Eesh. I don't really agree with him divorcing linguistic evolution from cultural revolution. He makes something that is unavoidably messy sound too neat.
Before teaching Gaelic in schools, they might want to start teaching a language which is more useful to a decent degree of competency. Most British people can hardly speak French or any other European language, so let's start with those before we revive nearly-pointless niche languages, right?
@MrArthddu This is David Mitchell. His heritage is part Welsh, part Scottish. His great-great-grandfather was a minister from Skye and an authority on the Gaelic language. If he were truly an arrogant "English man", I doubt he would even bother to recognize what Scottish Gaelic was, never mind make a video where he actually states that he HOPES it survives. In fact, I was surprised just how fair and supportive of the language he was. My Gaelic-speaking father found it mostly fair aswell.
Im from scotland but Gaelic should die.. DIE... we need a universal language and pushing forward a minority language is a huge step backwards in communication..
@Cypher791 Could you perhaps tell me why my father's language must "die... DIE..." in order to facilitate universal human communication, but I presume you would object strongly to the "death... DEATH..." of your own language?
I don't disagree with you that the promotion of minority languages amongst non-native speakers has little merit, and can be counter-productive, but that doesn't mean I call for OTHER people's native languages (NOT my own) to die in the name of convenient communication.
@Mic1904 a language is only practical as long as it serves the purpose of communication, it can still exist to be studied and researched by whoever wants to do so but to bring up a generation of people only speaking Gaelic, would only serve to divide people =/
you seem to take it offensively.. not trying to be disrespectful to a culture or language that served well in its time but i think the best way forward is to retire it and promote the established major languages =P
@Cypher791 Yes, I definitely agree with your point (and David's point) that a language is only practical as a means of communication, and I also agree that a universal language would be a great thing. Less division is always good!
Where I disagree is the bit where you actively want Gaelic to die out. All I'm saying is, my family would probably ask: "Hey, hold on, why does our language have to be the one to die? Why is our language divisive but your's isn't?"
@Mic1904 i see it as the evoloution of language, natural selection and extinction, and i heard the government want to teach gaelic in schools, a disasterous and blindly patriotic decision.. for all the reasons stated above.. i still think without oppressing or actively "killing" gaelic we should step aside and let it gracefuly slip out of living memory =/.. again sorry if this does sound offensive and i can see how my first comment would offend but.. this is my view =]
@Cypher791 No worries, there's no real offense taken here, I just found the first comment a little bit unkind towards the Gaelic-speakers I know.
Like I say, I mostly agree with you. I would be against artificially trying to resurrect Gaelic. So long as Gaelic dies "naturally" and isn't actively killed off, I guess I would have to accept that ;) You've given me some points to think about for sure.
@Cypher791 Don’t get me wrong, I mostly agree with you, and I’m not offended - I just differ slightly in opinion. I suppose my point is this: Just because you’ve been fortunate enough to learn a major language as your native language, I think it’s unfair to look at people who speak a minority language and say: “Here is the problem. This language these people speak causes division. They should learn a major language. Like mine.”
@Cypher791 Have you, for example, made efforts to promote universal communication by learning one of the other major languages of the world? Perhaps you have, in which case I respect you for doing that, but you've got to admit, it would seem a little unfair to call for the death of a minority language while you have the relative privilege of automatically having one of the world's major languages as your native tongue.
@peacefrog1916 Given that he has both Welsh and Scottish heritage (his great-great-grandfather was a minister from Skye who was something of an authority on the Gaelic, having written a Gaelic dictionary) I would say that he's actually in a fairly good position to comment on minority languages. Plus, I don't think anything he says is particularly offensive or patronizing, he makes it clear that his intentions towards the language are good, but at the same time, he raises some valid points.
I don't like David's pidgeonholing of language as a communicative device (comparing 60,000 Gaelic speakers to all the Hindi Indians). It's also a large part of culture, each of which is very valuable.
Looking numerically, I'd be hard-pressed to think of anything close to 60,000 people with whom I've had genuine conversations, and I know I will never use my native English to communicate with over a billion people. It just won't happen.
I remember being a child and when BBC kids finished for the day the Gaelic kids programs came on....
I would watch them even though i didn't know what they were saying just because i thought they were not speaking another language but making funny noises.
Well, except in India, which ironically has the world's largest English speaking population (English speaking, rather than English using like the UK or New Zealand or something).
@TheCutwood Fair enough. Why don't we just call it American, then? I mean, you don't run into "Mandarin-Chinese" or "Cantonese-Chinese" speakers, you drop the hyphenation and call it "Mandarin" or "Cantonese". Both still dialects of the same language with degrees of mutual intelligibility. Even better, that would free up Oxford to focus on English, and Webster's to focus on American.
Let's not get carried away. Overall, I'm fine with the existence of different versions of English, it shows how far each country has come from being a colonial war-tool for use for the English against the French (or in the case of Australia, a colony for convicts) but it annoys me that the sub-term is more popular in the world, ESPECIALLY when Oxford English is taught in European schools.
I suppose the money saved is better spent bombing folks in places where they dont speak english. That is pretty much how english got to where it is today.
@pookijman yep, just like French, Dutch, Chinese, German, all Latin based languages from when the Romans took over, and dozens more languages. 200 years ago German was the big guy, now it's English, and it looks like Chinese is next in line
I would really like David mitchell to listen to broad doric and call it a dialect. Also, gaelic is still very prevelant within our culture, particularly in songs, and I think it's worth us keeping gaelic alive simply from the point of view of keeping the music alive in a true form. Also, it's very helpful when speaking to people who speak the irish version, as though it is not the same, it is similar.
@SirElspeth Surely by defining Doric as "broad", you are accepting it is on a continuous scale rather than 2 discrete languages. either that or you are accepting the existence of a legitimate intermediate dialect between English and Doric which clearly doesn't exist. This means that the only conclusion I can draw from you comment is that you believe it is a dialect as basically, all a dialect is, is a version of a language where any number of certain words or phrases can be swapped for others.
A Zimbabwean called Turu Aruturu came to Ireland and became fluent in Irish "Gaelic" in order to immerse himself in the culture. He performs some hip-hop songs in Irish, one of which has the lyrics "Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam". Roughly translated this means "A country without a language is a country without a soul." A language is not solely a means of communication, it is an aspect of cultural identity, and preserving these languages is really important.
@jamielockdown But if a large proportion of the 'modern' population doesn't actually speak it and/or seems to be not bothered about learning it, then what does that say about the 'soul' of the country?
I utterly disagree with the notion that the extinction of a language is invariably natural. Sometimes, it involves three steps: attack, defeat and surrender. This is a reality which the Anglophone world will probably never understand.
Pfft, "Anglophone world". You mean Americans. If it were up to those backwards rock-bashers who somehow stumbled into power the whole world would be speaking 'Murrrrcan.
@IAmCaptainMarvel If you read 'Voices in Decline' by James McCloskey, you'll find an argument that this kind of ignorance has infected the whole English-speaking world.
@IAmCaptainMarvel First of all, I apologise-the book's name is 'Voices Silenced'. I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that being in a culturally-dominant position, relatively speaking, can lead such nations to take a complacent view vis a vis other languages. Perhaps the same thing would have happened in France in the 18th century if things turned out differently, perhaps the same thing will happen for places like India and China soon enough.
You're basing England's view on Cornish on David Mitchell's personal opinion? Mitchell himself doesn't even consider himself English. Just because he's hostile towards revival doesn't mean England is.
And there have been efforts to revive the language, both internally and externally. Admittedly more could be done, but it doesn't mean people don't care.
And if you think that about the Anglo"sphere" then that's fine, but remember to exclude the actual Anglos.
Not simply one opinion, but various opinions expressed, all largely negative that seeks to belittle and make light of language revitalization efforts. Again, my knowledge of the Cornish experience is admittedly limited, but I do know other efforts at linguistic reclamation have been met with considerable resistance by the dominant language group ( in the cases I am familiar with, the dominant group happens to be English speakers).
Alright, how about firsthand experience from my point of view? And this is genuine.
When I was about 9 I went to a fishing village called "Mousehole" (pronounced Mouzehull) for Christmas on holiday. My family got the idea of going there after we heard about it from this book I loved. While I was there, various signs and info about our lodgings WAS in Cornish (as well as English).
I don't think that's all that negative towards the language, eh?
It's great that you have an open mind towards Cornish. From what I understand, the community in Cornwall has been quite active in promoting the language, and has had some success. I would attribute most of the work in reviving the language to these people and this community.
Sadly, there are people who take each and every opportunity to belittle these efforts, to complain when any public monies are spent on these activities.
@amandaberesford Well, I'll put it like this. I'd never make a statement about the Anglosphere (not sure if I heard that term before-good one) in such a general way unless I had a reasonably conrete source. McCloskey's book is really worth reading.
I am sadly unfamiliar with much of the efforts to revive Cornish, but my understanding is that much of the effort expended to revive and sustain Cornish has come from individuals and groups interested in the language, and not some noble mission on the part of the central government.
In general I sense quite a bit of hostility towards Cornish revival, and basically Mitchell dismisses it entirely.
@255ad; I'm not entirely sure that I understand you, but if I would hazard a guess, I think what you're saying is that intellect was implanted within the human mind not by evolution, but by some higher consciousness? If that is your argument, then it misses the point of my comment altogether; I was taking evolution by natural selection for granted, including its role in development of human intellect, and positing thence an inability to dispute its role in the extinction of less adapted species
@kulcid254 That's what I've always thought. I've never fully understood the disconnect some people have between nature and human kind. Not that I want to justify us killing off entire species, but we are a part of nature and it is still natural selection (through human actions) that might make a species extinct.. Assuming thats what you are talking about...
I hate it when people forget language is a fundamental tool for communication that we should trying to get the world down to as few a living examples of as possible there by optimising our ability to communicate, instead trying maintain them in a obvious example of culture overriding logic
the only argument I can possibly see for learning a language you don't need to communicate is so you can enjoy literature and music in that language.... but you don't need to have it road signs for that
@TheCutwood; first, we are not England's "bastard" children. 60 million Americans are of at least partial Germanic descent, making them the largest ethnic group in the US, followed by the Irish and African-Americans (about 35 mil each). Next, the term "American-English" is a linguistic term. Whether you like it or not, the English language has spread beyond the borders of England, and linguists needs a conventional means of cataloging its various dialects, and regional influences.
Technically speaking, if we consider man's intellect and technological prowess to be evolutionary developments, then the extinction of another species as a result of our advancements would be a form of natural selection. As the argument would run: given that we've evolved the ability to alter the environment to suit our own needs, natural selection has allowed us reproductive success and the other species was unable to adapt for its survival.
@kulcid254 "man's intellect and technological prowess to be evolutionary developments"
the intellect is incomparable with the idea evolution because you can't have a partial intellect it only exits in a completed form it had to have arrived in our heads fully formed if it's real
Nach eil tusa amadan a' Dhàibhidh, agus tha mi cinnteach gum bith naraich air an teachlach agus na càirdean agadasa!!! Dè tha thu ag radh, direach gorach agus "nieve" (mar a chanas tu!) mu dheinnin cànain; rach a muin!!!!!!!!!
try and read a bit about the development of the dialects of old english; this is a very nieve view and shows a totall lack of understanding of the history and linguistics behind the Scots and English language. Untill you do this - it is really not worth entering into debate with you about this!
Scots isn't a dialect of English. Owing to the fact that it is older than English and was the lingua franca in other parts of Europe before English. It sounds similar because it is derived from some of the same languages. But yes, I agree, people who think they can speak Scots because they speak English poorly are idiots.
@jamesaellis Nope apparently there are 5% of welsh people who cannot speak English. tbh they'd have to be living in a pretty small world and maaaybe a little inbred.
I'm not sure what looks more foolish me using a questionable form of do, or you in your overly pedantic crusade of youtube spell checking not realizing that realise and realize are interchangeable. In the US the correct spelling (the one that doesn't set off the tiny red squiggles of warning) is realize.
Currently the best they can hope for is what Latin got, to make weighty literary and linguistic contributions to some future Renaissance, for which it will be revered and gain an intelligent cache. How about it?
I'm Scottish and I hate when people claim they can "speak Scots" or say Scots should be a language in its own right. It's basically like writing in an accent, the equivalent of a cockney spelling out like "aht". The revival of Gaelic and the introduction of Gaelic road and train signs is probably one of the biggest wastes of money I can possibly think of (apart from giving Sean Connery an award every year for simply being alive).
@liviiskate yeah i agree my grandmother is from islay and speaks gaelic (pretty sure she only started 10 years ago) she always gets pissed off when i tell her it is a waste of time :L
if the scots did all speak, read and write gaelic as a first language, then whenever they write boring "Braveheart" nationalistic rants on YouTube nobody would be able to understand them and they'd get ignored. It is truely boring and pathetic; I go on a David Mitchell video (someone I find funny) and the majority of the comments are moaning about how England represses them all the time, same with videos of bagpipe music (which i like) its just Scottish people moaning.
Interesting note, less than 200 million people claim hindi as their native language as English is the primary language of India, and that doesn't mean those <200mil don't speak English.
@peacefulprogrammer Quite right. When I went to India it seemed to be that everyone speaks their states local dialect (eg Tamil). All educated (and many uneducated) people speak English as it is the language used by individuals from different states to communicate, as well as the business/academic language and it is useful for speaking to foreigners. Hindi is seen as 'traditional' language like Welsh or Gaelic, there are just a lot of Indians, hence 200mil speakers.
Saying "the Lowlands are where the people are" is a bit disingenous. Many Lowlanders have susbtantial Highland ancestry, and if they identify with Gaelic culture then good on 'em.
Scots quite clearly is a distinct language from English, imo. The fact that it's somewhat intelligible to English doesn't detract from how the language is more-or-less lexically different (Scots: ah dinae ken, English: I didn't know). Clearly related, but so are Spanish and Catalan.
"Language dying is still natural selection". No it isn't dude, learn some history. It's the result of centuries of state policy at least in Gaelic's case, as is true for all of Britain's regional languages. True, migration did contribute but British state policy was the main factor.
It's all well and good to label it as simply a means of communication, but that's ignoring the cultural depth and wealth of any language. It's also very easy to be flippant when you're part of the cultural hegemony. The English suppressed it in most areas, and convinced the Scots it was not worth saving. Absurd funding my eye, you owe it to the culture that was exploited, suppressed and destroyed, and worse still was the convincing of Gaels that it's not worth it for themselves.
Hebrew is very different in that it was revived among a polulation of various languages in need of a common one. In Scotland almost the entire population already shares a common language in english. Dont think that can change.
we manege to revive out language- Hebrew completely and turn it from a preserved language that we speak only on special events to a nationally spoken language
so you can do it to and yes it will help you because every people need their own identity
I agree with him wholeheartedly. I love language, as a hobby. I am teaching myself Welsh, Swedish, bits of Japanese, a whole bunch. For fun. But the only language I communicate with is English. Well, and I'm in my fourth year of learning German in school, so I guess I should count that one too. But languages will not die. Not completely. Latin's not dead. Latin as a spoken language is, but the language still exists. In fact, it's studied more now than ever.
should it not be 'completely ludicrous' not 'completely lunatic'? Think Mr. Mitchell should sort out his English before pontificating as to whether other languages should stay or go.
@jamesdickinson79 if you checked your claims with google before making bold statements like this, you might be more credible. "completely lunatic" is completely correct. and the two words mean different things: "completely ludicrous" is like saying "unbelievable" and "completely lunatic" is like saying "completely insane". so nice try. nice use of pontificating though, did you copy that from someone who isn't a total plonker? :P
@dm9910 Touché. Spot the differences below? Just thought i'd help you out! ;)
If you checked your claims with google before making bold statements like this, you might be more credible. "Completely lunatic" is completely correct. And the two words mean different things: "completely ludicrous" is like saying "unbelievable", and "completely lunatic" is like saying "completely insane". So nice try. Nice use of pontificating though; did you copy that from someone who isn't a total plonker? :P
David, if you ran for MP in my area, I'd vote for you coz you are sane, but what u dont get is that people LOVE their languages, so it's not just about communication, it's about celebrating culture.
@Meinnearach0204 My favourite feature of your comment, was the fact that nobody can or, would want to fight back, purely because not one human with one head speaks your caveman stutter and spatter. you messy cunts
When it comes to the English, it's never a natural loss of language, and pretty much exclusively a nationalist issue. Which is a shame, cos they're gorgeous languages.
I used to think David Mitchell was funny but this is just opinionated and ill-informed! As a Welsh speaker with English parents I am very glad to have been given the opportunity to learn one of the oldest languages in Europe, at one time it was banned in schools by dictators that were threatened by a language they couldn't speak or were to lazy to learn. I think there are much worse ways of spending public money than supporting an ancient language, educating children is the best way to do this
Of all of Mitchell's soapbox rants, this is the one I most completely disagree with. He seems completely unaware of the history of minority languages. Their extinction is very often, in fact usually, the result of Man, and in fact is often more directly so than species extinctions, as most of those are accidental, wheras language destruction and suppression is very deliberate. Also, if Scots is a dialect of English than Swedish is a dialect of Norwegian and Portuguese is a dialect of Spanish
@beverage2008 why? english is THE international language. it's a tremendous advantage to speak it as our first language.
do you want scotland to conform to some kind of sterotype of anti-english racism? living in huts playing bagpipes, eating exclusively haggis and shortbread? it would be like people in the south of the US being proud of "redneck culture", racism and shagging relatives.
i have no problem with gaelic but making the whole country learn it is pointless.
@dm9910 dont talk such shite. yes english is a useful language, but not enough people speak scottish or is interested in it & that should change! your obv english. theres no law saying people cant be proud of where their from. like ireland and wales, they can learn to speak their own language so why cant scotland do the same? ill tell you why, coz the english never wanted that to happen. i love scotland, love being scottish, would love to learn gaelic & more scottish people should. my opinion!
@beverage2008 i am scottish. from near stirling, now going to uni in glasgow. just because i don't have an accent when i'm TYPING doesn't mean i'm english.
and i am proud of being scottish. despite the crap weather and anti-english nationalist maniacs i love scotland, and wouldn't live anywhere else (though i would like to spend a year or two in australia. amazing place)
@beverage2008 continued: england's crimes against scotland were literally hundreds of years ago. we've forgiven germany for world war 2 and the holocaust causing TENS OF MILLIONS OF DEATHS just 60-70 years ago. but we can't forgive our neighbor country for banning bagpipes CENTURIES ago?
if more people learned gaelic in their spare time, that would be fine. but it shouldn't be taught in schools etc - it's an almost useless language today. even in scotland since only about 1% of us speak it
@dm9910 I feel sorry for you, having abandoned your culture, you do not even realise its worth. The colonised mindset is strong in your country, more's the pity.
@billymagfhloinn i haven't abandoned anything and i love scottish history and music. i'm just not some sheep following the SNP's "lets become independant and make everything gaelic!" ideas. it's political bullshit manipulating the patriotism of this country and misplaced resentment towards the english.
learning gaelic should be a hobby like learning to play bagpipes, not taught in schools. culture is for remembering, not re-enacting, otherwise we'd still be living in wooden huts.
@gamingdonnie 'they' being those who lived hundreds of years ago. Most modern Scots are pretty ambivalent to Scottish gaelic because so few actually speak it. While it is possible to have pity for the Scots who spoke gaelic but were forced to speak English, it is completely inconsequential to modern Scots. All of human 'tradition', nationalism and linguistics is synthetic and arbitrary, and contemporary policy should reflect the present and not some removed false nostalgic memory
ERRRRRRRRRRRRR.... Here I thought the English FORCED the Scots to speak English and had a hostile campaign against them. Here in Canada, Gaelic, was set to becoming the third language of Canada, as there were millions of speakers. Then the Crown said "Right'o... SUPPRESSED". So, No, David... it wasn't as if MILLIONS of people decided to drop their HERITAGE, in favour of English, it was because ENGLISH, forced itself on them.
The mind boggles... is all of UK against it's heritage?
@LemonDancer No... that is so horifically wrong that I cannot begin to describe it.
So, firstly, there's two separate groups in Scotland: Highlanders and Lowlanders. Only the highlanders spoke Gaelic, the lowlanders spoke a type of English dialect called Scots English. Secondly, why would a Gaelic speaker continue to only speak that when, after colonisation, most of the world spoke English. Its hardly oppression, more adapting.
That said, I wouldn't like to see Gaelic die myself.
@PT8475 That's so horrifically* wrong, I cannot begin to describe it! Now I won't delve into semantics here... I will simply say that a quick google search will enlighten you to what you need to know. If not, well whatever... Have yourself a nice day!
@LemonDancer I'm afraid I can't really take any lectures from someone who isn't Scottish on Scottish history who's educated themselves based on a google search, thank you.
Cool beans mate... No cracking your nut, YT won't let me post sites and I am not about to walk an ignorant fool through a google search. You have yourself a nice day.
@LemonDancer we were oppressed into speaking english HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO. it is no longer oppression, it is now free will and everyone decided to learn english and not gaelic. why? because it's a vastly more useful language and you can communicate with BILLIONS of people isntead of 60k. the VAST majority of business, internet, tv, books, films etc are in english. to exclude ourselves from all that just so different sounds can come out of our mouths is daft.
I think the phonetics are quite similar but it's been a while since I studied this... IIRC, the spellings look different but by going through it phonetically, you can make a pretty good guess.
Over here in Ireland, we have to spend 14 years learning Gaelic even though a majority of students hate the subject, will never use it (except for maybe inside jokes) and 1% of the country speak it but not english. We'd be far better off learning another European language instead (doing at least one is also compulsory).
@deruberowner It's not my experience that the majority hate it, badly taught and all that it is. Many are justly proud, and 42% said they spoke it in the last census.
I'm not bashing Irish, just saying it shouldn't be compulsory. If, in fact, these people are proud, then the Dept. of Education have nothing to fear (but in all fairness, they should at least reduce the amount of poems and prose).
David, your analogy about animal extinction and natural selection doesn't work, because sometimes languages DO die as a result of human interference. For example, in the 19th century it was actually forbidden for Welsh to be spoken in Welsh schools. English was foisted on Wales party as a result of natural selection, but also partly as a result of English interference. Imagine what the Welsh lannguage would be like today if England had never conquered Wales and never made anti-Welsh laws.
I do not understand people who keep saying that the goverment dont spend enough money on X minority language so that is why no one speaks it
Why does the goverment have to spend money for you to learn the language on the internet and then making youtube videos or a site/forum in that language?
With only $10.000 you can easily
-Start a small group who puts up signs on for example shop doors with the correct translation of the English text already on the doors
@akumie2 -Get a good camera, green screen and ok programs to make decent youtube videos (make commercials about shops around you in the local language)
-Buy instruments and start a band who only sings in that minority language
-Buy some books and/or some fun programs for the pc and with some luck a school might have 1-2 hours/week lessons in that minority language
Goverments always think in millions of $ when little money in my opinion works as well
Well, I'm Scottish and I would not waste my time studying gaelic, it's not a useful tool to communicate. I'd much rather learn a language where I could meet a lot of new and interesting people, all of whom don't already speak good English. What he is saying is true, don't listen to all the nationalist morons in the comments, not all scots are completely deluded. We don't run around in kilts burning English flags and speaking in gaelic.
@ClTIZEN You don't have to hate England to love your own country and culture. You will never understand your own culture properly without Gaelic, but it appears that that's not something you're particularly interested in. This may be fair enough, but full support should be given to those who wish to reclaim that which was stolen from them (by the English incidentally). This need not involve anti-English sentiment, but Englishmen telling Scots how they should do it is surely galling, no?
@billymagfhloinn I don't hate England, and I do love my country, although, like most other countries it has its fair share of problems. I don't think that the decline of the Gaelic language is one of them, though. I think it's great that people still want to learn Gaelic, and gain a deeper understanding of our history, but I don't think it's something that deserves heaps of money thrown at it, when our hospitals and schools are so short of money just now.
He's pronouncing the word 'Gaelic' wrong surely? And if he is, as I really suspect, surely he'd research this before he gets up on his soapbox and make an entire video mispronouncing it?
@cecilia0007 He's not pronouncing it wrong. The pronunciation he uses mostly in this video is referring to the Scottish branch of Gaelic. The Irish Gaelic is pronounced differently. He even says so at the beginning of the video.
Eesh. I don't really agree with him divorcing linguistic evolution from cultural revolution. He makes something that is unavoidably messy sound too neat.
blueelectricsmoke 1 day ago
Before teaching Gaelic in schools, they might want to start teaching a language which is more useful to a decent degree of competency. Most British people can hardly speak French or any other European language, so let's start with those before we revive nearly-pointless niche languages, right?
lyris1 3 days ago
Twat! This is a typical of an English man with an arrogant attitude towards other languages.
MrArthddu 3 days ago
@MrArthddu
wanker
karezza6 3 days ago
@karezza6 Fuck you!
MrArthddu 3 days ago
@MrArthddu This is David Mitchell. His heritage is part Welsh, part Scottish. His great-great-grandfather was a minister from Skye and an authority on the Gaelic language. If he were truly an arrogant "English man", I doubt he would even bother to recognize what Scottish Gaelic was, never mind make a video where he actually states that he HOPES it survives. In fact, I was surprised just how fair and supportive of the language he was. My Gaelic-speaking father found it mostly fair aswell.
Mic1904 3 days ago
The Irish language is more commonly referred to as Gaeilge, not Gaelic.
Skittlezz789 3 days ago
Im from scotland but Gaelic should die.. DIE... we need a universal language and pushing forward a minority language is a huge step backwards in communication..
Cypher791 4 days ago
@Cypher791 Could you perhaps tell me why my father's language must "die... DIE..." in order to facilitate universal human communication, but I presume you would object strongly to the "death... DEATH..." of your own language?
I don't disagree with you that the promotion of minority languages amongst non-native speakers has little merit, and can be counter-productive, but that doesn't mean I call for OTHER people's native languages (NOT my own) to die in the name of convenient communication.
Mic1904 4 days ago
@Mic1904 a language is only practical as long as it serves the purpose of communication, it can still exist to be studied and researched by whoever wants to do so but to bring up a generation of people only speaking Gaelic, would only serve to divide people =/
you seem to take it offensively.. not trying to be disrespectful to a culture or language that served well in its time but i think the best way forward is to retire it and promote the established major languages =P
Cypher791 3 days ago
@Cypher791 Yes, I definitely agree with your point (and David's point) that a language is only practical as a means of communication, and I also agree that a universal language would be a great thing. Less division is always good!
Where I disagree is the bit where you actively want Gaelic to die out. All I'm saying is, my family would probably ask: "Hey, hold on, why does our language have to be the one to die? Why is our language divisive but your's isn't?"
Mic1904 3 days ago
@Mic1904 i see it as the evoloution of language, natural selection and extinction, and i heard the government want to teach gaelic in schools, a disasterous and blindly patriotic decision.. for all the reasons stated above.. i still think without oppressing or actively "killing" gaelic we should step aside and let it gracefuly slip out of living memory =/.. again sorry if this does sound offensive and i can see how my first comment would offend but.. this is my view =]
Cypher791 3 days ago
@Cypher791 No worries, there's no real offense taken here, I just found the first comment a little bit unkind towards the Gaelic-speakers I know.
Like I say, I mostly agree with you. I would be against artificially trying to resurrect Gaelic. So long as Gaelic dies "naturally" and isn't actively killed off, I guess I would have to accept that ;) You've given me some points to think about for sure.
Mic1904 3 days ago
@Mic1904 Righty oh then.. pleasure doing conversation with you =]
Cypher791 4 hours ago
@Cypher791 Don’t get me wrong, I mostly agree with you, and I’m not offended - I just differ slightly in opinion. I suppose my point is this: Just because you’ve been fortunate enough to learn a major language as your native language, I think it’s unfair to look at people who speak a minority language and say: “Here is the problem. This language these people speak causes division. They should learn a major language. Like mine.”
Mic1904 3 days ago
@Cypher791 Have you, for example, made efforts to promote universal communication by learning one of the other major languages of the world? Perhaps you have, in which case I respect you for doing that, but you've got to admit, it would seem a little unfair to call for the death of a minority language while you have the relative privilege of automatically having one of the world's major languages as your native tongue.
Mic1904 4 days ago
I recently heard about several groups in Mexico which are trying to re-introduce the Mayan language.
ShawnRavenfire 4 days ago
@ShawnRavenfire That would be awesome, I won't learn it.
PsyR4T 4 days ago
Patronising English twat.
peacefrog1916 6 days ago
@peacefrog1916 Given that he has both Welsh and Scottish heritage (his great-great-grandfather was a minister from Skye who was something of an authority on the Gaelic, having written a Gaelic dictionary) I would say that he's actually in a fairly good position to comment on minority languages. Plus, I don't think anything he says is particularly offensive or patronizing, he makes it clear that his intentions towards the language are good, but at the same time, he raises some valid points.
Mic1904 4 days ago
I don't like David's pidgeonholing of language as a communicative device (comparing 60,000 Gaelic speakers to all the Hindi Indians). It's also a large part of culture, each of which is very valuable.
Looking numerically, I'd be hard-pressed to think of anything close to 60,000 people with whom I've had genuine conversations, and I know I will never use my native English to communicate with over a billion people. It just won't happen.
ArchiveEverywhere 6 days ago 2
I remember being a child and when BBC kids finished for the day the Gaelic kids programs came on....
I would watch them even though i didn't know what they were saying just because i thought they were not speaking another language but making funny noises.
chrizlax 1 week ago
@TiberiousNeruda
Well, except in India, which ironically has the world's largest English speaking population (English speaking, rather than English using like the UK or New Zealand or something).
TheCutwood 1 week ago
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TheCutwood 1 week ago
@TheCutwood Fair enough. Why don't we just call it American, then? I mean, you don't run into "Mandarin-Chinese" or "Cantonese-Chinese" speakers, you drop the hyphenation and call it "Mandarin" or "Cantonese". Both still dialects of the same language with degrees of mutual intelligibility. Even better, that would free up Oxford to focus on English, and Webster's to focus on American.
TiberiousNeruda 1 week ago
@TiberiousNeruda
Let's not get carried away. Overall, I'm fine with the existence of different versions of English, it shows how far each country has come from being a colonial war-tool for use for the English against the French (or in the case of Australia, a colony for convicts) but it annoys me that the sub-term is more popular in the world, ESPECIALLY when Oxford English is taught in European schools.
TheCutwood 1 week ago
I suppose the money saved is better spent bombing folks in places where they dont speak english. That is pretty much how english got to where it is today.
pookijman 1 week ago
@pookijman yep, just like French, Dutch, Chinese, German, all Latin based languages from when the Romans took over, and dozens more languages. 200 years ago German was the big guy, now it's English, and it looks like Chinese is next in line
FogiTofu 1 week ago
I would really like David mitchell to listen to broad doric and call it a dialect. Also, gaelic is still very prevelant within our culture, particularly in songs, and I think it's worth us keeping gaelic alive simply from the point of view of keeping the music alive in a true form. Also, it's very helpful when speaking to people who speak the irish version, as though it is not the same, it is similar.
SirElspeth 1 week ago
@SirElspeth Surely by defining Doric as "broad", you are accepting it is on a continuous scale rather than 2 discrete languages. either that or you are accepting the existence of a legitimate intermediate dialect between English and Doric which clearly doesn't exist. This means that the only conclusion I can draw from you comment is that you believe it is a dialect as basically, all a dialect is, is a version of a language where any number of certain words or phrases can be swapped for others.
GraemeH3 1 week ago in playlist Series 1
The "Transcribe Audio" YouTube Service works really well on David Mitchell!
MrPhysicsFan 1 week ago
A Zimbabwean called Turu Aruturu came to Ireland and became fluent in Irish "Gaelic" in order to immerse himself in the culture. He performs some hip-hop songs in Irish, one of which has the lyrics "Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam". Roughly translated this means "A country without a language is a country without a soul." A language is not solely a means of communication, it is an aspect of cultural identity, and preserving these languages is really important.
jamielockdown 2 weeks ago
@jamielockdown But if a large proportion of the 'modern' population doesn't actually speak it and/or seems to be not bothered about learning it, then what does that say about the 'soul' of the country?
DemstarAus 2 weeks ago
Stop pretending it WASN'T politics that started the language on it's demise...dolt.
MisterRelative1 2 weeks ago
I utterly disagree with the notion that the extinction of a language is invariably natural. Sometimes, it involves three steps: attack, defeat and surrender. This is a reality which the Anglophone world will probably never understand.
jeffhegarty 2 weeks ago
@jeffhegarty
Pfft, "Anglophone world". You mean Americans. If it were up to those backwards rock-bashers who somehow stumbled into power the whole world would be speaking 'Murrrrcan.
IAmCaptainMarvel 2 weeks ago
@IAmCaptainMarvel If you read 'Voices in Decline' by James McCloskey, you'll find an argument that this kind of ignorance has infected the whole English-speaking world.
jeffhegarty 2 weeks ago
@jeffhegarty
Well personally I've never had the view of wanting a language to die, nor have I had the idea of thinking English is the reason languages are dying.
The simple fact that England is TRYING to revive Cornish as a language should be evidence enough that some realise this.
Americans on the other hand shafted Indian tribes in North America, and as a result there are some tribal languages that'll never be heard from again.
They don't even deserve the term "Anglo".
IAmCaptainMarvel 2 weeks ago
@IAmCaptainMarvel First of all, I apologise-the book's name is 'Voices Silenced'. I suppose the point I'm trying to make is that being in a culturally-dominant position, relatively speaking, can lead such nations to take a complacent view vis a vis other languages. Perhaps the same thing would have happened in France in the 18th century if things turned out differently, perhaps the same thing will happen for places like India and China soon enough.
jeffhegarty 2 weeks ago
@jeffhegarty
You are completely right about the "anglosphere". Don't let anyone fool you into thinking otherwise.
amandaberesford 1 week ago
@amandaberesford
You're basing England's view on Cornish on David Mitchell's personal opinion? Mitchell himself doesn't even consider himself English. Just because he's hostile towards revival doesn't mean England is.
And there have been efforts to revive the language, both internally and externally. Admittedly more could be done, but it doesn't mean people don't care.
And if you think that about the Anglo"sphere" then that's fine, but remember to exclude the actual Anglos.
IAmCaptainMarvel 1 week ago
@IAmCaptainMarvel
Not simply one opinion, but various opinions expressed, all largely negative that seeks to belittle and make light of language revitalization efforts. Again, my knowledge of the Cornish experience is admittedly limited, but I do know other efforts at linguistic reclamation have been met with considerable resistance by the dominant language group ( in the cases I am familiar with, the dominant group happens to be English speakers).
amandaberesford 1 week ago
@amandaberesford
Alright, how about firsthand experience from my point of view? And this is genuine.
When I was about 9 I went to a fishing village called "Mousehole" (pronounced Mouzehull) for Christmas on holiday. My family got the idea of going there after we heard about it from this book I loved. While I was there, various signs and info about our lodgings WAS in Cornish (as well as English).
I don't think that's all that negative towards the language, eh?
IAmCaptainMarvel 1 week ago
@IAmCaptainMarvel
It's great that you have an open mind towards Cornish. From what I understand, the community in Cornwall has been quite active in promoting the language, and has had some success. I would attribute most of the work in reviving the language to these people and this community.
Sadly, there are people who take each and every opportunity to belittle these efforts, to complain when any public monies are spent on these activities.
amandaberesford 1 week ago
@amandaberesford Well, I'll put it like this. I'd never make a statement about the Anglosphere (not sure if I heard that term before-good one) in such a general way unless I had a reasonably conrete source. McCloskey's book is really worth reading.
jeffhegarty 1 week ago
@IAmCaptainMarvel
I am sadly unfamiliar with much of the efforts to revive Cornish, but my understanding is that much of the effort expended to revive and sustain Cornish has come from individuals and groups interested in the language, and not some noble mission on the part of the central government.
In general I sense quite a bit of hostility towards Cornish revival, and basically Mitchell dismisses it entirely.
amandaberesford 1 week ago
I want to learn Gaelic :(
Chubbolisa 2 weeks ago
omg i wanna stab your voice in the face
metabolife 2 weeks ago
@metabolife
ಠ_ರೃ My monocle and I disapprove.
Qw3rtypop 2 weeks ago
Scot's isn't a language? Let's do a West Germanic language experiment:
English: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Scots: The swipper broon tod lowps o'er the cauldrife dug.
West Frisian: De flugge brune foks springt oer de luie hûn.
Dutch: De vlugge bruine vos springt over de luie hond.
Afrikaans: Die vinnige bruin jakkals spring oor die lui hond.
German: Der schnelle braune Fuchs springt über den faulen Hund.
SaimDI 3 weeks ago
@255ad; I'm not entirely sure that I understand you, but if I would hazard a guess, I think what you're saying is that intellect was implanted within the human mind not by evolution, but by some higher consciousness? If that is your argument, then it misses the point of my comment altogether; I was taking evolution by natural selection for granted, including its role in development of human intellect, and positing thence an inability to dispute its role in the extinction of less adapted species
kulcid254 3 weeks ago 5
@kulcid254 That's what I've always thought. I've never fully understood the disconnect some people have between nature and human kind. Not that I want to justify us killing off entire species, but we are a part of nature and it is still natural selection (through human actions) that might make a species extinct.. Assuming thats what you are talking about...
EIN771 3 weeks ago
I hate it when people forget language is a fundamental tool for communication that we should trying to get the world down to as few a living examples of as possible there by optimising our ability to communicate, instead trying maintain them in a obvious example of culture overriding logic
the only argument I can possibly see for learning a language you don't need to communicate is so you can enjoy literature and music in that language.... but you don't need to have it road signs for that
255ad 3 weeks ago
@TheCutwood; first, we are not England's "bastard" children. 60 million Americans are of at least partial Germanic descent, making them the largest ethnic group in the US, followed by the Irish and African-Americans (about 35 mil each). Next, the term "American-English" is a linguistic term. Whether you like it or not, the English language has spread beyond the borders of England, and linguists needs a conventional means of cataloging its various dialects, and regional influences.
kulcid254 3 weeks ago
Technically speaking, if we consider man's intellect and technological prowess to be evolutionary developments, then the extinction of another species as a result of our advancements would be a form of natural selection. As the argument would run: given that we've evolved the ability to alter the environment to suit our own needs, natural selection has allowed us reproductive success and the other species was unable to adapt for its survival.
kulcid254 3 weeks ago
@kulcid254 "man's intellect and technological prowess to be evolutionary developments"
the intellect is incomparable with the idea evolution because you can't have a partial intellect it only exits in a completed form it had to have arrived in our heads fully formed if it's real
255ad 3 weeks ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Nach eil tusa amadan a' Dhàibhidh, agus tha mi cinnteach gum bith naraich air an teachlach agus na càirdean agadasa!!! Dè tha thu ag radh, direach gorach agus "nieve" (mar a chanas tu!) mu dheinnin cànain; rach a muin!!!!!!!!!
whoseachub 3 weeks ago 7
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whoseachub 3 weeks ago
anyway - this is not about the Scots language (my mother tongue) but about Scottish Gaelic (which I also speak!)
whoseachub 3 weeks ago
try and read a bit about the development of the dialects of old english; this is a very nieve view and shows a totall lack of understanding of the history and linguistics behind the Scots and English language. Untill you do this - it is really not worth entering into debate with you about this!
whoseachub 3 weeks ago
It's odd seeing David Mitchell so serious.
IAmCaptainMarvel 3 weeks ago
Scots isn't a dialect of English. Owing to the fact that it is older than English and was the lingua franca in other parts of Europe before English. It sounds similar because it is derived from some of the same languages. But yes, I agree, people who think they can speak Scots because they speak English poorly are idiots.
liamcampbell88 4 weeks ago
HAWAIIAN!
FIFAnick14 1 month ago
He seems like he'd be an interesting person to have a discussion with. Particularly on this.
wemorris1001 1 month ago
HAPPY ROBBIE BURNS DAY
thecanadianDJ 1 month ago
Surly all Welsh speakers can speak English as well?
jamesaellis 1 month ago
@jamesaellis Nope apparently there are 5% of welsh people who cannot speak English. tbh they'd have to be living in a pretty small world and maaaybe a little inbred.
MrDeludedPenguin 1 month ago
@jamesaellis not all of them - although now it is only a few do not then learn it as they grow up.
robrock3 1 month ago
Testify David. I have had hours of good TV taken away by this fatuous anachronism.
imfpredicts 1 month ago
David, you realize that if a species dies do to human action that's still natural selection.
Berelore 1 month ago
@Berelore I was thinking the same thing. Humans are part of nature after all.
MrGamerDerek 1 month ago
@Berelore realise*, due*
ReyFlame82 1 month ago
@ReyFlame82
I'm not sure what looks more foolish me using a questionable form of do, or you in your overly pedantic crusade of youtube spell checking not realizing that realise and realize are interchangeable. In the US the correct spelling (the one that doesn't set off the tiny red squiggles of warning) is realize.
Berelore 1 month ago
Currently the best they can hope for is what Latin got, to make weighty literary and linguistic contributions to some future Renaissance, for which it will be revered and gain an intelligent cache. How about it?
handsomebrick 1 month ago
I'm Scottish and I hate when people claim they can "speak Scots" or say Scots should be a language in its own right. It's basically like writing in an accent, the equivalent of a cockney spelling out like "aht". The revival of Gaelic and the introduction of Gaelic road and train signs is probably one of the biggest wastes of money I can possibly think of (apart from giving Sean Connery an award every year for simply being alive).
liviiskate 1 month ago
@liviiskate yeah i agree my grandmother is from islay and speaks gaelic (pretty sure she only started 10 years ago) she always gets pissed off when i tell her it is a waste of time :L
5immy247 1 month ago
@liviiskate Wow.
embryomystic 4 weeks ago
its pronounced Gay-Lic, not Ga-Lic, isn't it?
Rogethis 1 month ago
@Rogethis thats irish, he says it at the start of the video
XxxmariacullenxxX 1 month ago
@Rogethis No. As he says at the beginning, Gay-Lic is Irish, Ga-Lic is Scottish.
JJ62 1 month ago
@Rogethis can't tell if trolling, or immensely retarded
5immy247 1 month ago
if the scots did all speak, read and write gaelic as a first language, then whenever they write boring "Braveheart" nationalistic rants on YouTube nobody would be able to understand them and they'd get ignored. It is truely boring and pathetic; I go on a David Mitchell video (someone I find funny) and the majority of the comments are moaning about how England represses them all the time, same with videos of bagpipe music (which i like) its just Scottish people moaning.
grow up & move on
MrTheAntman 1 month ago
I have to say, I completely disagree with the idea of not reviving languages. Why not?
FredericBayer 1 month ago
@FredericBayer because it is pointless
5immy247 1 month ago
@FredericBayer For exactly the reasons that David Mitchell so eloquently lays out. Didn't you watch the video ?
Z1000Jeff 1 month ago
Interesting note, less than 200 million people claim hindi as their native language as English is the primary language of India, and that doesn't mean those <200mil don't speak English.
peacefulprogrammer 1 month ago
@peacefulprogrammer Quite right. When I went to India it seemed to be that everyone speaks their states local dialect (eg Tamil). All educated (and many uneducated) people speak English as it is the language used by individuals from different states to communicate, as well as the business/academic language and it is useful for speaking to foreigners. Hindi is seen as 'traditional' language like Welsh or Gaelic, there are just a lot of Indians, hence 200mil speakers.
AmusingRuse 1 month ago
If only we could write general studies essays like this... :(
HeinrichKonig 1 month ago
Saying "the Lowlands are where the people are" is a bit disingenous. Many Lowlanders have susbtantial Highland ancestry, and if they identify with Gaelic culture then good on 'em.
Scots quite clearly is a distinct language from English, imo. The fact that it's somewhat intelligible to English doesn't detract from how the language is more-or-less lexically different (Scots: ah dinae ken, English: I didn't know). Clearly related, but so are Spanish and Catalan.
SaimDI 1 month ago
"Language dying is still natural selection". No it isn't dude, learn some history. It's the result of centuries of state policy at least in Gaelic's case, as is true for all of Britain's regional languages. True, migration did contribute but British state policy was the main factor.
SaimDI 1 month ago
It's all well and good to label it as simply a means of communication, but that's ignoring the cultural depth and wealth of any language. It's also very easy to be flippant when you're part of the cultural hegemony. The English suppressed it in most areas, and convinced the Scots it was not worth saving. Absurd funding my eye, you owe it to the culture that was exploited, suppressed and destroyed, and worse still was the convincing of Gaels that it's not worth it for themselves.
billymagfhloinn 1 month ago
david mitchell you are an cawk
bigbigsound 1 month ago
Animals become extinct because humans indirectly and directly compete with them, with greater success, for space, food and other resources.
Nickonar 1 month ago
Hebrew is very different in that it was revived among a polulation of various languages in need of a common one. In Scotland almost the entire population already shares a common language in english. Dont think that can change.
moransteve 1 month ago
if you have doubts about it
we manege to revive out language- Hebrew completely and turn it from a preserved language that we speak only on special events to a nationally spoken language
so you can do it to and yes it will help you because every people need their own identity
deathtoislam1000 1 month ago
or as they say in Cornwall, "completely lunatic" :) nice one :)
eerr89 1 month ago
why has this video got so many proportionate dislikes?
MattDominicCullen 1 month ago in playlist David mitchell is awesome
@MattDominicCullen Because people disagree with him. I disagree with him, for example.
billymagfhloinn 1 month ago
I agree with him wholeheartedly. I love language, as a hobby. I am teaching myself Welsh, Swedish, bits of Japanese, a whole bunch. For fun. But the only language I communicate with is English. Well, and I'm in my fourth year of learning German in school, so I guess I should count that one too. But languages will not die. Not completely. Latin's not dead. Latin as a spoken language is, but the language still exists. In fact, it's studied more now than ever.
uiruu 1 month ago
david mitchell is many things, but not a sociologist
Princesspony252 1 month ago
should it not be 'completely ludicrous' not 'completely lunatic'? Think Mr. Mitchell should sort out his English before pontificating as to whether other languages should stay or go.
jamesdickinson79 1 month ago
@jamesdickinson79 if you checked your claims with google before making bold statements like this, you might be more credible. "completely lunatic" is completely correct. and the two words mean different things: "completely ludicrous" is like saying "unbelievable" and "completely lunatic" is like saying "completely insane". so nice try. nice use of pontificating though, did you copy that from someone who isn't a total plonker? :P
dm9910 1 month ago
@dm9910 Touché. Spot the differences below? Just thought i'd help you out! ;)
If you checked your claims with google before making bold statements like this, you might be more credible. "Completely lunatic" is completely correct. And the two words mean different things: "completely ludicrous" is like saying "unbelievable", and "completely lunatic" is like saying "completely insane". So nice try. Nice use of pontificating though; did you copy that from someone who isn't a total plonker? :P
jamesdickinson79 1 month ago
@jamesdickinson79 i'm tempted to write another wall of text just so you waste another couple of minutes punctuating it :)
dm9910 1 month ago
David, if you ran for MP in my area, I'd vote for you coz you are sane, but what u dont get is that people LOVE their languages, so it's not just about communication, it's about celebrating culture.
aragornthebrave 1 month ago
I completely agree with David, language is a tool of communication and when it no longer facilitates that it should die.
thePirateQueenKt 1 month ago
This guy can, like we say in Gaelic, POG MA THOIN!
Meinnearach0204 1 month ago
@Meinnearach0204 My favourite feature of your comment, was the fact that nobody can or, would want to fight back, purely because not one human with one head speaks your caveman stutter and spatter. you messy cunts
StoneProductionsUK 1 month ago
Because human actions are not a part of natural selection, right?
MrAluminumJacket 1 month ago
He's a little imperialist at heart
zoso7889 1 month ago
When it comes to the English, it's never a natural loss of language, and pretty much exclusively a nationalist issue. Which is a shame, cos they're gorgeous languages.
MethodicalPancake 1 month ago
I used to think David Mitchell was funny but this is just opinionated and ill-informed! As a Welsh speaker with English parents I am very glad to have been given the opportunity to learn one of the oldest languages in Europe, at one time it was banned in schools by dictators that were threatened by a language they couldn't speak or were to lazy to learn. I think there are much worse ways of spending public money than supporting an ancient language, educating children is the best way to do this
emidmore 1 month ago
@emidmore If you hadn't already noticed, this entire series is his opinion.
c0rse 1 month ago
Of all of Mitchell's soapbox rants, this is the one I most completely disagree with. He seems completely unaware of the history of minority languages. Their extinction is very often, in fact usually, the result of Man, and in fact is often more directly so than species extinctions, as most of those are accidental, wheras language destruction and suppression is very deliberate. Also, if Scots is a dialect of English than Swedish is a dialect of Norwegian and Portuguese is a dialect of Spanish
wratched 1 month ago
the whole of Scotland should be speaking its own language.
beverage2008 1 month ago
@beverage2008 I thought it was...
ASaxonAtHeart 1 month ago
@ASaxonAtHeart no mate. majority speak english unfortunately
beverage2008 1 month ago
@beverage2008 why? english is THE international language. it's a tremendous advantage to speak it as our first language.
do you want scotland to conform to some kind of sterotype of anti-english racism? living in huts playing bagpipes, eating exclusively haggis and shortbread? it would be like people in the south of the US being proud of "redneck culture", racism and shagging relatives.
i have no problem with gaelic but making the whole country learn it is pointless.
dm9910 1 month ago
@dm9910 dont talk such shite. yes english is a useful language, but not enough people speak scottish or is interested in it & that should change! your obv english. theres no law saying people cant be proud of where their from. like ireland and wales, they can learn to speak their own language so why cant scotland do the same? ill tell you why, coz the english never wanted that to happen. i love scotland, love being scottish, would love to learn gaelic & more scottish people should. my opinion!
beverage2008 1 month ago
@beverage2008 i am scottish. from near stirling, now going to uni in glasgow. just because i don't have an accent when i'm TYPING doesn't mean i'm english.
and i am proud of being scottish. despite the crap weather and anti-english nationalist maniacs i love scotland, and wouldn't live anywhere else (though i would like to spend a year or two in australia. amazing place)
continued in next comment...
dm9910 1 month ago
@beverage2008 continued: england's crimes against scotland were literally hundreds of years ago. we've forgiven germany for world war 2 and the holocaust causing TENS OF MILLIONS OF DEATHS just 60-70 years ago. but we can't forgive our neighbor country for banning bagpipes CENTURIES ago?
if more people learned gaelic in their spare time, that would be fine. but it shouldn't be taught in schools etc - it's an almost useless language today. even in scotland since only about 1% of us speak it
dm9910 1 month ago
@dm9910 I feel sorry for you, having abandoned your culture, you do not even realise its worth. The colonised mindset is strong in your country, more's the pity.
billymagfhloinn 1 month ago
@billymagfhloinn i haven't abandoned anything and i love scottish history and music. i'm just not some sheep following the SNP's "lets become independant and make everything gaelic!" ideas. it's political bullshit manipulating the patriotism of this country and misplaced resentment towards the english.
learning gaelic should be a hobby like learning to play bagpipes, not taught in schools. culture is for remembering, not re-enacting, otherwise we'd still be living in wooden huts.
dm9910 1 month ago
@beverage2008 They might as well already be doing so.
katejarthur 1 month ago
@beverage2008 But they aren't.
uiruu 1 month ago
@beverage2008
Well, I don't fancy learning it.
KardKaper 1 month ago
@KardKaper
so don't learn it?
310BPM 1 month ago
@beverage2008 hahah yeah those fuckers...
eldeano1 1 month ago
@beverage2008
"and not as a nationalistic statement"
uiruu 1 month ago in playlist Liked videos 17
@beverage2008 and nationalist twats like you shouldn't be speaking at all
scamwa 1 month ago
@beverage2008 Er, why?
JJ62 1 month ago
@beverage2008 they were forced by the English to speak English and not gaelic.
gamingdonnie 1 month ago
@gamingdonnie 'they' being those who lived hundreds of years ago. Most modern Scots are pretty ambivalent to Scottish gaelic because so few actually speak it. While it is possible to have pity for the Scots who spoke gaelic but were forced to speak English, it is completely inconsequential to modern Scots. All of human 'tradition', nationalism and linguistics is synthetic and arbitrary, and contemporary policy should reflect the present and not some removed false nostalgic memory
Simsydav 1 month ago 12
This has been flagged as spam show
I speak gaelic. And agree with absolutely everything in this video. Deal with it.
goingthroughthefloor 1 month ago
Aww thought he was going to talk about Gaeilge.
RooneyMufc10 2 months ago 54
ERRRRRRRRRRRRR.... Here I thought the English FORCED the Scots to speak English and had a hostile campaign against them. Here in Canada, Gaelic, was set to becoming the third language of Canada, as there were millions of speakers. Then the Crown said "Right'o... SUPPRESSED". So, No, David... it wasn't as if MILLIONS of people decided to drop their HERITAGE, in favour of English, it was because ENGLISH, forced itself on them.
The mind boggles... is all of UK against it's heritage?
LemonDancer 2 months ago 2
@LemonDancer No... that is so horifically wrong that I cannot begin to describe it.
So, firstly, there's two separate groups in Scotland: Highlanders and Lowlanders. Only the highlanders spoke Gaelic, the lowlanders spoke a type of English dialect called Scots English. Secondly, why would a Gaelic speaker continue to only speak that when, after colonisation, most of the world spoke English. Its hardly oppression, more adapting.
That said, I wouldn't like to see Gaelic die myself.
PT8475 2 months ago
@PT8475 That's so horrifically* wrong, I cannot begin to describe it! Now I won't delve into semantics here... I will simply say that a quick google search will enlighten you to what you need to know. If not, well whatever... Have yourself a nice day!
LemonDancer 2 months ago
@LemonDancer I'm afraid I can't really take any lectures from someone who isn't Scottish on Scottish history who's educated themselves based on a google search, thank you.
PT8475 2 months ago
@PT8475 One last thing... most Gaelic Speakers live on the Isle of Skye, that to my knowledge, isn't quite near the lowlands...
LemonDancer 2 months ago
@LemonDancer Isle of Lewis as well, actually much of the Hebrides...
LemonDancer 2 months ago
@LemonDancer Step 1: Read what you just wrote.
Step 2: Realise you're correct that the Isle of Skye isn't near the lowlands.
Step 3: Realise the highlands INCLUDE the coast of Scotland.
Step 4: Realise your google-inspired history of the Gaelic language is incorrect.
PT8475 2 months ago
Cool beans mate... No cracking your nut, YT won't let me post sites and I am not about to walk an ignorant fool through a google search. You have yourself a nice day.
LemonDancer 2 months ago
@PT8475 It appears that you do not understand oppression or post-colonialism.
billymagfhloinn 1 month ago
@LemonDancer we were oppressed into speaking english HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO. it is no longer oppression, it is now free will and everyone decided to learn english and not gaelic. why? because it's a vastly more useful language and you can communicate with BILLIONS of people isntead of 60k. the VAST majority of business, internet, tv, books, films etc are in english. to exclude ourselves from all that just so different sounds can come out of our mouths is daft.
dm9910 1 month ago
I'm pretty sure most people who speak Gallic can converse reasonably well with those who speak Irish.
Dubzoomember 2 months ago
@Dubzoomember
I think the phonetics are quite similar but it's been a while since I studied this... IIRC, the spellings look different but by going through it phonetically, you can make a pretty good guess.
deruberowner 2 months ago
@Dubzoomember Yup. Ceart agat.
billymagfhloinn 1 month ago
Over here in Ireland, we have to spend 14 years learning Gaelic even though a majority of students hate the subject, will never use it (except for maybe inside jokes) and 1% of the country speak it but not english. We'd be far better off learning another European language instead (doing at least one is also compulsory).
deruberowner 2 months ago 3
@deruberowner that's giving in to globalization
theEarlofChip 2 months ago
@deruberowner It's not my experience that the majority hate it, badly taught and all that it is. Many are justly proud, and 42% said they spoke it in the last census.
billymagfhloinn 1 month ago
@billymagfhloinn
I'm not bashing Irish, just saying it shouldn't be compulsory. If, in fact, these people are proud, then the Dept. of Education have nothing to fear (but in all fairness, they should at least reduce the amount of poems and prose).
deruberowner 1 month ago
We are pretty fascinating guys. ;)
ArranMacDonald 2 months ago
David, your analogy about animal extinction and natural selection doesn't work, because sometimes languages DO die as a result of human interference. For example, in the 19th century it was actually forbidden for Welsh to be spoken in Welsh schools. English was foisted on Wales party as a result of natural selection, but also partly as a result of English interference. Imagine what the Welsh lannguage would be like today if England had never conquered Wales and never made anti-Welsh laws.
MrChanceChange 2 months ago 2
@MrChanceChange Animals die out as a result of human activity, too. It's another permeation of natural selection...
itsspeltmaik 2 months ago
I do not understand people who keep saying that the goverment dont spend enough money on X minority language so that is why no one speaks it
Why does the goverment have to spend money for you to learn the language on the internet and then making youtube videos or a site/forum in that language?
With only $10.000 you can easily
-Start a small group who puts up signs on for example shop doors with the correct translation of the English text already on the doors
akumie2 2 months ago
Comment removed
akumie2 2 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@akumie2 -Get a good camera, green screen and ok programs to make decent youtube videos (make commercials about shops around you in the local language)
-Buy instruments and start a band who only sings in that minority language
-Buy some books and/or some fun programs for the pc and with some luck a school might have 1-2 hours/week lessons in that minority language
Goverments always think in millions of $ when little money in my opinion works as well
akumie2 2 months ago
Well, I'm Scottish and I would not waste my time studying gaelic, it's not a useful tool to communicate. I'd much rather learn a language where I could meet a lot of new and interesting people, all of whom don't already speak good English. What he is saying is true, don't listen to all the nationalist morons in the comments, not all scots are completely deluded. We don't run around in kilts burning English flags and speaking in gaelic.
ClTIZEN 2 months ago
@ClTIZEN You don't have to hate England to love your own country and culture. You will never understand your own culture properly without Gaelic, but it appears that that's not something you're particularly interested in. This may be fair enough, but full support should be given to those who wish to reclaim that which was stolen from them (by the English incidentally). This need not involve anti-English sentiment, but Englishmen telling Scots how they should do it is surely galling, no?
billymagfhloinn 1 month ago
@billymagfhloinn I don't hate England, and I do love my country, although, like most other countries it has its fair share of problems. I don't think that the decline of the Gaelic language is one of them, though. I think it's great that people still want to learn Gaelic, and gain a deeper understanding of our history, but I don't think it's something that deserves heaps of money thrown at it, when our hospitals and schools are so short of money just now.
ClTIZEN 1 month ago
It's amusing how many people are offended by this video. You do realize he is a comedian, correct?
DefeatedElitist 2 months ago 2
He's pronouncing the word 'Gaelic' wrong surely? And if he is, as I really suspect, surely he'd research this before he gets up on his soapbox and make an entire video mispronouncing it?
cecilia0007 2 months ago
@cecilia0007 He's not pronouncing it wrong. The pronunciation he uses mostly in this video is referring to the Scottish branch of Gaelic. The Irish Gaelic is pronounced differently. He even says so at the beginning of the video.
DefeatedElitist 2 months ago
Right David. you, me outside, NOW!
TalkPish 2 months ago