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Thou'lt Aye Be Dear Tae Me: Gaelic

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Of the two modern Celtic language families, only Gaelic (called "Q-Celtic" because Gaelic dialects contain the Latin Q sound) is linked to modern nation states. As a result, Gaelic has received more government support than most "P-Celtic" tongues (those in which Q's change to P's in root or borrowed words) such as Breton and Cornish. Welsh is the exception; though a P-Celtic language, Welsh has received more government support than Scottish Gaelic.

Gaelic is the language of no majority, though Irish and Scottish Gaelic are historically and politically associated with their national majorities. Their continued survival has more to do with passion than demographics. Manx Gaelic, from the Isle of Man, is officially extinct, but there is a movement afoot to reverse that situation.

Saorstat Eireann (the Irish Republic)

Irish Gaelic (or Irish) is a compelling example of a language kept alive by sheer will. Although native speakers of Irish Gaelic are much in the minority, Gaelic is Ireland's official language. As such it enjoys a rare prestige among minority tongues.

Compared with the Scottish tradition, Irish Gaelic has a soft, murmuring quality. Grammar, pronunciation, and spelling are also substantially different. However, if my observations are accurate, shouting and gesticulating apparently overcome some of these differences. Modern Irish is no more similar to Old Irish than Scottish or Manx Gaelic, but it has necessarily come under fewer foreign influences. Irish patriots may therefore be technically correct when they insist that theirs is "the most Gaelic."

Though Irish Gaelic remains more touchstone than working language, the Irish Republic has dedicated many resources to maintaining it. Among the three Gaelic dialects, Irish is the best-represented online. An teolaire offers an exhaustive page of Irish Gaelic links. RTE, Irish national radio, offers livestreamed Gaelic programmes, while Raidio na Gaeltachta broadcasts nothing but.

Alba (Scotland)

About 300 AD the Irish tribe Uí Néill (The Sons of Neil) colonised the west coast of Scotland. There they encountered a mysterious, Paleo-Celtic culture that had occupied Northern Britain for thousands of years. The Romans called these people Picts, from their habit of tattooing themselves. Little else is known about them. The newcomers, called Scoti, neither conquered nor displaced this shadowy people. Rather, the two cultures seem to have intermingled until both disappeared into a new people, the Scottish Gaels.

Historical linguists, who have worked miracles on less, have dug deeply into Scottish Gaelic, searching for linguistic artifacts that might reveal something of the elusive Picts. The best they've come up with are a handful of P-Celtic root words. Whether Pictish was a P-Celtic tongue, or these words were borrowed from the Welsh, remains uncertain.

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