70,000 L1 and L2 speakers inScotland (2022)[1] 130,000 people in Scotland reported having some Gaelic language ability in 2022;[1] 1,300 fluent inNova Scotia[2]
In the2011 census of Scotland, 57,375 people (1.1% of the Scottish population aged over three years old) reported being able to speak Gaelic, 1,275 fewer than in 2001. The highest percentages of Gaelic speakers were in theOuter Hebrides. Nevertheless, there is alanguage revival, and the number of speakers of the language under age 20 did not decrease between the 2001 and 2011 censuses.[7] In the2022 census of Scotland, it was found that 2.5% of the Scottish population had some skills in Gaelic,[8] or 130,161 persons. Of these, 69,701 people reported speaking the language, with a further 46,404 people reporting that they understood the language, but did not speak, read, or write in it.[9]
Aside from "Scottish Gaelic", the language may also be referred to simply as "Gaelic", pronounced/ˈɡælɪk/GA-lik inEnglish. However, "Gaelic"/ˈɡeɪlɪk/GAY-lik also refers to the Irish language (Gaeilge)[15] and the Manx language (Gaelg).
Scottish Gaelic is distinct fromScots, theMiddle English-derived language which had come to be spoken in most of theLowlands of Scotland by the earlymodern era. Prior to the 15th century, this language was known asInglis ("English")[16] by its own speakers, with Gaelic being calledScottis ("Scottish"). Beginning in the late 15th century, it became increasingly common for such speakers to refer to Scottish Gaelic asErse ("Irish") and the Lowland vernacular asScottis.[17] Today, Scottish Gaelic is recognised as a separate language from Irish, so the wordErse in reference to Scottish Gaelic is no longer used.[18]
Place names in Scotland that contain the elementbal- from the Scottish Gaelicbaile meaning home, farmstead, town or city. These data give some indication of the extent of medieval Gaelic settlement in Scotland.
Based on medieval traditional accounts and the apparent evidence from linguistic geography, Gaelic has been commonly believed to have been brought to Scotland in the 4th and 5th centuries CE by settlers from Ireland who founded the Gaelic kingdom ofDál Riata on Scotland's west coast, in what is present-dayArgyll.[19]: 551 [20]: 66 An alternative view has been voiced by archaeologistEwan Campbell, who has argued that the putative migration or takeover is not reflected in archaeological or placename data (as pointed out earlier byLeslie Alcock). Campbell has also questioned the age and reliability of the medieval historical sources speaking of a conquest. Instead, he has inferred that Argyll formed part of a commonQ-Celtic-speaking area with Ireland, connected rather than divided by the sea, since the Iron Age.[21] These arguments have been opposed by some scholars defending the early dating of the traditional accounts and arguing for other interpretations of the archaeological evidence.[22]
Regardless of how it came to be spoken in the region, Gaelic in Scotland was mostly confined toDál Riata until the eighth century, when it began expanding intoPictish areas north of the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. During the reign ofCaustantín mac Áeda (Constantine II, 900–943), outsiders began to refer to the region as the kingdom of Alba rather than as the kingdom of the Picts. However, though the Pictish language did not disappear suddenly, a process ofGaelicisation (which may have begun generations earlier) was clearly under way during the reigns ofCaustantín and his successors. By a certain point, probably during the 11th century, all the inhabitants of Alba had become fully Gaelicised Scots, and Pictish identity was forgotten.[23] Bilingualism inPictish and Gaelic, prior to the former's extinction, led to the presence of Pictishloanwords in Scottish Gaelic[24] and syntactic influence[25] which could be considered to constitute a Pictish substrate.[26]
In 1018, after the conquest ofLothian (theretofore part ofEngland and inhabited predominantly by speakers ofNorthumbrian Old English) by theKingdom of Scotland, Gaelic reached its social, cultural, political, and geographic zenith.[27]: 16–18 Colloquial speech in Scotland had been developing independently of that in Ireland since the eighth century.[28] For the first time, the entire region of modern-day Scotland was calledScotia in Latin, and Gaelic was thelingua Scotica.[29]: 276 [30]: 554 Insouthern Scotland, Gaelic was strong inGalloway, adjoining areas to the north and west,West Lothian, and parts of westernMidlothian. It was spoken to a lesser degree in northAyrshire,Renfrewshire, theClyde Valley and easternDumfriesshire. In south-eastern Scotland, there is no evidence that Gaelic was ever widely spoken.[31]
Decline
Many historians mark the reign of King Malcolm Canmore (Malcolm III) between 1058 and 1093 as the beginning of Gaelic's eclipse in Scotland. His wifeMargaret of Wessex spoke no Gaelic, gave her children Anglo-Saxon rather than Gaelic names, and brought many English bishops, priests, and monastics to Scotland.[27]: 19 During the reigns of Malcolm Canmore's sons, Edgar, Alexander I and David I (their successive reigns lasting 1097–1153),Anglo-Norman names and practices spread throughout Scotland south of the Forth–Clyde line and along the northeastern coastal plain as far north as Moray. Norman French completely displaced Gaelic at court. The establishment of royal burghs throughout the same area, particularly underDavid I, attracted large numbers of foreigners speaking Old English. This was the beginning of Gaelic's status as a predominantly rural language in Scotland.[27]: 19–23
Clan chiefs in the northern and western parts of Scotland continued to support Gaelic bards who remained a central feature of court life there. The semi-independentLordship of the Isles in the Hebrides and western coastal mainland remained thoroughly Gaelic since the language's recovery there in the 12th century, providing a political foundation for cultural prestige down to the end of the 15th century.[30]: 553–6
Linguistic divide in the middle ages. Left: divide in 1400 after Loch, 1932; Right: divide in 1500 after Nicholson, 1974 (both reproduced from Withers, 1984)
Note: Caithness Norn as shown in the orange was also spoken in the 1400s in the same region as the 1500s' picture, but its presence, exact timeline, and mixture with Scottish Gaelic is debated*
By the mid-14th century what eventually came to be calledScots (at that time termedInglis) emerged as the official language of government and law.[32]: 139 Scotland's emergent nationalism in the era following the conclusion of theWars of Scottish Independence was organized using Scots as well. For example, the nation's great patriotic literature including John Barbour'sThe Brus (1375) and Blind Harry'sThe Wallace (before 1488) was written in Scots, not Gaelic. By the end of the 15th century, English/Scots speakers referred to Gaelic instead as 'Yrisch' or 'Erse', i.e. Irish and their own language as 'Scottis'.[27]: 19–23
Modern era
A steady shift away from Scottish Gaelic continued into and through the modern era. Some of this was driven by policy decisions by government or other organisations, while some originated from social changes. In the last quarter of the 20th century, efforts began to encourage use of the language.
TheStatutes of Iona, enacted byJames VI in 1609, was one piece of legislation that addressed, among other things, the Gaelic language. It required the heirs of clan chiefs to be educated in lowland, Protestant, English-speaking schools. James VI took several such measures to impose his rule on the Highland and Island region. In 1616, thePrivy Council proclaimed that schools teaching in English should be established. Gaelic was seen, at this time, as one of the causes of the instability of the region. It was also associated with Catholicism.[33]: 110–113
TheSociety in Scotland for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SSPCK) was founded in 1709. They met in 1716, immediately after the failedJacobite rising of 1715, to consider the reform and civilisation of the Highlands, which they sought to achieve by teaching English and the Protestant religion. Initially, their teaching was entirely in English, but soon the impracticality of educating Gaelic-speaking children in this way gave rise to a modest concession: in 1723, teachers were allowed to translate English words in the Bible into Gaelic to aid comprehension, but there was no further permitted use. Other less prominent schools worked in the Highlands at the same time, also teaching in English. This process of anglicisation paused when evangelical preachers arrived in the Highlands, convinced that people should be able to read religious texts in their own language. The first well known translation of theBible into Scottish Gaelic was made in 1767, when James Stuart of Killin andDugald Buchanan ofRannoch produced a translation of the New Testament. In 1798, four tracts in Gaelic were published by the Society for Propagating the Gospel at Home, with 5,000 copies of each printed. Other publications followed, with a full Gaelic Bible in 1801. The influential and effective Gaelic Schools Society was founded in 1811. Their purpose was to teach Gaels to read the Bible in their own language. In the first quarter of the 19th century, the SSPCK (despite their anti-Gaelic attitude in prior years) and the British and Foreign Bible Society distributed 60,000 Gaelic Bibles and 80,000 New Testaments.[34]: 98 It is estimated that this overall schooling and publishing effort gave about 300,000 people in the Highlands some basic literacy.[33]: 110–117 Very few European languages have made the transition to a modern literary language without an early modern translation of the Bible; the lack of a well known translation may have contributed to the decline of Scottish Gaelic.[35]: 168–202
1891 distribution ofEnglish (includingScots) and Gaelic in Scotland
75–80% Gaelic, and English
━ 25–75% Gaelic, and English; line indicates the 50%isogloss
5–25% Gaelic, and English
0–5% Gaelic, and English
Purely English
Counterintuitively, access to schooling in Gaelic increased knowledge of English. In 1829, the Gaelic Schools Society reported that parents were unconcerned about their children learning Gaelic, but were anxious to have them taught English. The SSPCK also found Highlanders to have significant prejudice against Gaelic. T. M. Devine attributes this to an association between English and the prosperity of employment: the Highland economy relied greatly on seasonal migrant workers travelling outside theGàidhealtachd. In 1863, an observer sympathetic to Gaelic stated that "knowledge of English is indispensable to any poor islander who wishes to learn a trade or to earn his bread beyond the limits of his native Isle". Generally, rather than Gaelic speakers, it was Celtic societies in the cities and professors of Celtic from universities who sought to preserve the language.[33]: 116–117
TheEducation (Scotland) Act 1872 provided universal education in Scotland, but completely ignored Gaelic in its plans. The mechanism for supporting Gaelic through the Education Codes issued by the Scottish Education Department were steadily used to overcome this omission, with many concessions in place by 1918. However, the members of Highland school boards tended to have anti-Gaelic attitudes and served as an obstacle to Gaelic education in the late 19th and early 20th century.[33]: 110–111
Loss of life due toWorld War I and the 1919 sinking of theHMYIolaire, combined with emigration, resulted in the 1910s seeing unprecedented damage to the use of Scottish Gaelic, with a 46% fall inmonolingual speakers and a 19% fall inbilingual speakers between the1911 and1921 Censuses.[36] Michelle MacLeod ofAberdeen University has said that there was no other period with such a high fall in the number of monolingual Gaelic speakers: "Gaelic speakers became increasingly the exception from that point forward with bilingualism replacing monolingualism as the norm for Gaelic speakers."[36]
TheLinguistic Survey of Scotland (1949–1997) surveyed both the dialect of the Scottish Gaelic language, and also mixed use of English and Gaelic across the Highlands and Islands.[37]
Defunct dialects
Dialects of Lowland Gaelic have been defunct since the 18th century. Gaelic in the Eastern and Southern Scottish Highlands, although alive until the mid-20th century, is now largely defunct. Although modern Scottish Gaelic is dominated by the dialects of the Outer Hebrides and Isle of Skye, there remain some speakers of the Inner Hebridean dialects of Tiree and Islay, and even a few native speakers from Western Highland areas includingWester Ross, northwestSutherland,Lochaber andArgyll. Dialects on both sides of theStraits of Moyle (theNorth Channel) linking Scottish Gaelic with Irish are now extinct, though native speakers were still to be found on theMull of Kintyre, onRathlin and in North East Ireland as late as the mid-20th century. Records of their speech show that Irish and Scottish Gaelic existed in a dialect chain with no clear language boundary.[38] Some features of moribund dialects have been preserved in Nova Scotia, including the pronunciation of the broad orvelarised l (l̪ˠ) as[w], as in theLochaber dialect.[39]: 131
The 1755–2001 figures are census data quoted by MacAulay.[43]: 141 The 2011 Gaelic speakers figures come from table KS206SC of the 2011 Census. The 2011 total population figure comes from table KS101SC. The numbers of Gaelic speakers relate to the numbers aged 3 and over, and the percentages are calculated using those and the number of the total population aged 3 and over.
Across the whole of Scotland, the 2011 census showed that 25,000 people (0.49% of the population) used Gaelic at home. Of these, 63.3% said that they had a full range of language skills: speaking, understanding, reading and writing Gaelic. 40.2% of Scotland's Gaelic speakers said that they used Gaelic at home. To put this in context, the most common language spoken at home in Scotland after English and Scots is Polish, with about 1.1% of the population, or 54,000 people.[44][45]
The2011 UK Census showed a total of 57,375 Gaelic speakers in Scotland (1.1% of population over three years old), of whom only 32,400 could also read and write the language.[46] Compared with the 2001 Census, there has been a diminution of about 1300 people.[47] This is the smallest drop between censuses since the Gaelic-language question was first asked in 1881. The Scottish government's language minister andBòrd na Gàidhlig took this as evidence that Gaelic's long decline has slowed.[48]
The main stronghold of the language continues to be the Outer Hebrides (Na h-Eileanan Siar), where the overall proportion of speakers is 52.2%. Important pockets of the language also exist in theHighlands (5.4%) and inArgyll and Bute (4.0%) andInverness (4.9%). The locality with the largest absolute number isGlasgow with 5,878 such persons, who make up over 10% of all of Scotland's Gaelic speakers.
Cumbernauld Gaelic Choir in 2021
Gaelic continues to decline in its traditional heartland. Between 2001 and 2011, the absolute number of Gaelic speakers fell sharply in the Western Isles (−1,745), Argyll & Bute (−694), and Highland (−634). The drop inStornoway, the largest parish in the Western Isles by population, was especially acute, from 57.5% of the population in 1991 to 43.4% in 2011.[49] The only parish outside the Western Isles over 40% Gaelic-speaking isKilmuir in NorthernSkye at 46%. The islands in theInner Hebrides with significant percentages of Gaelic speakers areTiree (38.3%),Raasay (30.4%),Skye (29.4%),Lismore (26.9%),Colonsay (20.2%), andIslay (19.0%).
Today, nocivil parish in Scotland has a proportion of Gaelic speakers greater than 65% (the highest value is inBarvas,Lewis, with 64.1%). In addition, no civil parish on mainland Scotland has a proportion of Gaelic speakers greater than 20% (the highest is inArdnamurchan,Highland, with 19.3%). Out of a total of 871 civil parishes in Scotland, the proportion of Gaelic speakers exceeds 50% in seven parishes, 25% in 14 parishes, and 10% in 35 parishes.
Decline in traditional areas has recently been balanced by growth in theScottish Lowlands. Between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, the number of Gaelic speakers rose in nineteen of the country's 32 council areas. The largest absolute gains were inAberdeenshire (+526),North Lanarkshire (+305), theAberdeen City council area (+216), andEast Ayrshire (+208). The largest relative gains were in Aberdeenshire (+0.19%), East Ayrshire (+0.18%),Moray (+0.16%), andOrkney (+0.13%).[citation needed]
In 2018, the census of pupils in Scotland showed 520 students in publicly funded schools had Gaelic as the main language at home, an increase of 5% from 497 in 2014. During the same period,Gaelic medium education in Scotland has grown, with 4,343 pupils (6.3 per 1000) being educated in a Gaelic-immersion environment in 2018, up from 3,583 pupils (5.3 per 1000) in 2014.[50] Data collected in 2007–2008 indicated that even among pupils enrolled in Gaelic medium schools, 81% of primary students and 74% of secondary students report using English more often than Gaelic when speaking with their mothers at home.[51] The effect on this of thesignificant increase in pupils in Gaelic-medium education since that time is unknown.
Preservation and revitalization
Gaelic Medium Education is one of the primary ways that the Scottish Government is addressing Gaelic language shift. Along with the Bòrd na Gàidhlig policies, preschool and daycare environments are also being used to create more opportunities for intergenerational language transmission in the Outer Hebrides.[52] However, revitalization efforts are not unified within Scotland or Nova Scotia, Canada.[53] One can attendSabhal Mòr Ostaig, a national centre for Gaelic Language and Culture, based inSleat, on theIsle of Skye. This institution is the only source for higher education which is conducted entirely in Scottish Gaelic.[54] They offer courses for Gaelic learners from beginners into fluency. They also offer regular bachelors and graduate programs delivered entirely in Gaelic. Concerns have been raised around the fluency achieved by learners within these language programs because they are disconnected from vernacular speech communities.[55][56] In regard to language revitalization planning efforts, many feel that the initiatives must come from within Gaelic speaking communities, be led by Gaelic speakers, and be designed to serve and increase fluency within the vernacular communities as the first and most viable resistance to total language shift from Gaelic to English.[53][55] Currently, language policies are focused on creating new language speakers through education, instead of focused on how to strengthen intergenerational transmission within existing Gaelic speaking communities.[53]
Challenges to preservation and revitalization
In theOuter Hebrides, accommodation ethics exist amongst native or local Gaelic speakers when engaging with new learners or non-locals.[55] Accommodation ethics, or ethics of accommodation, is a social practice where local or native speakers of Gaelic shift to speaking English when in the presence of non-Gaelic speakers out of a sense of courtesy or politeness. This accommodation ethic persists even in situations where new learners attempt to speak Gaelic with native speakers.[55] This creates a situation where new learners struggle to find opportunities to speak Gaelic with fluent speakers.Affect is the way people feel about something, or the emotional response to a particular situation or experience. For Gaelic speakers, there is a conditioned and socialized negative affect through a long history of negative Scottish media portrayal and public disrespect, state mandated restrictions on Gaelic usage, andhighland clearances.[52][57][58] This negative affect towards speaking openly with non-native Gaelic speakers has led to a language ideology at odds with revitalization efforts on behalf of new speakers, state policies (such as the Gaelic Language Act), and family members reclaiming their lost mother tongue. New learners of Gaelic often have a positive affective stance to their language learning, and connect this learning journey towards Gaelic language revitalization.[59] The mismatch of these language ideologies, and differences in affective stance, has led to fewer speaking opportunities for adult language learners and therefore a challenge to revitalization efforts which occur outside the home. Positive engagements between language learners and native speakers of Gaelic through mentorship has proven to be productive in socializing new learners into fluency.[55][58]
Usage
Official
Scotland
In the 2022 census, 3,551 people claimed Gaelic as their 'main language.' Of these, 1,761 (49.6%) were in Na h-Eileanan Siar, 682 (19.2%) were in Highland, 369 were in Glasgow City and 120 were in City of Edinburgh; no other council area had as many as 80 such respondents.[60]
Gaelic has long suffered from its lack of use in educational and administrative contexts and was long suppressed.[61]
The UK government has ratified theEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of Gaelic. Gaelic, along with Irish and Welsh, is designated under Part III of the Charter, which requires the UK Government to take a range of concrete measures in the fields of education, justice, public administration, broadcasting and culture. It has not received the same degree of official recognition from the UK Government asWelsh. With the advent ofdevolution, however, Scottish matters have begun to receive greater attention, and it achieved a degree of official recognition when theGaelic Language (Scotland) Act was enacted by theScottish Parliament on 21 April 2005.
Establishing the Gaelic development body,Bòrd na Gàidhlig (BnG), on a statutory basis with a view to securing the status of the Gaelic language as an official language of Scotland commanding equal respect to the English language and to promote the use and understanding of Gaelic.
Requiring BnG to prepare a National Gaelic Language Plan every five years for approval by Scottish Ministers.
Requiring BnG to produce guidance onGaelic medium education and Gaelic as a subject for education authorities.
Requiring public bodies in Scotland, both Scottish public bodies and cross-border public bodies insofar as they carry out devolved functions, to develop Gaelic language plans in relation to the services they offer, if requested to do so by BnG.
After its creation, Bòrd na Gàidhlig required a Gaelic Language Plan from the Scottish Government. This plan was accepted in 2008,[63] and some of its main commitments were: identity (signs, corporate identity); communications (reception, telephone, mailings, public meetings, complaint procedures); publications (PR and media, websites); staffing (language learning, training, recruitment).[63]
Following a consultation period, in which the government received many submissions, the majority of which asked that the bill be strengthened, a revised bill was published; the main alteration was that the guidance of theBòrd is now statutory (rather than advisory). In the committee stages in the Scottish Parliament, there was much debate over whether Gaelic should be given 'equal validity' with English. Due to executive concerns about resourcing implications if this wording was used, the Education Committee settled on the concept of 'equal respect'. It is not clear what the legal force of this wording is.
The Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament unanimously, with support from all sectors of the Scottish political spectrum, on 21 April 2005. Under the provisions of the Act, it will ultimately fall to BnG to secure the status of the Gaelic language as anofficial language of Scotland.
Police Scotland vehicle logo (Bilingual)
Some commentators, such asÉamonn Ó Gribín (2006) argue that the Gaelic Act falls so far short of the status accorded to Welsh that one would be foolish or naïve to believe that any substantial change will occur in the fortunes of the language as a result ofBòrd na Gàidhlig's efforts.[64]
However, given there are no longer any monolingual Gaelic speakers,[66] following an appeal in the court case ofTaylor v Haughney (1982), involving the status of Gaelic in judicial proceedings, theHigh Court ruled against a general right to use Gaelic in court proceedings.[67]
While the goal of the Gaelic Language Act was to aid in revitalization efforts through government mandated official language status, the outcome of the act is distanced from the actual minority language communities.[56] It helps to create visibility of the minority language in civil structures, but does not impact or address the lived experiences of the Gaelic speaker communities wherein the revitalization efforts may have a higher return of new Gaelic speakers. Efforts are being made to concentrate resources, language planning, and revitalization efforts towards vernacular communities in the Western Isles.[56]
Qualifications in the language
TheScottish Qualifications Authority offer two streams of Gaelic examination across all levels of the syllabus: Gaelic for learners (equivalent to the modern foreign languages syllabus) and Gaelic for native speakers (equivalent to the English syllabus).[68][69]
An Comunn Gàidhealach performs assessment of spoken Gaelic, resulting in the issue of a Bronze Card, Silver Card or Gold Card. Syllabus details are available on An Comunn's website. These are not widely recognised as qualifications, but are required for those taking part in certain competitions at the annualmods.[70]
European Union
This section needs to beupdated. The reason given is: The UK has now left the EU. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(December 2020)
In October 2009, a new agreement allowed Scottish Gaelic to be formally used between Scottish Government ministers andEuropean Union officials. The deal was signed by Britain's representative to the EU, SirKim Darroch, and theScottish government. This did not give Scottish Gaelicofficial status in the EU but gave it the right to be a means of formal communications in the EU's institutions. The Scottish government had to pay for the translation from Gaelic to otherEuropean languages. The deal was received positively in Scotland;Secretary of State for ScotlandJim Murphy said the move was a strong sign of the UK government's support for Gaelic. He said; "Allowing Gaelic speakers to communicate with European institutions in their mother tongue is a progressive step forward and one which should be welcomed".[71] Culture MinisterMike Russell said; "this is a significant step forward for the recognition of Gaelic both at home and abroad and I look forward to addressing the council in Gaelic very soon. Seeing Gaelic spoken in such a forum raises the profile of the language as we drive forward our commitment to creating a new generation of Gaelic speakers in Scotland."[72]
Bilingual Gaelic–English road sign, atLochaline in the Scottish HighlandsMonolingual Gaelic direction sign, atRodel (Roghadal) on Harris in the Outer HebridesBilingual English/Gaelic sign at Queen Street Station in Glasgow
Bilingual road signs, street names, business and advertisement signage (in both Gaelic and English) are gradually being introduced throughout Gaelic-speaking regions in the Highlands and Islands, including Argyll. In many cases, this has simply meant re-adopting the traditional spelling of a name (such asRàtagan orLoch Ailleart rather than the anglicised formsRatagan orLochailort respectively).[73]
Some monolingualGaelic road signs, particularly direction signs, are used on theOuter Hebrides, where a majority of the population can have a working knowledge of the language. These omit the English translation entirely.
Bilingual railway station signs are now more frequent than they used to be. Practically all the stations in the Highland area use both English and Gaelic, and the use of bilingual station signs has become more frequent in the Lowlands of Scotland, including areas where Gaelic has not been spoken for a long time.[citation needed]
This has been welcomed by many supporters of the language as a means of raising its profile as well as securing its future as a 'living language' (i.e. allowing people to use it to navigate from A to B in place of English) and creating a sense of place. However, in some places, such as Caithness, the Highland Council's intention to introduce bilingual signage has incited controversy.[74]
TheOrdnance Survey has acted in recent years to correct many of the mistakes that appear on maps. They announced in 2004 that they intended to correct them and set up a committee to determine the correct forms of Gaelic place names for their maps.[73]Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba ("Place names in Scotland") is the national advisory partnership for Gaelic place names in Scotland.[75]
In the nineteenth century, Canadian Gaelic was the third-most widely spoken European language inBritish North America[76] and Gaelic-speaking immigrant communities could be found throughout what is modern-day Canada. Gaelic poets in Canada produced a significant literary tradition.[77] The number of Gaelic-speaking individuals and communities declined sharply, however, after the First World War.[78]
At the start of the 21st century, it was estimated that no more than 500 people in Nova Scotia still spoke Scottish Gaelic as afirst language. In the 2011 census, 300 people claimed to have Gaelic as their first language (a figure that may include Irish Gaelic).[79] In the same 2011 census, 1,275 people claimed to speak Gaelic, a figure that not only included all Gaelic languages but also those people who are not first language speakers,[80] of whom 300 claim to have Gaelic as their "mother tongue."[81][a]
The Nova Scotia government maintains the Office of Gaelic Affairs (Iomairtean na Gàidhlig), which is dedicated to the development of Scottish Gaelic language, culture and tourism in Nova Scotia, and which estimates about 2,000 total Gaelic speakers to be in the province.[12] As in Scotland, areas of North-Eastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton have bilingual street signs. Nova Scotia also hasComhairle na Gàidhlig (The Gaelic Council of Nova Scotia), a non-profit society dedicated to the maintenance and promotion of the Gaelic language and culture inMaritime Canada. In 2018, the Nova Scotia government launched a new Gaelic vehicle licence plate to raise awareness of the language and help fund Gaelic language and culture initiatives.[83]
In September 2021, the first Gaelic-medium primary school outside of Scotland, namedTaigh Sgoile na Drochaide, opened in Mabou, Nova Scotia.[84]
InPrince Edward Island, theColonel Gray High School now offers both an introductory and an advanced course in Gaelic; both language and history are taught in these classes. This is the first recorded time that Gaelic has ever been taught as an official course on Prince Edward Island.[86]
The province ofBritish Columbia is host to theComunn Gàidhlig Bhancoubhair (The Gaelic Society of Vancouver), the Vancouver Gaelic Choir, the Victoria Gaelic Choir, as well as the annual Gaelic festivalMòdVancouver. The city ofVancouver's Scottish Cultural Centre also holds seasonal Scottish Gaelic evening classes.
TheBBC operates a Gaelic-language radio stationRadio nan Gàidheal as well as a television channel,BBC Alba. Launched on 19 September 2008, BBC Alba is widely available in the UK (onFreeview,Freesat,Sky andVirgin Media). It also broadcasts across Europe on theAstra 2 satellites.[87] The channel is being operated in partnership between BBC Scotland andMG Alba – an organisation funded by the Scottish Government, which works to promote the Gaelic language in broadcasting.[88] The ITV franchise in central Scotland,STV Central, has, in the past, produced a number of Scottish Gaelic programmes for bothBBC Alba and its own main channel.[88]
Until BBC Alba was broadcast on Freeview, viewers were able to receive the channelTeleG, which broadcast for an hour every evening. Upon BBC Alba's launch on Freeview, it took the channel number that was previously assigned to TeleG.
There are also television programmes in the language on other BBC channels and on theindependent commercial channels, usually subtitled in English. TheITV franchise in the north of Scotland,STV North (formerlyGrampian Television) produces some non-news programming in Scottish Gaelic.
The Education (Scotland) Act 1872, which completely ignored Gaelic and led to generations of Gaels being forbidden to speak their native language in the classroom is now recognised as having dealt a major blow to the language. People still living in 2001 could recall being beaten for speaking Gaelic in school.[102] Even later, when these attitudes had changed, little provision was made for Gaelic medium education in Scottish schools. As late as 1958, even in Highland schools, only 20% of primary students were taught Gaelic as a subject, and only 5% were taught other subjects through the Gaelic language.[51]
Gaelic-medium playgroups for young children began to appear in Scotland during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Parent enthusiasm may have been a factor in the "establishment of the first Gaelic medium primary school units in Glasgow and Inverness in 1985".[103]
The first modern solely Gaelic-medium secondary school,Sgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu ("Glasgow Gaelic School"), was opened at Woodside inGlasgow in 2006 (61 partially Gaelic-medium primary schools and approximately a dozen Gaelic-medium secondary schools also exist). According toBòrd na Gàidhlig, a total of 2,092 primary pupils were enrolled in Gaelic-medium primary education in 2008–09, as opposed to 24 in 1985.[104]
TheColumba Initiative, also known ascolmcille (formerlyIomairt Cholm Cille), is a body that seeks to promote links between speakers of Scottish Gaelic and Irish.
Starting from summer 2020, children starting school in theWestern Isles will be enrolled in GME (Gaelic-medium education) unless parents request differently. Children will be taught Scottish Gaelic from P1 to P4 and then English will be introduced to give them a bilingual education.[108]
Canada
In May 2004, the Nova Scotia government announced the funding of an initiative to support the language and its culture within the province. Several public schools in Northeastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton offer Gaelic classes as part of the high-school curriculum.[109]
Maxville Public School inMaxville,Glengarry,Ontario, offers Scottish Gaelic lessons weekly. InPrince Edward Island, the Colonel Gray High School offer an introductory and an advanced course in Scottish Gaelic.[110]
Higher and further education
A number of Scottish and some Irish universities offer full-time degrees including a Gaelic language element, usually graduating as Celtic Studies.
TheUniversity of the Highlands and Islands offers a range of Gaelic language, history and culture courses at the National Certificate, Higher National Diploma, Bachelor of Arts (ordinary), Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and Master of Science levels. It offers opportunities for postgraduate research through the medium of Gaelic. Residential courses atSabhal Mòr Ostaig on the Isle of Skye offer adults the chance to become fluent in Gaelic in one year. Many continue to complete degrees, or to follow up as distance learners. A number of other colleges offer a one-year certificate course, which is also available online (pending accreditation).
Lews Castle College'sBenbecula campus offers an independent 1-year course in Gaelic and Traditional Music (FE, SQF level 5/6).
The widespread use of English in worship has often been suggested as one of the historic reasons for the decline of Gaelic. The Church of Scotland is supportive today,[vague] but has a shortage of Gaelic-speaking ministers. The Free Church also recently announced plans to abolish Gaelic-language communion services, citing both a lack of ministers and a desire to have their congregations united at communion time.[111]
From the sixth century to the present day, Scottish Gaelic has been used as a literary language. Two prominent writers of the twentieth century areAnne Frater andSorley MacLean.
Gaelic has its own version of European-wide names which also have English forms, for example:Iain (John),Alasdair (Alexander),Uilleam (William),Catrìona (Catherine),Raibeart (Robert),Cairistìona (Christina),Anna (Ann),Màiri (Mary),Seumas (James),Pàdraig (Patrick) andTòmas (Thomas).Not all traditional Gaelic names have direct equivalents in English:Oighrig, which is normally rendered asEuphemia (Effie) orHenrietta (Etta) (formerly also as Henny or even as Harriet), or,Diorbhal, which is "matched" withDorothy, simply on the basis of a certain similarity in spelling. Many of these traditional Gaelic-only names are now regarded as old-fashioned, and hence are rarely or never used.
Some names have come into Gaelic fromOld Norse; for example,Somhairle ( <Somarliðr),Tormod (<Þórmóðr),Raghnall orRaonull (<Rǫgnvaldr),Torcuil (<Þórkell, Þórketill),Ìomhar (Ívarr). These are conventionally rendered in English asSorley (or, historically,Somerled),Norman,Ronald orRanald,Torquil andIver (orEvander).
Some Scottish names are Anglicized forms of Gaelic names:Aonghas → (Angus),Dòmhnall→ (Donald), for instance.Hamish, and the recently establishedMhairi (pronounced[vaːri]) come from the Gaelic for, respectively, James, and Mary, but derive from the form of the names as they appear in thevocative case:Seumas (James) (nom.) →Sheumais (voc.) andMàiri (Mary) (nom.) →Mhàiri (voc.).
Surnames
The most common class of Gaelic surnames are those beginning withmac (Gaelic for "son"), such asMacGillEathain / MacIllEathain[112][113] (MacLean). The female form isnic (Gaelic for "daughter"), so Catherine MacPhee is properly called in Gaelic,Catrìona Nic a' Phì[114] (strictly,nic is a contraction of the Gaelic phrasenighean mhic, meaning "daughter of the son", thusNicDhòmhnaill[113] really means "daughter of MacDonald" rather than "daughter of Donald"). The "of" part actually comes from the genitive form of the patronymic that follows the prefix; in the case ofMacDhòmhnaill,Dhòmhnaill ("of Donald") is the genitive form ofDòmhnall ("Donald").[115]
Several colours give rise to common Scottish surnames:bàn (Bain – white),ruadh (Roy – red),dubh (Dow,Duff – black),donn (Dunn – brown),buidhe (Bowie – yellow) although in Gaelic these occur as part of a fuller form such asMacGille 'son of the servant of', i.e.MacGilleBhàin, MacGilleRuaidh, MacGilleDhuibh, MacGilleDhuinn, MacGilleBhuidhe.
Most varieties of Gaelic show either eight or nine vowel qualities (/ieɛaɔouɤɯ/) in their inventory of vowelphonemes, which can be either long or short. There are also tworeduced vowels ([əɪ]) which occur only in their short versions. Although some vowels are strongly nasal, instances of distinctivenasality are rare. There are about ninediphthongs and a fewtriphthongs.
Most consonants have bothpalatal and non-palatal counterparts, including a very rich system ofliquids,nasals andtrills (i.e. three contrasting "l" sounds, three contrasting "n" sounds and three contrasting "r" sounds). The historically voiced stops[bd̪ɡ] have lost their voicing, so the phonemic contrast today is between unaspirated[pt̪k] and aspirated[pʰt̪ʰkʰ]. In many dialects, these stops may however gain voicing through secondary articulation through a preceding nasal, for examplesdoras[t̪ɔɾəs̪] "door" butan doras "the door" as[ən̪ˠd̪ɔɾəs̪] or[ən̪ˠɔɾəs̪].
In some fixed phrases, these changes are shown permanently, as the link with the base words has been lost, as inan-dràsta "now", froman tràth-sa "this time/period".
In medial and final position, the aspirated stops arepreaspirated rather than postaspirated.
Scottish Gaelicorthography is fairly regular; its standard was set by the 1767New Testament. The 1981Scottish Examination Board recommendations for Scottish Gaelic, the Gaelic Orthographic Conventions, were adopted by most publishers and agencies, although they remain controversial among some academics, most notably Ronald Black.[116]
The quality of consonants (broad or slender) is indicated by thevowels surrounding them. Slender (palatalised) consonants are surrounded by slender vowels (⟨e, i⟩), while broad (neutral orvelarised) consonants are surrounded by broad vowels (⟨a, o, u⟩). The spelling rule known ascaol ri caol agus leathann ri leathann ("slender to slender and broad to broad") requires that a word-medial consonant or consonant group followed by⟨i, e⟩ is preceded by⟨i, e⟩ and similarly, if followed by⟨a, o, u⟩ is preceded by⟨a, o, u⟩.
This rule sometimes leads to the insertion of asilent written vowel. For example, plurals in Gaelic are often formed with the suffix-an[ən], for example,bròg[prɔːk] ("shoe") /brògan[prɔːkən] ("shoes"). But because of the spelling rule, the suffix is spelled -⟨ean⟩ (but pronounced the same,[ən]) after a slender consonant, as inmuinntir[mɯi̯ɲtʲɪrʲ] ("[a] people") /muinntirean[mɯi̯ɲtʲɪrʲən] ("peoples") where⟨e⟩ is purely a graphic vowel inserted to conform with the spelling rule because⟨i⟩ precedes the⟨r⟩.
Unstressed vowels omitted in speech can be omitted in informal writing, e.g.Tha mi an dòchas. ("I hope.") >Tha mi 'n dòchas.
Scots English orthographic rules have also been used at various times in Gaelic writing. Notable examples of Gaelic verse composed in this manner are theBook of the Dean of Lismore and theFernaig manuscript.
Alphabet
The Giogha Stone bearing a Goidelic Ogham inscription
Ogham
TheOghamwriting system was used in Ireland to writePrimitive Irish andOld Irish until it was supplanted by theLatin script in the 5th centuryCE in Ireland.[117] In Scotland, the majority of Ogham inscriptions are inPictish but a number of Goidelic Ogham inscriptions also exist, such as theGiogha Stone which bears the inscription VICULA MAQ CUGINI 'Viqula, son of Comginus',[118] with Goidelic MAQ (modernmac 'son') rather than Brythonic MAB (cf. modern Welshmab 'son').
TheInsular script was used both in Ireland and Scotland but had largely disappeared in Scotland by the 16th century. It consisted of the same 18 letters still in modern use⟨a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u⟩.[119][120] and generally did not contain⟨j, k, q, v, w, x, y, z⟩.
In addition to the base letters, vowels in the Insular script could beaccented with anacute accent (⟨á, é, í, ó, ú⟩ to indicate length. Theoverdot was used to indicatelenition of⟨ḟ, ṡ⟩, while the following⟨h⟩ was used for⟨ch, ph, th⟩. The lenition of other letters was not generally indicated initially but eventually the two methods were used in parallel to represent the lenition of any consonant and competed with each other until the standard practice became to use the overdot in the Insular Script and the following⟨h⟩ in Roman type, i.e.⟨ḃ, ċ, ḋ, ḟ, ġ, ṁ, ṗ, ṡ, ṫ⟩ are equivalent to⟨bh, ch, dh, fh, gh, mh, ph, sh, th⟩. The use of Gaelic type and the overdot today is restricted to decorative usages.
Plaque commemorating the founders of the Comunn Gaidhealach in Oban in 1891 using the Insular Script for decorative purposes
Letters with an overdot have been available sinceUnicode 5.0 .[121]
The modern Scottish Gaelicalphabet has 18letters:⟨a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u⟩.⟨h⟩ is mostly used to indicatelenition of aconsonant. The letters of the alphabet were traditionallynamed after trees, but this custom has fallen out of use.
Long vowels are marked with agrave accent (⟨à, è, ì, ò, ù⟩), indicated throughdigraphs (e.g.⟨ao⟩ for[ɯː]) or conditioned by certain consonant environments (e.g.⟨u⟩ preceding a non-intervocalic⟨nn⟩ is[uː]). Traditionally theacute accent was used on⟨á, é, ó⟩ to represent longclose-mid vowels, but thespelling reforms replaced it with the grave accent.[113]
Gaelic nouns inflect for four cases (nominative/accusative, vocative, genitive and dative) and three numbers (singular, dual and plural).
They are also normally classed as either masculine or feminine. A small number of words that used to belong to the neuter class show some degree of gender confusion. For example, in some dialectsam muir "the sea" behaves as a masculine noun in the nominative case, but as a feminine noun in the genitive (na mara).
Nouns are marked for case in a number of ways, most commonly involving various combinations oflenition,palatalisation andsuffixation.
Verb inflection
There are 12 irregular verbs.[123] Most other verbs follow a fully predictable paradigm, although polysyllabic verbs ending inlaterals can deviate from this paradigm as they showsyncopation.
Twovoices: traditionally called active and passive, but actually personal and impersonal
Three non-composed combined TAM forms expressingtense,aspect andmood, i.e. non-past (future-habitual), conditional (future of the past), and past (preterite); several composed TAM forms, such as pluperfect, future perfect, present perfect, present continuous, past continuous, conditional perfect, etc. Two verbs,bi, used to attribute a notionally temporary state, action, or quality to the subject, andis (a defective verb that has only two forms), used to show a notional permanent identity or quality, have non-composed present and non-past tense forms: (bi)tha [perfective present],bidh/bithidh [imperfective non-past][113] and all other expected verb forms, though the verb adjective ("past participle") is lacking; (is)is,bu past and conditional.
Four moods: independent (used in affirmative main clause verbs), relative (used in verbs in affirmative relative clauses), dependent (used in subordinate clauses, anti-affirmative relative clauses, and anti-affirmative main clauses), and subjunctive.
Word order
Word order is strictly verb–subject–object, including questions, negative questions and negatives. Only a restricted set of preverb particles may occur before the verb.
Lexicon
The majority of the vocabulary of Scottish Gaelic is ofCeltic origin. However, Gaelic contains substantially more words of non-Goidelic extraction than Irish. The main sources of loanwords into Gaelic are theGermanic languages English, Scots and Norse. Other sources includeLatin,French and theBrittonic languages.[124]
Many direct Latin loanwords in Scottish Gaelic were adopted during theOld andMiddle Irish (600 AD-1200 AD) stages of the language and are often terms related to Christianity. Latin is also the source of the days of the weekDiluain ("Monday"),Dimàirt (Tuesday),Disathairne ("Saturday") andDidòmhnaich ("Sunday").[124]
Brittonic
The Brittonic languages Cumbric and Pictish were spoken in Scotland during the Early to High Middle Ages, and Scottish Gaelic has many Brittonic influences. Scottish Gaelic contains a number of apparently P-Celtic loanwords, but it is not always possible to disentangle P and Q Celtic words. However, some common words such asdìleab ("legacy"),monadh (mynydd; "mountain") andpreas (prys; "bush") are transparently Brittonic in origin.[24]
Scottish Gaelic contains a number of words, principally toponymic elements, that are sometimes more closely aligned in their usage and sense with their Brittonic cognates than with their Irish. This is indicative of the operation of a Brittonic substrate influence. Such items include:[125][126]
Gaelic
Meaning
Brittonic
Meaning
Irish
Meaning
lios
palace (in place-names)
llys
palace, court
les (Old Irish)
land between a house and its enclosure
srath
river-valley
ystrad (Welsh)
river-valley
srath
grassland
tom
thicket, knoll, mound
tom/tomen (Welsh)
dung, mound
tom
shrub
Neologisms
In common with otherIndo-European languages, theneologisms coined for modern concepts are typically based onGreek orLatin, although often coming through English;television, for instance, becomestelebhisean andcomputer becomescoimpiùtar. Some speakers use an English word even if there is a Gaelic equivalent, applying the rules of Gaelic grammar. With verbs, for instance, they will simply add the verbal suffix (-eadh, or, inLewis,-igeadh, as in, "Tha mi a' watcheadh (Lewis, "watchigeadh")an telly" (I am watching the television), instead of "Tha mi a' coimhead air an telebhisean". This phenomenon was described over 170 years ago, by the minister who compiled the account covering the parish ofStornoway in theNew Statistical Account of Scotland, and examples can be found dating to the eighteenth century.[127] However, as Gaelic medium education grows in popularity, a newer generation of literate Gaels has become more familiar with modern Gaelic vocabulary.[citation needed]
Loanwords into other languages
Scottish Gaelic has also influenced theScots language andEnglish, particularlyScottish Standard English. Loanwords include: whisky, slogan, brogue, jilt, clan, galore,trousers, gob, as well as familiar elements of Scottish geography like ben (beinn), glen (gleann) andloch.Irish has also influenced Lowland Scots and English in Scotland, but it is not always easy to distinguish its influence from that of Scottish Gaelic.[124][page needed]
Common words and phrases with Irish and Manx equivalents
Rugadh na h-uile duine saor agus co-ionnan nan urram 's nan còirichean. Tha iad reusanta is cogaiseach, agus bu chòir dhaibh a ghiùlain ris a chèile ann an spiorad bràthaireil.[128]
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.[129]
References
Explanatory notes
^The replies are for all Gaelic languages, includingIrish.[82]
^Broun, "Dunkeld", Broun, "National Identity", Forsyth, "Scotland to 1100", pp. 28–32, Woolf, "Constantine II"; cf. Bannerman, "Scottish Takeover", passim, representing the "traditional" view.
^abJackson, Kenneth (1983). "'Loanwords, British and Pictish'". In Thomson, D.S. (ed.).The Companion to Gaelic Scotland. pp. 151–152.
^Green, D. (1983). "'Gaelic: syntax, similarities with British syntax'". In Thomson, D.S. (ed.).The Companion to Gaelic Scotland. pp. 107–108.
^Taylor, S. (2010). "Pictish Placenames Revisited'". In Driscoll, S. (ed.).Pictish Progress: New Studies on Northern Britain in the Middle Ages. pp. 67–119.
^abcdWithers, Charles W. J. (1984).Gaelic in Scotland, 1698–1981. Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers Ltd.ISBN978-0859760973.
^Dunshea, Philip M. (1 October 2013). "Druim Alban, Dorsum Britanniae– 'the Spine of Britain'".Scottish Historical Review.92 (2):275–289.doi:10.3366/shr.2013.0178.
^Clarkson, Tim (2011).The Makers of Scotland: Picts, Romans, Gaels, and Vikings. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd.ISBN978-1906566296.
^abÓ Baoill, Colm. "The Scots–Gaelic interface", in Charles Jones, ed., The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997
^Withers, Charles W. J. (1988). "The Geographical History of Gaelic in Scotland". In Colin H. Williams (ed.).Language in Geographic Context.
^abcdDevine, T. M. (1994).Clanship to Crofters' War: The social transformation of the Scottish Highlands (2013 ed.). Manchester University Press.ISBN978-0-7190-9076-9.
^Mackenzie, Donald W. (1990–92). "The Worthy Translator: How the Scottish Gaels got the Scriptures in their own Tongue".Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness.57.
^abO'Hanlon, Fiona (2012).Lost in transition? Celtic language revitalization in Scotland and Wales: the primary to secondary school stage (Thesis). The University of Edinburgh.
^Scottish Qualifications Authority, Resource Management."Gàidhlig".www.sqa.org.uk. SQA.Archived from the original on 25 April 2017. Retrieved24 April 2017.
^Scottish Qualifications Authority, Resource Management."Gaelic (learners)".www.sqa.org.uk. SQA.Archived from the original on 25 April 2017. Retrieved24 April 2017.
^Bumstead, J.M (2006)."Scots". Multicultural Canada. Archived fromthe original on 26 December 2012. Retrieved30 August 2006.By 1850 Gaelic was the third most commonly spoken European language in British North America. It was spoken by as many as 200,000 British North Americans of both Scottish and Irish origin as either a first or a second language.
^Newton, Michael (2015).Seanchaidh na Coille / Memory-Keeper of the Forest: Anthology of Scottish Gaelic Literature of Canada. Cape Breton University Press.ISBN978-1-77206-016-4.
^Jonathan Dembling, "Gaelic in Canada: New Evidence from an Old CensusArchived 21 November 2017 at theWayback Machine", Paper read at the 3rd biannual Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig, University of Edinburgh, 21–23 July 2004, in:Cànan & Cultar / Language & Culture: Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 3, edited by Wilson MacLeod, James E. Fraser & Anja Gunderloch (Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, 2006), pp. 203–214,ISBN978-1903765-60-9.
^O'Hanlon, Fiona (2012).Lost in transition? Celtic language revitalization in Scotland and Wales: the primary to secondary school stage (Thesis). The University of Edinburgh. p. 48.
^Woulfe, Patrick."Gaelic Surnames". Library Ireland.Archived from the original on 25 April 2017. Retrieved24 April 2017.
^The Board of Celtic Studies Scotland (1998)Computer-Assisted Learning for Gaelic: Towards a Common Teaching Core. The orthographic conventions were revised by theScottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) in 2005:"Gaelic Orthographic Conventions 2005". SQA publication BB1532. August 2005. Archived fromthe original on 7 May 2007. Retrieved24 March 2007.
^Unicode 5.0,"Latin Extended Additional"(PDF).Archived(PDF) from the original on 10 April 2018. Retrieved24 March 2018. (163 KB). Retrieved 13 October 2007.
^O'Rahilly, T F,Irish Dialects Past and Present. Brown and Nolan 1932,ISBN0-901282-55-3, p. 19
^Cox, RichardBrìgh nam Facal (1991)Roinn nan Cànan CeilteachISBN0-903204-21-5
^Watson, W.J.; Taylor, Simon (2011).The Celtic Place-Names of Scotland (reprint ed.). Birlinn LTD.ISBN9781906566357.
^Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair."Smeòrach Chlann Raghnaill".www.moidart.org.uk. Archaeology Archive Moidart History.Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved24 April 2017.
Gillies, H. Cameron. (1896).Elements of Gaelic Grammar. Vancouver: Global Language Press (reprint 2006),ISBN1-897367-02-3 (hardcover),ISBN1-897367-00-7 (paperback)
Gillies, William. (1993). "Scottish Gaelic", in Ball, Martin J. and Fife, James (eds).The Celtic Languages (Routledge Language Family Descriptions). London:Routledge.ISBN0-415-28080-X (paperback), pp. 145–227
MacAoidh, Garbhan. (2007).Tasgaidh – A Gaelic Thesaurus. Lulu Enterprises, North Carolina
McLeod, Wilson (ed.). (2006).Revitalising Gaelic in Scotland: Policy, Planning and Public Discourse. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press,ISBN1-903765-59-5
Robertson, Charles M. (1906–07). "Scottish Gaelic Dialects",The Celtic Review, vol. 3 pp. 97–113, 223–39, 319–32.
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