do the scotish speak gaelic like the irish or something else?

Question

I am speak of original language not necessarily modern (current) language usage.

Answer 1

First of all, "Swyn" they're c-celtic languages.

Scottish Gaelic is derived from Irish Gaelic, since the time when the "Scotti" (latin for Irish) began to invade the land which is now called Scotland about the 2nd to 6th Centuries AD. Both Gaelic Scots and Gaelic Irish shared a common culture, language, clan system, legal system etc., and Irish and Scottish poets and bards travelled freely throughout all gaelic-speaking areas. The two languages began to drift apart about 1500, as Brennus says, when the political connections between the two countries broke down.

Brennus is incorrect in claiming that about 10% of Irish people speak Irish Gaelic as their first language - it's more like about 3% at most. On the other hand, Scottish Gaelic is spoken as first language in remoter parts of the Western Islands. I have heard it spoken among older people in Skye, which isn't very remote. What's more I understood most of it, especially when it's written!

Answer 2

Nearly all of Ireland and Scotland were Gaelic speaking in the year 1500. Sadly, only 10% of the Irish population still speaks Irish Gaelic today as a first language and probably nobody really speaks Scottish Gaelic as a first language either in Scotland or in Nova Scota (Canada).

The last known speaker of the Sutherland dialect of Scottish Gaelic was a lady named Mary Stewart. She died in 1972. It is said that even she grew up bilingual, speaking Gaelic at home and English in school.

Answer 3

Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic are completely different languages. They stem from the same family (p-Celtic) originally but that's about it by now.

Answer 4

scotland has always had three languages.

in the north and the west of the country (particularly the highlands) a language similar to (but not identical with) erse (irish gaelic) was the majority language. this language is scottish gaelic and is still found on many of the western isles. scottish gaelic is also undergoing a small revival in the scottish western mainland as it has benefited from the recent revival of interest in scottish heritage ideas.

the majority language in the south and east though was lallans (scots) for over a thousand years. lallans is a close relative of english (though again, not identical with it) and arrived with norse settlers on the scottish mainland from about the sixth century on (the same was as english arrived in england in fact).

over the last three hundred years most lallans speakers have tended to drift towards speaking standard english (but there are still traces of lallans vocabulary and grammar left in many large towns and even some cities). robert garioch and hugh macdiarmuid wrote their poems in lallans during the middle of the last century, and had no trouble finding an audience to understand them.

true english was a minority language in scotland at least from the middle ages, but after the industrial revolution it became increasingly the main language of scotland.

the capital city of edinburgh shows the history of gaelic and lallans side by side. it means 'edin's town': 'edin' is a gaelic man's name, but 'burgh' is a word from the english family of languages (as in 'market harborough' or 'silbury').

during the dark ages there was even some welsh spoken in the geographical area we now call scotland. 'strathclyde' is a welsh area-name [ystrad clud : the banks of the river clyde].

Answer 5

Yes some northern scottish people speak gaelic as there primary language still, i know that it is very similar if not the same as the irish gaelic

Answer 6

Scottish speak Scottish Gaelic. The language has similarities but is not the same.

Scottish Gaelic
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/gaelic.htm

Irish Gaelic
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/irish.htm

Answer 7

Scots and Irish speak the same language as much as Italians and Spanish speak the same language. I.e. It was the same language once upon a time, but it is no longer the case.