Gaelic

[Pottersville]

Sorry if this is a stoooopid question. Is Gaelic spoken in Ireland, Scotland and Wales?

[hiorta]

It is spoken in Scotland, Ireland and Wales - although in a different form in Wales - but it is not spoken exclusively.

[ScotSites]

The Gaelic language is spoken in Ireland and Scotland, but not in Wales... Welsh is a totally different language!

[Pottersville]

Originally Posted by ScotSites

The Gaelic language is spoken in Ireland and Scotland, but not in Wales... Welsh is a totally different language!

Thank you so much hiorta and ScotSites. Dang I need to read up on the history of Ireland and Scotland before I embarrass myself by asking another stoooopid question...

Like...

Does the common language mean that the Scots and Irish have common ancestry?

[Leftfield]

Originally Posted by Pottersville

Thank you so much hiorta and ScotSites. Dang I need to read up on the history of Ireland and Scotland before I embarrass myself by asking another stoooopid question...

Like...

Does the common language mean that the Scots and Irish have common ancestry?

I'm by no means an expert, but I believe that the Scottish and Irish people are descended predominantly from the same tribes (picts, celts, vikings).

Scottish Gaelic (pronounced Gah-lic) and Irish Gaelic (pronounced Gay-lic) are two different, albeit similar, languages.

[ANDY-J3]

The Scots were a tribe who came from Ireland and originally settled in the north west of Scotland in an area they called Dalriada but eventually the entire country was united under a Scots King. The Gaelic language and culture in Scotland comes from them. Up until about the eighteenth century Lowland Scots who are a mixture of Germanic and Celtic (Pictish/Brythonic) lineage referred to the Gaels as Irish and they did at that time have closer links and cultural connections with Ireland than they did with the rest of Scotland.

[simpler times]

We have just returned from a tour of Ireland. The Gaelic spoken in the Irish Republic (not Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK), sounds totally different from the Gaelic spoken in Scotland. We have been to Scotland twice in recent years, and I heard Gaelic spoken frequently in the Inverness, Ft. William & Oban areas. There is a Gaelic language school on the Isle of Skye. But, the Irish version sounds very much like Norweigen and probably borrows heavily from that language. The Vikings conquered and ruled Ireland from about 800 AD until the English kings took control in the 12th or 13th century. While the indiginous language is called Gaelic in both Ireland and Scotland, it's like comparing American English and Australian English.