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Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Wad ye believe't. Anither girn fae iright his turnt up.

Iright has been browsing the Scots pages at the Parly
Weel fit's aa the claik. Our reporter goes on to say: Should we have more things written in Scots?
'We've already seen a bit of a stoochie with regard to Gallic being put on road signs in the Highlands, but should they encompass Scots as well, or for that matter could the Nairn tongue be preserved for a bit longer if we had signs pointing visitors to the likes of the bankie or the peerie?'
Wad ye beleive't Anither girn fae iright his turnt up. We're needn tae hear a boot your girns, Iright tellin's aboot his. Gie's yir crack.
This gives Nairn a chance to steal a march on the tourist industry with trilingual signage. Nairn has just as much claim already to Gàidhlig signs: according to the census there are 200 people in the town able to speak/understand the language. In 1881 out of a total po0pulation of 9,481, a grand total of 1,280 were speakers of Gàidhlig. Further back in the century before the figure was nearer 60% according to a prominent local historian.
So with the Nairn Scots/english dialect on signs as well we could really knock them over.
Which brings me to something I recently saw on Yahoo: Iomairtean Gàidhlig
'25 an Cèitean 2005
A charaid chòir,
I would like to congratulate you on the two recent decisions by the HighlandCouncil (Meeting of the Sutherland County Committee, Brora 7 February 2005and The Highland Council City of Inverness and Area Committee, Inverness, 28February 2005) not to adopt meaningful bilingual signage on the grounds of“road safety”. Common sense at long last.May I suggest to you that you also contact the following governments toadvise them of the dangers of bilingual (or trilingual) signage: Japan,China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Greece, Armenia, Georgia, Mongolia, India,Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kuweit, Syria, Lebanon, Israel,Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Algeria,Morocco, Oman, Yemen, Qatar, Myanmar, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Canada andKorea, Wales, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France ... mostof them actually.I am sure your newfound “insights” will be highly appreciated and help bringScotland to the forefront of international road safety issues.I leave you with a few snapshots your councillors would be acquainted withhad they bothered to investigate rather than make hasty decisions based ontheir own “knowledge” of such issues.I’d really like to hear your views on this issue and especially how theyrelate to you Gaelic policies.
is mise le meas
Michael Bauer'
Ye dinna tell me! Aye Michael loon, ye'll nae get cuttins fae Highland Cooncil. We kin fit their aboot, we're nae saw green as we're cubbage-looking.

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