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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 1110

Part of Session 180: New Speakers in the City (Other abstracts in this session)

"They don't speak proper Gaelic": A comparison of native speaker and learner varieties of Scottish Gaelic

Authors: Carty, Nicola (1); Cole, Beth (2)
Submitted by: Cole, Beth (University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom)

This paper offers a comparison of morphosyntactic variation in a group of L2 learners of Gaelic in Glasgow and native speakers in the Western Isles.

 

The islands of North and South Uist, Benbecula and the surrounding smaller islands are a traditional Gaelic heartland with almost 70% of people reporting themselves as Gaelic speakers (Census 2001). This makes the islands one of the strongest Gaelic speaking areas in Scotland. Outwith the Highlands and Islands, in areas which were not previously traditionally Gaelic speaking, interest in the language continues to grow, with increasing numbers of people choosing to learn the language in adulthood.

 

In Glasgow, data were elicited from adult learners of Gaelic, using semi-structured interviews and picture description tasks, as part of a study into adult SLA. Participants were also interviewed in English to establish their attitudes towards language learning and the importance they place on grammatical accuracy, as defined by their conception of native speaker norms. These speakers have English as their L1, and many had no exposure to Gaelic until adulthood.  Because there is such a high proportion of adult learners in Glasgow, who often have limited exposure to the language and may only have opportunities to speak Gaelic with other learners, one would expect to see new linguistic forms arising; these may be examples of learner interlanguage or they could indicate the development of a new variety of ‘Lowland’ Gaelic with its own discrete characteristics.

 

In the Uists, data were elicited from native speakers through translation tasks and natural conversation with both L1 and L2 speakers. Interviews were conducted with informants forming 2 age groups (30-50 and 60-80) with similar gender distribution in each group. All informants spoke Gaelic as an L1, and although they still used Gaelic daily and by preference, the presence of English on the islands is increasingly pervasive, with many speakers reporting that they no longer use the language in situations where they previously would have.

 

It was observed that many learners were preoccupied with “correctness” and maintaining linguistic authenticity, which led to the attempted use of language closely aligned with prescriptive standards of correctness. However, most learners appear not to have acquired all morphosyntactic features to their desired standard, and a number of errors were seen to be consistent across the group, so that certain forms, while “ungrammatical”, were in fact a shared feature of learners’ language. The data from native speakers also showed significant variation, at inter- and intra-speaker level, with typical norms not always presenting themselves as one would expect.

 

The data from both studies were compared to see whether the variation found in the two groups could be considered to be indicative of an emerging pathway in Gaelic development, and if so, what form this development may be taking.  Our analysis can shed light on an emerging variety of Lowland Gaelic, and by comparing this variety to native speaker data, we can add more depth to our understanding of minority language change.