"Gach
smuain a-chum ùmhlachd Chrìosd" (2 Corintianaich 10:5)
Dear Sir,
As
someone concerned about the use of
Gaelic I wish to express my utter despair at the "bilingual" signs for
the Cairngorms National Park
erected recently on the A9. Heading south, the Gaelic is illegible
until one is at the sign. Heading north, and therefore being on the
lane farthest from the sign, the Gaelic remains totally illegible. The
signs, of course, have at least half their surface blank. Plenty of
space. For the life of me I cannot fathom the mindset which
thoughtfully chooses for the English a good font size, colour and style
calculated to register with passing traffic, then abandons all design
and functional issues for the Gaelic. Are Gaelic-speakers supposed to
doff their caps and be honoured with these few crumbs from the rich
man's table? Such patronising semiotics would get very short shrift in
Wales, as you no doubt well know. I urge the Cairngorms National Park Authority
to
catch the vision for the conservation and promotion not just of our
natural heritage, but insofar as the CNPA uses words, for the Gaelic
linguistic heritage which gave a name to every peak, slope, stream and
loch etc within your jurisdiction. The Cairngorms
National Park Authority cannot be neutral on the matter of
Gaelic, as if your remit does not extend to linguistic matters. You
must be aware that, intentionally or not, you are helping to extirpate
Gaelic unless you actively use it. And not with a token nod, such as
the heading on your webpage, or the crass small print of those road
signs. Not decoratively but functionally. I say again, functionally.
Yours sincerely,
*************
Dear Sir,
I wrote (via your
website) a
number of months ago on the above matter,
but received no reply. It has now come to my attention that you intend
to put up new signs, but that you have decided to keep the Gaelic
smaller than the English because otherwise this would apparently "present too much
material on the one sign
and compromise the overall design". I wish to express my outrage
at this sort of inane nonsense being proffered as a serious rationale.
For insufferable and vital decades Gaelic-speakers have had to endure
such insulting and patronising claptrap from officialdom. You may not
quite appreciate just how depressingly numerous your forbears are. So
many patter-merchants! What mock-gravitas you have all brought as you
have shaken your heads and intoned your po-faced pretexts. Let's tell
it how it is, shall we? Where Gaelic is absent from road-signs it is
because some partisan decision-maker wants it that way. Where Gaelic is
present on signs but is small and/or faint, it is because some
decision-maker considers it of corresponding consequence. If for some
irksome technicality Gaelic MUST appear on a sign, then the knack is,
correct me if I'm wrong, to make sure it is as unobtrusive as possible.
I strongly suggest that "not compromising the overall design" is simply
your code for "not compromising the paramount functionality of the
English". I happen to be an art teacher. I find it less than likely
that your commissioned designer came back to you with proposals that
all required smaller Gaelic for the sake of the integrity of the
"design". A designer works to the brief given. If the remit is to make
sure that the Gaelic and English are of equal prominence and
functionality, then the designer loses the commission if he/she doesn't
produce the goods. We call this "equality" concept, bilingualism. One or
two other countries have managed to get their heads round it without,
as far as I know, designers having nervous breakbowns.
Signs are signals. The
nigh-invisible non-functional Gaelic on your
current signs simply signals a grudging tokenism towards the language.
It signals disparagement. Let's at least have some honesty for once.
You know perfectly well that if the Cairngorms National Park decided
tomorrow to have trilingual signage in, let's say, English, French, and
Japanese, no insoluble logistical issues would preclude it. Designers
worth their salt would enjoy the challenge. You know that. You know
that very well. So to attempt to palm off the Gaels, who named
everything you can see out of your window, with talk of "too much
material on one sign" and of "compromising the overall design", is
exasperating in the extreme. I ask you yet again, have you ever been to
Wales?
Yours sincerely,
*******************
Dear Mr Ferguson,
Thank you for your courteous reply. If I
might respond to your key sentence. One would have thought
that whatever the "range of views" on your signage, the most equitable
resolution would be an even-handed bilingualism. But apparently not.
And then I wonder if you are still talking in code here. It is
difficult to imagine that there are "a range of views" in the Gaelic
camp, though my jaw HAS indeed dropped more than once in the past when
Gaelic-speakers have stood up and presented
heartfelt arguments against the use of their own language. But apart
from such aberrations, it is surely safe to assume that Gaels who have
contacted you will have been pretty much univocal in favour of maximum
promotion of Gaelic. It is also unlikely that these Gaels are arguing
for no English at all on the signs, or for a
"bottom-line-of-the-optician's-chart" presence for the English.
Therefore, when you say "people have a range
of views on the design" I must surmise that you primarily mean
"English-speakers have a range of views on the design". I suppose this
"range" might in principle stretch from those happy to see equal status
given to both languages, down through a spectrum of increasing
prejudice until we reach the "Gaelic-can-go-to-hell-in-a-wheelie-bin"
contingent. The current political climate is slightly less favourable
to that latter
position than was the case. Also, you are already on record as saying
that Gaelic WILL be on the signage, though smaller than the English. We
can therefore conclude that Cairngorms National Park feels that it is
doing justice to the "range of views on the design" by opting for
MODERATE prejudice against Gaelic rather than EXTREME prejudice.
As the traveller approaches the precincts of
the Cairngorms National Park, I anticipate that he/she will pass what
is in effect an English sign with some small and/or pale subtext
(Gaelic), thoughtfully 'designed' not to intrude beyond one's
peripheral vision. The Highland Council's own logo
could well have been your designer's, as they say in education circles,
"exemplar". Lack of room on the sign will not have been the issue.
There will be plenty of blank space. But that blank space will have
priority
over the Gaelic. Quite "Zen" really, when you think about it.
Clearly it is not "possible to please
everyone" if "everyone" includes those of both pro- and anti-Gaelic
convictions. But just who, in fact, WILL your proposed (already
ordered?) signage please? Certainly not the Gaelic-speaker. Nor the
fair-minded English-speaker. Nor the outright antipathetic
English-speaker. You will have pleased only that stratum of
English-speaker which is willing to smile upon Gaelic as long as it
sits quietly in a corner. Like a well-behaved deerhound perhaps.
Decorative in its own way. Majestic even. But an indulgence,
nevertheless. "A creature of Fingalian legend, you know. But rather
short-lived. Sad, really. Now, what were we saying? Oh, yes, the price
of cheese..."
Yours sincerely,
Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh.
Dhachaigh