Difference between Irish and Scot Gaelic

[OC Richard]

The relationship between Scottish Gaelic and Irish is sort of like that between English and German: the core vocabulary is very similar, but there have been enough changes to make them be regarded as distinct languages.

About what to call these languages, "Irish" is the politically correct term when speaking English. "Erse" is regarded as somewhat pejorative. "Gaelic" should be reserved for Scottish Gaelic.

In Celtic: A Comparitive Study D B Gregor says:

...the family of Celtic languages consists of two branches according as they kept original Indo-European Q (Goidelic) or changed it to P (Brythonic) : e.g. the word for four: I-E kwetuor, Latin quattuor, Irish ceathair, Gaelic ceithir, Manx kiare, but Welsh pedwar, Cornish peswar, Breton peder.

In the same book is a passage for comparison. Here's one part, in Irish, then Scots Gaelic. Sorry I don't know how to do the accent marks. They're one of the things that makes Scots Gaelic look so different from Irish.

Irish:
20. Agus is iad seo iad i n-ar cuireadh an siol san talamh mhaith, an lucht a chluin an briathar, a ghlacas e agus a bheir toradh uatha, duine fa dheich ar fhichich, duine fa thri fhichidh, agus duine fa chead.

Scots Gaelic:
20. Agus is iad so iadsan a chuireadh ann an talamh maith; an dream a chluinneas am focal, agus a ghabhas e, agus a bheir a mach toradh, cuid a dheich thar fhicead uiread, cuid a thri ficead uiread, agus cuid a cheud uiread as a chuireadh.

[Eric Schutte]

Hello all,

I am hoping to get to the Clan MacLean gathering in Mull in 2012 and I really want at least a few words down before I go so.......anyone want to write back and forth in Scots Gaelic?

Thanks guys,

Eric Schutte

[Lallans]

I spent a few years smooching with an Irish speaker, so once had a direct personal interest. From what I could find out when I was making a study of the issue, about 10 years back, Irish gaelic is officially used and therefore protected from extinction in Eire, whereas Scottish gaelic seemed to be pretty much beyond endangered and into its last gasps everywhere in Scotland. It seemed to be more used in places like Cape Breton in Canada, and there almost entirely by professional musicians and so on. So, while I am totally unable to correspond in that language, I sincerely wish you all the best.

And I'm hoping for some severe contradiction on the 'last gasp' statement.

[BoldHighlander]

I spent a few years smooching with an Irish speaker, so once had a direct personal interest. From what I could find out when I was making a study of the issue, about 10 years back, Irish gaelic is officially used and therefore protected from extinction in Eire, whereas Scottish gaelic seemed to be pretty much beyond endangered and into its last gasps everywhere in Scotland. It seemed to be more used in places like Cape Breton in Canada, and there almost entirely by professional musicians and so on. So, while I am totally unable to correspond in that language, I sincerely wish you all the best.

And I'm hoping for some severe contradiction on the 'last gasp' statement.

I've heard more than once that it's still spoken in the Western Isles, though how wide spread & its frequency I could not tell you.

We have quite a little community of Scottish Gaelic speakers here in Washington state. unfortunately most seem to be well south of me (& for those east of the mountains here on the westside, for the most part), and due to transportation issues I'm unable to get together with them. I also attempted a couple of years ago to start up a local Gaidheal learning group, unfortunately that met with little success

So now I'm left to wondering about an on-line learning program (for a rank beginner)?

Any ideas?

[Eric Schutte]

Hi Terry,

You might check out Beag air Bheag (if you google this it should come up.). It is a BBC sponsored website that teaches you Scots Gaelic. I am using it often. Check it out....

Slainte,

Eric Schutte

[BoldHighlander]

Hi Terry,

You might check out Beag air Bheag (if you google this it should come up.). It is a BBC sponsored website that teaches you Scots Gaelic. I am using it often. Check it out....

Slainte,

Eric Schutte

Thanks Eric, I will!

[OC Richard]

I've been told that the number of native speakers of Scots Gaelic has been growing simply because the population of the islands where it is still spoken in growing.

Happily there are still people who don't learn English till they start going to school, or so I'm told.

In Celtic: A Comparitve Study the author paints a dim picture of most Celtic languages today.

In the section Causes of Decline, of Irish, he says:

"The worst threat to the Irish Gaeltacht proceeds, oddly enough, from the very measures taken to protect it. As we shall see, a language can flourish only if its speakers need no other language in order themselves to flourish; in other words, there must be local industries. But industry involves a technical vocabulary, and Irish emerged from suppression into the scientific age without having produced venacular names for scientific, political, banking, engineering, or mathematical terms. So one Minister for the Gaeltacht after another expresses his anxiety over the fact that English is spreading throughout the shop-floor in the factories set up by the authorities.
Even greater is the danger from another type of visitor: the very pupils who go to Summer Schools in the Gaeltacht to learn the authentic language... are responsible for the spread of English, for the local people have to step down to their level, to speak simple or bad Irish or a mixture of Irish and English so as to be understood, and the pupils teach English to [the locals'] children."

He also cites the cinema for eroding Irish and Scots Gaelic in the areas where people otherwise use these languages for daily converstation.