In Wales, the Republic of Ireland and Scotland, significant language legislation has been enacted in the last quarter of a century in relation to Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, respectively. In each case, major pieces of... [ view full abstract ]
In Wales, the Republic of Ireland and Scotland, significant language legislation has been enacted in the last quarter of a century in relation to Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, respectively. In each case, major pieces of legislation—for example, for Welsh, the Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, for Irish, the Official Languages Act 2003, and for Gaelic, the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005—have been enacted, all with the overarching objective of language maintenance and revitalisation. Yet, none of these major pieces of legislation directly address language acquisition. While explicit minority education rights have been created in several other jurisdictions—most notably, in Canada—and while international treaties of relevance to these Celtic languages use the language of rights or obligations in relation to education—for example, the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages—in Wales, Ireland and Scotland, a rights-based approach in relation to minority language education has not been taken. In this paper, the ways in which Welsh, Irish and Gaelic language education and wider language acquisition has been regulated by legislation will be critically assessed. In particular, the factors which have shaped the regulatory regimes will be analysed: why, for example, have education rights been avoided, and policy considerations have been brought to bear in deciding on the shape and content of the regulatory framework which has been adopted? what The implications of the regulatory regimes for wider aspects of minority language policy in the three jurisdictions will also be considered. These ‘Celtic’ cases will be used to reflect on both the potential and the inherent limitations of legislation in minority language acquisition policy.
