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The Influence of Latin and Norse on the Goidelic Languages - Page 4

© Morag Gladstone

Although Ireland was never fully Romanised as Britain was, Latin had a major influence on the culture, introducing literature and the study of language. Linguistically, there were a large number of borrowings from Latin into Irish, as there was all over Europe, albeit primarily via Brythonic speakers. As the Irish expanded into the Isle of Man and Scotland before or during the sixth century, they took with them their language. Scottish Gaelic and Manx divergence from Old Irish cannot be readily detected until the arrival of the Vikings in the eighth century. As we have seen, there are Norse loan words in Irish that are also present in the other two varieties of Gaelic, however Norse had a far greater influence on the areas of Eastern Gaelic, affecting both the lexicon and the phonology. Accurately charting the history of the Manx language, as always, is problematic. No written records survive from before the sixteenth century so we must make educated guesses regards the language. Arguments have been presented elsewhere to support the idea that Manx was originally Brythonic, and others believe it was Goidelic. It is unfortunate that the current orthography represents a mix of Middle English representation of a Goidelic language, making the task of tracing the etymology of the language even more difficult.

Sources

1. Thomson, Robert L., 'Foreign Elements in the Manx Vocabulary' in Urland & Broderick, pp 127-139
2. Kelly, Rev. J., A Practical Grammar of the Antient Gaelic or, Language of the Isle of Man, Usually Called Manks (Douglas, 1870)
3. Ó Cróinín, D., Early Medieval Ireland 400 - 1200 (London, 1995)
4. Freeman, P., Ireland and the Classical World (Texas, 2001)
5. Ó Dochartaigh, C., 'Irish in Ireland' in Price, (2000), pp 6-36
6. Russell, P. An Introduction to the Celtic Languages (New York 1995)
7. Jackson, K., Language and History in Early Britain (Edinburgh, 1953)
8. McManus *(checking this for missing info)
9. Thomson, Robert L., 'Manx' in Price, Glanville (ed), Languages in Britain & Ireland (Oxford 2000), pp 58-69
10. MacBain, A., Outlines of Gaelic Etymology (Stirling, 1909)
11. Barnes, M. P., 'Norse and Norn' in Urland, P. S., & Broderick, G., (eds), Language Contact in the British Isles (Tübingen 1991), pp 171-183
12. Stowell, B. & Bréasláin, D., A Short History of the Manx Language (Belfast 1996)
13. Ó Rahilly *(checking this for missing info)
14. Henderson *(checking this for missing info)
15. Geipel, J. The Viking Legacy (Newton Abbot, 1971)

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