Wikademy

=The Soillse Wikademy=

The Soillse Wikademy is an online community of action/practice dedicated to the collaborative formulation and dissemination of standards for the Gaelic language. Membership is open to anyone who can contribute to the goals of the community of action, particularly those whose continuing professional development will be enhanced by participation in the community of practice.

As a community of **action**, the Soillse Wikademy has the goal of collaboratively authoring, evaluating and revising technical documentation relating to the Gaelic language, for example a comprehensive, descriptive/prescriptive reference grammar specifying a standardised formal register for Gaelic, a set of principles for a standardised Gaelic orthography, etc.

As a community of **practice**, the Soillse Wikademy aims to provide a sustainable collaborative online environment to help meet the continuing professional development needs of everyone whose work involves using the modern Gaelic language in broadcasting, publishing, education, local and national government, etc. To this end, we are exploring the issue of accreditation with relevant professional organisations. We also envisage the Wikademy as providing an attractive platform for academic linguists (including those from outside the traditional Celtic departments) to both share their data and to demonstrate the social and political "impact" of their expertise.

The Wikademy is part of the Soillse national research network for the maintenance and revitalisation of Gaelic language and culture, and is coordinated by the University of Glasgow. The Soillse Wikademy will operate in collaboration with, but independently of, stakeholder organisations such as Bòrd na Gàidhlig, BBC Scotland, MG Alba, Deiseal Ltd, Clì Gàidhlig, The Scotsman, Learning and Teaching Scotland, the Scottish Qualifications Agency, the General Teaching Council for Scotland, Stòrlann etc. In particular, the work of the Wikademy is intended to inform and support the decisions of the future Gaelic Language Academy.

The need for language standardisation is recognised in Bòrd na Gàidhlig's "National Plan for Gaelic 2007-2012", one of whose fourteen priority activities is "strengthening the relevance and consistency of the Gaelic language", specifically orthography, grammar and vocabulary. The plan also lists a number of research priorities to underpin Gaelic language revitalisation, including "to research, agree and promote formal standards for Gaelic spelling, names, signs, grammar and official register". Standardisation is also seen as a priority by Gaelic language professionals such as journalists, publishers, translators and teachers - the results of a 2009 survey conducted by the University of Glasgow highlighted the following aspirations:
 * more communication and consultation from the Gaelic authorities
 * an end to the confusion and variation in current orthographic and terminological practices
 * standardisation to be directed by independent, expert linguists
 * a single, online source of linguistic authority that they can consult on matters of orthography, pronunciation, grammar and terminology.

We envisage the Wikademy as having a key role to play in realising all of these aspirations.

From an international perspective, the Soillse Wikademy represents an innovative and pioneering departure for language planning - a new kind of "distributed" language authority, where stakeholders come together to "crowdsource" linguistic standards from the bottom up, rather than have them prescriptively imposed from on high. If successful, we hope that this approach will serve as a model for other geopolitically-challenged language communities around the world.

If you are interested in participating in the Wikademy, please contact Mark.McConville@glasgow.ac.uk.

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