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Crowdsourcing and Gaelic corpus development

This initiative explores the potential of crowdsourcing in Gaelic corpus development, responding to the 2011 survey revealing positive attitudes towards Gaelic, yet indicating a trend towards English-medium education among children. The project highlights the "Tragedy of the Commons," where shared linguistic resources face depletion due to individual choices. Emphasizing the economic benefits of Gaelic fluency for families, the project advocates for community-driven solutions, fostering a collaborative approach among various stakeholders and language enthusiasts to ensure the sustainability and growth of the Gaelic language.

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Crowdsourcing and Gaelic corpus development

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  1. Crowdsourcing and Gaelic corpus development Mark.McConville@glasgow.ac.uk

  2. Gaelic in Siabost • A comprehensive survey of Gaelic ability, use and attitudes in 2011 - • attitudes to Gaelic are extremely positive • but most parents and grandparents speak to their children in English • most children enter English-medium primary education.

  3. Tragedy of the Commons • an unregulated depletable shared resource will be destroyed through overuse, by individuals acting independently and rationally in their own short-term self-interest • even though everyone knows that the destruction of the shared resource would be harmful to everyone’s long-term interests • Solution - enclosure, privatisation.

  4. The Gaelic commons • Language is an economic choice - • English - the language of national and international labour markets • Gaelic - the language of local self-identity. • Gaelic development requires an economic solution - • parents need to be persuaded of the tangible, short-term economic benefits of raising their children as Gaelic-speakers.

  5. Gaelic development • Acquisition - • more Gaelic-speakers • Status/usage - • more Gaelic-speaking • Corpus - • standardisation and elaboration • orthography, lexicon, grammar, . . .

  6. Gaelic corpus: 1900 • The Gaelic Bible - • New Testament (1767) • Old Testament (1801) • Literature - prose and poetry • Prescriptive grammars - • Forbes, 1848 • Cameron Gillies,1896

  7. Gaelic corpus: 1970 • Perceived decline in standards - • increase in inconsistency? • more demand for consistency? • Tragedy of the Commons - • the Gaelic corpus as an unowned, rapidly depleting resource • privatisation - GOC

  8. Gaelic Language Academy? • National Plan for Gaelic 2007-2012 - • commitment to a coordinated approach to Gaelic corpus planning, including a Gaelic Language Academy • But very little progress has been made - • no Gaelic Language Academy is in sight. • Why?

  9. Partnership approach? • The National Plan commits BnaG to a partnership approach to Gaelic development. • Plethora of Gaelic development organisations - • BnaG, CnaG, An Comunn Gàìdhealach • Gaelic Books Council, Gaelic Arts Agency, Gaelic Learners Association, MG Alba, . . . • Gaelic language plans • SQA, Education Scotland, Stòrlann, BBC, BCSS, . . .

  10. The Tragedy of the Anticommons • a resource cannot be exploited effectively because there are too many owners, • all of whom need to agree on how best to proceed. • Solution - “bundling”, either by government, or by market forces. • Obstacles - ideological factors, lack of trust, rent-seeking

  11. Crowdsourcing • commons-based peer production (cf. firm production and market production) • Web 2.0, user-generated content, wikis • diversity trumps ability • Can we crowdsource corpus planning for Gaelic? • A “wikademy”?

  12. Reasons for optimism? • OED, English orthography • Fòram na Gàidhlig, Gàidhlig-B • Broadband • Web 2.0 • Strong grassroots interest in Gaelic corpus planning

  13. Community of practice • Gaelic language professionals • CPD • Academic linguists • open science • social impact • Amateur enthusiasts, language activists

  14. http://comhla.wikispaces.com

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