The Scots Gaelic Myth

[PatrickHughes123]

Thank you for a very interesting thread.

May I ask what was the language of the Picts? I know I am going back hundreds of years further, but with the foundation of the Scotland, my understanding was the Irish Gaelic speaking Scotti and the Picts forged a Kingdom under Kenneth MacAlpin (much myth and legend about how fast and how violently this occurred).

My understanding of Scottish historic is very high level and may be very wrong, so be gentle.

Yes, that is the gist of it. The language is known today as Pictish. In 843 AD, Kenneth MacAlpin took control of Pictland and both the Gaelic kingdom and the Pict kingdom merged to form the Kingdom of Alba. Pictish lands were completely Gaelic-speaking by 900 AD, Pictish now was extinct. Alba would take part of the English kingdom in 1018, and Strathclyde in 1020. Cumbric-speaking people from Strathclyde were completely Gaelic speaking by the start of the 12th Century. This never happened in the English-speaking part as they were allowed to keep their own language, this Northern variety of English was soon to become the Scots language.

Scotland then gained more ground in 1234 when the Gaelic-speaking Galloway kingdom became part of Scotland in the extreme South-West.

Scotland then gained Orkney and Shetland in 1469. There is more to it than that but that is beyond the scope of the post.