JPL
06-21-2007, 11:22 PM
Scottish Gaelic is very similar to Gaeilge.. Pronounciation from what I gather appears to be very similar, although the spellings can be different or the same. I'd equate it today to the similarities between portuguese & spanish.
The fada's (dash above a vowel to indicate you want to lengthen the vowel) in Scottish Gaelic are backwards compared to the Irish fads. Here is a list of Scottish gaelic phrases, with their English & Irish counterparts.
It's worth noting the sharp decline in Scottish Gaelic - Unfortunately, the retention of the language is much less than even the retention of Irish Gaelige. You will be saddened to know that in 1775, 1/3rd of the Scottish population spoke Scottish gaelic only, while the rest would intertwine both Scottish Gaelic & English. By 1900, that had declined to less than 30'000 (just a little over 100 years later) and by 1971 that was down to 447. Today there are less than 60'000 people in the entire country of Scotland who can speak Scottish Gaelic.. Opposed to an entire country 2 hundred years ago.
I'm not an expert on Scottish Gaelic, but hopefully this thread will provide a start for our Scottish brothers to help revive their language and hopefully learn a little.
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/9976/scottishld8.jpg
References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic_language
The fada's (dash above a vowel to indicate you want to lengthen the vowel) in Scottish Gaelic are backwards compared to the Irish fads. Here is a list of Scottish gaelic phrases, with their English & Irish counterparts.
It's worth noting the sharp decline in Scottish Gaelic - Unfortunately, the retention of the language is much less than even the retention of Irish Gaelige. You will be saddened to know that in 1775, 1/3rd of the Scottish population spoke Scottish gaelic only, while the rest would intertwine both Scottish Gaelic & English. By 1900, that had declined to less than 30'000 (just a little over 100 years later) and by 1971 that was down to 447. Today there are less than 60'000 people in the entire country of Scotland who can speak Scottish Gaelic.. Opposed to an entire country 2 hundred years ago.
I'm not an expert on Scottish Gaelic, but hopefully this thread will provide a start for our Scottish brothers to help revive their language and hopefully learn a little.
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/9976/scottishld8.jpg
References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic_language