Irish & Scottish Gaelic?????

[denmcdough]

Not being anywhere close to being an expert on Gaelic, I was wondering if other forum members, with more knowledge on the subject, could chime in on the differences, if any, between Irish and Scottish Gaelic?

The reason I ask: I was on youtube listening to an Irish singer, Muireann NicAmhlaoibh and a Scottish singer, Julie Fowlis. Fowlis is from the outer Hebridies, North Uist, and Muireann is from the western Isles of Ireland. Seems like they can converse quiet well in Gaelic. Go to this clip and see for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljb0O...eature=related

[McElmurry]

I can't answer your question but thanks for the link. I enjoyed the music.

[Blackrose87]

The two languages do have some similarities, and speakers of either one may be able to pick up a word here or there of the other language.
My gaeilge isn't great, but I've been told Ulster Irish would be the closest to Scots Gàidhlig.
However even though they have both evolved from the same place, they are still two distinct languages, and speakers would find much more differences than similarities between gaeilge and gàidhlig.

Btw Julie Fowlis is also a fluent Gaeilge speaker, and this is the language she is speaking in the video.

[Oldhiker]

there are 6 Gaelic languages, Irish, Scottish. Welsh, Manx, Cornish and Breton. They all have the same ancinet origins. Irish and Scottish are the closest releated since the Scottish version descends direct from the Irish when the Celtic migration went from ireland to scotland. I am an Scottish Gaelic student and can spot a few Irish words. Due to isolation even some Scottish Gaelic dialects vary from area to area now days. Hope this helps

[Emmet]

I'm a fluent at speaking Irish and I live for a couple of years with a fluent speaker from the Isle of Skye and we could converse with no major issues. I'd almost compare it to just two very different accents.

Another interesting factoid is there is two streams if the celtic language, P-celtic and K-celtic and by swopping the P sound from the P one with a K sound you get to the other language.

Example

4= pedwar in Welsh, cathar in Irish, swop the K with the P in pedwar and you have Kadwar which sounds remarkably like Irish and this works with a lot of the language but not really place names

[Gael Ridire]

I have a distant cousin who lives in Donegal in the Gaeltacht. I once asked him how to say a certain word in Irish and he said, "what dialect? We have north, south, east and west." What?, it's a little island and there's four dialects. Uhhhh, LOL.

[Dale Seago]

I have a distant cousin who lives in Donegal in the Gaeltacht. I once asked him how to say a certain word in Irish and he said, "what dialect? We have north, south, east and west." What?, it's a little island and there's four dialects. Uhhhh, LOL.

Yup. In addition to regional dialects in Ireland there are regional dialects in Scotland as well.

[OrneryPiper]

there are 6 Gaelic languages, Irish, Scottish. Welsh, Manx, Cornish and Breton. They all have the same ancinet origins. Irish and Scottish are the closest releated since the Scottish version descends direct from the Irish when the Celtic migration went from ireland to scotland. I am an Scottish Gaelic student and can spot a few Irish words. Due to isolation even some Scottish Gaelic dialects vary from area to area now days. Hope this helps

Don't forget A' Ghàidhlig Chanadach (Canadian Gaelic);)

(...of course it comes from Scottish Gaelic but I thought it was worth mentioning)

[OC Richard]

there are 6 Gaelic languages, Irish, Scottish. Welsh, Manx, Cornish and Breton.

Well not exactly, because you're lumping the "Brythonic" or "P-Celtic" languages in with the "Goidelic" or "Q-Celtic" languages.

As DB Gregor states in Celtic: A Comparative Study:

"Common Celtic, which had no letter P, split into two main "dialects", according as, aftern learning to pronounce P, the speakers had kept it or changed it into Q. The P-Celts are known as Brythons, the Q-Celts are called Goidels."

So we have to keep in mind that "Celtic" and "Gaelic" are not synonymous. It breaks down like this:

Brythonic or P-Celtic: Welsh, Breton, Cornish
Goidelic or Q-Celtic: Irish, Gaelic, Manx

About these naming conventions, Gregor continues:

"By their own speakers the Celtic languages of Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man are al called Gaelic (respectively Gaeilge, Gaidhlig, Gailck or Gaelg); and Gaelic they are, being orginally one language, that of the Gaels.... in the following pages English usage is followed and 'Gaelic' signifies the Gaelic of Scotland, the language of Ireland is called 'Irish', while Manxmen speak, or rather spoke, 'Manx' which the Irish themselves distinguish as An Mannanais."

The differences between the Q-Celtic and P-Celtic show up for example in "mac" v "map" for son.

About the similarities/differences between Scots Gaelic and Irish, there used to be quite a community here of speakers of both, and they would get together and party. One of them told me that after a while (and some drinks) they didn't have much trouble communicating.

I know nothing about this personally, but I experienced the closest thing an English speaker can, that is, listening to a conversation between a young couple speaking to each other in Freise, English's closest relative. I could understand around a quarter of what they were saying, and I can imagine that if thrown together at a party we would make do just fine.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

OC Richard is correct. It would be wrong to say there are "6 Gaelic languages." Gaelic refers to the Q-Celtic tongues. So calling all the Celtic languages Gaelic would be a bit like calling all Romance languages Spanish.

As to the difference between Irish and Scottish Gaelic, I asked the same question of a linguist once and was told that prior to 1700 the differences were minimal (effectively different dialects of the same language) but post-1700 the two began their own trajectories and are now considered different, though closely related, languages. So, rather like Spanish and Portuguese, native speakers of each could converse and understand a fair amount of what the other was trying to say.