourful kitsch and couthiness, making Scots the world over a cultural laughing stock.

We have in Gaelic a true expression of Scottishness, one that is communicative and outward looking, based on the unique experience and environment of this country and its people.

Language is of course not only a means of communication, it is also the expression of a nation’s consciousness. The colonising of Scottish thought by English values, linguistic and social, has meant that many Scots regard Gaelic as foreign to their identity. Our Nation’s consciousness and sense of itself is tragically divorced from what makes us so different from, say, our closest English neighbours in Northumbria. Yet our place names and family names, even in Lowland Scotland it must be stressed, bear testimony to an indigenous language and culture which we must now recognise as central to our aspirations.

Many Scots are only three or four generations removed from Gaelic-speaking ancestors, and many others are related to those Scots still fortunate enough to speak our ancient language, in the Highlands and Islands. In an independent Scotland, these Scots must be given opportunity to explore their heritage through an education system that relates their identity to language—not only English but also Gaelic.

A bilingual future for our children is no more a pipe dream than independence itself—both are possible given the political will. A bilingual population, versed in a unique culture and with the linguistic skills to apprehend the languages and cultures of our European neighbours could only be an asset to an independent Scotland. As a menaced language with very few truly native speakers left, Gaelic must be valued at an official level. It must be given official status alongside English and must be promoted in a co-ordinated fashion. Bodies such as An Comunn Gaidhealach, CNAG, CLI, the Gaelic Books Council, Comhairle nan Sgoiltean Araich etc. are doing laudable work at present in favour of the language, but they remain pressure groups with little or no political back-up. An independent Scottish government with a commitment to Scottish culture in general and our indigenous language in particular would need to create a national committee structure with the remit of spreading the use and encouraging the teaching of Gaelic in every sphere of Scottish life. A ministry devoted to Gaelic working in concert with other government agencies would provide the infrastructure for regenerating the language.

Promotion of the language in education must be implemented in a constructive, positive manner—avoiding the counter-productive example of compulsory Gaelic in the Republic of Ireland’s schools. The Welsh experience, especially in the field of broadcasting, provides a useful example of how a language with official status, encouraged and promoted in imaginative ways, can prove an attractive proposition to people with no prior knowledge of it.

Pride in one’s history and culture, in that which is unique is not a thing to be ashamed of, Scotland and its people have an abundance of each. The great pity therefore is that the vast majority of our young people know almost nothing about the culture which defined our past. The world press reported recently that after a showing of the film "Braveheart" people in cinemas across Scotland went wild, screaming the name of the hero William Wallace, and "Freedom for Scotland". It was apparent that the vast majority of Scots who watched this film had in fact little prior knowledge of who "Wallace" was or what role he had played in Scotland's history. This is a prime example of the English/British suppression of all things Scottish. It has to be wondered in this instance just how many who watched this film, understood the few Gaelic phrases used in it... a language the quasi-totality of the Scottish army of the time would have spoken on a daily basis.

Gaelic is part of our make-up, without it we cease to be Scots in the truest possible sense. We must all strive to restore it to the centre of our aspirations. Bilingualism is a forward-looking, humanist philosophy which challenges the bland Anglo-American culture that we, as Scots, are force-fed daily. The Gaelic cause is the cause of Scotland. The struggle for a healthy Gaelic language has been and is a difficult one, fought in the face of overwhelming imperialist odds, but it will undoubtedly help to create a New Scotland, becoming a living symbol of a people at last confident and proud of their unique indentity.In fact up until the 19th century most Scots spoke in French if they couldnt speak in the Gaelic and many just used a bit of both mixed with Doric a north east scottish dialect  and whatever local dialect they had ,so suppose it made it diffcult for everyone who didnt come from Scotland

So hope that has explained it all a wee bit better, in  fact I remember reading about a Highland lord that brought teachers from Kelty in Fife to highlands to teach his highlanders how to speak in an accent understanding to all, if I remember its in history of the Fife Arms Hotel in Balmoral, pity the scottish schools didnt teach the children more about how their Scottish dialects started..

Jock

Saol Alba