Ken MacKinnon

Ken MacKinnon (26 August 1933 – 21 May 2021) was a British linguist who is known as the father of Scottish Gaelic sociolinguistics.

Early life and career MacKinnon was born in the Poplar in the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar on 26 August 1933 to parents whose families came from the Scottish Isle of Arran and Northern Ireland. During the London Blitz he was sent to Cornwall as many other children of the time. By 1944, he and his family had settled in the town of Leigh-on-Sea in Essex. He took a double degree in sociology and economics at the London School of Economics, followed by National Service in Germany. He was also on the board of MG Alba between 2008 and 2011.

Publications Prof MacKinnon published numerous papers and books from the 1970s onwards, most of them on Gaelic in Scotland and Nova Scotia, minority languages and demographics, including: (1974) The Lions Tongue (1991) Gaelic A Past & Future Prospect (1998) Gaelic in Family, Work and Community Domains Euromosaic Project 1994 1995 in Scottish Language 1998, No. 17 (2000) Neighbours in Persistence – Prospects for Gaelic Maintenance in a Globalising English World in McCoy, G. and Scott, M. (eds) Aithne na nGael – Gaelic Identities