Newfound interest in Celtic cultures and languages.

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I'm Hispano-Celtic heritage-wise, but it wasn't until a short while ago that I became fascinated with my father's side of the family. My mother is from Puerto Rico, and since se raised me to speak Spanish first and since I look more Spanish than Irish/Scottish, I have always culturally identified myself as Spanish-American. But recently, I began obsessively researching my paternal side of the family and their roots. My grandfather is a direct descendent of the Irish clan Cléirigh(or Cleary), which is probably the oldest unchanged surname in all of Europe. The Cleary clan is also one, if not the oldest remaining clans of Ireland. My grandfather's Grandfather immigrated to Newfoundland which has a mostly Irish population and a dialect of English that sounds very similar to Irish-English. My Grandmother's clan, Campbell, is one of the most powerful Scottish clans ever. one of the Uk's Dukes also serves as that clan's leader. Her ancestors mved to Nova Scotia, which has a mostly Scottish population and is named after Scotland.

I am an amateur linguist and aspire to be a translator when I get older, so after getting into my paternal heritage, I decided I would begin teaching myself Gaeilge(Irish Gaelic). I want to not because it will help me get around the world(in this case, it wouldn't) but out of honor. I also plan on learning Gaidhlig(scottish Gaelic) later. Both languages are dying because there is no longer a reason to be speaking it other than cultural value. A related language, Manx, went extinct for this reason. So, even if I never use it, I plan on learning it.

Out of curiosity, does anyone on here speak Gaelic of any sort? Once I get better at it, maybe I can practice with other people on here.

Manx went extinct but has been resurrected, as well as Cornish. But bringing learners up to fluency in languages like these is a very big obstacle. because people aren't forced to use it in every situation day in, day out.

I speak Gaelic (Gàidhlig). There are more Irish (Gaeilge) speakers in the world, so if you choose to learn that, you'll find it easier to find other learners and speakers than if you decide to learn Gaelic (Gàidhlig).

While fluent speakers of a' Ghàidhlig often can understand a bit of a' Gheailge, I have a lot of trouble understanding Irish myself. I am near-fluent but not fully fluent. But if you have decided to learn a' Ghaidhlg though, I'll be more than happy to chat with you here anns a' Ghàidhlig!

My paternal family is from Newfoundland and by extension, Ireland. Newfie is like America's Ireland, hell they spoke Gaeilge there until recently and my family members from there sound Irish. However, other than preserving the language, I have no use for it. I stopped learning to focus on relearning my very first language.

I have ancestors from Ireland, and my surname is Celtic. Even though I can't speak any Gaelic languages, I have had an interest in Celtic culture for a while. I particularly find the music to be very enticing.

"Her ancestors mved to Nova Scotia, which has a mostly Scottish population and is named after Scotland."

Uhm, actually, just to be historically acurate, it wasn't populated by scottish people at first. <.< Acadians (which were french) were there before, but uh... The rights to the territory were later sold to a Scottish man by the British Crown, after (or was it before?) the Utrecht Treaty in 1713, who was told to pretty much populate the Nova Scotia region with Scottish people. Even so, colonization was so slow that Acadians were still the majority until the British Crown decided to expropriate them (they were admittedly being a bit cocky and did not want to pledge allegiance or leave even though they were under british jurisdiction). =/ From then on, there was a diaspora within Acadia (which included the current Prince-Edward's Island, New-Brunswick and Nova Scotia) and some established themselves a bit everywhere, including Newfoundland (or the nearby St.-Pierre & Miquelon islands).

Newfoundland, as you've said, had irish people, but also bretons and the like.

I'm not 100% certain, but in Age of Empires 3, some units that come from Scotland (including one fictionnal character named Morgan Black and mercenery unit known as the Highlander) speak something that i've been told "could" be Gaelic. It certainly doesn't sound like english or anything i know of. =/

On the Isle of Man there are schools where children are taught in Manx, and there are a couple thousand speakers of it. Cornish is slowly becoming more spoken: there are a couple thousand speakers (few are native speakers), there are languages classes, meetings, bilingual signs, and a standard orthography has been decided on, which publications are starting to use, and will facilitate learning it and teaching it to children in the near future.

Irish and Scottish Gaelic are not in danger of dying. On the islands of Lewis and Skye there are a couple primary schools that teach in Scottish Gaelic, which was just started recently, and there is a fair amount of TV programming in Scottish, and even more in Irish, like shows for children, and teenagers (Aifric is a great show which is also dubbed into Scottish Gaelic). Irish and Scottish are being taught and used more and more, and the number of speakers is rising. Welsh has many speakers, over 700,000, and similarly is used a lot daily. Unfortunately, Breton is probably the most endangered of the 6 Celtic languages, as France refuses to acknowledge minority languages, and thus Breton does not enjoy TV or radio programming nearly as much as Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, and Welsh, nor is it used in any schools, only taught in universities, like in Rennes.

I love Celtic languages myself, as you can surely tell. I have attempted learning all of them, but only Cornish, Scottish, and Irish seriously (I know quite a bit of Cornish). I had begun learning Scottish again, with the intent of learning it to fluency, but unfortunately I had to stop. I am part Scottish (and Irish, and English) and have long loved Scotland, I think I'm going to finally learn it now. Scotland is beautiful, I love the scenery/landscape (I have never known the correct word to use for this purpose) of everywhere in Scotland, and the weather and climate is perfect. I love Port Tree, it's such a nice little town, but Aberdeen is also a great city. I love the Scots language too, specifically the Doric dialect.

Actually both Irish and Scottish Gaelic could die out as a community language. In Ireland, many kids lean Irish in school, but once they are out of school, they stop using it and forget it. I've known many Irish people who's admitted so much to to me, sadly. If this continues, Irish will cease as a living language and become like Latin, a dead language studied only for academic reasons. The areas today in Ireland where Irish is spoken as a everyday language are small and fragmented and are dwindling. Unless the Irish people take it upon themselves to use Irish as an everyday language, it will die.

Gaelic in Scotland is facing even more challenges because there are Scottish people who do not want Gaelic taught in schools nor have the government fund efforts to encourage the language. They can't even put up bilingual road signs without there being a big uproar from some people. Understand that the Gaelic language and Gaelic culture has been systematically maligned in the UK for centuries. As Welsh has been looked down on as the language of coal miners and manual laborers, Gaelic has been seen as the language of fishermen and crofters. It has long been regarded as a primitive and rustic language not fit for the contemporary world, which is hardly true, but the stereotype has stuck. So there's cultural resistance against encouraging Gaelic being learned and spoken, as will as getting funding for schools and other resources. Add to that the areas where Gaelic is still spoken are very small in population and are being influenced more and more by the English-spoken media in the UK, it's a very dire situation. But there's hope in the people who want to learn Gaelic. There seems to be no end to those--the trouble is, Gaelic learners tend to be spread out worldwide, and with so few speakers of the language, it's hard for learners to reach fluency when they are so distant from one another. Skype and the internet helps but nothing beats being able to be around a Gaelic speaking community.

If you are interested Scots, I encourage you to learn it. But understand that Scots is not Gaelic and is likewise not a Celtic language. Scots, or Lowland Scots or Scottish English as it's sometimes called, is actually a Germanic language--it broke off from Middle English about 1000 years ago (some people still argue that it's just a dialect of British English). Scots, along with Gaelic, is a recognized minority language in Scotland and is likewise in danger of dying out as younger people deem it unneeded or embarrassing. Scots has grammar and word roots very close to English and German, whereas Gaelic has very different grammar and word root from English and Scots, being a Celtic language.

For example:

English: How are you? How's it going?
Scots: Hou's aw wi ye? Hou's it gaun?
Gaelic: Ciamar a tha thu? Dè tha 'dol?

English: Good morning
Scots: Guid mornin
Gaelic: Madainn mhath dhut

English: I don't undertand you
Scots: A dinna unnerstan ye
Gaelic: Chan eil mi a' tuigsinn thu

As you can see Gaelic is quite distinct from both English and Scots.

<mercurial - Are you sure about 1,000 years cutoff date?

to me, Scots looks very similar to English all things considered.

This is an example of old English from maybe about 800 - 1100 AD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLJGTYkE ... ideo_title

And this is an example of Middle English from after to who knows when.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrnXgVTT ... ure=relmfu

If it cutoff, there is no way it would be that understandable. I would guess maybe 400-500 years at most

/sigh

While no means an exact science, 1000 years is the commonly accepted timeframe for the divergence of Scots from the English branch of Germanic languages. The two main point of divergent linguistic points to are:

1. Scots' acquisition of words from Gaelic, Norse and other languages, as well as words that appear uniquely Scots, that were never used in English at any point and dating back as far as 1000 years
2. Elements in Scots' grammatical and syntactical evolution that differs considerably from English, again dating back as far as 1000 years

There is also idiomatic usage: for many centuries, Scots and English had very distinct idioms exclusive to the respective languages that did not overlap or parallel until post-unification Britain, suggesting further that Scots had developed over a considered period of time as its own language--far more than 400-500 years, considering unification of England and Scotland began around 300-400 years ago.

But there will always be strongly Anglo-centric people who simply refuse to see Scots as its own language and who will make every excuse as to why the above historical evidence doesn't mean anything. I have no interest in that sort of debate if this is where you are heading. In my educated opinion, the Scots-speaking Scottish had developed their own culture and naturally their own language over several centuries, regardless of what the English south of them where doing. Not every revolves around the English, even in Britain.

I didn't mean it as any political slight to the Scottish people. All I am saying is, 1000 years ago English was a completely different language. DId you watch the video? I couldnt understand 1%. Middle english maybe 5% of it.

If Scots branched off a thousand years ago, how is it that it evolved so similarly? How can I understand so much of it? Close proximity to England? It is either a long separated dialect from 1000 years ago, or it is a completely DIFFErent language starting 500 years ago.

Norse, Gaelic, French, Latin, Greek, Dutch-Frisian, all influenced English too.

While fluent speakers of a' Ghàidhlig often can understand a bit of a' Gheailge, I have a lot of trouble understanding Irish myself. I am near-fluent but not fully fluent. But if you have decided to learn a' Ghaidhlg though, I'll be more than happy to chat with you here anns a' Ghàidhlig!