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Scottish Gaelic language
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Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. This branch also includes the Irish and Manx languages. It is distinct from the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages, which includes Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. Scottish, Manx and Irish Gaelic are all descended from Old Irish. The language is often described as Scottish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, or Gàidhlig to avoid confusion with the other two Goidelic languages. Outside Scotland, it is occasionally also called Scottish, a usage dating back over 1,500 years; for example Old English Scottas. Scottish Gaelic should not be confused with Scots, because since the 16th century the word Scots has by-and-large been used to describe the Lowland Anglic language, which developed from the northern form of early Middle English.
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Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. This branch also includes the Irish and Manx languages. It is distinct from the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages, which includes Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. Scottish, Manx and Irish Gaelic are all descended from Old Irish. The language is often described as Scottish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, or Gàidhlig to avoid confusion with the other two Goidelic languages. Outside Scotland, it is occasionally also called Scottish, a usage dating back over 1,500 years; for example Old English Scottas. Scottish Gaelic should not be confused with Scots, because since the 16th century the word Scots has by-and-large been used to describe the Lowland Anglic language, which developed from the northern form of early Middle English. In Scottish English, Gaelic is ; outside Scotland, it is usually .
History
Scottish Gaelic, a descendant of the Goidelic branch of Celtic and closely related to Irish, is the traditional language of the Scotti or Gaels, and became the historical language of the majority of Scotland after it replaced Cumbric, Pictish and Old Norse. It is not clear how long Gaelic has been spoken in what is now Scotland; it has lately been proposed that it was spoken in Argyll before the Roman period, but no consensus has been reached on this question. However, the consolidation of the kingdom of Dál Riata around the 4th century, linking the ancient province of Ulster in the north of Ireland and western Scotland, accelerated the expansion of Gaelic, as did the success of the Gaelic-speaking church establishment. Placename evidence shows that Gaelic was spoken in the Rhinns of Galloway by the 5th or 6th century.
The Gaelic language eventually displaced Pictish north of the Forth, and until the late 15th century it was known in English as Scottis. Gaelic began to decline in mainland Scotland by the beginning of the 13th century, and with this went a decline in its status as a national language. By the beginning of the 15th century, the highland-lowland line was beginning to emerge.
By the early 16th century, English speakers gave the Gaelic language the name Erse (meaning Irish) and thereafter it was invariably the collection of Middle English dialects spoken within the Kingdom of the Scots that they referred to as Scottis (whence Scots). This was ironic as it was at this time that Gaelic was developing its distinctly Scottish forms characteristic of the Modern period. Nevertheless, Gaelic has never been entirely displaced of national language status, and is still recognised by many Scots, whether or not they speak Gaelic, as being a crucial part of the nation's culture. Of course, others may view it primarily as a regional language of the highlands and islands.
Gaelic has a rich oral () and written tradition, having been the language of the bardic culture of the Highland clans for several centuries. The language preserved knowledge of and adherence to pre-feudal laws and customs (as represented, for example, by the expressions tuatha and dùthchas). The language suffered especially as Highlanders and their traditions were persecuted after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and during the Highland Clearances, but pre-feudal attitudes were still evident in the complaints and claims of the Highland Land League of the late 19th century: this political movement was successful in getting members elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Land League was dissipated as a parliamentary force by the 1886 Crofters' Act and by the way the Liberal Party was seen to become supportive of Land League objectives.
The first translation of the Bible into Scottish Gaelic was not made until 1767 when Dr James Stuart of Killin and Dugald Buchanan of Rannoch produced a translation of the New Testament. Very few European languages have made the transition to a modern literary language without an early modern translation of the Bible. The lack of such a translation until the late eighteenth century undoubtedly contributed to the decline of Scottish Gaelic.
Scottish Gaelic may be more correctly known as Highland Gaelic to distinguish it from the now defunct Lowland Gaelic. Lowland Gaelic was a form of Irish Gaelic spoken in Galloway, where extensive settlement from the Norse/Gaelic communities of the Isles as the language of a significant proportion of the elite that governed communities that spoke either the 'native' Brythonic language of the region or the Old English that had greatly increased in significance since the Northumbrian conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries. By the end of the Middle Ages, Lowland Gaelic had largely been replaced by the Middle English/Lowland Scots that descended from the Anglo-Saxon tongue, while the Brythonic language had disappeared. There is, however, no evidence of a linguistic border following the topographical north-south differences. Similarly, there is no evidence from placenames of significant linguistic differences between, for example, Argyll and Galloway. Dialects on both sides of the Straits of Moyle (the North Channel) linking Scottish Gaelic with Irish are now extinct.
According to a reference in The Carrick Covenanters by James Crichton (Undated. “Printed at the Office of Messrs. Arthur Guthrie and Sons Ltd., 49 Ayr Road, Cumnock.”), the last place in the Lowlands where Gaelic was still spoken was the village of Barr in Carrick (only a few miles inland to the east of Girvan, but at one time very isolated).
Current distribution in Scotland
The 2001 UK Census showed a total of 58,652 Gaelic speakers in Scotland (1.2% of population over three years old). Compared to the 1991 Census, there has been a diminution of approximately 7,300 people (11% of the total), meaning that Gaelic decline in Scotland is continuing. To date, attempts at language revival or reversing language shift have been met with limited success.
Considering the data related to Civil Parishes (which permit a continuous study of Gaelic status since the 19th century), two new circumstances have taken place, which are related to this decline:
- No parish in Scotland has a proportion of Gaelic speakers greater than 75% any more (the highest value corresponds to Barvas, Lewis, with 74.7%).
- No parish in mainland Scotland has a proportion of Gaelic speakers greater than 25% any more (the highest value corresponds to Lochalsh, Highland, with 20.8%).
The main stronghold of the language continues to be the Western Isles (Na h-Eileanan Siar), where the overall proportion of speakers remains at 61.1% and all parishes return values over 50%. The Parish of Kilmuir in Northern Skye is also over this threshold of 50%.
Proportions over 20% register throughout the isles of Skye, Raasay, Tiree, Islay and Colonsay, and the already mentioned parish of Lochalsh in Highland.
Regardless of this, the weight of Gaelic in Scotland is now much reduced. From a total of almost 900 Civil Parishes in Scotland:
- Only 9 of them have a proportion of Gaelic speakers greater than 50%.
- Only 20 of them have a proportion of Gaelic speakers greater than 25%.
- Only 39 of them have a proportion of Gaelic speakers greater than 10%.
Outside the main Gaelic-speaking areas a relatively high proportion of Gaelic-speaking people are, in effect, socially isolated from other Gaelic-speakers and as a result they obtain few opportunities to use the language.
Orthography
Old Gaelic, the precursor to both Modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic, was written in a carved writing called Ogham. Ogham consisted of marks made above or below a horizontal line. With the advent of Christianity in the 5th century the Latin alphabet was introduced to Ireland. The Goidelic languages have historically been part of a dialect continuum stretching from the south of Ireland, the Isle of Man, to the north of Scotland.
Classical Gaelic was used as a literary language in Ireland until the 17th century and in Scotland until the 18th century. Later orthographic divergence is the result of more recent orthographic reforms resulting in standardised pluricentric diasystems.
The 1767 New Testament historically set the standard for Scottish Gaelic. Around the time of World War II, Irish spelling was reformed and the Official Standard or Caighdeán Oifigiúil introduced. Further reform in 1957 eliminated some of the silent letters which are still used in Scottish Gaelic. The 1981 Scottish Examinations Board recommendations for Scottish Gaelic, the Gaelic Orthographic Conventions, were adopted by most publishers and agencies, although they remain controversial among some academics, most notably Ronald Black.
The modern Scottish Gaelic alphabet has 18 letters:
- A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U.
The letter h, now mostly used to indicate lenition of a consonant, was in general not used in the oldest orthography, as lenition was instead indicated with a dot over the lenited consonant. The letters of the alphabet were traditionally named after trees (see Scottish Gaelic alphabet), but this custom has fallen out of use.
The quality of consonants is indicated in writing by the vowels surrounding them. So-called "slender" consonants are palatalised while "broad" consonants are velarised. The vowels e and i are classified as slender, and a, o, and u as broad. The spelling rule known as caol ri caol agus leathann ri leathann ("slender to slender and broad to broad") requires that a word-medial consonant or consonant group followed by a written i or e be also preceded by an i or e; and similarly if followed by a, o or u be also preceded by an a, o, or u. Consonant quality (palatalised or non-palatalised) is then indicated by the vowels written adjacent to a consonant, and the spelling rule gives the benefit of removing possible uncertainty about consonant quality at the expense of adding additional purely graphic vowels that may not be pronounced. For example, compare the t in slàinte with the t in bàta .
The rule has no effect on the pronunciation of vowels. For example, plurals in Gaelic are often formed with the suffix -an, for example, bròg (shoe) / brògan (shoes). But because of the spelling rule, the suffix is spelled -ean (but pronounced the same) after a slender consonant, as in taigh (house) / taighean (houses) where the written e is purely a graphic vowel inserted to conform with the spelling rule because an i precedes the gh.
In changes promoted by the Scottish Examination Board from 1976 onwards, certain modifications were made to this rule. For example, the suffix of the past participle is always spelled -te, even after a broad consonant, as in togte "raised" (rather than the traditional togta).
Where pairs of vowels occur in writing, it is sometimes unclear which vowel is to be pronounced and which vowel has been introduced to satisfy this spelling rule.
Unstressed vowels omitted in speech can be omitted in informal writing. For example:
- Tha mi an dòchas. ("I hope.") > Tha mi 'n dòchas.
Once Gaelic orthographic rules have been learned, the pronunciation of the written language can be seen to be quite predictable. However learners must be careful not to try to apply English sound-to-letter correspondences to written Gaelic, otherwise mispronunciations will result. Gaelic personal names such as Seònaid are especially likely to be mispronounced by English speakers.
English orthographic rules have also been used at various times in Gaelic writing. Notable examples of Gaelic verse composed in this manner are the Book of the Dean of Lismore and the Fernaig manuscript.
Pronunciation
Vowels
Gaelic vowels can have a grave accent, with the letters à, è, ì, ò, ù. Traditional spelling also uses the acute accent on the letters á, é and ó, but texts which follow the spelling reform only use the grave.
A table of vowels with pronunciations in the | Spelling | Pronunciation | English equivalent | As in | | a, á | | cat | bata, lochán | | à | | father | bàta | | e | | get, late | le, teth | | è, é | | marry, lady | sèimh, fhéin | | i | | tin, sweet | sin, ith | | ì | | evil | mìn | | o | | top, boat | poca, bog | | ò, ó | | jaw, donate | pòcaid, mór | | u | | brute | tur | | ù | | brood | tùr | |
Note: The English equivalents given are only approximate. The vowel most commonly found in English cat is not but . The in English father is also not phonemically long, but only allophonically, nor is it usually , but instead . The "a" in English late is often more like a diphthong than the pure vowel . The same is true for the "o" in English boat, which is often more of a diphthong rather than pure .
Digraphs
A table of diphthongs with pronunciations in the | Spelling | Pronunciation | As in |
|---|
| ai | | caileag, iuchair, geamair, dùthaich | | ài | | àite, bara-làimhe | | ao(i) | | caol, gaoil, laoidh | | ea | | geal, deas, bean | | eà | | ceàrr | | èa | | nèamh | | ei | | eile, ainmeil | | èi | | cèilidh | | éi | | fhéin | | eo | | deoch | | eò(i) | | ceòl, feòil | | eu | | ceum, feur | | ia | | biadh, dian | | io | | fios, fionn | | ìo | | sgrìobh, mìos | | iu | | piuthar | | iù(i) | | diùlt, diùid | | oi | | boireannach, goirid | | òi | | fòill | | ói | | cóig | | ua(i) | | ruadh, uabhasach, duais | | ui | | muir, uighean, tuinn | | ùi | | dùin |
ConsonantsMost letters are pronounced similarly to other European languages. The broad consonants t and d and often n have a dental articulation (as in Irish and the Romance and Slavic languages) in contrast to the alveolar articulation common in English and other Germanic languages). Non-palatal r is an alveolar trill (like Italian or Spanish rr.)
Aspiration vs Voicing of Gaelic Stops
The "voiced" stops are not phonetically voiced [+voice] in Gaelic, but rather voiceless unaspirated. Thus Gaelic are really phonetically [-voice, -aspirated].
The "voiceless" stops are voiceless and strongly aspirated (postaspirated in initial position, preaspirated in medial or final position). That is, in syllable onsets Gaelic are phonetically , but they are in syllable-final position. Note that preaspirated stops can also be found in Icelandic. Because of these facts, it can be argued that Gaelic are [-voice, +aspirated].
In some Gaelic dialects, stops at the beginning of a stressed syllable become voiced when they follow a nasal consonant, for example: taigh 'a house' is but an taigh 'the house' is ; cf. also tombaca 'tobacco' .
Broad vs SlenderScottish Gaelic along with Modern Irish, Manx and Old Irish contains what are traditionally referred to as broad and slender consonants. Historically, Primitive Irish consonants preceding the front vowels and developed a onglide similar to the palatalized consonants found in Russian (Thurneysen 1946, 1980). Celtic linguists traditionally transcribe slender consonants as /C´/.
Modern languages contrast from Gaelic in the assumed meaning of "broad" and "slender". In modern languages, the phonetic difference between "broad" and "slender" consonants are more complex than mere 'palatalization'. For instance, the Gaelic slender s, phonetically transcribed as /s´/, is actually pronounced as the postalveolar fricative , not as . See the consonant chart below for details.
Lenition and spelling
The lenited consonants have special pronunciations: bh and mh are ; ch is or ; dh, gh is or ; th is , , or silent; ph is . Lenition of l n r is not shown in writing. The digraph fh is almost always silent, with only the following three exceptions: fhèin, fhathast, and fhuair, where it is pronounced as .
A table of consonants with pronunciations in the .
Based on Gillies (1993). Radical | Lenited | | Orthography | Broad | Slender | Orthography | Broad | Slender |
|---|
| b (initial) | | | bh | | | | b (final) | | | bh | | | | c (initial) | | | ch | | | | c (final) | | | ch | | | | d | | StressStress is usually on the first syllable: for example drochaid 'a bridge' .
(Knowledge of this fact alone would help avoid many a mispronunciation of Highland placenames, for example Mallaig is .) Note, though, that when a placename consists of more than one word in Gaelic, the Anglicised form is liable to have stress on the last element: Tyndrum < Taigh an Droma . This is because, unlike English, Gaelic word order places the specific element - adjectives, genitives - after the generic.
EpenthesisA distinctive characteristic of Gaelic pronunciation (which has influenced the Scottish accent cf. girl and film ) is the insertion of epenthetic vowels between certain adjacent consonants, specifically, between sonorants (l or r) and certain following consonants:
- tarbh (bull) —
- Alba (Scotland) — .
ElisionSchwa at the end of a word is dropped when followed by a word beginning with a vowel. For example:
- duine (a man) —
- an duine agad (your man) —
TonesWord tones are a linguistic device for distinguishing otherwise identical-sounding words. The most well-known cases of languages using word tones are Chinese and Vietnamese, but tonal languages are also to be found in Europe, e.g. Norwegian and Swedish. Of all the Celtic languages, only the dialects of Lewis (Ternes 1980) and Sutherland (Dorian 1978, 60-1) in the extreme north of the Gaelic-speaking area have tones. Phonetically and historically, these resemble the tones of Norway, Sweden and western Denmark. We may assume that the presence of these tones in Lewis and Sutherland is to be attributed to Viking influence. Several hundred pairs can be found in the Scandinavian languages differentiated by having Tone 1 and Tone 2. In Lewis Gaelic it is difficult to find minimum pairs. Among the rare examples are: bodh(a) (underwater rock) and bò (cow), both pronounced as bò; and fitheach (raven) and fiach (debt), both pronounced as fiach. Another example (with svaranhakti) is the tonal difference between ainm (Tone 2) and anam which has the tonal contour appropriate to a disyllable. These tonal differences are not to be found in Ireland or elsewhere in the Scottish Gaeltachd.
Grammar
Official recognition
After centuries of persecution, prejudice and neglect,
Gaelic has now achieved a degree of official recognition with the passage of the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005.
Media
As well as being taught in schools, including some in which it is the medium of instruction, it is also used by the local council in the Western Isles, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar. The BBC also operates a Gaelic language radio station Radio nan Gàidheal (which regularly transmits joint broadcasts with its Irish counterpart Raidió na Gaeltachta), and there are also television programmes in the language on the BBC and on the independent commercial channels, usually subtitled in English. The ITV franchisee in the north of Scotland, Grampian Television, has a studio in Stornoway. Viewers of Freeview a non-subscription digital TV service can receive the channel TeleG, which broadcasts for an hour every evening.
Gaelic Digital Service similar to S4C in Wales and TG4 in Ireland, will launch on 19 September 2008. As in Wales, the showing of programmes in the language as opt-outs on the main channels has been regarded as inadequate for the 58,552 who speak it. In fact, this annoyance may be largely assumed: the evidence is that at least one Gaelic television programme produced by the BBC attains viewing figures in excess of the number of Gaelic speakers that could view it in Scotland. No complaints are being received by the BBC about Gaelic-language television programmes on BBC TV channels.
Geography
Bilingual road signs (in both Gaelic and English) are gradually being introduced throughout the Gaelic-speaking regions in the Highlands and elsewhere across the nation. In many cases, this has simply meant re-adopting the traditional spelling of a name.
The Ordnance Survey has acted in recent years to correct many of the mistakes that appear on maps. They announced in 2004 that they intended to make amends for a century of Gaelic ignorance and set up a committee to determine the correct forms of Gaelic place names for their maps.
Parliament
Historically, Gaelic has not received the same degree of official recognition from the UK Government as Welsh. With the advent of devolution, however, Scottish matters have begun to receive greater attention, and the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act was enacted by the Scottish Parliament on 21 April 2005.
The key provisions of the Act are:
- Establishing the Gaelic development body, Bòrd na Gàidhlig, (BnG), on a statutory basis with a view to securing the status of the Gaelic language as an official language of Scotland commanding equal respect to the English language and to promote the use and understanding of Gaelic.
- Requiring BnG to prepare a National Gaelic Language Plan for approval by Scottish Ministers.
- Requiring BnG to produce guidance on Gaelic Education for education authorities.
- Requiring public bodies in Scotland, both Scottish public bodies and cross border public bodies insofar as they carry out devolved functions, to develop Gaelic language plans in relation to the services they offer, if requested to do so by BnG.
Following a consultation period, in which the government received many submissions, the majority of which asked that the bill be strengthened, a revised bill was published with the main improvement that the guidance of the Bòrd is now statutory (rather than advisory).
In the committee stages in the Scottish Parliament, there was much debate over whether Gaelic should be given 'equal validity' with English. Due to Executive concerns about resourcing implications if this wording was used, the Education Committee settled on the concept of 'equal respect'. It is still not clear if the ambiguity of this wording will provide sufficient legal force to back up the demands of Gaelic speakers against the whims of public bodies.
The Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament unanimously, with support from all sectors of the Scottish political spectrum on the 21st of April 2005.
Education
The Education (Scotland) Act 1872, which completely ignored Gaelic, and led to generations of Gaels being forbidden to speak their native language in the classroom, is now recognised as having dealt a major blow to the language. People still living can recall being beaten for speaking Gaelic in school.
The first modern solely Gaelic-medium secondary school, (‘Glasgow Gaelic School’), was opened at Woodside in Glasgow in 2006 (61 partially Gaelic-medium primary schools and approximately a dozen Gaelic-medium secondary schools also exist). A total of 2,092 primary pupils are enrolled in Gaelic-medium primary education in 2006-7.
In Nova Scotia, there are somewhere between 500 and 1,000 native speakers, most of them now elderly. In May 2004, the Provincial government announced the funding of an initiative to support the language and its culture within the province.
In Prince Edward Island, the Colonel Gray High School is now offering two courses in Gaelic, an introductory and an advanced course, both language and history are taught in these classes. This is the first recorded time that Gaelic has ever been taught as an official course on Prince Edward Island.
The UK government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of Gaelic. Along with Irish and Welsh, Gaelic is designated under Part III of the Charter, which requires the UK Government to take a range of concrete measures in the fields of education, justice, public administration, broadcasting and culture.
The Columba Initiative, also known as colmcille (formerly Iomairt Cholm Cille), is a body that seeks to promote links between speakers of Scottish Gaelic and Irish.
However, given there are no longer any monolingual Gaelic speakers, following an appeal in the court case of Taylor v Haughney (1982), involving the status of Gaelic in judicial proceedings, the High Court ruled against a general right to use Gaelic in court proceedings.
Under the provisions of the 2005 Act, it will ultimately fall to BnG to secure the status of the Gaelic language as an official language of Scotland.
ChurchIn the Western Isles, the isles of Lewis, Harris and North Uist have a Presbyterian majority (largely Church of Scotland - Eaglais na h-Alba in Gaelic, Free Church of Scotland and Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.) The isles of South Uist and Barra have a Catholic majority. All these churches have Gaelic-speaking congregations throughout the Western Isles.
There are Gaelic-speaking congregations in the Church of Scotland, mainly in the Highlands and Islands, but also in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Notable city congregations with regular services in Gaelic are St Columba's Church, Glasgow and Greyfriars Tolbooth & Highland Kirk, Edinburgh. Leabhar Sheirbheisean - a shorter Gaelic version of the English-language Book of Common Order - was published in 1996 by the Church of Scotland, ISBN 0-907624-12-X.
The relationship between the Church and Gaelic has not always been an easy one. The widespread use of English in worship has often been suggested as one of the historic reasons for Gaelic's decline. Whilst the Church of Scotland is supportive today, there is, however, an increasing difficulty in being able to find Gaelic-speaking ministers. The Free Church also recently announced plans to reduce their Gaelic provision by abolishing Gaelic-language communion services, citing both a lack of ministers and a desire to have their congregations united at communion time.
SportThe most notable use of the language in sport is that of the Camanachd Association, the shinty society, who have a bilingual logo.
In the mid-1990s, the Celtic League started a campaign to have the word "Alba" on the Scottish football and rugby tops. Since 2005, the SFA have supported the use of Scots Gaelic on their teams's strip in recognition of the language's revival in Scotland. However, the SRU is still being lobbied to have "Alba" on the national rugby strip.
Some sports coverage, albeit it at too low a level, takes place in Scottish Gaelic broadcasting.
Personal names
Scottish Gaelic has a number of personal names, such as Aiden, Ailean, Aonghas, Dòmhnall, Donnchadh, Coinneach, Murchadh, for which there are traditional forms in English (Alan, Angus, Donald, Duncan, Kenneth, Murdo). There are also distinctly Scottish Gaelic forms of names that belong to the common European stock of given names, such as: Iain (John), Alasdair (Alexander), Uilleam (William), Catrìona (Catherine), Raibert (Robert), Cairistìona (Christina), Anna (Ann), Màiri (Mary), Seumas (James), Pàdraig (Patrick) and Tómas(Thomas). Some names have come into Gaelic from Old Norse, for example: Somhairle ( < Somarliðr), Tormod (< Þórmóðr), Torcuil (< Þórkell, Þórketill), Ìomhair (Ívarr). These are conventionally rendered in English as Sorley (or, historically, Somerled), Norman, Torquil, and Iver (or Evander). There are other, traditional, Gaelic names which have no direct equivalents in English: Oighrig, which is normally rendered as Euphemia (Effie) or Henrietta (Etta) (formerly also as Henny or even as Harriet), or, Diorbhal, which is "matched" with Dorothy, simply on the basis of a certain similarity in spelling; Gormul, for which there is nothing similar in English, and it is rendered as 'Gormelia' or even 'Dorothy'; Beathag, which is "matched" with Becky (> Rebecca) and even Betsy, or Sophie.
Many of these are now regarded as old-fashioned, and are no longer used (which is, of course, a feature common to many cultures: names go out of fashion). As there is only a relatively small pool of traditional Gaelic names from which to choose, some families within the Gaelic-speaking communities have in recent years made a conscious decision when naming their children to seek out names that are used within the wider English-speaking world. These names do not, of course, have an equivalent in Gaelic. What effect that practice (if it becomes popular) might have on the language remains to be seen. At this stage (2005), it is clear that some native Gaelic-speakers are willing to break with tradition. Opinion on this practice is divided; whilst some would argue that they are thereby weakening their link with their linguistic and cultural heritage, others take the opposing view that Gaelic, as with any other language, must retain a degree of flexibility and adaptability if it is to survive in the modern world at all.
The well-known name Hamish, and the recently established Mhairi (pronounced ) come from the Gaelic for, respectively, James, and Mary, but derive from the form of the names as they appear in the vocative case: Seumas (James) (nom.) ? Sheumais (voc.), and, Màiri (Mary) (nom.) ? Mhàiri (voc.).
The most common class of Gaelic surnames are, of course, those beginning with mac (Gaelic for son), such as MacGillEathain (MacLean). The female form is nic (Gaelic for daughter), so Catherine MacPhee is properly called in Gaelic, Caitrìona Nic a' Phì. [Strictly, "nic" is a contraction of the Gaelic phrase "nighean mhic", meaning "daughter of the son", thus Nic Dhomhnuill, really means "daughter of MacDonald" rather than "daughter of Donald".] Although there is a common misconception that "mac" means "son of", the "of" part actually comes from the genitive form of the patronymic that follows the prefix "Mac", e.g., in the case of MacNéill, Néill (of Neil) is the genitive form of Niall (Neil).
Several colours give rise to common Scottish surnames: bàn (Bain - white), ruadh (Roy - red), dubh (Dow - black), donn (Dunn - brown), buidhe (Bowie - yellow).
LoanwordsThe majority of Scottish Gaelic's vocabulary is native Celtic. There are a large number of borrowings from Latin, (muinntir, Didòmhnaich), ancient Greek, especially in the religious domain (eaglais, Bìoball from Ekklesia and Biblia), Norse (eilean, sgeir), Hebrew (Sàbaid, Aba) and Lowland Scots (aidh, bramar).
In common with other Indo-European languages, the neologisms which are coined for modern concepts are typically based on Greek or Latin, although written
in Gaelic orthography; television, for instance, becomes telebhisean (cian-dhealbh could also be used), and computer becomes coimpiùtar (aireamhadair, bocsa-fiosa or bocsa-sgrìobhaidh could also be used). Although native speakers frequently use an English word for which there is a perfectly good Gaelic equivalent, they will, without thinking, simply adopt the English word and use it, applying the rules of Gaelic grammar, as the situation requires. With verbs, for instance, they will simply add the verbal suffix (-eadh, or, in Lewis, -igeadh, as in, "Tha mi a' watcheadh (Lewis, "watchigeadh") an telly" (I am watching the television), instead of "Tha mi a' coimhead air a' chian-dhealbh". This was remarked upon by the minister who compiled the account covering the parish of Stornoway in the New Statistical Account of Scotland, published over 170 years ago. However,
as Gaelic medium education grows in popularity, a newer generation of literate Gaels is becoming more familiar with modern Gaelic vocabulary.
Going in the other direction, Scottish Gaelic has influenced the Scots language (gob) and English, particularly Scottish Standard English. Loanwords include: whisky, slogan, brogue, jilt, clan, strontium (from Strontian), trousers, as well as familiar elements of Scottish geography like ben (beinn), glen (gleann) and loch. Irish has also influenced Lowland Scots and English in Scotland, but it is not always easy to distinguish its influence from that of Scottish Gaelic. See List of English words of Scottish Gaelic origin
Source: An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Alexander MacBain.
Common Scottish Gaelic words and phrases with Irish and Manx equivalents
| Scottish Gaelic Phrase | Irish Equivalent | Manx Gaelic Equivalent | Rough English Translation |
|---|
| Fàilte | Fáilte | Failt | Welcome | | Halò | Haileo or Dia dhuit (trad., lit.: "God be with you") | Hello | Hello | | Latha math | Lá maith | Laa mie | Good day | | Ciamar a tha thu? | Conas atá tú? (Cad é mar atá tú? in Ulster) | Kys t'ou? | How are you? | | Ciamar a tha sibh? | Conas atá sibh? (Cad é mar atá sibh? in Ulster) | Kanys ta shiu? | How are you? (plural, singular formal) | | Madainn mhath | Maidin mhaith | Moghrey mie | Good morning | | Feasgar math | Trathnóna maith | Fastyr mie | Good afternoon | | Oidhche mhath | Oíche mhaith | Oie vie | Good night | | Ma 's e do thoil e | Más é do thoil é | My saillt | If you please | | Ma 's e (bh)ur toil e | Más é bhur dtoil é | My salliu | If you please (plural, singular formal) | | Tapadh leat | Go raibh maith agat | Gura mie ayd | Thank you | | Tapadh leibh | Go raibh maith agaibh | Gura mie eu | Thank you (plural, singular formal) | | Dè an t-ainm a tha ort? | Cad é an t-ainm atá ort? or Cad is ainm duit? | Cre'n ennym t'ort? | What is your name? | | Dè an t-ainm a tha oirbh? | Cad é an t-ainm atá oraibh? | Cre'n ennym t'erriu? | What is your name?(plural, singular formal) | | Is mise... | Is mise... | Mish... | I am... | | Slàn leat | Slán leat | Slane lhiat | Goodbye | | Slàn leibh | Slán libh | Slane lhiu | Goodbye (plural, singular formal) | | Dè a tha seo? | Cad é seo? | Cre shoh? | What is this? | | Slàinte | Sláinte | Slaynt | "health" (used as a toast [cf. English "cheers"] when drinking) | |
Gaelic in the Lowlands
According to a reference in The Carrick Covenanters by James Crichton, the last place in the Scottish Lowlands where Gaelic was last spoken was the village of Barr on the River Stinchar in Ayrshire. Barr was once regarded as one of the most isolated places in that part of Scotland, though situated only a few miles from Girvan as the crow flies. Crichton gives neither date nor details.
For further discussion on the subject of Gaelic in the South of Scotland, see articles Gàidhlig Ghallghallaibh agus Alba-a-Deas ("Gaelic of Galloway and Southern Scotland") and Gàidhlig ann an Siorramachd Inbhir-Àir ("Gaelic in Ayrshire") by Garbhan MacAoidh, published in GAIRM Numbers 101 and 106.
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