A collection of essays drawing on new research from sociolinguistic scholars who have worked together for the past number of years. This book focuses on the language ideologies of speakers of Irish and Scottish Gaelic, principally in the Gaeltacht regions of Ireland and Scotland.

Both the current status and the future of a language are revealed in people’s beliefs about its value, though the most important ideas are often so deeply ingrained that speakers do not think or talk openly about them. That is the hidden mindset — those linguistic beliefs that are concealed, but which may be uncovered through analysis of the behaviour and habits of the people speaking the language.

The authors: Tadhg Ó hIfearnáin, John Walsh, Laoise Ní Dhúda, Helena Ní Ghearáin, Noel P. Ó Murchadha, Cassie Smith-Christmas, Timothy Currie Armstrong and Hugh Rowland.