New Gaelic Speakers in Nova Scotia and Scotland: Heritage, Motivation and Identity

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Stuart S. Dunmore

New Gaelic Speakers in Nova Scotia and Scotland

Heritage, Motivation and Identity

Stuart S. Dunmore

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English

Edinburgh University Press
08 July 2025

Sociolinguistics; Psycholinguistics; Bilingualism & multilingualism; Historical & comparative linguistics; Language Teaching (non-ELT)

Series: Histories of the Scottish Atlantic

What are the main similarities between new cohorts of Gaelic speakers in Nova Scotia and Scotland, and what key differences distinguish them? In Scotland, public policy to support and maintain the language has increased substantially in the past 40 years. In addition to Scotland's 57,602 speakers, however, Gaelic has persisted in Nova Scotia since the 18th century and a third of Nova Scotians are descended from families who spoke the language historically.

As a response to policymakers' language planning priorities in both polities and drawing on three years of ethnographic research in Scotland and Nova Scotia, this book presents a comparative analysis of new speaker motivations, identities and linguistic ideologies. An innovative approach to examining bilingual discourses is employed to demonstrate key distinctions and commonalities among new Gaelic speakers, with a view to informing future policy to generate greater numbers of proficient speakers on both sides of the Atlantic.

By: Stuart S. Dunmore
Imprint: Edinburgh University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781474491631
ISBN 10: 1474491634
Series: Histories of the Scottish Atlantic
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 08 July 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Stuart S. Dunmore is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh.

Reviews for New Gaelic Speakers in Nova Scotia and Scotland: Heritage, Motivation and Identity

This book shines critical light on the understudied but statistically dominant category of new learners in Nova Scotia. Stuart Dunmore is making exciting inroads in the emergent field of North American Gaelic studies. He is a master of his topic, and his book is required reading for anyone seeking to understand the place of the language and the motivations of its speakers in Atlantic Canada today.--Natasha Sumner, Harvard University