Goidelic languages

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(Redirected from Goidelic)
Language classification
Indo-European

Celtic
Insular Celtic
Goidelic languages

The Goidelic languages are one of two major divisions of modern-day Insular Celtic languages (the other being the Brythonic languages). It is also known as Q-Celtic, because words in Brythonic Celtic languages that begin with "B" or "P" begin with "C" or "K" in Goidelic Celtic languages. This grouping is also sometimes called Gaelic or Gaelic languages.

E.g.GaulishWelsh.Breton.Irish.Gàidhlig.Manx .English.
pennospennpennceannceannkione"head"
pentuariospedwarpevarceatharceithirkiare"four"
pinpetospumppempcúigcòigqueig"five"
?pwypivcécòquoi"who"

Only three Goidelic languages survived into modern times: Irish (Gaeilge), Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig), and Manx (Gaelg). Shelta is sometimes mistakenly thought to be a Goidelic language when it is, in fact, a cant based on Irish and English, with a primarily English-based syntax.

Although Irish and Manx are often referred to as Irish Gaelic and Manx Gaelic — and it is correct to describe them as Goidelic or Gaelic languages — this is unnecessary because the words Irish and Manx only ever refer to these languages whereas Scots by itself refers to the Germanic language. The word Gaelic by itself is somewhat ambiguous, but most often refers to Scottish Gaelic and it is the word that Scottish Gaelic speakers themselves use when speaking English. Furthermore, due to the peculiar politics of language and national identity, some Irish speakers are offended by the use of the word Gaelic by itself to refer to Irish. Similarly, some Scottish Gaelic speakers also find offensive the use of the obsolete word Erse (i.e. "Irish") to refer to their language.

Contents

Classification

The family tree of the Goidelic languages is as follows:

History and range

Goidelic languages were once restricted to Ireland, but in the 6th century a group of Celts known to the Romans as Scotii and to themselves as Gaels began migrating from Ireland to what are now northern England and Scotland and eventually assimilated the Picts (a group of peoples who, may have originally spoken a Brythonic language) who lived there. Manx, the former common language of the Isle of Man, is descended from the Gaelic spoken in north east Ireland and the now extinct Gaelic of Galloway (in southwest Scotland), with heavy influence from Old Norse because of the Viking invasions. Shelta, a cant spoken by the Irish Travellers, is considered its own language even though it is based largely on Irish. Goidelic languages may once have been common on the Atlantic coast of Europe and there is evidence that they were spoken in the region of Galicia in modern Spain. The Goidelic languages had their own unique script, known as ogham, in use from at least the 5th century until the 15th, especially for carving on wood or stone.

The oldest written Goidelic language is Primitive Irish, which is attested in Ogham inscriptions up to about the 4th century AD. Old Irish is found in the margins of Latin religious manuscripts from the 6th century to the 10th century. Middle Irish, the ancestor of the modern Goidelic languages, is the name for the language as used from the 10th to the 16th century. A form of Middle Irish was used as a literary language in Ireland until the 17th century and in Scotland until the 18th century; the Ethnologue gives the name "Hiberno-Scottish Gaelic" to this purely written language.

Irish

Irish is one of Ireland's two official languages (along with English) and is still fairly widely spoken in the west of Ireland. The legally defined Irish-speaking areas are called the Gaeltacht. At present, Irish is primarily spoken in Counties Cork, Donegal, Mayo, Galway, Kerry and, to a lesser extent, in Waterford and Meath. Irish is also spoken by a few people in Northern Ireland and has been accorded some legal status there under the 1998 Belfast Agreement. Approximately 260,000 people in the Republic of Ireland can speak the Irish language fluently, while close to 80,000 (mainly in the Gaeltacht) speak Irish as a first, day to day language. Over a million citizens of the Republic of Ireland have some understanding in Irish (ranging from minimum to almost fluent). Before the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, the language was spoken by the vast majority of the population, but the famine and emigration led to a decline which has only begun to reverse very recently.

The Irish language has been officially recognised as a working language by the European Union. Ireland's national language is the 21st to be given such recognition by the EU and previously had the status of a treaty language.

(Scottish) Gaelic

Some people in the north and west of Scotland and the Hebrides still speak Scottish Gaelic, but because of its minimal official recognition and because of large-scale emigration from those parts of Scotland, the language appears to be in decline. There are now believed to be approximately 1,000 native speakers of Scottish Gaelic in Nova Scotia and 60,000 in Scotland.

Its historical range was much larger. For example, it was the everyday language of most of the rest of the Highlands until little more than a century ago. Galloway had also been a Goidelic-speaking region, but the language has been extinct there for approximately three centuries. It is believed to have been home to dialects that were transitional between Scottish Gaelic and the two other Goidelic languages. Most other areas of the Lowlands also spoke forms of Gaelic, the only exception probably being the area which lies on the south-eastern part of the modern border with England (the area called Lothian in the Middle Ages). The very word Scotland in fact takes its name from the medieval Latin word for a Gaelic speaker, Scotus, so that Scotland or Scotia originally meant Land of the Gael. Moreover, until late in the 15th century, it was solely the Gaelic language used in Scotland which in English was called Scottish or - more authentically - Scottis.

Scottish Gaelic was once Scotland's major language; however, the introduction of the Middle English language into the Gaelic regions of "Lowland" Scotland gradually reversed that. Moreover, by the early 16th century the dialects of Middle English which developed in Lothian and had come to be spoken elsewhere in the Kingdom of Scotland themselves appropriated the name Scots, with Gaelic having been re-assigned the name Erse (i.e. "Irish"). By the seventeenth century Gaelic speakers were restricted largely to the Highlands and the Hebrides. Furthermore, the culturally repressive measures taken against the rebellious highland communities by the British crown following the 2nd Jacobite Rebellion of 1746 caused still further decline in the language's use. However, today more and more Scots are learning the language, and the Scottish Parliament has afforded the language official status and equal respect with English, sparking hopes that Scottish Gaelic can be saved from extinction and revived.

Manx

Manx is virtually extinct, although attempts to revive it continue and it is still used in ceremonies such as Tynwald Day. A small minority of the Manx people, not estimated to be more than 2,000, can still speak the language, although the person considered to be the last true native speaker, Ned Maddrell, died in 1974. Although a Gaelic language, descended from its Irish and Scottish cousin languages, the Manx language also borrows heavily from the Old Norse language introduced by Viking raiders centuries ago.

Other Celtic tongues

All the other living Celtic languages belong to the Brythonic branch of Celtic, which includes Welsh (Cymraeg), Breton (Brezhoneg), and Cornish (Kernowek). Pictish was the ancient language of much of modern day Scotland, but it is not clear that Pictish was a Celtic language. These are sometimes incorrectly referred to as "Gaelic". For extinct Celtic languages, see also Continental Celtic languages.

Mixed languages

The mixed languages are not specifically "Goidelic languages" as such, but have a strong input from them, they include:

See also

External links

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