Day Five: Friday October 18th

Today we had some courses at the school in Gaelic and on Scottish music! Sabhal Mòr Ostaig is an entirely Gaelic school of higher education on Skye and so it was the perfect setting to learn more about Gaelic culture. We started off the morning learning some basic Gaelic phrases. Being a linguist myself, I was really looking forward to this part of the day, but in the end was highly disappointed. I was hoping for a real look into how Gaelic works as a language. Maybe an introduction to the alphabet, it’s sounds, and some of its structure, and of course a few phrases and words etc... Instead the lesson was just a bit of throwing around some phrases that no one could remember by the end. We were given a little pamphlet with phrases inside like “Ciamar a tha sibh?” for “How are you?” I felt like the lesson could have been so much more. 

After the lunch break we came back to the classroom to learn more about the Scottish bagpipes. Again I was slightly disappointed that it turned out to be essentially a big demonstration. Maybe it’s just the intellectual in me, but I was hoping to really learn something about the bagpipes. The main thing I got the the demonstration was the different types of bagpipes commonly used in Scotland and how they sound, which in itself was interesting and fun, but in the end left me leaving with little new information. 

The last lesson was by far my favorite as it really piqued my linguistic interest. We learned about the Gaelic language itself. Its language family, how many people speak it, how it is used. We learned that today only around 57,375 people in Scotland speak Gaelic which is less than 1% of the population. About one-half of Gaelic speakers live in the lowlands, and about another half (52%) live in the Western Isles. We also learned that Gaelic arrived in Scotland in the 6th century from Ireland, but that over time it began to lose its prestige and by the 1600’s it began to be actively banned along with the bagpipes, kilts, etc... Gaelic as a language itself is said to be “complex but logical.” It is phonetically spelled, had 68 sounds (in English there are only 44), and has only 18 letters. Gaelic is also the oldest written language in Europe still in use. Gaelic medium education has had its difficulties but efforts continue to further its status. At Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, education is provided only in Gaelic and they support students speaking socially and not only in the classroom. 

The last part of the day we went to the Clan Donald museum. I liked the museum because it was small with the right amount of information. It wasn’t too overwhelming but was concise and to the point. I learned a bit more about the origins of the Scots, in particular the Clan Donald, and their strong connection to the Nordic countries. The museum offered some good basic information about Scottish culture like the bagpipes, the kilt/tartan, and Scottish history. There was also information about poetry written in Gaelic. After the museum I went and took a look around the property which was very beautiful and nicely kept, and explored the remains of the Clan Donald castle.