The two articles that follow my brief introduction of the matter are adaptations of those that first appeared in Naidheachd Vol.IX, Nos 1and 2 (1992). Part 1 is a verbatim transcript of the paper entitled Gaelic Orthographic Conventions issued by the Scottish Certificate of Education Examining Board dated August 1981. Part 2 is a critique of these new conventions by Lloyd Leland that appeared as four articles in the Stornoway Gazette during August 1991.

Until Owen R. C. Owen publish The Modern Gaelic-English Dictionary in 1993, there hadn't been a Gaelic-English dictionary published since MacLennan's came out in 1926. However, Derick Thomson did publishedThe New English-Gaelic Dictionary in 1981as a complement to Dwelly's classic of 1910. The term 'new' in the title of this article is used to call attention to a revised system of spelling of Gaelicwords. This system or code was first published in 1981 by a sub-committee of the Gaelic Panel of what is now the Scottish Examining Board and has been employed in SCE examination papers since 1985 and has been compulsory for SCE candidates since 1988. Although originally conceived merely as a response to the chaotic state of children's spelling, many of its principles are now being applied to publications outside the purely academic sector. Both of the 'new' dictionaries mentioned above employ the 'new' spellings.

The 'new spellings' code aroused heated controversy initially both within and without academic circles and it has not been accepted universally by any means. Some opponents have rejected the spelling changes entirely while others such as Prof. Ronald Black of Edinburgh University, have taken a moderate view following the bulk of the recommendations [fiats?] but dissenting from those which he feels represent too radical a break from established conventions.
By its action, the panel has made obsolete all previous dictionaries of the Gaelic language. Well, not completely; but unless you becomes intimately familiar with these new conventions you will never be sure whether the spelling of the words listed in Dwelly or MacLennan are, in fact, correct. It's not likely that we will ever go back to the old spellings considering that the number of new writers of the Gaelic may already outnumber those who were trained to use the old conventions.

But no more pontificating from me until you've become acquainted with the balance of panel's pronouncements contained in Part 1.