Language Question (Irish / Scots / Welsh)

[Mr. MacDougall]

Hey, guys. I have a question regarding language, and I was hoping someone here might be able to shed some light on the subject.

It's my understanding that the Gaelic spoken by the Irish, and the Gaelic spoken by the Scots are different dialects of the same language, and mostly mutually-intellegable. Is that correct?

Where does Welsh fit it? Is it a Gaelic language? Would it be understood by speakers of either of the other two versions of Gaelic?

[McFarkus]

The entry from Wikipedia below has a pretty good summary of the development of Celtic languages. Apparently Goidelic (Gaelic) is what is spoken in Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man. Brythonic (Brittonic) includes Welsh, Cornish, Breton and Cumbric (maybe Pictish).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_languages

[highlander_Daz]

The Scots and Irish versions are similar, as for Welsh, its a language all of its own, I love wales however the language is very challanging, I have been to Porthmadog quite a few times and the language is spoken openly however Ive found as you move south its heard less an less, The Welsh are (Rightly) protective of their language and most official documents/ signs etc are printed in both English and Welsh.
For any meat eaters on Xmarks I can recomend Welsh lamb

[pipesndrumsnun]

I don't know if this helps at all, but you can find free language lessons online (for Scots and Irish for sure)...it might be kind of neat to look them up, learn a few words and phrases, and compare the languages.

[slohairt]

Hey, guys. I have a question regarding language, and I was hoping someone here might be able to shed some light on the subject.

It's my understanding that the Gaelic spoken by the Irish, and the Gaelic spoken by the Scots are different dialects of the same language, and mostly mutually-intellegable. Is that correct?

Where does Welsh fit it? Is it a Gaelic language? Would it be understood by speakers of either of the other two versions of Gaelic?

Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx are technically considered separate languages, though they are, more or less, mutually intelligible. They belong to the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. Welsh IS related but belongs to the other branch of Celtic languages called Brythonic, along with Cornish and Breton. You could draw a comparison between English and German with regards to Welsh and Irish.

[Chef]

An analogy to the Romance languages would be this Irish and Scots Gaelic are like Spanish and Portuguese. They are two separate languages but they can muddle through since they are from the same branch. Welsh would be something like Romanian. Still a romance language but split on a different branch long enough ago so it only has a vague resemblance to the other two. Or so said my Gaelic teacher (assuming I was paying attention).