Product Code Database
The Goidelic ( ) or Gaelic languages ( ; ; ; ) form one of the two groups of Insular Celtic languages, the other being the Brittonic languages. (1996). 9780521481601, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521481601
Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from Ireland through the Isle of Man to Scotland. There are three modern Goidelic languages: Irish language ( Gaeilge), Scottish Gaelic ( Gàidhlig), and Manx language ( Gaelg). Manx died out as a first language in the 20th century but has since been revived to some degree. (1996). 9780521481601, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521481601
The (Gaeilge, Gaelic and Gaolainn in Irish, Gaelg in Manx and Gàidhlig in Scottish Gaelic) are derived from Old Irish Goídelc, which in turn is derived from Old Welsh Guoidel meaning "wild men, savages".Koch, John. The Gododdin of Aneirin, Celtic Studies Publications, 1997, p. xcvii, note 2Koch, John (ed). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2006, p. 739 The medieval mythology of the Lebor Gabála Érenn places its origin in an eponymous ancestor of the Gaels and the inventor of the language, italic=no.
Goidelic language and culture would eventually become dominant in the Pictish area and far northern parts of the Brittonic area.]]
During the historical era, Goidelic was restricted to Ireland and, possibly, the west coast of Scotland. Medieval Gaelic literature tells us that the kingdom of Dál Riata emerged in western Scotland during the 6th century. The mainstream view is that Dál Riata was founded by Irish migrants, but this is not universally accepted. Archaeologist Ewan Campbell says there is no archaeological evidence for a migration or invasion, and suggests strong sea links helped maintain a pre-existing Gaelic culture on both sides of the North Channel.Campbell, Ewan. " Were the Scots Irish?" in Antiquity #75 (2001).
Dál Riata grew in size and influence, and Gaelic language and culture was eventually adopted by the neighbouring Picts (a group of peoples who may have spoken Pictish language) who lived throughout Scotland. Manx, the language of the Isle of Man, is closely akin to the Gaelic spoken in the Hebrides, the Irish spoken in northeast and eastern Ireland, and the now-extinct Galwegian Gaelic of Galloway (in southwest Scotland), with some influence from Old Norse through the Viking invasions and from the previous British inhabitants.
The oldest written Goidelic language is Primitive Irish, which is attested in Ogham inscriptions from about the 4th century. The forms of this speech are very close, and often identical, to the forms of Gaulish language recorded before and during the time of the Roman Empire. The next stage, Old Irish, is found in glosses (i.e. annotations) to Latin —mainly religious and grammatical—from the 6th to the 10th century, as well as in archaic texts copied or recorded in Middle Irish texts. Middle Irish, the immediate predecessor of the modern Goidelic languages, is the term for the language as recorded from the 10th to the 12th century; a great deal of literature survives in it, including the early Irish law texts.
Classical Gaelic, otherwise known as Early Modern Irish, covers the period from the 13th to the 18th century, during which time it was used as a literary standard in Ireland and Scotland. This is often called Classical Irish, while Ethnologue gives the name "Hiberno-Scottish Gaelic" to this standardised written language. As long as this written language was the norm, Ireland was considered the Gaelic homeland to the Scottish intellectual.
Later orthography divergence has resulted in standardised pluricentristic orthographies. Manx orthography, which was introduced in the 16th and 17th centuries, was based loosely on English and Welsh orthography, and so never formed part of this literary standard.
Despite the ascent in Ireland of the English and Anglicised ruling classes following the 1607 Flight of the Earls (and the disappearance of much of the Gaelic nobility), Irish was spoken by the majority of the population until the later 18th century, with a huge impact from the Great Famine of the 1840s. Disproportionately affecting the classes among whom Irish was the primary spoken language, famine and emigration precipitated a steep decline in native speakers, which only recently has begun to reverse.
The Irish language has been recognised as an official and working language of the European Union. Ireland's national language was the twenty-third to be given such recognition by the EU and previously had the status of a treaty language.
]]
Some people in the north and west of mainland Scotland and many people in the Hebrides still speak Scottish Gaelic, but the language has been in decline. There are now believed to be approximately 60,000 native speakers of Scottish Gaelic in Scotland, plus around 1,000 speakers of the Canadian Gaelic dialect in Nova Scotia.
Its historical range was much larger. For example, it was the everyday language of most of the rest of the Scottish Highlands until little more than a century ago. Galloway was once also a Gaelic-speaking region, but the Galwegian Gaelic has been extinct there for approximately three centuries. It is believed to have been home to dialects that were transitional between Scottish Gaelic and the two other Goidelic languages. While Gaelic was spoken across the Scottish Borders and Lothian during the early High Middle Ages it does not seem to have been spoken by the majority and was likely the language of the ruling elite, land-owners and religious clerics. Some other parts of the Scottish Lowlands spoke Cumbric, and others Scots language, the only exceptions being the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland where Norn language was spoken. Scottish Gaelic was introduced across North America with Gaelic settlers. Their numbers necessitated North American Gaelic publications and print media from Cape Breton Island to California.
Scotland, known as Alba in Insular Celtic languages, takes its English language name from the Latin word for 'Gael', Scotus, plural Scoti (of uncertain etymology). Oxford English Dictionary: Scot, n.1. The source of the late Latin word is obscure. There is no evidence that it represents the native name of any Gaelic-speaking people (the Irish Scot, an Irishman, pl. Scuit, appears to be a learned word from Latin), nor does it exist in Welsh, though Welshmen in writing Latin have from the earliest times used Scoti as the rendering of Gwyddel (Gaels). .... Retrieved 11 October 2010 Scotland originally meant Land of the Gaels in a cultural and social sense. (In early Old English texts, Scotland referred to Ireland.)Lemke, Andreas: The Old English Translation of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum in its Historical and Cultural Context, Chapter II: The OEHE: The Material Evidence; page 71 (Universitätsdrucke Göttingen, 2015) Until late in the 15th century, Scottis in Scottish English (or Scots Inglis) was used to refer only to Gaelic, and the speakers of this language who were identified as Scots. As the ruling elite became Scots Inglis/English-speaking, Scottis was gradually associated with the land rather than the people, and the word Erse ('Irish') was gradually used more and more as an act of culturo-political disassociation, with an overt implication that the language was not really Scottish, and therefore foreign. This was something of a propaganda label, as Gaelic has been in Scotland for at least as long as English, if not longer.
In the early 16th century the dialects of northern Middle English, also known as Early Scots, which had developed in Lothian and had come to be spoken elsewhere in the Kingdom of Scotland, themselves later appropriated the name Scots language. By the 17th century Gaelic speakers were restricted largely to the Highlands and the Hebrides. Furthermore, the culturally repressive measures taken against the rebellious Highland communities by The Crown following the second Jacobite risings caused still further decline in the language's use – to a large extent by enforced emigration (e.g. the Highland Clearances). Even more decline followed in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Scottish Parliament has afforded the language a secure statutory status and "equal respect" (but not full equality in legal status under Scots law) with English, sparking hopes that Scottish Gaelic can be saved from extinction and perhaps even revitalised.
At the end of the 19th century a revival of Manx began, headed by the Manx Language Society ( Yn Çheshaght Ghailckagh). Both linguists and language enthusiasts searched out the last native speakers during the 20th century, recording their speech and learning from them. In the 2011 United Kingdom census, there were 1,823 Manx speakers on the island, representing 2.27% of the population of 80,398, following a steady increase in the number of speakers.
Today Manx is the sole medium for teaching at five of the island's pre-schools by a company named Mooinjer veggey ("little people"), which also operates the sole Manx-medium primary school, the Bunscoill Ghaelgagh. Manx is taught as a second language at all of the island's primary and secondary schools and also at the University College Isle of Man and Centre for Manx Studies.
| un |
| ‡dau |
| ‡tri |
| ‡pedwar |
| pump |
| chwech |
| saith |
| wyth |
| naw |
| deg |
| unarddeg |
| deuddeg |
| ugain |
| cant |
* un and daa are no longer used in counting. Instead the suppletion forms nane and jees are normally used for counting. For comparative purposes, the historic forms are listed in the table above.
In the Welsh numbers, in cases where there are differences between masculine and feminine forms (marked ‡), the masculine forms are given.
| Welcome | |||
| Ulster: Goidé mar atá tú? Connacht: Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? Munster: Conas taoi?, Conas tánn tú? | Over-regional: Ciamar a tha thu? Lewis: Dè man a tha thu? Argyll and Outer Hebrides: Dè mar a tha thu? | Kys t'ou? | How are you? |
| Ulster: Cad é an t-ainm atá ort? Connacht: Cén t-ainm atá ort? Munster: Cad is ainm duit? | Over-regional: Dè an t-ainm a tha ort? West coast mainland: C' ainm a tha ort? | Cre'n ennym t'ort? | What is your name? |
| I am... | |||
| Good day | |||
| Good morning | |||
| Good afternoon/evening | |||
| Good night | |||
| Go raibh maith agat | Outer Hebrides and Skye: Tapadh leat Over-regional: Mòran taing Southwestern: Gun robh math agad | Gura mie ayd | ‡Thank you |
| ‡Good-bye | |||
| Health (used as a toast cf.) | |||
‡ Singular forms.
|
|
