Dèiligeadh ri call is trauma thar-ghinealach: Ath-bheòthachadh na Gàidhlig agus fèin-dhearbhadh coimhearsnachd (Addressing intergenerational loss and trauma: Gaelic language revitalization and community self-determination)

In 2016, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues reported that 40%, or 2680, of the world’s languages were at risk of extinction. Research estimates that one language is “lost” every 1-3 months (Bromham et al. 2022), most of them Indigenous languages. However, languages do not disappear, become extinct, or die “naturally”. Although languages always change over time, mass language shift, endangerment, or “death” is not natural, nor is it inevitable (May 2012). Languages are endangered and threatened due to unequal sociopolitical structures, violent and discriminatory processes, and, in many cases, genocide. In this bilingual (Scottish Gaelic and English) paper, I will illustrate some of the reasons for the decline of Scottish Gaelic, an Indigenous language in Scotland. I will discuss the state of Gaelic as an endangered language and then demonstrate how language revitalization and community self-determination can address loss of speaker confidence, self-worth, and intergenerational trauma.