Is gaelic still spoken?
History of Scottish Gaelic
All surviving dialects are Highland and/or Hebridean dialects. Dialects of Lowland Gaelic have become defunct since the demise of Galwegian Gaelic, originally spoken in Galloway, which seems to have been the last Lowland dialect and which survived into the Modern Period. By the 18th century Lowland Gaelic had been largely replaced by Lowland Scots across much of Lowland Scotland. According to a reference in "The Carrick Covenanters " by James Crichton, the last place in the Lowlands where Scottish 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. Crichton gives neither date nor details.
Caithness
As previously indicated, the language mix or boundary changed over time, but the "New Statistical Record" in 1841 says: "On the eastern side of [the Burn of East Clyth] scarcely a word of Gaelic was either spoken or understood, and on the west side, English suffered the same fate". Other sources state:According to the 2011 Scotland Census, 282 (1.1%) residents of Caithness age three and over can speak Gaelic while 466 (1.8%) have some facility with the language. The percentage figures are almost exactly the same as for all of Scotland (1.1% and 1.7%, respectively). Nearly half of all Gaelic speakers in the county live in Thurso civil parish. The town of Thurso hosts the only Gaelic Medium Primary School unit in all of Caithness (see Language in Thurso).
Angus, Scotland
The most recent available census results (2001) show that Gaelic is spoken by 0.45% of the Angus population. This, similar to other lowland areas, is lower than the national average of 1.16%. These figures are self-reported and are not broken down into levels of fluency.
Lochearnhead
By 1837, the New Statistical Account tells us that in the area, "Gaelic is the language generally spoken, but it has been rather losing ground within the last forty years". At the time of the 1881 Census, when a question about Gaelic was included for the first time, there were still more than 70% in the parish with Gaelic as their first language, and even some with Gaelic as their only language.
Gigha
Gigha had a vigorous tradition of harping, represented mainly by the family called Mac an Bhreatnaigh (Galbraith), who were active in Gigha and Kintyre, and it is thought that their descendants were in Gigha until at least 1685. In the 1990s it was reported that many of the island's resident spoke Gaelic although the numbers have declined significantly in recent years.
Goidelic languages
The Goidelic or Gaelic languages (; ; ) form one of the two groups of Insular Celtic languages, the other being the Brittonic languages.
Gaelic-speaking congregations in the Church of Scotland
The report notes that many former Gaelic-speaking congregations had moved directly from traditional Gaelic services to English only and had not sought to embrace even an element of Gaelic worship. Nevertheless, in Scottish society as a whole, there is a considerable and growing, interest in Gaelic, illustrated by the preparation of A National Plan for Gaelic in response to a Scottish Government initiative; the establishing of Bord na Gàidhlig; the development of Gaelic education; increase in the number of adults learning the language and the development of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in Skye. Two key recommendations are made:
Scottish Gaelic
Dialects of Lowland Gaelic have been defunct since the 18th century. Gaelic in the Eastern and Southern Scottish Highlands, although alive in the mid-twentieth century, is now largely defunct. Although modern Scottish Gaelic is dominated by the dialects of the Outer Hebrides and Isle of Skye, there remain some speakers of the Inner Hebridean dialects of Tiree and Islay, and even a few elderly native speakers from Highland areas including Wester Ross, northwest Sutherland, Lochaber, and Argyll. Dialects on both sides of the Straits of Moyle (the North Channel) linking Scottish Gaelic with Irish are now extinct, though native speakers were still to be found on the Mull of Kintyre, in Rathlin and in North East Ireland as late as the mid-20th century. Records of their speech show that Irish and Scottish Gaelic existed in a dialect chain with no clear language boundary. Some features of moribund dialects have been preserved in Nova Scotia, including the pronunciation of the broad or velarised l () as , as in the Lochaber dialect.
Drumfearn
After English, Scottish Gaelic is the most commonly spoken language in the village. Drumfearn is included in a census output area with Duisdale, Kinloch and Kylerhea, and in 2011, 32.4% of this area were recorded as Gaelic speakers. Historically, Gaelic was the principal language in the village. In 1901, 92.0% of the population of Drumfearn and Kinloch were recorded as Gaelic speakers, and 24.3% were recorded as being monolingual in the Gaelic language.
Celtic literature
Gaelic language and literature from Ireland became established in the West of Scotland between the 4th and 6th centuries. Until the development of Scottish Gaelic literature with a distinct identity, there was a literary standard shared between Gaelic-speaking Ireland and Scotland, sometimes known as Classical Gaelic. The Hiberno-Scottish mission from the 6th century spread Christianity and established monasteries and centres of writing. Gaelic literature in Scotland includes a celebration, attributed to the Irish monk Adomnán, of the Pictish King Bridei's (671–93) victory over the Northumbrians at the Battle of Dun Nechtain (685). Pictish, the now extinct Brythonic language spoken in Scotland, has left no record of poetry, but poetry composed in Gaelic for Pictish kings is known. By the 9th century, Gaelic speakers controlled Pictish territory and Gaelic was spoken throughout Scotland and used as a literary language. However, there was great cultural exchange between Scotland and Ireland, with Irish poets composing for Scottish or Pictish patrons, and Scottish poets composing for Irish patrons. The "Book of Deer", a 10th-century Latin Gospel Book with early-12th-century additions in Latin, Old Irish and Scottish Gaelic, is noted for containing the earliest surviving Gaelic writing from Scotland.
In Medieval Welsh literature the period before 1100 is known as the period of "Y Cynfeirdd" ("The earliest poets") or "Yr Hengerdd" ("The old poetry"). It roughly dates from the birth of the Welsh language until the arrival of the Normans in Wales towards the end of the 11th century. "Y Gododdin" is a medieval Welsh poem consisting of a series of elegies to the men of the Britonnic kingdom of Gododdin and its allies who, according to the conventional interpretation, died fighting the Angles of Deira and Bernicia at a place named "Catraeth" in c. AD 600. It is traditionally ascribed to the bard Aneirin, and survives only in one manuscript, known as the Book of Aneirin. The poem is recorded in a manuscript of the second half of the 13th century, and it has been dated to anywhere between the 7th and the early 11th centuries. The text is partly written in Middle Welsh orthography and partly in Old Welsh. The early date would place its oral composition to soon after the battle, presumably in the "Hen Ogledd" ("Old North") in what would have been the Cumbric variety of Brythonic. Others consider it the work of a poet in medieval Wales, composed in the 9th, 10th or 11th century. Even a 9th-century date would make it one of the oldest surviving Welsh works of poetry.
Northern Ireland
The Irish language (), or "Gaelic", is a native language of Ireland. It was spoken predominantly throughout what is now Northern Ireland before the Ulster Plantations in the 17th century and most place names in Northern Ireland are anglicised versions of a Gaelic name. Today, the language is often associated with Irish nationalism (and thus with Catholics). However, in the 19th century, the language was seen as a common heritage, with Ulster Protestants playing a leading role in the Gaelic revival.
Gaels
The Gaelic languages have been in steep decline since the beginning of the 19th century, when they were majority languages of Ireland and the Scottish Highlands; today they are endangered languages. The spread of the English language has resulted in a vast majority of people of Gaelic ancestry being unable to speak a Goidelic language. As far back as the Statutes of Kilkenny in 1366, the British government had dissuaded use of Gaelic for political reasons. The Statutes of Iona in 1609 and the SSPCK in the Highlands (for most of its history) are also notable examples. As the old Gaelic aristocracy were displaced or assimilated, the language lost its prestige and became primarily a peasant language, rather than one of education and government.
Literature in early modern Scotland
By the early modern era Gaelic had been in geographical decline for three centuries and had begun to be a second class language, confined to the Highlands and Islands. The tradition of classic Gaelic poetry survived longer in Scotland than in Ireland, with the last fully competent member of the MacMhuirich dynasty, who were hereditary poets to the Lords of the Isles and then the Donalds of Clanranald, still working in the early eighteenth century. Nevertheless, interest in the sponsorship of panegyric Gaelic poetry was declining among the clan leaders. Gaelic was gradually being overtaken by Middle Scots, which became the language of both the nobility and the majority population. Middle Scots was derived substantially from Old English, with Gaelic and French influences. It was usually called "Inglyshe" and was very close to the language spoken in northern England, but by the sixteenth century it had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England. From the mid sixteenth century, written Scots was increasingly influenced by the developing Standard English of Southern England due to developments in royal and political interactions with England. With the increasing influence and availability of books printed in England, most writing in Scotland came to be done in the English fashion.
Irish language outside Ireland
The Gaelic League retains a presence in Britain (the current Glasgow branch was founded in 1895), and the Irish-language organization Coláiste na nGael and its allies run language classes and other events all over Britain. The areas concerned include London, Essex, Leicestershire and Somerset. There is an active Irish language scene in Manchester with two groups, Conradh na Gaeilge (Manchester branch) and the Manchester Irish Language Group, who have organised an annual arts festival since 2007. The British Association for Irish Studies (established 1985) aims to support Irish cultural activities and the study of Ireland in Britain. This includes promotion of the Irish language.
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland was also the only place outside Europe to have its own distinct name in Irish: "Talamh an Éisc", which means 'land of the fish'. The Irish language is now extinct in Newfoundland. Scots Gaelic was also once spoken in the southwest of Newfoundland, following the settlement there, from the middle of the 19th century, of small numbers of Gaelic-speaking Scots from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Some 150 years later, the language has not entirely disappeared, although it has no fluent speakers.
Suibne mac Cináeda
The Gaelic "Gaidheal" (plural "Gaidheil") is primarily a linguistic term referring to speakers of Gaelic. The Gaelic term "Gall Gaidheil", literally meaning "Stranger-"Gaidheil"", first appears on record in the mid-ninth century. At this period in time, the term "Gall" (plural "Gaill") referred to Scandinavians, which indicates that "Gall Gaidheil" should be taken to mean "Scandinavian-"Gaidheil"". The term appears to have been applied to a population of mixed Scandinavian and Gaelic ethnicity in the Hebrides and part of the former kingdom of Dál Riata. The leader of the "Gall Gaidheil" in the mid part of the century appears to have been a certain Caittil Find—possibly identical to Ketill Flatnefr of Scandinavian saga tradition—who may have been seated in the Hebrides. If the little that is known of Caittil and his connection with the "Gall Gaidheil" is correct, it could be evidence that Suibne was a Hebridean chieftain as well.
Seas west of Scotland
The coastline is part of the Celtic fringe. Gaelic is spoken as a minority language in many parts of the area with strongholds in the Outer Hebrides and Tyrconnel in Donegal. Scottish Gaelic is declining in Scotland although the compulsory teaching of the Irish language in Irish schools means that most Irish citizens understand it to some extent. The variant of Gaelic spoken in Donegal is distinctive, and shares traits with Scottish Gaelic. Its Gaeltacht (Irish speaking area) uses the West Ulster dialect. Inishowen, which lost its Gaeltacht areas in the early 20th century, used the East Ulster dialect.
Canadian Gaelic
The Gaelic cultural identity community is a vibrant part of Nova Scotia's diverse peoples and communities. Thousands of Nova Scotians attend Gaelic-related activities and events annually including: language workshops and immersions, milling frolics, square dances, fiddle and piping sessions, concerts and festivals. Up until about the turn of the 20th century, Gaelic was widely spoken on eastern Prince Edward Island (PEI). In the 2011 Canadian Census, 10 individuals in PEI cited that their mother tongue was a Gaelic language, with over 90 claiming to speak a Gaelic language.
Goidelic languages
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 dialect 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 Inglis, the only exceptions being the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland where Norse was spoken.
Celts
Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of the Gaels (Irish, Scottish and Manx) and the Celtic Britons (Welsh, Cornish, and Bretons) of the medieval and modern periods. A modern Celtic identity was constructed as part of the Romanticist Celtic Revival in Great Britain, Ireland, and other European territories, such as Portugal and Spanish Galicia. Today, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton are still spoken in parts of their historical territories, and Cornish and Manx are undergoing a revival.
Languages in censuses
Iceland has been a very isolated and linguistically homogeneous island historically, but has nevertheless beheld several languages. Gaelic was native to many of the early Icelanders, the Icelandic or Norse language however prevailing, albeit absorbing Gaelic features. Later, northern trade routes brought German, English, Dutch, French and Basque. Some merchants and clergymen settled in Iceland throughout the centuries, leaving their mark on culture, but linguistically mainly trade, nautical or religious terms. Excluding these and Latin words, Icelandic has altered remarkably little since settlement, the island's residents living in seclusion.
History of Scottish Gaelic
What is known as Scottish Gaelic is essentially the Gaelic spoken in the Outer Hebrides and on Skye. Generally speaking, the Gaelic spoken across the Western Isles is similar enough to be classed as one major dialect group, although there is still regional variation. For example, the slender 'r' is pronounced in Lewis, where the Gaelic is thought to have been influenced by Norse, and had a pitch accent system.
Celticisation
In the modern era, there are attempts made to reverse the effects of centuries of Anglicisation and other assimilations and re-introduce Celtic languages. Most particularly in Wales, Welsh language has seen a halt in its decline and even signs of revival, with approximately half a million fluent speakers. There have also been recent attempts to revive the Cornish language, as its last native speaker died in the 1970s, and there are now several schools in Cornwall teaching in Cornish. The Breton language remains endangered as the number of its speakers continues to decline.
History of Icelandic
Again along with English, Icelandic is unusual among Germanic languages to have conserved, if only at a local level, the pronunciation of the word-initial consonantal cluster : Icelandic "hvað", "hvalur" , more commonly . In English "what", "whale", the is only pronounced in certain dialects. The other Germanic languages have consonantized the cluster: German "was", "Wal-fisch" , Dutch "wat", "wal-vis", Swedish "vad", "val[fisk]". Until the early years of the 20th century Swedish maintained the orthography in words such as "hvad, hvalfisk", which is purely historical. In Danish one writes but does not pronounce : "hvad", "hval-fisk" , while in Nynorsk, in some cases, one writes and pronounces ("kva"), exactly as is usual in modern Icelandic (southern dialect and literary). There are also indications that was originally pronounced .
Scottish Gaelic
As with other Celtic languages, monolingualism is non-existent except among native-speaking children under school age in traditional areas. In 2014, the census of pupils in Scotland showed 497 pupils in publicly funded schools had Gaelic as the main language at home, a drop of 18% from 606 students in 2010. During the same period, Gaelic medium education in Scotland has grown, with 3,583 pupils being educated in a Gaelic-immersion environment in 2014, up from 2,638 pupils in 2009. However, even among pupils enrolled in Gaelic medium schools, 81% of primary students and 74% of secondary students report using English more often than Gaelic when speaking with their mothers at home.
Canadian Gaelic
Canadian Gaelic or Cape Breton Gaelic (), known in English as often simply Gaelic, is the dialects of Scottish Gaelic spoken by people in Atlantic Canada who have their origins in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Staffin
In the modern era this part of Skye retains a strong Gaelic identity with 61 per cent of the local population recorded as speaking the language in 2001. In September 2010, Comunn na Gàidhlig named Staffin as their "Gaelic Community of the Year", in the first year this competition has run. Also in September 2010, Highland Council announced the launch of a consultation into a plan to convert the local primary into a Gaelic medium school. This would be the second such conversion in Scotland, after Bun-sgoil Shlèite. Only 5 out of the school's thirty pupils have English as their only language, with the remainder being bilingual English and Gaelic speakers.
Goidelic languages
Goidelic languages historically formed a dialect continuum stretching from Ireland through the Isle of Man to Scotland. There are three modern Goidelic languages: Irish ('), Scottish Gaelic (') and Manx (""), the last of which died out in the 20th century but has since been revived to some degree.
History of Scottish Gaelic
Gaelic still retained some of its old prestige in medieval Scotland. At the coronation of King Alexander III in 1249, a traditional "" or story-teller recited the king's full genealogy in Gaelic all the way back to , the mythical progenitor of the Scots in , "in accordance with the custom which had grown up in the kingdom from antiquity right up to that time". Clan chiefs in the northern and western parts of Scotland continued to support Gaelic bards who remained a central feature of court life there. The semi-independent Lordship of the Isles in the Hebrides and western coastal mainland had remained thoroughly Gaelic since the language's recovery there in the 12th century, providing a political foundation for cultural prestige down to the end of the 15th century.
Manx language
Manx (native name or , pronounced or or ), also known as Manx Gaelic, and also historically spelled Manks, is a Goidelic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, that was spoken as a first language by the Manx people on the Isle of Man until the death of the last native speaker, Ned Maddrell, in 1974. Despite this, the language has never fallen completely out of use, with a minority having some knowledge of it; in addition, Manx still has a role as an important part of the island's culture and heritage. Manx has been the subject of language revival efforts with estimates, in 2015, of around 1,800 people with varying levels of second language conversational ability. Since the late 20th century, Manx has become more visible on the island, with increased signage, radio broadcasts and a bilingual primary school. The revival of Manx has been made easier because the language was well-recorded; for example, the Bible had been translated into Manx, and audio recordings had been made of native speakers.
Feis
Today the Feis has experienced something of a rebirth, both for ethnic Gaels and for enthusiasts of the Gaelic culture in Ireland and Scotland, as well as throughout the world.
Gaels
The two comparatively "major" Gaelic nations in the modern era are Ireland (which in the 2002 census had 185,838 people who spoke Irish "daily" and 1,570,894 who were "able" to speak it) and Scotland (58,552 fluent "Gaelic speakers" and 92,400 with "some Gaelic language ability" in the 2001 census). Communities where the languages still are spoken natively are restricted largely to the west coast of each country and especially the Hebrides islands in Scotland. However, a large proportion of the Gaelic-speaking population now lives in the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland, and Donegal, Galway, Cork and Dublin in Ireland. There are about 2,000 Scottish Gaelic speakers in Canada (Canadian Gaelic dialect), although many are elderly and concentrated in Nova Scotia and more specifically Cape Breton Island. According to the U.S. Census in 2000, there are more than 25,000 Irish-speakers in the United States, with the majority found in urban areas with large Irish-American communities such as Boston, New York City and Chicago.
Language revitalization
Another Celtic language, Manx, lost its last native speaker in 1974 and was declared extinct by UNESCO in 2009, but never completely fell from use. The language is now taught in primary and secondary schools including the Bunscoill Ghaelgagh, used in some public events and spoken as a second language by approximately 1800 people. Revitalization efforts include radio shows in Manx Gaelic and social media and online resources. The Manx government has also been involved in the effort by creating organizations such as the Manx Heritage Foundation (also known as Culture Vannin) and the position of Manx Language Officer. The government has released an official Manx Language Strategy for 2017-2021.
Canadian Gaelic
In Atlantic Canada today, there are currently approximately 2,000 speakers, mainly in Nova Scotia. In terms of the total number of speakers in the 2011 census, there were 7,195 total speakers of "Gaelic languages" in Canada, with 1,365 in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island where the responses mainly refer to Scottish Gaelic. The 2011 census also reported that over 300 residents of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island considered a Gaelic language to be their "mother tongue".
Gaulish language
Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language that was spoken in parts of Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language spoken by the Celtic inhabitants of Gaul (modern-day France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine). In a wider sense, it also comprises varieties of Celtic that were spoken across much of central Europe ("Noric"), parts of the Balkans, and Asia Minor ("Galatian"), which are thought to have been closely related. The more divergent Lepontic of Northern Italy has also sometimes been subsumed under Gaulish.
Gaels of Scotland
With the culturally devastating Highland Clearances, the spread of the Scots Gael diaspora into the region of the former British Empire has meant that Scots Gaelic is currently a transatlantic language (see Canadian Gaelic) while the diaspora covered a much wider area. In the early 21st century, the descendants of the Highland diaspora far outnumber the population in Scotland.
Indo-European migrations
Modern Celtic languages are mostly spoken on the northwestern edge of Europe, notably in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man, and can be found spoken on Cape Breton Island. There are also a substantial number of Welsh speakers in the Patagonia area of Argentina. Some people speak Celtic languages in the other Celtic diaspora areas of the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In all these areas, the Celtic languages are now only spoken by minorities though there are continuing efforts at revitalization. Welsh is the only Celtic language not classified as "endangered" by UNESCO.
Gaelic revival
The Gaelic League held weekly meetings that were a combination of classes and conversation. Its focus on the vernacular form of language and modern literature distinguished it from the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language, The Celtic Society and the Gaelic Union. Within months it had branches in Cork and Galway. After four years it had 43 branches, and after ten years more than 400. Although it was more concerned with fostering the language in the home than with teaching it in schools, it was nonetheless successful in having Irish added to the curriculum; the number of schools teaching it rose from about a dozen in the 1880s to 1,300 in 1903. The League took over the "Gaelic Journal" in 1894, when O'Growney retired as editor, with MacNeill replacing him. In January 1898 it began publication of a weekly newspaper, . In March of the following year, following a dispute with the owner, this was replaced by , with MacNeill again as editor. In 1901 MacNeill was replaced as editor by Eoghan Ó Neachtain, who was in turn replaced in 1903 by Patrick Pearse. The League also concerned itself with the folk music of Ireland, and was involved in the movement which led to the organisation of the Feis Ceoil (Festival of Music) by Annie Patterson in 1897.
Gàidhealtachd
For historical reasons, including the influence of a Scots-speaking court in Edinburgh and the plantation of merchant burghs in much of the south and east, the Gàidhealtachd has been reduced massively to the present region of the Outer Hebrides, the Northwest Highlands, the Skye and Loch Alsh and Argyll and Bute, with small Gaelic populations existing in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The Highland Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries also contributed to the decline of the language, as they reduced the population of the Scottish Highlands, which were predominantly Gaelic-speaking at the time.
Goidelic languages
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 a Brythonic language) who lived throughout Scotland. Manx, the language of the Isle of Man, is closely akin to the Gaelic spoken in the Hebrides and 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.
Celtic Revival
The Welsh language has been spoken continuously in Wales throughout recorded history, and in recent centuries has been easily the most widely-spoken Celtic language. But by 1911 it had become a minority language, spoken by 43.5% of the population. While this decline continued over the following decades, the language did not die out. By the start of the 21st century, numbers began to increase once more.
Gaelic literature
Gaelic literature (; ) is literature in the vernacular Gaelic languages of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.
Gaelic-speaking congregations in the Church of Scotland
There is a shortage of ministers able to speak Gaelic. Continuity of Gaelic worship in Edinburgh has been maintained since 1704. It began when a provision was made by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for services for Gaelic-speaking soldiers stationed at Edinburgh Castle. Today, this Gaelic tradition continues at the 12.30 Gaelic-language service at Greyfriars Kirk. Glasgow still has a weekly Gaelic service at St Columba's Church, Glasgow on St Vincent Street at 10am.
Cape Breton Island
The 2016 Canadian Census shows that there are only 40 reported speakers of Gaelic as a mother tongue in Cape Breton. On the other hand, there are families and individuals who have recommenced intergenerational transmission. They include fluent speakers from Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland and speakers who became fluent in Nova Scotia and who in some cases studied in Scotland. Other revitalization activities include adult education, community cultural events and publishing.
Scottish Gaelic literature
By the early modern era Gaelic had been in geographical decline for three centuries and had begun to be a second class language, confined to the Highlands and Islands. The tradition of classic Gaelic poetry survived longer in Scotland than in Ireland, with the last fully competent member of the MacMhuirich dynasty, who were hereditary poets to the Lords of the Isles and then the Donalds of Clanranald, still working in the early eighteenth century. Nevertheless, interest in the sponsorship of panegyric Gaelic poetry was declining among the clan leaders. Gaelic was gradually being overtaken by Middle Scots, which became the language of both the nobility and the majority population. Middle Scots was derived substantially from Old English, with Gaelic and French influences. It was usually called "Inglyshe" and was very close to the language spoken in northern England, Unlike many of his predecessors, James VI actively despised Gaelic culture. As the tradition of classical Gaelic poetry declined, a new tradition of vernacular Gaelic poetry began to emerge. While Classical poetry used a language largely fixed in the twelfth century, the vernacular continued to develop. In contrast to the Classical tradition, which used syllabic metre, vernacular poets tended to use stressed metre. However, they shared with the Classic poets a set of complex metaphors and role, as the verse was still often panegyric. A number of these vernacular poets were women, such as Mary MacLeod of Harris (c. 1615-1707). Iain Lom (c. 1624–c. 1710) was a Royalist Scottish Gaelic poet appointed poet laureate in Scotland by Charles II at the Restoration. He delivered a eulogy for the coronation, and remained loyal to the Stuarts after 1688, opposing the Williamites and later, in his vituperative "Oran an Aghaidh an Aonaidh", the 1707 Union of the Parliaments.
Bilingual education
Irish Gaelic received official recognition in Northern Ireland for the first time in 1998 under the Good Friday Agreement. A cross-border body known as Foras na Gaeilge was established to promote the language in both Northern Ireland and the Republic.
The British government in 2001 ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Irish Gaelic (in respect only of Northern Ireland) was specified under Part III of the Charter, thus giving it a degree of protection and status somewhat comparable to the Welsh language in Wales and Scottish Gaelic in Scotland. This included a range of specific undertakings in relation to education, translation of statutes, interaction with public authorities, the use of placenames, media access, support for cultural activities and other matters (whilst the Ulster variant of Scots, known as Ulster Scots, was specified under Part II of the Charter.)
Sorley MacLean
Before he went to university, MacLean was writing in both English and Gaelic. After writing a Gaelic poem, "A' Chorra-ghritheach" ("The Heron"), in 1932, he decided to write only in Gaelic and burned his earlier poems. MacLean later said, "I was not one who could write poetry if it did not come to me in spite of myself, and if it came, it had to come in Gaelic". However, it is also clear from his correspondence with MacDiarmid that his choice was also motivated by his determination to preserve and develop the Gaelic language. The Gaelic language had been in decline for several centuries; the 1931 census registered 136,135 Gaelic speakers in Scotland, only 3% of the Scottish population. Despite his decision to write in the language, at times MacLean doubted that Gaelic would survive and his poetry would be appreciated.
Galwegian Gaelic
It is thought that Galwegian Gaelic probably had more in common with the Manx and Ulster Irish than with Scottish Gaelic as spoken in the Highlands. This idea has in the past been used to disassociate Galwegian Gaelic from other Scottish dialects, for political purposes in fact. However, the idea is very misleading. Medieval Goidelic was a single language with a universal educated standard and regional dialects, which seem to have been mutually comprehensible. Perhaps the Gaelic dialect of the Isle of Arran parallels the Galwegian language most, but this is purely speculative.
Gaelic
Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun, it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Celtic languages are spoken in both Ireland and Scotland, in Scotland it is very often referred to just as "Gaelic", but in Ireland it is referred to as "Irish".
Canadian Gaelic
While there have been many different regional dialects of Scottish Gaelic that have been spoken in communities across Canada, Atlantic Canada is the only area in North America where Gaelic continues to be spoken as a community language, especially in Cape Breton. All of these dialects had their origins in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, although some have become effectively dormant since the time of emigration. Even in Cape Breton, the situation of the language is precarious.
Goidelic languages
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 language 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 literati.
Languages of Canada
Scottish Gaelic was spoken by many immigrants who settled in Glengarry County, Ontario and the Maritimes — predominantly in New Brunswick's Restigouche River valley, central and southeastern Prince Edward Island, and across the whole of northern Nova Scotia — particularly Cape Breton. While the Canadian Gaelic dialect has mostly disappeared, regional pockets persist. These are mostly centred on families deeply committed to their Celtic traditions. Nova Scotia currently has 500–1,000 fluent speakers, mostly in northwestern Cape Breton. There have been attempts in Nova Scotia to institute Gaelic immersion on the model of French immersion. As well, formal post-secondary studies in Gaelic language and culture are available through St. Francis Xavier University, Saint Mary's University, and The Gaelic College.
Languages of the Isle of Man
During the Middle Ages, the three Gaelic languages maintained a single standard for higher registers and poetry. This is sometimes misleadingly referred to as "Classical Irish" - despite the fact it was much in use in Scotland and presumably the Isle of Man. It is also known as Classical Gaelic.
Comrie
Historically, Comrie and the surrounding area has been part of the Gàidhealtachd. A statistical account of the Comrie Parish from 1799 recites that "The common language of the people is Gaelic and all the natives understand it; but many, especially the old, do not understand English". Gaelic appears to have remained the primary language during the early part of the 19th century, as the following passage written in 1828 from Mr.Mushet, local minister at the time, describing the annual celebration of the sacrament of the lord's supper testifies "The Lord favoured us (blessed be His name) with fair and seasonable weather. We had near eleven tables in Irish (Gaelic). Each table contained forty-eight persons or thereabout, and we had only two tables and some few persons at the third in English". As with the rest of Scotland however, the process of language shift away from Gaelic and towards English, facilitated by the Highland Clearances and the Education (Scotland) Act of 1872, was apparently well established by the late 19th century. Indeed, by 1891 census estimates suggested that only 17.9% of the population of Comrie were native Gaelic speakers. In 1901 only 8.3% of the population were native Gaelic speakers, while only 4.5% of the population had Gaelic as their sole language. The most recent census data for 2002 shows that less than 5% of the population are Gaelic speakers.
Languages of Scotland
According to the 2001 census Scottish Gaelic has 58,652 speakers (roughly 1% of the population of Scotland). In total 92,400 people aged three and over in Scotland had some Gaelic language ability in 2001. 15,723 of these reside in the Outer Hebrides, where the language is spoken by the majority of the population. There are also large populations of speaker in other parts of the Highlands.
Saint Mary's Gaels
""The Gaels are an ethno-linguistic group which spread from Ireland to Scotland and the Isle of Man. Their language is of the Gaelic (Goidelic) family, a division of Insular Celtic languages. The word in English was adopted in 1810 from Scottish Gaelic Gaidheal (compare Irish Gaedhealg and Old Irish Goídeleg) to designate a Highlander (OED). Gael or Goídeleg was first used as a collective term to describe people from Ireland; it is thought to have come from Welsh Gwyddel (Old Welsh Goídel), originally "raider", now "Irish person". Many people who do not speak Gaelic consider themselves to be 'Gaels' in a broader sense because of their ancestry and heritage.""
Galwegian Gaelic
The likely eastern limit reached by the language was the River Annan, for the reason that Gaelic placenames disappear quite rapidly beyond this boundary. In the north it was possibly cut off from other Scottish dialects in the 14th, if not the 13th century.
Celts (modern)
It is these six nations that (alone) are considered Celtic by the Celtic League and the Celtic Congress amongst others. These organisations ascribe to a definition of Celticity based mainly upon language. In the aforementioned six regions, Celtic languages have survived and continue to be used to varying degrees in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, Cornwall and Brittany. There are also Celtic nomads: Irish Travellers called "Pavee" that speak a language called Shelta that is a creole of Irish Gaelic and other languages and Indigenous Highland Scottish Travellers called "Tinkers" who speak a language called Beurla Reagaird that is an acrolect of Scottish Gaelic.
Inner Hebrides
There have been speakers of Goidelic languages in the Inner Hebrides since the time of Columba or before, and the modern variant of Scottish Gaelic ("Gàidhlig") remains strong in some parts. However, the Education (Scotland) Act 1872 led to generations of Gaels being forbidden to speak their native language in the classroom, and is now recognised as having dealt a major blow to the language. Children were being beaten for speaking Gaelic in school as late as the 1930s. More recently the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act was enacted by the Scottish Parliament in 2005 in order to provide continuing support for the language.
Celtic Revival
Also Breton is still spoken to a lesser extent in Cape Breton, it is also home to the only Celtic language outside of Europe, Canadian Gaelic.
Celtic Revival
The Gaulish language used to be widely spoken in France and beyond. In recent times there have been attempts at revivals, despite very limited evidence for the exact original form of the language. Eluveitie is a metal band whom most of their songs are in a revived Gaulish.
Gaeldom
The term Gaeldom refers to areas in which some Gaelic languages, namely Scottish Gaelic and Manx and are spoken.
Celts
Today, the term Celtic generally refers to the languages and respective cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany, also known as the Celtic nations. These are the regions where four Celtic languages are still spoken to some extent as mother tongues. The four are Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, and Breton; plus two recent revivals, Cornish (one of the Brittonic languages) and Manx (one of the Goidelic languages). There are also attempts to reconstruct Cumbric, a Brittonic language from North West England and South West Scotland. Celtic regions of Continental Europe are those whose residents claim a Celtic heritage, but where no Celtic language has survived; these areas include the western Iberian Peninsula, i.e. Portugal and north-central Spain (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Castile and León, Extremadura).
Culture of the United Kingdom
Individual countries within the UK have frameworks for the promotion of their indigenous languages. In Wales, all pupils at state schools must either be taught through the medium of Welsh or study it as an additional language until age 16, and the Welsh Language Act 1993 and the Government of Wales Act 1998 provide that the Welsh and English languages should be treated equally in the public sector, so far as is reasonable and practicable. Irish and Ulster Scots enjoy limited use alongside English in Northern Ireland, mainly in publicly commissioned translations. The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act, passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2005, recognised Gaelic as an official language of Scotland, commanding equal respect with English, and required the creation of a national plan for Gaelic to provide strategic direction for the development of the Gaelic language. A 2010 poll among Scots saw a majority view Scots as a dialect of English and not a separate language. The Cornish language enjoys neither official recognition nor promotion by the state in Cornwall.
Gaels
In the 12th century, Normans conquered parts of Ireland (leading to centuries of conflict), while parts of Scotland became Normanized. However, Gaelic culture remained strong throughout Ireland, the Scottish Highlands and Galloway. In the early 17th century, the last Gaelic kingdoms in Ireland fell under English control. James I sought to subdue the Gaels and wipe out their culture; in Ireland by colonizing Gaelic land with English-speaking British settlers, and in the Scottish Highlands via repressive laws such as the Statutes of Iona. In the following centuries most Gaels were gradually anglicized and Gaelic language mostly supplanted by English. However, it continues to be the main language in Ireland's Gaeltacht and Scotland's Outer Hebrides. The modern descendants of the Gaels have spread throughout Britain, the Americas and Australasia.
Gallaecian language
Gallaecian, or Northwestern Hispano-Celtic, is an extinct Celtic language and was one of the Hispano-Celtic languages. It was spoken at the beginning of the 1st millennium in the northwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula that became the Roman province of Gallaecia and is now divided between the modern regions of Galicia, Norte Region, Portugal, western Asturias, and the Province of León, in Spain.
Scottish Gaelic
In the nineteenth century, Canadian Gaelic was the third-most widely spoken language in Canada and Gaelic-speaking immigrant communities could be found throughout the country. Gaelic poets in Canada produced a significant literary tradition. The number of Gaelic-speaking individuals and communities declined sharply, however, after the First World War.
Scotland in the Middle Ages
Modern linguists divide Celtic languages into two major groups, the P-Celtic, from which the Brythonic languages: Welsh, Breton, Cornish and Cumbric derive, and the Q-Celtic, from which come the Goidelic languages: Irish, Manx and Gaelic. The Pictish language remains enigmatic, since the Picts had no written script of their own and all that survives are place names and some isolated inscriptions in Irish ogham script. Most modern linguists accept that, although the nature and unity of Pictish language is unclear, it belonged to the former group. Historical sources, as well as place name evidence, indicate the ways in which the Pictish language in the north and Cumbric languages in the south were overlaid and replaced by Gaelic, Old English and later Norse in this period. By the High Middle Ages the majority of people within Scotland spoke the Gaelic language, then simply called "Scottish", or in Latin, "lingua Scotica". The Kingdom of Alba was overwhelmingly an oral society dominated by Gaelic culture. Our fuller sources for Ireland of the same period suggest that there would have been filidh, who acted as poets, musicians and historians, often attached to the court of a lord or king, and passed on their knowledge and culture in Gaelic to the next generation.
Canadian Gaelic
By 1850, Gaelic was the third most-common mother tongue in British North America after English and French (when excluding Indigenous languages), and is believed to have been spoken by more than 200,000 British North Americans at that time. A large population who spoke the related Irish Gaelic immigrated to Scots Gaelic communities and to Irish settlements in Newfoundland.
Comrie
The decline of Gaelic speakers in the area can be largely attributed to The Highland Clearances (Scottish Gaelic: "Fuadach nan Gàidheal") in the 18th and 19th centuries, which saw people in the smaller satellite settlements of the village (located in the surrounding mountains and glens) forcibly displaced from their homes, and many forced to emigrate to Canada, Australasia and North America. In addition, the Education (Scotland) Act of 1872 led to generations of Gaels forbidden from speaking their native language in the classroom, and punished for doing so. As with the rest of Scotland (excluding the North-west), Gaelic speakers have struggled to retain their language through the generations, though Comrie retains a larger than average number of speakers.
Celtic languages
Modern Celtic languages are mostly spoken on the north-western edge of Europe, notably in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man. There are also a substantial number of Welsh speakers in the Patagonia area of Argentina and some speakers of Scottish Gaelic on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Some people speak Celtic languages in the other Celtic diaspora areas of the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In all these areas, the Celtic languages are now only spoken by minorities though there are continuing efforts at revitalisation. Welsh is the only Celtic language not classified as "endangered" by UNESCO.
History of Scottish Gaelic
There is no evidence from place names 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, though native speakers were still to be found on the Mull of Kintyre, Rathlin and in North East Ireland as late as the mid-20th century. Records of their speech show that Irish and Scottish Gaelic existed in a dialect chain with no clear language boundary.
Literature in the other languages of Britain
The Scottish Gaelic Renaissance (Scottish Gaelic: "Ath-Bheòthachadh na Gàidhlig") is a continuing movement concerning the revival of the Scottish Gaelic language. Although the Scottish Gaelic language had been facing gradual decline in the number of speakers since the late 19th century, the number of young fluent Gaelic speakers is rising due to Gaelic-medium education. The movement has its origins in the Scottish Renaissance, especially in the work of Sorley MacLean, George Campbell Hay, Derick Thomson and Iain Crichton Smith. Sabhal Mòr Ostaig is sometimes seen as being a product of this renaissance. Although many of the products of the Renaissance are in poetry, or in traditional music, many such as MacLean and Iain Crichton Smith, and more recently Aonghas MacNeacail have blended these with modern international styles.
Scottish Gaelic Renaissance
The Scottish Gaelic Renaissance () is a continuing movement concerning the revival of the Scottish Gaelic language. Although the Scottish Gaelic language had been facing gradual decline in the number of speakers since the late 19th century, the number of young fluent Gaelic speakers is quickly rising. The movement has its origins in the Scottish Renaissance, especially in the work of Sorley MacLean, George Campbell Hay, Derick Thomson and Iain Crichton Smith.
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig is sometimes seen as being a product of this renaissance.
Although many of the products of the Renaissance were in poetry, or in traditional music, many such as MacLean and Iain Crichton Smith, and more recently Aonghas MacNeacail have blended these with modern international styles.
Gaulish language
Together with Lepontic and the Celtiberian language spoken in the Iberian Peninsula, Gaulish forms the geographic group of Continental Celtic languages. The precise linguistic relationships among them, as well as between them and the modern Insular Celtic languages, are uncertain and a matter of ongoing debate because of their sparse attestation.
Gaels
Since then, the Gaelic language has gradually diminished in most of Ireland and Scotland. The 19th century was the turning point as The Great Hunger in Ireland, and across the Irish Sea the Highland Clearances, caused mass emigration (leading to Anglicisation, but also a large diaspora). The language was rolled back to the Gaelic strongholds of the north west of Scotland, the west of Ireland and Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.
Celtic nations
The Celtic languages form a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. SIL Ethnologue lists six living Celtic languages, of which four have retained a substantial number of native speakers. These are the Goidelic languages (i.e. Irish and Scottish Gaelic, which are both descended from Middle Irish) and the Brittonic languages (i.e. Welsh and Breton, which are both descended from Common Brittonic).
Gaeltacht
An area in southern County Londonderry centred on Slaghtneill ("Sleacht Néill") and Carntogher ("Carn Tóchair"), which had gone from being 50% Irish-speaking in 1901 to having only a few speakers by the end of the century, has seen a language revival since the setting up of a naíscoil in 1993 and a gaelscoil in 1994. In 2008 two local organisations launched a "strategy for the rebirth of the Gaeltacht", based on Irish-medium primary and secondary education. Speaking at the launch, Éamon Ó Cuív, the Republic's Minister for the Gaeltacht, said that the area was "an example to other areas all over Ireland which are working to reestablish Irish as a community language".
Languages of Scotland
Scottish Gaelic and Irish are generally viewed as being languages in their own right rather than dialects of a single tongue but are sometimes mutually intelligible to a limited degree – especially between southern dialects of Scottish Gaelic and northern dialects of Irish (programmes in each form of Gaelic are broadcast on BBC Radio nan Gaidheal and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta), but the relationship of Scots and English is less clear, since there is usually partial mutual intelligibility.
Scottish Gaelic phonology
This article is about the phonology of the Scottish Gaelic language. There is no standard variety of Scottish Gaelic; although statements below are about all or most dialects, the north-western dialects (Outer Hebrides, Skye and the Northwest Highlands) are discussed more than others as they represent the majority of speakers.
Isle of Arran
Gaelic was still spoken widely on Arran at the beginning of the 20th century. The 1901 Census reported 25–49 per cent Gaelic speakers on the eastern side of the island and 50–74 per cent on the western side of the island. By 1921 the proportion for the whole island had dropped to less than 25 per cent. However, Nils Holmer quotes the Féillire (a Gaelic almanack) reporting 4,532 inhabitants on the island in 1931 with 605 Gaelic speakers, showing that Gaelic had declined to about 13 per cent of the population. It continued to decline until the last native speakers of Arran Gaelic died in the 1990s. Current Gaelic speakers on Arran originate from other areas in Scotland. In 2011, 2.0 per cent of Arran residents aged three and over could speak Gaelic.
Languages of Northern Ireland
The Irish language (), or "Gaelic", is a native language of the island of Ireland. It was spoken predominantly throughout what is now Northern Ireland before the Ulster Plantations in the 17th century and most place names in Northern Ireland are anglicised versions of a Gaelic name. Today, the language is associated with Irish nationalism (and thus with the Catholic community). However, in the 19th century, the language was seen as a common heritage, with Ulster Protestants playing a leading role in the Gaelic revival.
Scottish Gaelic
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.
Scotland
In 2011, there were an estimated 49,000 ethnically Pakistani people living in Scotland, making them the largest non-White ethnic group. Since the Enlargement of the European Union more people from Central and Eastern Europe have moved to Scotland, and the 2011 census indicated that 61,000 Poles live there. Scotland has three officially recognised languages: English, Scots, and Scottish Gaelic. Scottish Standard English, a variety of English as spoken in Scotland, is at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum, with broad Scots at the other. Scottish Standard English may have been influenced to varying degrees by Scots. The 2011 census indicated that 63% of the population had "no skills in Scots". Others speak Highland English. Gaelic is mostly spoken in the Western Isles, where a large proportion of people still speak it; however, nationally its use is confined to just 1% of the population. The number of Gaelic speakers in Scotland dropped from 250,000 in 1881 to 60,000 in 2008.
Lochearnhead
Regular church services were held locally in Gaelic up until 1930, Today the generation which remembers native Gaelic being spoken is fast dying out, and any Gaelic speakers are likely to be either learners or incomers from Gaelic-speaking heartlands. To this day, though, "Church Gaelic" is based on the Perthshire Gaelic dialect. The first Gaelic Bible was translated by Balquhidder minister Robert Kirk.
Insular Celts
The Goidelic branch would develop into Primitive Irish, Old Irish and Middle Irish, and only with the historical (medieval) expansion of the Gaels would it split into the modern Gaelic languages (Modern Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx). 
Common Brythonic, on the other hand, split into two branches, British and Pritenic as a consequence of the Roman invasion of Britain in the 1st century. 
By the 8th century, Pritenic had developed into Pictish (which would be extinct during the 9th century or so), and British had split into Old Welsh and Old Cornish.
Pan-Celticism
Before the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity, people lived in Iron Age Britain and Ireland, speaking languages from which the modern Gaelic languages (including Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx) and Brythonic languages (including Welsh, Breton and Cornish) descend. These people, along with others in Continental Europe who once spoke now extinct languages from the same Indo-European branch (such as the Gauls, Celtiberians and Galatians), have been retroactively referred to in a collective sense as the Celts, particularly in a wide spread manner since the turn of the 18th century. Variations of the term "Celt", such as "Keltoi" had been used in antiquity by the Greeks and the Romans to refer to some groups of these people, such as Herodotus' use of it in regards to the Gauls.
Wales
In his 1707 work "Archaeologia Britannica" Edward Lhuyd, keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, noted the similarity between the two Celtic language families: Brythonic or P–Celtic (Breton, Cornish and Welsh); and Goidelic or Q–Celtic (Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic). He argued that the Brythonic languages originated in Gaul (France) and that the Goidelic languages originated in the Iberian Peninsula. Lhuyd concluded that as the languages had been of Celtic origin, the people who spoke those languages were Celts. (According to a more recent hypothesis, also widely embraced today, Goidelic and Brythonic languages, collectively known as Insular Celtic languages, evolved together for some time separately from Continental Celtic languages such as Gaulish and Celtiberian.) From the 18th century, the peoples of Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland, Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales were known increasingly as Celts, and they are regarded as the modern Celtic nations today.
Professor of Gaelic (Glasgow)
A Chair of Celtic had already been established at the University of Glasgow in 1956, and the Chair of Gaelic was founded in April 2010 as part of the university's aim to establish itself as "a centre of excellence for the study of Celtic and Gaelic." The establishment of the chair was announced on the same day as Glasgow City Council launched its new Gaelic Language Plan with an aim of making Gaelic a commonly used language by 2020. The Scottish Government has been putting efforts into the support and revival of Gaelic in Scotland in recent years, in line with their duties under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 established the Bòrd na Gàidhlig, a non-governmental public body responsible for the promomotion of Gaelic language in Scotland.
Gigha
Gigha has historically been a very strong Gaelic speaking area. Both in the 1901 and 1921 census, the island was reported to be over 75% Gaelic speaking. By 1971, it had dropped to the 25-49.9% range. In the 2001 census, the percentage of Gaelic speakers had dropped to 14%.
Braemar
In the 1891 census, 59.2% of the population of Braemar spoke the Gaelic language "habitually", the percentage of those actually able to speak the language (despite not having much opportunity to) would have been somewhat higher. The small crofting township of Inverey ("Inbhir Èidh") was 86.3% Gaelic-speaking, most non-speakers being originally from Lower Deeside. The Gaelic spoken in the Aberdeenshire Highlands shared most features in common with the Gaelic of Strathspey and East Perthshire. The last native-speaker of the local Gaelic dialect died in 1984, though there are still surviving native-speakers of the similar Strathspey dialect.
At the 2001 census, out of a total population of 839 in Crathie and Braemar Civil Parish, only 5 (0.6%) claimed to be Gaelic-speakers.
Inverness
For its size, Inverness today still has a relatively high density of Gaelic speakers and a relatively lively Gaelic scene, making it one of the centres of the Scottish Gaelic Renaissance. According to the 2011 census, 4.8% of residents of greater Inverness over age 3 speak Gaelic compared to 1.1% nationally. At 2,800 Gaelic speakers, only Greater Glasgow and Edinburgh have a higher absolute total. The number of Gaelic speakers has fluctuated over the last century. In 1881, the census reported 4,047 Gaelic speakers in Inverness (23.3% of the population) which by 1891 had risen to 6,356 speakers (30.47%). By 1901 this figure had dropped to 5,072 speakers (23.88%) of the population, from which it continued to drop to present day numbers through emigration and language shift. Scottish Gaelic is slowly re-appearing in the linguistic landscape, appearing on some signs around Inverness. Bun-sgoil Ghàidhlig Inbhir Nis, which opened in August 2007 offering primary school education through the medium of Gaelic, is nearing full capacity and was extended to allow for more pupils in August 2010. Bòrd na Gàidhlig, an organisation responsible for supporting and promoting the use of Scottish Gaelic, has its main office in Inverness. Other Gaelic related groups include the Inverness Gaelic Choir which has existed for over 70 years. Inverness also hosted the Royal National Mòd in 2014, a festival celebrating Gaelic culture.
Goidelic languages
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 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.
Canadian Gaelic
Scottish Gaels settled in Nova Scotia commencing in 1773 with the arrival of the Ship Hector and continuing up until the 1850s. Gaelic has been spoken for 241 years in Nova Scotia: on Cape Breton Island and on the northeastern Nova Scotia mainland. During the early 1900s, the Gaelic language was nearly wiped out in Canadian schools.
Language shift
Gaelic has long suffered from its lack of use in educational and administrative contexts and was long suppressed. The shift from Gaelic to Scots and Scottish English has been ongoing since about 1200 CE; Gaelic has gone from being the dominant language in almost all areas of modern-day Scotland to an endangered language spoken by only about 1% of the population.
Gaelicisation
In some official Gaeltachtaí (Irish-speaking regions) areas, Irish remains a vernacular language alongside English.
Irish language in Northern Ireland
By the 1860s, of all the Roman Catholic seminaries, only St Jarlath's in Tuam was teaching in Irish. The Roman Catholic Church had, at that time, desired to "stamp out any lingering, semi-pagan remnants", which included Gaelic language. Sir William Wilde in 1852 blamed the Catholic Church for the quick decline and was "shocked" by the decline of the language and Gaelic customs since the Famine.
Gaels
The Gaels (; ; ; ) are an ethnolinguistic group native to northwestern Europe. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic languages comprising Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic. Historically, the ethnonyms "Irish" and "Scots" referred to the Gaels in general, but the scope of those nationalities is today more complex.
British Iron Age
The tribes living in Britain during this time are often popularly considered to be part of a broadly Celtic culture, but in recent years this has been disputed. At a minimum, "Celtic" is a linguistic term without an implication of a lasting cultural unity connecting Gaul with the British Isles throughout the Iron Age. The Brythonic languages spoken in Britain at this time, as well as others including the Goidelic and Gaulish languages of neighbouring Ireland and Gaul respectively, certainly belong to the group known as Celtic languages. However it cannot be assumed that particular cultural features found in one Celtic-speaking culture can be extrapolated to the others.
Belgae
Caesar's book The Gallic Wars begins: "All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celts, in ours Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws." However, many modern scholars believe that the Belgae were a Celtic-speaking group. On the other hand, at least part of the Belgae may also have had significant genetic, cultural, and historical connections to peoples east of the Rhine, including Germanic peoples, judging from archaeological, placename, and textual evidence. It has also been argued based on placename studies that the older language of the area, though apparently Indo-European, was not Celtic (see Nordwestblock) and that Celtic, though influential amongst the elite, might never have been the main language of the part of the Belgic area north of the Ardennes. For example, Maurits Gysseling, suggest that prior to Celtic and Germanic influences the Belgae may have comprised a distinct Indo-European branch, termed Belgian.
Callander
Scottish Gaelic was once widely spoken. In 1803, William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy, visited Callander and the Trossachs and recorded everyday encounters with Gaelic language and culture. In the 1840s sermons were delivered in both Gaelic and English, and Gaelic was taught in at least two schools in the area. By the 1880s most locals were speaking a mixture of Gaelic, Scots and English. In the 1900s, Celtic scholar, William J. Watson, documented, "four Gaelic-speaking men born near Callander, two of whom were over 80 and had excellent knowledge of the place-names." However, one 19th century writer (Alexander MacGibbon) took objection to the local dialect, stating, "The true Gaelic is a noble language, worthy of the fire of Ossian, and wonderfully adapted to the genius of a warlike nation; but the contemptible language of the people about Callander, and to the east, is quite incapable of communicating a noble idea."