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Gaelic pages
Introduction · Sounds and Writing

Note: : This is the intro page for the Scottish variant of Gaelic. For the Irish one please see Irish.

Welcome to the Wikilang introduction page for the Scottish Gaelic language, or as we call it, Gàidhlig!

Contents 1 An Introduction to the Language 1.1 History 1.2 Family 1.3 Spoken in

An Introduction to the Language

History

Scottish Gaelic, like Irish and Manx, is descended from Middle Irish. Scottish Gaelic in it's separate form from the other Gaelic languages has been around since about the 12^th century AD. In modern times the number of speakers of Gaelic has been declining, with less than 1.5% of the Scottish population able to speak it. The majority of Gaelic speakers are to be found in the northern parts of Scotland, in the traditional Gàidhealtachd, even though the highest number of Gaelic speakers live in Glasgow. Percent wise however the highest proportion of Gaelic speakers live in Ness, Isle of Lewis.

Family

Indo-European

• Celtic
  • Insular Celtic
    • Goidelic
      • Scottish Gaelic

Spoken in

Scottish Gaelic is an official language in Scotland, where it has about 58,652 native speakers, and an additional 33,744 who can either read, speak or understand Gaelic to varying degrees. It is also spoken by a few number in the very eastern part of Canada, Nova Scotia. It has official status within the European Parliament, alongside e.g. Welsh and other minority languages.