Wilson McLeod - Böcker

In this detailed and absorbing study, Wilson McLeod challenges the familiar view that Gaelic Scotland and Gaelic Ireland formed a cultural unit during the late middle ages and early modern period. Many commentators have emphasized the strong cultural and political ties that bound the 'sea-divided' Gaels together during this era, when Scottish Gaels supplied crucial military forces to the Gaelic Irish chiefs, and poets and learned men travelled extensively between the two countries. Dr McLeod tests this view of a unified Gaelic 'culture-province' by examination of the surviving sources, especially formal bardic poetry. Although the evidence is patchy and occasionally contradictory, he is able to show that Ireland was culturally dominant. While Scottish Gaeldom attached great significance to the Irish connection, viewing Ireland as the wellspring of historical and cultural prestige, Irish Gaeldom, McLeod argues, perceived Scotland as distant and peripheral.

In this extensive study of the changing role of Gaelic in modern Scotland from the introduction of state education in 1872 up to the present day Wilson McLeod looks at the policies of government and the work of activists and campaigners who have sought to maintain and promote Gaelic. In addition, he scrutinises the competing ideologies that have driven the decline, marginalisation and subsequent revitalisation of the language. Taking an interdisciplinary approach at the boundary of history, law, language policy and sociolinguistics the book draws upon a wide range of sources in both English and Gaelic to consider in detail the development of the language policy regime for Gaelic that was developed between 1975 and 1989. It examines the campaign for the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, its contents and implementation; and assesses the development and delivery of development and delivery of Gaelic education and media from the late 1980s to the present.

Duanaire na Sracaire is the first anthology to bring together Scotland's Gaelic poetry from the millenium c.600-1600 AD, when Scotland shared its rich culture with Ireland. It includes a huge range of diverse poetry: prayers and hymns of Iona, Fenian lays, praise poems and satires, courtly songs and lewd rants, songs of battle and death, incantations and love poems.All poems appear with facing-page translations which capture the spirit and beauty of the originals and are accompanied by detailed notes. A comprehensive introduction sets the context and analyses the role and functions of poetry in Gaelic society. This collection will appeal to poetry lovers, Gaelic speakers and those keen to explore a vital part of Scotland's literary heritage.

This book brings together an interdisciplinary group of academic researchers in order to examine how and to what extent the challenge of language revitalisation should be reassessed and reconceptualised to take account of our fast-changing social context.

This book brings together an interdisciplinary group of academic researchers in order to examine how and to what extent the challenge of language revitalisation should be reassessed and reconceptualised to take account of our fast-changing social context.

This book gives fresh insight into the diverse ways in which the transmission of minority and heritage languages is carried out in a range of sociolinguistic contexts.

This book gives fresh insight into the diverse ways in which the transmission of minority and heritage languages is carried out in a range of sociolinguistic contexts.

This volume celebrates the contribution of Professor Colin Williams, an immensely important and influential scholar in the field of language policy for more than forty years. Eighteen chapters by former students, colleagues and collaborators address a range of topics involving different aspects of language legislation and language rights, governance, economics, territoriality, land use planning, and onomastics. Six chapters address policy issues in Professor Williams’s native Wales while others focus on Canada, Catalonia, Ireland and Scotland. The volume concludes with an Afterword by Professor Williams himself. The book will be suitable for postgraduates and researchers not only in the field of language policy and planning but also sociolinguistics, geography, law and political science.