GAELIC SPOKEN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 50, 10 December 1935, Page 5

GAELIC SPOKEN

THOUSANDS OF NOVA SCOTIANS. SYDNEY (Nova Scotia), Nov. 1. When the city of Sydney celebrated recently the 150th anniversary of its founding, a feature of the programme that attracted thousands of spectators was a Scottish "mod.” Grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the Scottish settlers who came here more than a century ago assembled with enthusiasm to hear the tongue and music of the Highlands, to see Highland dances performed by lads and lassies bearing Highland names and wearing the traditional' Highland dress. The opening address was in Gaelic—and most of the audience understood it. The latest Canadian census gives 20,000 as the number of Nova Scotians who speak and understand Gaelic, but according to Rev. &. P. MacDonald, of Sydney, bimself one of the number, this is an under-estimate. He believes it goes as high as 30,000, and the great majority are. in the island of Cape Breton and in Sydney, its principal city. "Gaelic,” says Dr. MacDonald, "has shown extraordinary virility, and there is no doubt that it has gained prestige in recent years. Jt is much more alive to-day than it was fifty years ago. It is no longer the language of the remnant of a race. Our people must he made to understand that it has cultural as well as sentimental value; that the warm Gaelic imagination and the lively Gaelic fancy have left their imprint upon the Gael’s speech, and that its power, too, of suggesting so much more than the strict meaning of words would copvey, its flexibility, its wealth of musical sounds, make it a literary language of the first rank, and, I. believe, an unrivalled medium of expression in the realm of lyric poetry.”