THE majority of Scots may not speak the language but, in future, Gaelic will increasingly be on the lips of people in all walks of life.
Yesterday saw the launch of a national plan for the language, setting out a "roadmap" for government, councils and public bodies, as well as the private and voluntary sectors, on how it should be developed.
The plan seeks to increase the number of schoolchildren being taught in Gaelic, encourage more adult learners and raise the profile of the language in everyday life.

It is a huge challenge given the perilous state of Gaelic today.
Despite government moves to suppress the language throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, there were still over 250,000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland in 1881 - nearly 7 per cent of the population.
However, rapid decline set in at the start of the 20th century, with the number of speakers dropping to under 100,000 by the 1950s as generations of Gaels were punished in school for not using English.

A move to redress the situation eventually began in the 1980s - including the introduction of Gaelic medium education - but by 2001, numbers had fallen to 58,652, just 1.2 per cent of Scotland's residents.
Yet despite the small numbers now speaking Gaelic, the political will is there to secure its future.

Spending by the Scottish Executive on Gaelic education, television and development has been increased to £21 million a year, while additional amounts have gone into new schools, the Gaelic college Sabhal Mor Ostaig, and arts projects.
The new revival plan envisages stabilising the number of speakers by 2011, and to reach a target of 100,000 speakers by 2041.
Patricia Ferguson, the culture minister, who launched the National Plan for Gaelic yesterday, said: "It shows how we can increase the number of Gaelic speakers, how we increase the visibility of Gaelic and how we build confidence so that more people are encouraged to use Gaelic in communities, to learn it, and to pass it on within families.

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So what will it do? The plan, the development of which was a statutory duty placed on Bòrd na Gàidhlig, the Gaelic development agency, will target four areas for progress - the home, the community, place of learning and workplace.
It aims to have more Gaelic in the media, the arts and as a tourism attraction.

It wants more public and private bodies to develop Gaelic language plans, to promote use of the language to raise its profile. Already a number of councils have adopted language plans, as have Caledonian MacBrayne and the Homebase chain.
The plan wants more pupils taught in Gaelic.

The first Gaelic medium education (GME) units opened in Glasgow and Inverness in 1985 with just over 20 pupils, but now there are 2,092 children in 62 primaries, 945 being taught in 37 secondaries and 700 youngsters in Gaelic nurseries, including a dedicated 3-18 GME school in Glasgow. It is hoped a network of dedicated Gaelic schools can be developed across Scotland.
Campaigns will be launched to promote the use of Gaelic in the home, to raise the profile of GME and to establish an effective system for adult learners, while a youth strategy will encourage younger people to use the language.

Part of the problem is that nearly half of the Gaelic-speaking population now lives outside its traditional heartlands in more urban areas where the opportunities to use the language have been greatly reduced.
But there are hopeful signs. The rate of decline in the number of speakers had slowed, the numbers of young speakers has risen and there are said to be 26,722 people in Scotland with an ability to understand Gaelic - representing a pool of people who could become fluent.

Matthew Maciver, the chairman of Bòrd na Gàidhlig, said preserving minority and community languages is one of society's great challenges. "We must resist uniformity in language which results in the death of minority tongues.
"The ability to share another outlook on the world, through other forms of thought, literature and lexical usage is one which can only enhance tolerant relationships between different cultural groups and impact positively on the whole area of language learning.

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Where Gaelic is still spoken by the majority of the local population, it is envisaged that organisations should be bilingual.
In areas where there are significant numbers of Gaelic speakers but they do not make up the majority, public bodies should seek to provide a range of services in Gaelic.
Organisations serving areas with relatively low numbers of Gaelic speakers will be asked to use some Gaelic, including signs or in corporate logos.

The document has been welcomed in Wales which is seen as a model of how to promote an indigenous language. Welsh was in decline until the early 1990s when there were 508,098 speakers, - 18.7 per cent of the population.

But the introduction of the Welsh Language Act in 1993 helped reverse the trend and by 2001 numbers had risen to nearly 21 per cent of the population.
Meri Huws, who chairs the Welsh Language Board, said:
"The real value comes in creating awareness of the language and giving it status within the public services. It means that people are able to conduct their business in the language of their choice.

"It's also starting to create employment. Those public bodies are now looking for bilingual workers and the impact of that on the education system in Wales is significant."
But Ms Huws said the process takes time: "It's an organic process, it's taken 15 years here.

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Welcoming the Gaelic plan, she said: "It can, over time, change hearts and minds."
Alex MacDonald, the convener of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council), urged individuals, organisations and national bodies to work with Bòrd na Gàidhlig to translate the vision into reality.
But David Flear, a Highland councillor in Caithness which has few Gaelic speakers, said: "I welcome Gaelic being spoken in schools because if it's not, there is no point in putting it on road signs.

But I think it's not something that everyone has to embrace. If it's imposed on people they will get miffed."
Wilson Macleod, a lecturer in Celtic studies at Edinburgh University, said the plan will not force Gaelic on everyone.

"It doesn't mean everyone having to take mandatory Gaelic, and putting up Gaelic road signs doesn't make people speak Gaelic, but it does change their perceptions to things."
However, he questioned:
"Is the plan going to have the authority behind it to deliver (its) objectives? It's a solid piece of work but how do you make sure it just does not gather dust on a shelf?

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• By 2011: In the immediate future it wants to see the number of Gaelic speakers stabilising, with an increase in the number of children in pre-school Gaelic-medium education (GME) and progressing through primary and secondary schools using Gaelic.
It also wants to see an increase in the number of adult learners reaching fluency, and improved literacy among Gaelic speakers.
• By 2021: All children with Gaelic in the home progressing through GME (last year there were about 1,000 children being raised with at least some Gaelic)
- 4,000 entrants enrolled in first-year GME (this year there were 313 pupils enrolled for primary one)
- 65,000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland (58,652 in 2001).

- 40,000 people who can read and write the language (31,218 in 2001).
• By 2031: 10,000 children enrolled in primary one GME.
- 75,000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland
- 65,000 people who can read and write the language
• By 2041: 50,000 children enrolled in primary one GME.

- 100,000 Gaelic speakers in Scotland
- 100,000 people who can read and write the language
• Overall, the plan aims to make Gaelic the preferred language of an increasing number of people in Scotland and the mother tongue of more speakers.
It wants Gaelic recognised as a national asset, while not reducing the status of, or support for, other languages.
It seeks an increase in the use of and confidence in Gaelic in communities: an increase in the use of Gaelic in tertiary education and at work; more Gaelic in the print, broadcast and online media; greater use in the arts and in the tourism, heritage and recreation sectors; more public bodies with Gaelic Language Plans, and an increase in the "visibility and recognition" of Gaelic in Scotland.