Applied Languages

    Posted by Jaiken Struck on February 9th, 2009

New words have been added into Scottish Gaelic in order to meet its speakers’ requirements for a bigger, updated vocabulary in the 21st century. In order to keep the language alive for generations to come, a Scottish Government-funded project has introduced new terms for skinny jeans, piercings, high heels, thongs, rock stars and the like. It has also set up a social networking site for young Gaelic speakers and those interested in learning the language. The project aims at creating a positive image of Gaelic, portraying the language as modern and dynamic rather than a language of the past, as the project’s spokesman, Hugh Dan MacLennan, says.
Examples of the newly added phrases include “Sàilean Àrda” for high heels, “Dinichean Teann” for skinny jeans, “Wuss”, which means tattoo, and “Staidhle Ùr”, for a new hairdo. “Rionnag PopPop” is rock star and “Leabaidh-ghrèine” sunbed. Those who want to use Gaelic on the football pitch, words like “Cluicheadair” for player, ”Spot Peanais” for penalty spot and “Neach-gleidhidh” for goalkeeper will come in useful.
Much of the terminology is based on traditional vocabulary which has been given a modern touch. Existing phrases which may have fallen out of use were adapted in most cases and only some of the words were created out of nothing.
MacLennan hopes that the new phrases will be adopted not only by the younger generation who log on to Mygaelic.com but also by television channels and radio stations. He says: “People won’t use these words if they don’t know they exist. Once people hear them being used on the TV and the radio they will pick them up and start using them as second nature.”

Read more:  Mygaelic.com, stv.tv

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Endangered Languages. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.