The Scots Gaelic Myth

[PatrickHughes123]

I just used the links you provided to access the sites? Am still able to access them at the moment.

I don't agree that Pictish language & culture died out in the true sense (ie ceased to exist) that doesn't happen even in a violent form of takeover. What happened is that the P Celtic Pictish Culture merged with Q Celtic Scottish culture in the places where Q Celt was the linguistic form & it evolved & combined to make a new culture which became considered as "Scottish". The articles you provided made comments about how P Celtic words could combine with Q Celt words to form placenames. Similarly if Pictish culture died out, why do we have words such as Aberdeen, &Aberfeldyremaining as Placenames? Likewish there was a merging of cultures between the P Celtic Picts & the Saxon Northumbrians to form a more uniquely Border Culture.

My point remains that Saxon was in Scotland before the Scots even arrived. Therefore as some 'Gaelic Fanatics' regard English as a language of an oppressor because it has eventually lead to the reduction of Gaelic as a true Language except for in a minority of places & they see Gaelic as more original to the Landmass we see as Scotland & therefore deserving of bilingual status, if we reconsider things in these terms of Saxon having been at a significant level of use in the Lowlands prior to the Dalriadic influx then the idea that Gaelic is any more 'Scottish' than Scots English is is called into highly questionable ground...

Do I think Gaelic was spoken more widely than it was? Yes but in different forms and from different influences & not just as one form comingvfrom Central and Highland Scotland like you seem to suggest & rather than a spreading band across land it was pocketting in from the sea. I also think loan words spread across cultures but not necessarily indicating that those languages were spoken widely in that area.

Do I think Gaelic is any more indigenous to the Landmass of Scotland than Scots English - not really both are languages which have come in from outside, but evolvedi nto a different form distictive to the region.

Do I think Gaelic is worthy of support? Yes I think it is, however as a tool to preserve the culture of the Highlands & Island & help them identify their roots. However it should not be made to look like this is the indigenous culture of the Lowland Scotland as the picture is more complex than that. And it should never ever be allowed to obliterate or call into question the preexisting cultures which were already there when the Scots arrived & this includes the Kingdom of Northumbria. But I also think where relevant P Celtic languages should also be incorporated in some way to the curriculum at least to facilitate an understanding of placenames.

Do I think any of your sources are reliable? Well I'd definitely say that map you provided was highly unreliable given the linguistiplacenames.it suggests as Being Wholly Irish Gaelic when in fact they were Norse Gaelic. I've discussed the reliability of the websites & have struggled to see the background of the people writing the pieces so one has to question what was their agenda. I also think in some cases you're putting an interpretation on things even the original author hasn't tried to do - ie the link you posted said it was a myth that Gaelic has nothing to do with the Lowlands, which is very different to saying that Gaelic is THE true language of the Lowlands like you are making out.

Okay, this is what I'm talking about, Gaelic came to Scotland from Ireland. It then spread to Pictland where as well as replacing the Pictish language, Gaelicized many Pictish names. Same with the Cumbric people. As Alba grew, Gaelic spread. Even before the Norse Gael culture, there were pure Gaels that settled in the South-West about the 6th Century. I've even heard that Dalriada originally existed from Northern Ireland across to South-West Scotland. I know it was the Western Isles, but I've heard that the South-West was also a part of Dalriada.

I may have misrepresented myself, what I meant was, Gaelic shouldn't be treated as a regional language of the Highlands when in fact, long ago in Scotland's history, it was spoken over most of Scotland. It may not be relevant to the Lowlands today, but it was and is historically speaking.

Would Southern Gaelic have been different from Highland Gaelic? Yes. Was Galwegian Gaelic more Norse than the Gaelic of the Highlands? Yes. If it had survived, would Galwegian Gaelic be a different language? Possibly. But the point is, all of these possible historical dialects were all Gaelic ones.

No, Gaelic is not the only true language of Scotland. Scots is another true language and the only other as Gaelic and Scots are the only ones that have survived into the 21st Century.