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[Croi Sasanach]

Where did you get those dates from?

I've looked for ages on the internet to find solid dates as late as that for non-English speaking populations.

Do you have any idea when the Dumfries area last spoke Gaelic? If you consider that Carlisle is 25ish miles from the town of Dumfries, it would lead me to think there there would be some influence there at some late stage.

[ScotSites]

Originally Posted by Polwarth

It is a waste of time trying to speak sense to Raigaenach or Hugh2 as he prefers to be called nowadays

I agree with you 100% there... Hugh2/Raingeanach is nothing more than a pathetic troll... all he ever does is quote posts that agree with him (which indicates he has nothing to add to the subject and therefore no real understanding of it) and if anyone disagrees with him he resorts to his North British insults... personally I doubt there is any other forum would give this troll the time of day let alone allow him to post!

[Steaphan]

Originally Posted by Croi Sasanach

Where did you get those dates from?

I've looked for ages on the internet to find solid dates as late as that for non-English speaking populations.

Do you have any idea when the Dumfries area last spoke Gaelic? If you consider that Carlisle is 25ish miles from the town of Dumfries, it would lead me to think there there would be some influence there at some late stage.

The first censuses were carried out in 1881, and so Gaelic was long gone from Dumfries by then. In 1881 the percentage in Dumfries was 0.02. Neighbouring Galloway was Gaelic speaking until the 1700s. The censuses are all freely available, and this is where I got my figures from.

[ANDY-J3]

Anybody who believes they have solid and reliable evidence to show that in the late 17th century a majority of Scots spoke Gaelic should be submitting it to a historical journal for review by historians and linguists not debating it amongst laymen on a discussion forum. It's an innovative idea and if there is really hard evidence to support it people would like to see it.

[Steaphan]

This information is not new, Andy.. Perhaps you are just living in a time-warp as far as these pieces of evidence goes, but these sources are used by historians sympathetic to Scotland's heritage. Sadly, those historians are not consulted by the Anglo authorities when it comes to writing Scottish schools' history textbooks. They prefer the ones who overlook such resources as Webster's PArish Registers etc.

[Luciaspeaks]

Is the Gaelic tongue very far removed from the way Scots speak now ?

[ANDY-J3]

Gaelic is only now spoken by about 60 000 odd Scots. It's a Celtic language and most Scots nowadays speak Scots-English although in some parts of the country various dialects of Scots are spoken and are referred to as Lallans or Doric.