'This language belongs to us. I want it back': Scottish Gaelic revival spans North America

Ciamar a tha thu? 

A common Scottish Gaelic phrase simply asks, "How are you?"

It's a phrase often uttered by those learning and teaching a language considered endangered. 

Although the language is often associated with Scotland and Nova Scotia, it is being celebrated in other parts of North America, including Canadian cities like Toronto and Vancouver, and U.S. states like Washington, New York, Texas and North Carolina. 

Various Gaelic organizations in these parts of the continent are trying to keep the language alive. 

"This language belongs to us. I want it back. And I don't think I'm alone in that," said Trish MacNeil, a member of The Gaelic Society of Toronto. 

The language native to Scotland was widely used in various parts of Canada due to the influx of Scottish immigrants from the late 1700s to the mid-1800s. At the time of Canadian Confederation in 1867, it was the third-most-spoken European language in the country. 

The Canadian government deterred the use of Gaelic and school-aged children were prevented from using or learning the language, sometimes by way of corporal punishment. 

Eventually, the language declined in Canada. Where it was once estimated that Canada had 250,000 Gaelic speakers, there are 2,170 speakers left according to the 2021 Canadian census. 

Because of the steep decline, a new urgency has emerged to protect the language from extinction. Familial connections and fierce loyalty to Scottish heritage have ushered in a wave of people across North America who are eager to learn and teach the language.

"My family, they're all Highlanders and they're all proud of being Highlanders," said Jamie MacDonald, a retired professor in the Celtic Studies department at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S. 

MacDonald is originally from North Carolina, which was home to significant Scottish migration beginning in the 1700s. He described wanting to learn Gaelic after hearing his aunt by marriage sing traditional songs. 

"I listened to her Gaelic songs on the records, and I was interested in finding out what she was saying," MacDonald said.

Now fluent in the language, MacDonald translates English books into Gaelic and hosts a Gaelic language and song week and the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games every summer in North Carolina.