“The Met Office is providing opportunities for Gaelic speakers and learners to use the language in everyday life, and such efforts are at the heart of growing the number of people using Gaelic.”
This was the message from the Minister of Gaelic Affairs for the Scottish Parliament, Fiona Hyslop MSP, following the launch of the Meteorological Office’s launch of its weather reports in the Welsh and Scottish languages earlier this month. The Met Office launched the weather forecasts on 1st February 2011 following the release of the Welsh language `weather widget’ last year. However, as the General Secretary (GS) of the League points out, in a congratulatory letter to the Met Office, finding the link to the Welsh and Gaelic languages is not all that easy.
“Robert Napier
Chairperson
Met Office Board
Dear Robert Napier
Welsh and Gaelic language weather forecasts
I was heartened to read about the launch of the `invent’ Met Office weather forecast in the Welsh and Gaelic languages to meet the needs of the 600,000 Welsh speakers and 58,000 Gaelic speakers in Wales and Scotland and the thousands of other speakers of these languages across the UK and the world.
On behalf of the Celtic League I would like to congratulate the Met Office for its work in making this effort to be more inclusive in its approach to the different Celtic language communities that use your site. The Celtic League supports all positive efforts to widen the use of the Celtic languages in different areas, with the aim of reversing the language shift that is occurring among all our languages. However, I was a little frustrated by the difficulty in finding the link on the site to change the languages into Welsh and Gaelic and wish this could be made more obvious.
Yours sincerely
Rhisiart Tal-e-bot
General Secretary
Celtic League”
The Met Office is the UK’s weather service and a trading fund of the UK Ministry of Defense.
Links:
Met Office (invent):
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/pws/invent/weathertext/
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/archive/2011/welsh-and-gaelic
This article prepared for Celtic News by Rhisiart Tal-e-bot General Secretary Celtic League. For follow-up comment or clarification contact:
Tel: 0044 (0)1209319912
M: 0044(0)7787318666
J B Moffatt (Mr)
Director of Information
Celtic League
16/02/11