Gaelic Crisis book free pdf download

  Posted May 19, 2026 from 2024 Forum post

The book, The Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community (2020), by Conchúr Ó Giollagáin, Gòrdan Camshron, Pàdruig Moireach, Brian Ó Curnáin, Iain Caimbeul, Brian MacDonald and Tamás Péterváry - has been made available as a free download by Aberdeen University.

Here: https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/th83m2602#description

You can still purchase a hard-copy from www.gaelicbooks.org.

Also, you can still read chapter summaries, the appendices, reference lists, and other study-related information at the University of the Highlands and Islands, here:

https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-enterprise/res-themes/humanities-and-arts/language-sciences-institute/publications/the-gaelic-crisis-in-the-vernacular-community/

The book describes the findings of a multi-year study by a group of academics (and native speakers) about the actual status of Scottish Gaelic where it continues to be spoken as a community language, as well as the importance of maintaining vernacular communities in saving minority languages. This research is grounded in the team's and others decades of experience in minority culture and sociology, and language planning. The main author previously completed similar work in Irish Gaelic and continues to present the findings to groups concerned with saving minority languages (several presentations are available on YouTube). The recommendations are supported by rigorous statistical analysis of the data collected. But you can avoid the statistics and get a good overview of the study, findings, and recommendations by focusing on the chapter introductions and conclusions along with chapter 9 which presents a model for the revival of the Gaelic Vernacular Community.

Edit to add (02Sep2024, 2 more links added)::
Here are some related presentations by Conchúr Ó Giollagáin and team members on minority language protection:

Conferència en anglés Conchúr Ó Giollagáin (2023) (English starts at about 4 minutes in.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l80Un_sxSDw&t=319s

The State of Gaelic in Scotland & Ireland (2018) -- St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-oQvllDU

Presentations at the Soillse 2022 conference on Rooting Minority Language Policy in the Speaker Community

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOku8VJ3RjvKr2yxYEH34yhpGZGlzJHAw

New Insights on the Vernacular Gaelic Communities in the Islands (2021)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZSCw-PtDy8
The Crisis in Late-modern Ethnolinguistic Diversity from the Gaelic Perspective (2020)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS1zSnVZrj8&t=21s
One Year On: The Gaelic Crisis in the Vernacular Community - Edge UHI Seminar (2021)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzvhkh6Ltfc

This one is hosted on the University of the Highlands and Islands website -
A New Societal Perspective on Minority Language Protection (2024)
https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-enterprise/res-themes/humanities-and-arts/language-sciences-institute/news/talk-on-minority-language-protection.html