[Closed] Police Cars with Gaelic Markings in Scotland?

Exactly, hellish waste of cash that could've been spent on nuclear subs or something more worthy, like, eh?.

Does it affect your life in any way at all?

Remember, rule No.1

Oh btw, don’t ever go to Wales, your rage filled mind will explode

Come to Ireland. All the official documents by law have to be written in both English and Irish, it is a compulsory subject all the way through school yet only 2% (about 70,000 people) of the country use the language daily.

Brexit strategy - distancing themselves from us Brits?

Can they spell?

All looks foreeegn t’me.

Been like that since it became Police Scotland. I see it it on every police car I see on my limited travels around Scotland. North, East, South and West.
As it is a sticker I suspect the job lot has made it rather cheap.

Where have you been? It's been on the cars for a while and the train stations too

I blame Donnie Murdo.

Fairly common on lots of civil service / quango / government up here

WTF: the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005.

Public bodies all have to have a Gaelic Language plan.

As an English native, I see absolutely no problem with this at all, in fact I’m totally in favour of it. I don’t see any reason why the individual countries that make up the U.K. shouldn’t do their best to encourage the widespread use of their native languages.
I’m certain the OP would be reduced to a state of frothing apoplexy if he went to Cornwall, which isn’t even a separate country.
My g/f speaks Welsh, she had Welsh as part of the curriculum until O-Level. She’s English, was born in a pub on the King’s Road in London. She’s very proud of the fact, and keeps trying to teach me some words of Welsh. Sadly, my inability to even remember words in my own language means she’s largely onto a loser there.

How dare they support a native language of their own country? Don't they know everyone should be speaking English in the colonies?

Public bodies all have to have a Gaelic Language plan.

Simples: “we plan not to use the silly dead language”

Anyone who says “simples” cannot comment on language use

How dare they support a native language of their own country? Don’t they know everyone should be speaking English in the colonies?

Gaelic was never the native language for much of Scotland, as much as the SNP now try to pretend it is in an attempt to make us "different". Broadly, it covered the highlands while the central belt and lowlands spoke Scots (although history is never quite that simple).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic
Interesting to see the number of young speakers is staying constant, I'm amazed the OP has managed to last so long without seeing any of the signs, cars or other stuff up there.

It's the same as with the road signs- people say "how much does this cost!11oNE!" and the answer is, essentially nothing. Because you need to put road signs up, and stickers on police cars, and it makes bugger all difference if you do it in one language or two.

Agree it's a bit weird down here but then, stuff does get transferred across divisions

In some areas of Scotland Gaelic has never been spoken, e.g. Orkney & Shetland and Norn is more appropriate. Our LEA (Shetland) do not teach Gaelic as its never been spoken here and no one speaks it and we don't have Gaelic signs. We do have some dual language signs for settlements in what I assume is Norn (Viking-ish at least).

As above Scottish Gov bodies (like SNH) do have Gaelic on their signs and literature.

Does it affect your life in any way at all?

Stupid question, it means there's less money elsewhere do be used for useful stuff like police, useful education, NHS, trying to save the economy etc etc

I remember doing the Charity Commission Welsh language website and analysing the logs in the years afterwards. It would have been far cheaper to stick a button on the website which summoned a Welsh speaker to drive the length of the country to answer all and every query in person before moving on to the next request.
Taking into account the volume of post go-live proving that we did (STW owners may want to look this up alongside the concept of SIT and UAT), it would probably have ben cheaper to fly someone in from Patagonia to answer each Welsh language query.

I'm all for supporting dying minority languages, until it comes at the cost of other more worthwhile things..

’m all for supporting dying minority languages, until it comes at the cost of other more worthwhile things..

But if widespread bilingual signing encourages the use of the native language, then they’re no longer dying, and that can only be a good thing.

It’s the same as with the road signs- people say “how much does this cost!11oNE!” and the answer is, essentially nothing. Because you need to put road signs up, and stickers on police cars, and it makes bugger all difference if you do it in one language or two.

Crumbs, if you even give that a nanosecond's thought you'll realise what rubbish it is.

Let's perhaps start with the salary of the person who does the translations...
Then the person that checks them

Etc

I'm glad someone has commented as I've struggled with the translation of the signage for ages...

English: Police
Gaelic: Poileas

I'm so glad it's all so clear now.

It's not very expensive and the tourists love it. It's branding/marketing, not an attempt to convert people.

Crumbs, if you even give that a nanosecond’s thought you’ll realise what rubbish it is.

There are costs but over the course of the year to deliver all the signs and cars (hint we don't need to translate it from scratch every time they run off some stickers) will be small. It will be a tiny amount and provide a way to stop a living language from dying. Culturally there is value there.

Signage is replaced according to natural wastage.

Scotrail has had Gaelic at main stations since I was a boy.

I can count in one hand how many Gaelic speakers I know. One is from Plockton and the other Inverness(ish).

A lot of the place names aren't even Gaelic; some are pictish, some Scots and other transient languages. Flux of change and all that.

Most of us couldn't care less as its not our language. Frankly I'd sooner see everyone speaking an internationally relevant second language than some inward looking shortbread tin shite but what do I know?

"Crumbs, if you even give that a nanosecond’s thought you’ll realise what rubbish it is.

Let’s perhaps start with the salary of the person who does the translations…
Then the person that checks them"

Not sure if serious.

Most of us couldn’t care less as its not our language. Frankly I’d sooner see everyone speaking an internationally relevant second language than some inward looking shortbread tin shite but what do I know?

From speaking to a few welsh speakers and others who were bilingual from birth being able think in 2 languages from an early age makes picking up other languages easier later in life. So it's an advantage for people in a few ways.
Probably more everyday use up north than learning latin in yorkshire 😉
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/jan/25/latin-lessons-dying-out-in-state-schools

"I’m certain the OP would be reduced to a state of frothing apoplexy if he went to Cornwall, which isn’t even a separate country"

And then yon mannie would tootally laise his shite if he went tae northy Ireland and deeked at Ulster-Scots, a maddey-uppy talk tae funnel groats tae Prods "equally" tae Nationalists whut chat Irish...

Let’s perhaps start with the salary of the person who does the translations…
Then the person that checks them”

Apparently, they're on £350m each, and as much gammon as they can eat. Bastards.

an cuala tu mu Joe Cocker?

Gaelic was never the native language for much of Scotland

I know. But that's what you get for uniting the place.

This stuff is pretty standard in lots of other countries. Stop worrying about it.

Gaelic has been spoken across just about all of Scotland, during various parts of history (except Orkney/Shetland). Plenty of evidence from placenames etc.

I remember doing the Charity Commission Welsh language website and analysing the logs in the years afterwards. It would have been far cheaper to stick a button on the website which summoned a Welsh speaker to drive the length of the country to answer all and every query in person before moving on to the next request.
Taking into account the volume of post go-live proving that we did (STW owners may want to look this up alongside the concept of SIT and UAT), it would probably have ben cheaper to fly someone in from Patagonia to answer each Welsh language query.

Welsh is an odd one, as if you come from (or visit) south Wales you would be forgiven for thinking it was nothing more than an inconvenient hour of the school week spent learning a pointless langage and keeping sign writers busy.

If you come from North Wales, especially the rural bits then some schools don't teach English until the later years, and even then it's just spelling/grammar, everything else, geography, history, science, dinosaurs, PE, was all in Welsh.

But then if you followed the Generalists line of thinking, we should all just learn Chinese (I know, there's more than one 'Chinese', it's like saying they should speak 'British') as it would save publishers having to translate stuff into English.

Gaslic markings in the lowlands is a piece of nonsense and we all know it. It never was the language, no one speaks it. they have to make up Gaelic names for places like falkirk. Its nonsense

Agreed TJ

So if a Gaelic speaker travels south they have to switch to a foreign language in their own country?

If I had to guess I'd say the Scottish government is trying to promote unity within Scotland. Probably not for the first time in history eh?

What on Earth is wrong with a country have two languages? A minority of people speak Welsh in Wales, but that number is growing, and so it should.

Scots Gaelic is the ancient language of Scotland, so why not encourage it? Besides, it's still spoken extensively in Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island. You don't want Scotland to get shown up by a bunch of New Worlders, do you?

If you come from North Wales, especially the rural bits then some schools don’t teach English until the later years, and even then it’s just spelling/grammar, everything else, geography, history, science, dinosaurs, PE, was all in Welsh.

There are Welsh medium schools throughout Wales, even in the English heartlands down here. They are well subscribed too and often by kids from English speaking families.

If you come from North Wales, especially the rural bits then some schools don’t teach English until the later years, and even then it’s just spelling/grammar, everything else, geography, history, science, dinosaurs, PE, was all in Welsh.

That’s where my g/f went to school, her folks owned a pub/hotel/restaurant somewhere on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park, so she was required to learn the language. She’s now in her 50’s, and can still speak it.
She also lived in southern Eire for ten years, but never managed to get a handle on the language there.

There's nothing makes Scottish nationalists happier than watching monoglots frothing that they haven't managed to kill off our culture and native languages. There's an appropriate expression in Gaelic for them...

And as for those places where it was never spoken, a look through the censuses of the early 1800s may disabuse one of that notion - or a slight knowledge of the origins of various placenames.

Gaslic markings in the lowlands is a piece of nonsense and we all know it. It never was the language, no one speaks it. they have to make up Gaelic names for places like falkirk. Its nonsense

You "all know it" because you believe what you have been told at school. Their has been a campaign of disparaging the Gaelic language for centuries.
The first written name for Falkirk (Egglesbreth) has been around for a thousand years, who says the Gaelic name is made up?

The ****?

Gaelic is the preserve of the Highlands and Islands and beyond a few Braveheart fans nobody else speaks it. Grampian to Moray speak the Doric and apart from them the rest speak a modern bastardised and diluted Scots which is, if anything, the language most at risk but nobody gives a **** about because its mostly seen (wrongly) as slang or twee and only worth using in Govan based comedies or cringeworthy fauxk songs.

But Gaelic is a nice genteel language that sounds nice for the tourists despite the fact they have no words for computer, factory or medicine*.

So yeah, it is possible for a country to have more than one language but don't pretend it's anything more than a regional thing at best.

*I might have made that last one up.

I've a good mate not 10 miles from you Squirrelking, who speaks Gaelic 😊

I do agree wholeheartedly with your post, heard an interesting take on it recently, a Doric lass who opined about the irony of being given awards on burns day for her recitals, but being given the belt if she spoke that same tongue any other day of the year.

Its not Gaelic or Ulster Scots that's a pollution, it's that bloody west end accent that can get tae **** ! 🤣

Oaft, aye the West End ****er accent.

Yeah there are exceptions everywhere but this charade that we all spoke it and that it would somehow enrich our lives is a bit much. Somewhat goes against the grain of this modern outward looking Scotland we keep hearing about.

Always question TJ's authority! You learn loads!

Poll Mac De - Polmadie

https://newsnet.scot/archive/scotlands-language-myths-4-gaelic-is-only-a-highland-language/

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/dec/11/ian-jack-saddened-by-scotland-going-gaelic

Two Gaelic schools under increasing demand and expanding in Glasgow, Some folk obviously interested in maintaining some culture.
The National Theatre of Scotland has a Gaelic Program and employs Gaelic artists.

I guess any language that borrows and makes words up is evolving to survive. Dismissal of any culture is just a bit ignorant.

We should be promoting/encouraging/preserving both Scots and Gaelic (including all of their dialects and variations). Why make it one vs the other?

From that link it basically says Gaelic was being displaced by Scots from the 13th and 14th century. I mean yeah it obviously was well spoken but not for at least 700 years in some places! That's my point.

Maybe we should just go back to grunting and painting things on cave walls if we really want to keep it real.

Why do we need to preserve them?

Truthfully. How much of a cultural connection do you think most Scots have with Gaelic? Probably as much as most of Canada and Australia.

Maybe we should just go back to grunting and painting things on cave walls if we really want to keep it real.

Sounds like Lanarkshire.

Sounds like Lanarkshire.

Yep.

You often see savages atop Loudoun Hill gazing jealousy eastwards  and coveting our fancy caves and our grunting and painting skills.

First cast ol boy! 🤣🤣🤣

I didn’t have it in me to disappoint ye. 😉

🤣👌🏻

😀

Two Gaelic schools under increasing demand and expanding in Glasgow, Some folk obviously interested in maintaining some culture.

Alternatively, they go because of the smaller class sizes than normal schools and Gaelic is just something they have to deal with

"There’s nothing makes Scottish nationalists happier than watching monoglots frothing that they haven’t managed to kill off our culture and native languages."

It's impressive how many false premises and non sequiturs you've managed to squeeze into one, chippy sentence.

If it causes the Scots language to diminish then this is an issue that needs to be addressed.

I'm English and now live in Scotland. I was previously unaware of Scots and its origins. It's quite fascinating, ye ken? Take the word 'ken', which means 'know'. The German verb for 'to know' is 'kennen'. There are also links to Scandi languages with words and pronunciations, Polis being one of them! Other similar words are stoor, man (for husband), oot, burn (for a stream), bairn (for a child). These are my own observations from watching Scandi Noir, so might not be 100% accurate!

Gaslic markings in the lowlands is a piece of nonsense and we all know it. It never was the language, no one speaks it. they have to make up Gaelic names for places like falkirk. Its nonsense

Never been to Balerno TJ???

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balerno

Scotroutes / Craig W - really? Many of these place names are made up and IIRC the "gaelic" word they use for "falkirk"is not "Egglesbreth"

Its of no great importance and I don't really object to doing it but it remains a nonsense to invent gaelic names for places that never had them.

Two Gaelic schools under increasing demand and expanding in Glasgow, Some folk obviously interested in maintaining some culture.

Noting to do with culture. Free after school care and taxis to school are a big draw

I think the issue some people have with this is that it serves no practical purpose but is part of a political agenda.

By 'practical purpose' I mean making things understandable to people who would not otherwise have understood them.

I'm on the fence myself but I understand why people object to bilingual signage on that basis especially when it comes to spending public funds.

IIRC the “gaelic” word they use for “falkirk”is not “Egglesbreth”

Best not look what the Welsh use for Mold then...

Noting to do with culture. Free after school care and taxis to school are a big draw

Generally smaller class sizes too.

*I might have made that last one up.

Not just that last one...!

this charade that we all spoke it and that it would somehow enrich our lives is a bit much

Is that's what's happening? I don't spend a lot of time in Scotland but it would seem more likely that the Gaelic signs etc are there for the benefit of those who do speak it. The benefit being that they don't need to feel excluded and marginalised in their own country. If you let a minority language exist only in part of the country then that linguistic group can become a sort of shadow community, the language only belongs in the families and pubs etc that already know it, and it can become exclusionary and a bit of a negative divisive thing. If on the other hand you spread it all over the country then it's much more normalised and becomes part of life. Here in Wales it's really not a problem unless you are recruiting and need a Welsh speaker for translations or service provision. But even then life goes on.

Of course Gaelic isn't the only Scottish language, and that needs to be recognised. At first I was sceptical of the claim of Scots as a language but I've come around.

I quite like it, it's another thing that identifies us. If we only ever spent money on what the masses want, the money would never make it out of the central belt.

I know a couple of families with kids in the Gaelic medium school in Kilmarnock, the draw for both was the benefits of learning another language at such a young age, and the well known educational advantage that brings, regardless of what use the language will be.

I used to think the north east was Pictland and there was no Gaelic up here, Doric was the historic mother tounge. Then on researching I found a lot of the place names were Gaelic like Culter.

So don’t believe the hype it was a very widespread language in Scotland so part of our cultural heritage.

Kilmarnock

Good example of Lowlands Gaelic

I know a couple of families with kids in the Gaelic medium school in Kilmarnock, the draw for both was the benefits of learning another language at such a young age, and the well known educational advantage that brings, regardless of what use the language will be.

That's why our kids are in Welsh school.

It gets a very good name, been in place for about 15 years now, in an area of extremely high poverty- if anyone was ever unfortunate enough to see 'the scheme' on the box, that's where it is.

IIRC the “gaelic” word they use for “falkirk”is not “Egglesbreth”

The standard Gaelic name is An Eaglais Bhreac. Egglesbreth is clearly just an inaccurate transliteration. Just as the standard English name has evolved from the Scots name (Faukirke).

Not just that last one…!

So all those years ago I imagined the news reader mangling the words "IBM computer factory" into a story about the Greenock plant on Telefios then?

https://translate.google.com/?hl=en#en/gd/Computer%20factory

Changing the English to be phonetically compatible does not make a new word. You can either go down the French route and leave a language in stasis with contrived changes or else accept that language eveloves and eventually dies as it loses its greater identity.

The fact you openly say that you didn't believe Scots was a unique language and that you have "come around" to accepting what is an absolute fact just shows your ignorance on the matter. Scots Gaelic should not be compared to Welsh.

So don’t believe the hype it was a very widespread language in Scotland so part of our cultural heritage.

As I said before, Gaelic was it its peak in the 12th century and then began to decline in favour of Scots thereafter. Culturally there's more of a connection to Scots than Gaelic for most of the country and even then you can't understand half of what's being said. Easy job to revive Scots (since we can at least understand a decent proportion) yet they chase Gaelic?

Dinnae miss oot Dundee

So all those years ago I imagined the news reader mangling the words “IBM computer factory” into a story about the Greenock plant on Telefios then?

So IBM is a name so it stays, computer is from latin and so is factory, so it's hardly a problem that they are used in Gaelic when they are also borrowed into English in the first place. But that wasn't my point - I was having a dig at this statement:

beyond a few Braveheart fans nobody else speaks it

..which seems to be untrue from what I've read.

The fact you openly say that you didn’t believe Scots was a unique language and that you have “come around” to accepting what is an absolute fact just shows your ignorance on the matter. Scots Gaelic should not be compared to Welsh.

Sorry, I don't follow. Are you disagreeing that Scots is a distinct language, or are you saying that the social situation regarding Gaelic is not like Welsh? Or are you making both points?

Road signs should be functional. There is no need to have dual language signs when to my best knowledge every Gaelic speaker in Scotland understands English. Even back in the 1960s when on holiday in rural Lewis the local kids spoke English as well as Gaelic. The only time Gaelic was essential was when giving orders to dogs. The only place I think they are maybe justified is the Gaelic heartlands where the signs should arguably be in Gaelic for the locals and with English for visitors. In the central belt? Just a gimmick. There's probably more Polish speakers in Glasgow than Gaelic speakers.

It's a bit of a regret personally that my mother who was a native speaker never taught my siblings and I the language. While my dad didn't speak it I think with my mum at home while we were young we could have learned both English and Gaelic as children. None of my cousins speak Gaelic either despite in one case both parents being native speakers. I don't think it was seen as important back in the 1960s.

Whether or not the Gaelic language prospers will not depend on road signs.

Do you think that the opinion of non-Gaelic speakers on Gaelic is even important? This is a bit like men deciding what feminism should be, or white people telling black people about racism - isn't it?

There is no need to have dual language signs when to my best knowledge every Gaelic speaker in Scotland understands English. Even back in the 1960s when on holiday in rural Lewis the local kids spoke English as well as Gaelic. The only time Gaelic was essential was when giving orders to dogs.

And so by your rationale you reduce a whole language to something not fit for human discourse. I agree with molgrips and the previous post

If you let a minority language exist only in part of the country then that linguistic group can become a sort of shadow community, the language only belongs in the families and pubs etc that already know it, and it can become exclusionary and a bit of a negative divisive thing.

There is no need to have dual language signs when to my best knowledge every Gaelic speaker in Scotland understands English. Even back in the 1960s when on holiday in rural Lewis the local kids spoke English as well as Gaelic. The only time Gaelic was essential was when giving orders to dogs.

And this is why some Scottish people have a dislike for the English.

"Do you think that the opinion of non-Gaelic speakers on Gaelic is even important? This is a bit like men deciding what feminism should be, or white people telling black people about racism – isn’t it?"

Well I,d guess almost everyone o this thread is a non Gaelic speaker but wasn't stopped from having their say.

Pinpointing which languages were spoken where and when is far from easy. There's a lot of evidence that Gaelic was spoken in the south of Ayrshire and Galloway until the middle 18th century

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galwegian_Gaelic