Scottish English

Michael Everson everson at evertype.com
Thu Oct 20 21:54:07 CEST 2005


Karen,

Of the Celtic languages, there are three Goidelic 
or Gaelic languages, all or which derived from 
dialects originating in Ireland. They can be 
described unambiguously thus:

Gaeilge na hÉireann
Gàidhlig na hAlban
Gaelg Vannin

that is,

Irish Gaelic (lit. the Gaelic of Ireland)
Scottish Gaelic  (lit. the Gaelic of Scotland)
Manx Gaelic (lit. the Gaelic of Mann)

In ordinary speech, however, they are normally called:

Gaeilge
Gàidhlig
Gaelg

that is,

Irish
Gaelic (or Scottish Gaelic)
Manx

It depends where you are and what precisely you 
need to convey. Some people (in Northern Ireland 
for instance) also use "Gaelic" to refer to the 
Irish language, at least in casual speech. But in 
my view, a videotape with Irish-language content 
that labelled it "Gaelic" would be labelling it 
incorrectly.
-- 
Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com


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