Scottish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, or just Gaelic (Gàidhlig; IPA: ), is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. The branch includes Scottish Gaelic, Irish and Manx, and is distinct from the Brythonic branch, which includes Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. Scottish Gaelic, Manx and Irish are all descended from Old Irish. For this reason, it is preferable to refer to it as Scottish Gaelic or Gàidhlig to avoid confusion with the two other tongues.
Gaelic is the traditional language of the Gaels, the Celtic ethnic group now mainly in the
Scottish Highlands, and the historical language of most of Scotland; it was brought to Scotland from [Ireland]] around A.D. 500 and displaced Pictish. It therefore occupies a special place in Scottish culture, and is recognised by many Scots, regardless of whether they speak Gaelic, as being a part of the nation's culture, though others may view it primarily as a regional language. Gaelic has a rich oral tradition (beul aithris), having been the language of the bardic culture of the Highland clans for several centuries. The language suffered as the Highlanders and their traditions were persecuted, especially after the Battle of Culloden and since the Highland Clearances, but despite lingering prejudices, the language is now achieving greater cultural and official recognition.
Scottish Gaelic may be more correctly known as Highland Gaelic to distinguish it from the now defunct Lowland Gaelic. Lowland Gaelic was spoken in the southern regions of Scotland prior to the introduction of Lowland Scots. There is, however, no evidence of a linguistic border following the topographical north-south differences. Similarly, there is no evidence from placenames of significant linguistic differences between, for example, Argyll and Galloway. Dialects on both sides of the Straits of Moyle linking Scottish Gaelic with Irish are now extinct.
Orthography
The modern Scottish Gaelic alphabet has 18 letters:
- A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U
The letter h, now mostly used to indicate lenition of a consonant, was not used in the oldest orthography, as lenition was instead indicated with a dot over the lenited consonant. Letters of the alphabet were traditionally named after trees: ailm (elm), beith (birch), coll (hazel), dair (oak), and so on, but this custom is no longer followed.
The quality of consonants is partially indicated by the vowels surrounding them. The vowels are classified as caol ("slender", i.e. e and i) or leathann ("broad", i.e. a, o and u). The spelling rule is caol ri caol is leathann ri leathann (slender to slender and broad to broad). Slender consonants are palatalised while broad consonants are velarised.
Because of the spelling rule, an internal consonant group must be surrounded by vowels of the same quality to indicate its pronunciation unambiguously, since some consonants change their pronunciation depending on whether they are surrounded by broad or slender vowels: for example, compare the t in slàinte (/slaːntʃə/) with the t in bàta (/pa:tə/).
The rule has no effect on the pronunciation of vowels. For example, plurals in Gaelic are often formed with the suffix -an, for example, bròg [proːk] (shoe)/brògan [proːkən] (shoes). But because of the spelling rule, the suffix is spelled -ean (but pronounced the same) after a slender consonant, as in taigh [tʰɤj] (house)/taighean [tʰɤjən] (houses).
In changes promoted by the Scottish Examination Board from 1976 onwards, certain modifications were made to this rule. For example, the suffix of the past participle is always spelled -te, even after a broad consonant, as in togte 'raised' (rather than the traditional togta).
Using the spelling rule, it is sometimes unclear whether a vowel has been introduced for its own pronunciation or for its effect upon a consonant.
Unstressed vowels omitted in speech can be omitted in informal writing. e.g.,
- Tha mi an dòchas (I hope) > Tha mi'n dòchas
Once Gaelic orthographic rules have been learned, the pronunciation of the written language can be seen to be quite predictable. However learners must be careful not to try to apply English spelling rules to written Gaelic, otherwise mispronunciations will result. Gaelic personal names such as Seònaid [ˈʃːnɛtʃ] are especially likely to be mispronounced when they are used by English speakers.
Pronunciation
Most letters are pronounced similarly to other European languages. The broad consonants t and d and often n have a dental articulation (as in Irish and the Romance and Slavic languages) in contrast to the alveolar articulation common in English and other Germanic languages). Non-palatal r is an alveolar trill (like Italian r or Spanish rr.)
The "voiced" stops b, d, g are not voiced at all in Gaelic, but are rather voiceless unaspirated. The "voiceless" stops p, t, c are voiceless and strongly aspirated (postaspirated in initial position, preaspirated in final position). Gaelic shares this property with Icelandic. In Gaelic, stops at the beginning of a stressed syllable become voiced when they follow a nasal consonant, e.g. taigh 'a house' is [thɤi] but an taigh 'the house' is [ən dhɤi]; cf. also tombaca 'tobacco' [thomˈbaxkə].
The lenited consonants have special pronunciations: bh and mh are [v]; ch is [x] or [ç]; dh, gh is [ʝ] or [ɣ]; th is [h], [ʔ], or silent; ph is [f]. Lenition of l n r is not shown in writing.
fh is almost always silent, with only the following three exceptions: fhèin, fhathast, and fhuair, where it is pronounced as [h].
| Consonant | Normal | | Lenited | |
| | Broad | Slender | Broad | Slender |
| b | [p] | [p] | [v] | [v] |
| c | [kh, xk] | [khj, çkj] | [x] | [ç] |
| d | [t] | [tʃ] | [ɣ] | [j] |
| f | [f] | [f] | silent | silent |
| g | [k] | [kj] | [ɣ] | [j] |
| l | [ɫ] | [ʎ] | [l] | [k] |
| m | [m] | [m] | [v] | [v] |
| n | [nɰ] | [ɲ] | [n] | [n] |
| p | [ph, hp] | [ph, hp] | [f] | [f] |
| r | [r] | [r] | [r] | [ɾj] |
| s | [s] | [ʃ] | [h] | [h] |
| t | [th, ht] | [tʃh, htʃ] | [h] | [h]
|
A table of consonants with pronunciations in IPA
There are a few general features worth noting.
- Stress is usually on the first syllable: e.g. drochaid 'a bridge' (/ˈtroxatʃ/).
(Knowledge of this fact alone would help avoid many a mispronunciation of Highland placenames, e.g. Mallaig is /ˈmaɫɛkʲ/. Note, though, that when a placename consists of more than one word in Gaelic, that the Anglicised form can have stress elsewhere: Tyndrum (/tʌinˈdrʌm/) < Taigh an Droma (/thɤin ˈdromə/).
- A distinctive characteristic of Gaelic pronunciation (which has influenced the Scottish accent — cf. girl /gʌrəl/ and film /fɪləm/) is the insertion of epenthetic vowels between certain adjacent consonants, specifically, between sonorants (l or r) and certain following consonants:
- tarbh (bull) — [tharav]
- Alba (Scotland) — [alapa].
- Schwa ([ə]) at the end of a word is dropped when followed by a word beginning with a vowel. For example,
- duine (a man) — [ˈtɯnjə]
- an duine agad (your man) — [ən ˈdɯnj akət]
Grammar
Scottish Gaelic is an inflected language. Nouns indicate their relationships with a number of grammatical cases (nominative, dative, genitive, and vocative), and verbs are conjugated to indicate tense (simple tenses are past and future; compound tenses are continuous present, past, and future), mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive), and voice (active, passive).
Gaelic shares with other Celtic languages a number of interesting grammatical features:
- Verb Subject Object word order; a relatively uncommon typology among the world's languages
- Prepositional pronouns: pronouns and most prepositions are fused into compound forms, such as agam (at me), agad (at you), ris (to him).
- The absence of a verb to have: instead, possession is expressed prepositionally, with aig (i.e. by saying that something is at or on a person, cf. Russian u):
- tha taigh agam — I have a house (lit. a house is at me)
- an cat aig Iain — John's cat (lit. the cat at John)
- Emphatic pronouns: A distinction is made between the ordinary pronouns, like mi and thu, and their emphatic counterparts, mise and thusa, etc., which express a contrast to other persons. For example:
- tha i bòidheach — she's beautiful
- tha ise bòidheach — she's beautiful (as opposed to somebody else)
Grammatical emphasis carries over into other situations:
- an taigh aicese — her house
- chuirinnse — I would put
- na mo bheachd-sa — in my opinion
- "To be": Gaelic has two forms of the verb "to be": tha is used to ascribe a property to a noun or pronoun, whereas in general usage is is used to identify a noun or pronoun as a complement. ('Is' can be used to ascribe a description to a noun or pronoun, but generally this usage is restricted to fixed expressions, e.g. 'Is beag an t-iongnadh' lit. 'Is small the surprise'
- tha mise sgìth — I am tired
- is mise Eòghan — I am Ewen.
It is, however, possible to use tha to say that one thing is another thing by turning it into a
property:
- tha mi nam Albannach — I am a Scot (lit. I am in my Scot)
- Is e Albannach a th'annam — I am a Scot (lit. it's a Scot that's in me).
Articles
Gaelic has a definite article but no indefinite article:
- an taigh — 'the house'
- taigh — '(a) house'
The form of the (definite) article depends on the number, gender, case, and initial sound of the noun.
(i). an, am, and an t- are used with masculine singular nominative nouns:
- an cat — 'the cat' (also for nouns which cannot be lenited)
- am balach — 'the boy' (nouns which begin with labial consonants)
- an t-òran &mdash 'the song' (nouns which begin with vowels)
(ii). a' is used before a lenited consonant; there are two cases:
- a' chaileag &mdash 'the girl' (feminine nominative and dative)
- leis a' bhalach &mdash 'with the boy' (masculine dative and genitive)
(iii). na and na h- (before a vowel) are used in the feminine genitive singular:
- na mara — 'of the sea'
- na h-Alba — 'of [the] Scotland'
(iv). na and na h- (before a vowel) are used in the nominative and dative plural of both genders:
- na cait — 'the cats'
- na h-àireamhan — 'the numbers'
(v). nan or nam (before a labial) are used in the genitive plural:
- nan cat — 'of the cats'
- nam balach — 'of the boys'
Differences between Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic is similar to Irish Gaelic, although most dialects are not mutually comprehensible.
The closest is the dialect spoken in Donegal, as illustrated by the sentence "How are you?"
- Scottish Gaelic — Ciamar a tha thu?
- Ulster Irish — Caidé mar a tá tú?, also spelt Cad é mar atá tú?
- Standard Irish — Conas atá tú?
In Lewis dialect however, Dè mar a tha thu? is commonly used. All these forms share the structure of the Doric dialect of Scots, Fit like? or literally, What like are you?, a commonly heard expression amongst many in older generations when translating directly from the Gaelic.
However, there are some important differences. The most obvious orthographical difference is that the accent, or fada, is written as a grave accent in Scottish Gaelic, as opposed to the acute accent of Irish; hence the word for "welcome" is written as fàilte in Scottish Gaelic and in Irish as fáilte. Also, the negative participle in Scottish Gaelic is cha (chan eil = is not) whereas in standard Irish it is ní (níl = is not, a contraction of ní fhuil), as illustrated by the sentence "I have no money" (cha and chan fhuil are still legitimate Irish forms in Ulster, though):
- Scottish Gaelic — Chan eil airgead agam.
- Standard Irish — Níl airgead agam.
Some words have "a" in Irish but "u" in Scottish Gaelic, for instance the word for the English language Béarla in Irish and Beurla in Scottish Gaelic. This is due to a spelling reform and standardisation which took place in Ireland under the auspices of the Irish government during the 20th century.
The most obvious grammatical difference between Scottish Gaelic and Irish is that in the former only remnants remain of eclipsis, meaning that Irish has two major mutations to Scottish Gaelic's one. In general, one could say that the grammar of Scottish Gaelic is slightly simpler than that of Irish, while its phonology is more complex, something that also has an impact on spelling.
| ENGLISH | IRISH | SCOTTISH GAELIC |
| Gael | Gael | Gaidheal |
| day | lá | latha |
| night | oíche | oidhche |
| inside | isteach | a-steach |
| school | scoil | sgoil |
| child | páiste | pàisde |
| authority | údarás | ùghdarras |
| office | oifig | oifis (also oifig) |
| open | oscailte | fosgailte |
| year | bliain | bliadhna |
| radio | raidió | radio (rèidio) |
| government | rialtas | riaghaltas |
| parliament | parlaimint | pàrlamaid |
| island | oileán | eilean |
Note that lenited consonants, which can be silent, glottal stops, or act to lengthen a vowel, are
written in Scottish Gaelic but omitted in the corresponding Irish words when silent.
| ENGLISH | IRISH | SCOTTISH GAELIC |
| in | i | ann |
| minister | aire | ministear |
| road | bóthar | rathad |
| cold (illness) | slaghdán | cnatan |
| talking | caint | bruidhinn |
| (Scottish) Highlands | Garbhchríocha (na hAlban) |
Gaidhealtachd* (na h-Alba) |
| Wales | An Bhreatain Bheag** | A' Chuimrigh |
| island | oileann | eilean |
- * Similar to Irish Gaeltacht
- ** In Gaelic, this means Brittany
Official Recognition
After centuries of official discouragement, Gaelic is achieving a degree of official recognition. As well as being taught in schools, including some in which it is the medium of instruction, it is also used by the local council in the Western Isles, Comhairle nan Eilean. The BBC also operates a Gaelic language radio station Radio nan Gaidheal (which regularly transmits joint broadcasts with its Irish counterpart Raidió na Gaeltachta), and there are also television programmes in the language on the BBC and on the ITV commercial channels, usually subtitled in English. The ITV franchisee in the north of Scotland, Grampian Television, has a studio in Stornoway.
However, a separate Gaelic language TV service, similar to S4C in Wales and TG4 in Ireland, has been under consideration. As in Wales, the showing of programmes in the language as regional opt-outs on the main channels has been regarded as inadequate for the 58,552 who speak it, and as an annoyance to some of the English or Scots speaking 5,003,459 who do not. In fact, this annoyance is largely assumed: the evidence is that at least one Gaelic television programme produced by the BBC attains viewing figures in excess of the number of Gaelic speakers that could view it in Scotland. No complaints are being received by the BBC about Gaelic-language television programmes on BBC TV channels, perhaps because subtitling them in English makes them equally accessible to non-Gaelic speakers.
Gaelic road signs are gradually being introduced throughout the Highlands. In many cases, this has simply meant adopting the correct spelling of a name but, even here, anti-Gaelic prejudice has had to be overcome. Most non-Gaels are unaware of the extent to which anti-Gaelic prejudice and sheer racism are prevalent in Scotland. Newspaper columnists regularly mock Gaelic language and culture, propagating stereotypes in a way which would be unimaginable for other groups, and openly call for all funding to be cut.
The Ordnance Survey has acted in recent years to correct many of the mistakes that appear on maps. They announced in 2004 that they intended to make amends for a century of Gaelic ignorance and set up a committee to determine the correct forms of Gaelic place names for their maps.
Historically, Gaelic has not received the same degree of official recognition from the UK Government as Welsh. With the advent of devolution, however, Scottish matters have finally begun to receive greater attention, and a draft Gaelic Bill has now been published by the Scottish Parliament.
The key provisions of the Bill are:
- Recognising in legislation Gaelic as a language of Scotland
- Establishing the Gaelic development body, Bòrd na Gàidhlig, on a statutory basis to promote the use and understanding of Gaelic
- Requiring Bòrd na Gàidhlig to prepare a National Gaelic Language Plan for approval by Scottish Ministers
- Requiring public bodies in Scotland to consider the need for a Gaelic language plan in relation to the services they offer.
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 with the main improvement that the guidance of the Bòrd is now statutory (rather than advisory).
The Education Act of 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.
The first solely Gaelic medium secondary school will open in Glasgow in 2005 (several Gaelic medium primary schools and partially Gaelic medium secondary schools already exist).
In Nova Scotia, there are somewhere between 500 and 1,000 native speakers, most of them now elderly. In May 2004, the Provincial government announced the funding of an initiative to support the language and its culture within the province.
The UK government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of Gaelic.
The Columba Initiative, also known as Iomairt Cholm Cille, is a body that seeks to promote links between speakers of Scottish Gaelic and Irish.
Place names
- Aberdeen — Obar Dheathain
- Dundee — Dùn Dèagh
- Edinburgh — Dùn Èideann
- Fort William — An Gearasdan
- Glasgow — Glaschu
- Inverness — Inbhir Nis
- Perth — Peairt
- Stirling — Sruighlea
- Stornoway — Steòrnabhagh
Personal Names
Gaelic has a number of personal names, such as Aonghas, Dòmhnall, Donnchadh, Coinneach, Murchadh, for which there are traditional forms in English (Angus, Donald, Duncan, Kenneth, Murdo). There are also distinctly Scottish Gaelic forms of names that belong to the common European stock of given names, such as: Iain (John), Alasdair (Alexander), Uilleam (William), Caitrìona (Catherine), Cairistìona (Christina), Anna (Ann), Màiri (Mary). Some names have come into Gaelic from Old Norse, e.g. : Somhairle ( < Somarliðr), Tormod (< Þórmóðr), Torcuil (< Þórkell,
Þórketill), Iomhair (Ívarr). These are conventionally rendered in English as Sorley (or, historically, Somerled), Norman, Torquil, and Iver (or Evander). There are other, traditional, Gaelic names which have no direct equivalents in English: Oighrig, which is normally rendered as Euphemia (Effie) or Henrietta (Etta) (formerly also as Henny or even as Harriet), or, Diorbhal, which is "matched" with Dorothy, simply on the basis of a certain similarity in spelling; Gormul, for which there is nothing similar in English, and it is rendered as 'Gormelia' or even 'Dorothy'!; Beathag, which is "matched" with Becky (> Rebecca) and even Betsy!, or Sophie.
Many of these are now regarded as oldfashioned, and are no longer used (which is, of course, a feature common to many cultures: names go out of fashion). As there is only a relatively small pool of traditional Gaelic names from which to choose, some families within the Gaelic-speaking communities have in recent years made a conscious decision when naming their children to seek out names that are used within the wider English-speaking world. These names do not, of course, have an equivalent in Gaelic. What effect that practice (if it becomes popular) might have on the language, remains to be seen. At this stage (2005), it is clear that some native Gaelic-speakers are willing to break with tradition. Whether they understand that they are thereby weakening their link with their linguistic and cultural heritage and whether that is a matter of concern to them are separate questions.
The well-known name Hamish, and the recently established Mhairi (pronounced as if Vaary) come from the Gaelic for, respectively, James, and Mary, but derive from the form of the names as they appear in the vocative case: Seumas (James) (nom.) -> Sheumais (voc.), and, Màiri (Mary) (nom.) -> Mhàiri (voc.).
The most common form of Gaelic surname is, of course, those beginning with mac (Gaelic for son), such as Mac Gille Eathainn (MacLean). The female form is nic, so Catherine MacFee is properly called in Gaelic, Caitrìona Nic a' Phì.
Several colours give rise to common Scottish surnames: bàn (Bain - white), ruadh (Roy - red), dubh (Dow - black), donn (Dunn - brown).
Loanwords
The majority of Scots Gaelic's vocabulary is native Celtic. There is a number of borrowings from Latin, (muinntir, Di Domhnaich), ancient Greek, especially in the religious domain (eaglais, Bìoball from Ekklesia & Biblos), Norse (eilean, sgeir), Hebrew (Sabaid, Aba) and Lowland Scots (briogais, aidh).
Attempts have been made to bring its vocabulary up to date by creating new words neologisms to deal with modern concepts, but in fact the English word is normally adopted and an attempt is made to clothe the word in Gaelic orthography - not always successfully: Television, for instance, becomes telebhisean; computer becomes coimpiutair. Gaelic, like most other languages, is powerless to resist! Although native speakers frequently use an English word for which there is a perfectly good Gaelic equivalent, they will, without thinking, simply adopt the English word and use it, applying the rules of Gaelic grammar, as the situation requires. With verbs, for instance, they will simply add the verbal suffix (-eadh, or, in Lewis, -igeadh, as in, Tha mi a' watcheadh (Lewis, watchigeadh) an telly (I am watching the television). This is seen as a worrying trend by some native speakers, but it is interesting to note that this very same feature was remarked upon by the minister who compiled the account covering the parish of Stornoway in the New Statistical Account of Scotland, published over 170 years ago!
Going in the other direction, Scottish Gaelic has influenced Lowland Scots (gob) and English, particularly Scottish Standard English. Loanwords include: whisky, slogan, brogue, jilt, clan, strontium, trousers, as well as familiar elements of Scottish geography like ben (beinn), glen (gleann) and loch. Irish Gaelic has also influenced Lowland Scots and English in Scotland, but it is not always easy to distinguish its influence from that of the Scottish variety. See List of English words of Scottish Gaelic origin
Source: An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Alexander MacBain.
See also
External Links
