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Scottish Gaelic language

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Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. This branch includes also the Irish and Manx languages. It is distinct from the Brythonic branch, which includes Welsh, Cornish, and Breton. Scottish, Manx and Irish Gaelic are all descended from Old Irish. A form of Middle Irish, known as 'Classical Gaelic', was used as a literary language in Scotland until the 18th century. The language is often described as Scottish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, or Gàidhlig to avoid confusion with the other two Goidelic languages. Outside of Scotland, it is sometimes also called Scottish or Scots, a usage dating back over 1,500 years, for example Anglo-Saxon Scottas. This usage is uncommon in Scotland because since the 16th century the word Scots has by-and-large been used to describe (Lowland) Scots, which developed from the northern form of early Middle English. In Scottish English, Gaelic is pronounced [ˈgaːlɪk]; outside of Scotland, it is usually [ˈgeɪlɪk].

Contents

History

Gaelic, a descendant of the Goidelic branch of Celtic and closely related to Irish, is the traditional language of the Scotti or Gaels, and became the historical language of the majority of Scotland after it replaced Cumbric, Pictish and Norse. It is not clear how long Gaelic has been spoken in what is now Scotland; it has lately been proposed that it was spoken in Argyll before the Roman period, but no consensus has been reached on this question. However, the consolidation of the kingdom of Dál Riata around the 4th century, linking the ancient province of Ulster in the north of Ireland and western Scotland, accelerated the expansion of Gaelic, as did the success of the Gaelic-speaking church establishment. Placename evidence shows that Gaelic was spoken in the Rhinns of Galloway by the 5th or 6th century.

The Gaelic language eventually displaced Pictish north of the Forth, and until the late 15th century it was known in Inglis as Scottis. Gaelic began to decline in mainland Scotland by the beginning of the 13th century, and with this went a decline in its status as a national language. By the beginning of the 15th century, the highland-lowland line was beginning to emerge.

One interpretation of the linguistic divide in 1400, here based on place-name evidence.
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One interpretation of the linguistic divide in 1400, here based on place-name evidence.

By the early 16th century, Inglis speakers gave the Gaelic language the name Erse (meaning Irish) and thereafter it was invariably the collection of Middle English dialects spoken within the Kingdom of the Scots that they referred to as Scottis (whence Scots). Nevertheless, Gaelic still occupies a special place in Scottish culture, has never been entirely displaced of national language status, and is still recognised by many Scots, whether or not they speak Gaelic, as being a crucial part of the nation's culture. Of course, others may view it primarily as a regional language of the highlands and islands.

Gaelic has a rich oral (beul aithris) and written tradition, having been the language of the bardic culture of the Highland clans for several centuries. The language preserved knowledge of and adherence to pre-feudal laws and customs (as represented, for example, by the expressions tuatha and dùthchas). The language suffered especially as Highlanders and their traditions were persecuted after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and during the Highland Clearances, but pre-feudal attitudes were still evident in the complaints and claims of the Highland Land League of the late 19th century: this political movement was successful in getting members elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Land League was dissipated as a parliamentary force by the 1886 Crofters' Act and by the way the Liberal Party was seen to become supportive of Land League objectives.

Scottish Gaelic may be more correctly known as Highland Gaelic to distinguish it from the now defunct Lowland Gaelic. Lowland Gaelic was spoken in the southern regions of Scotland prior to the introduction of Lowland Scots. There is, however, no evidence of a linguistic border following the topographical north-south differences. Similarly, there is no evidence from placenames of significant linguistic differences between, for example, Argyll and Galloway. Dialects on both sides of the Straits of Moyle linking Scottish Gaelic with Irish are now extinct.

Current distribution in Scotland

Geographic Distribution of Gaelic speakers in Scotland (2001)
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Geographic Distribution of Gaelic speakers in Scotland (2001)

The 2001 UK Census showed a total of 58,652 Gaelic speakers in Scotland (1.2% of population over three years old). Compared to the 1991 Census, there has been a diminution of approximately 7,300 people (an 11% of the total), meaning that Gaelic decline (language shift) in Scotland is continuing. To date, attempts at reversing language shift have been met with limited success.

Considering the data related to Civil Parishes (which permit a continuous study of Gaelic status since the 19th century), two new circumstances have taken place, which are related to this decline:

The main stronghold of the language continues to be the Western Isles (Na h-Eileanan Siar), where the overall proportion of speakers remains at 61.1% and all parishes return values over 50%. The Parish of Kilmuir in Northern Skye is also over this threshold of 50%.

Proportions over 20% register throughout the isles of Skye, Raasay, Tiree, Islay and Colonsay, and the already mentioned parish of Lochalsh in Highland.

Regardless, the weight of Gaelic in Scotland is now much reduced. From a total of almost 900 Civil Parishes in Scotland:

Orthography

Place names in their original Gaelic are becoming increasingly common on road signs throughout the Scottish Highlands.
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Place names in their original Gaelic are becoming increasingly common on road signs throughout the Scottish Highlands.

The modern Scottish Gaelic alphabet has 18 letters:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U
The letter h, now mostly used to indicate lenition of a consonant, was not used in the oldest orthography, as lenition was instead indicated with a dot over the lenited consonant. Letters of the alphabet were traditionally named after trees: ailm (elm), beith (birch), coll (hazel), dair (oak), and so on, but this custom is no longer followed.

The quality of consonants is partially indicated by the vowels surrounding them. The vowels are classified as caol ("slender", that is e and i) or leathann ("broad", that is a, o and u). The spelling rule is caol ri caol is leathann ri leathann (slender to slender and broad to broad). Slender consonants are palatalised while broad consonants are velarised.

Because of the spelling rule, an internal consonant group must be surrounded by vowels of the same quality to indicate its pronunciation unambiguously, since some consonants change their pronunciation depending on whether they are surrounded by broad or slender vowels: for example, compare the t in slàinte ([slaːntʃə]) with the t in bàta ([paːtə]).

Another bilingual road sign, at Mallaig in western Scotland.
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Another bilingual road sign, at Mallaig in western Scotland.

The rule has no effect on the pronunciation of vowels. For example, plurals in Gaelic are often formed with the suffix -an, for example, bròg [proːk] (shoe)/brògan [proːkən] (shoes). But because of the spelling rule, the suffix is spelled -ean (but pronounced the same) after a slender consonant, as in taigh [tʰɤj] (house)/taighean [tʰɤjən] (houses).

In changes promoted by the Scottish Examination Board from 1976 onwards, certain modifications were made to this rule. For example, the suffix of the past participle is always spelled -te, even after a broad consonant, as in togte 'raised' (rather than the traditional togta).

Where pairs of vowels occur in writing, it is sometimes unclear which vowel is to be pronounced and which vowel has been introduced to satisfy this spelling rule.

Unstressed vowels omitted in speech can be omitted in informal writing. For example:

Tha mi an dòchas (I hope) > Tha mi 'n dòchas
Once Gaelic orthographic rules have been learned, the pronunciation of the written language can be seen to be quite predictable. However learners must be careful not to try to apply English spelling rules to written Gaelic, otherwise mispronunciations will result. Gaelic personal names such as Seònaid [ˈʃɔːnɛtʃ] are especially likely to be mispronounced when they are used by English speakers.

Pronunciation

Most letters are pronounced similarly to other European languages. The broad consonants t and d and often n have a dental articulation (as in Irish and the Romance and Slavic languages) in contrast to the alveolar articulation common in English and other Germanic languages). Non-palatal r is an alveolar trill (like Italian r or Spanish rr.)

The "voiced" stops b, d, g are not voiced at all in Gaelic, but are rather voiceless unaspirated. The "voiceless" stops p, t, c are voiceless and strongly aspirated (postaspirated in initial position, preaspirated in medial/final position). Gaelic shares this property with Icelandic. In some Gaelic dialects, stops at the beginning of a stressed syllable become voiced when they follow a nasal consonant, for example: taigh 'a house' is [tʰɤi] but an taigh 'the house' is [ən dʰɤi]; cf. also tombaca 'tobacco' [tʰomˈbaxkə].

The lenited consonants have special pronunciations: bh and mh are [v]; ch is [x] or [ç]; dh, gh is [ʝ] or [ɣ]; th is [h], [ʔ], or silent; ph is [f]. Lenition of l n r is not shown in writing.

fh is almost always silent, with only the following three exceptions: fhèin, fhathast, and fhuair, where it is pronounced as [h].

 A table of consonants with pronunciations in IPA
Radical Lenited
Orthography Broad Slender Orthography Broad Slender
b bh
c ch
d dh
f fh silent silent
g gh
l l
m mh
n n
p ph
r r
s sh
t th

There are a few general features worth noting.

(Knowledge of this fact alone would help avoid many a mispronunciation of Highland placenames, for example Mallaig is [ˈmaɫɛkʲ]. (Note, though, that when a placename consists of more than one word in Gaelic, the Anglicised form is liable to have stress on the last element: Tyndrum [taɪnˈdrʌm] < Taigh an Droma [tʰɤin ˈdromə]. This is because, unlike English, Gaelic word order places the specific element - adjectives, genitives - after the generic.)

tarbh (bull) — [tʰarav]
Alba (Scotland) — [alapa].
duine (a man) — [ˈtɯnʲə]
an duine agad (your man) — [ən ˈdɯnʲ akət]

Grammar

The 10th-century Book of Deer contains the oldest known Gaelic text from Scotland, here seen in the margins of a page from the Gospel of Matthew.
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The 10th-century Book of Deer contains the oldest known Gaelic text from Scotland, here seen in the margins of a page from the Gospel of Matthew.

Scottish Gaelic is an inflected language. Nouns indicate their relationships with a number of grammatical cases (nominative, vocative, genitive, and 'dative', so-termed in traditional grammars [better - 'post-prepositional' case]), and verbs are conjugated to indicate tense (simple tenses are past and future; compound tenses are continuous present, past, and future), mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive), and voice (active, passive).

Gaelic shares with other Celtic languages a number of interesting grammatical features:

tha taigh agam — I have a house (lit. a house is at me)
an cat aig Iain — John's cat (lit. the cat at John)
  • Similarly, the absence of a verb "to own": ownership is expressed also prepositionally with "le" (that is, by saying something is "with" a person):
    • "Tha taigh leam" -- I own a house (lit., "Is house with me.)
    "Tha an cat sin le Iain." - Iain owns that cat (lit., "Is the cat [*that*] with Iain.")
  • Emphatic pronouns: A distinction is made between the ordinary pronouns, like mi and thu, and their emphatic counterparts, mise, thusa, and so forth, which express a contrast to other persons. For example:
    • tha i bòidheach — she's beautiful
    tha ise bòidheach — she's beautiful (as opposed to somebody else)
    Grammatical emphasis carries over into other situations:
    an taigh aicese — her house
    chuirinn-sa — I would put
    na mo bheachd-sa — in my opinion
    tha mise sgìth — I am tired
    is mise Eòghann — I am Ewan.
    It is, however, possible to use tha to say that one thing is another thing by turning it into a property:
    tha mi nam Albannach — I am a Scot (lit. I am in my Scot)
    Is e Albannach a th' annam — I am a Scot (lit. it's a Scot that's in me).
    Another way to think of the difference between tha and is is that tha describes temporary states:
    "Tha mi sgith" -- I am tired. (or, lit. "Am I tired.")
    "Tha an duine reamhair" -- The man is fat. (or, lit., "Is the man fat.")
    Whereas, is describes more permanent conditions -- that is, states of being that are intrinsic:
    'S e taigh beag a' th'ann. -- It's a small house. (or lit., "Is it house small that is in it.")
    TENSE
    Tense (past, present, future) is marked in Gaelic by a number of ways.

    Simple past tense in regular verbs is indicated by lention (or change) to the beginning of a word:

    The verb bruidhinn (pronounced bree-an) means to speak, but bhruidhinn mi (pronounced vree-an / me ) means "I spoke."
    For the English speaker learning Gaelic, it is sometimes difficult to learn to listen to the beginning of a word for its time indicator rather than the end (in English, the end of a verb is marked with an -ed to indicate past tense). Unlike English, Gaelic allows for the inflexion of a verb to indicate future tense independent of a helping verb.
    Bruidhinnidh mi = I will speak.
    Gaelic also as an alternate form of the future tense that uses a helping verb, the future tense of the verb "to be":
    Bidh mi a' bruidhinn = I will speak
    POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
    Gaelic uses possessive pronouns (my, your, their, etc.) differently than English. In Gaelic, possessive pronouns are used mostly to indicate "ownership" or "possession" of body parts or family -- that is, things or relationships that are permanent. Thus, one would say
    mo chas = my leg
    do cheann = your head
    a màthair = her mother
    But to refer to non-permanent "possession," one uses the preposition "aig," as described above:
    an taigh aige = his house (the house at him)
    an leabhar agam = my book (the book at me)

    Articles

    Gaelic has a definite article but no indefinite article:
    an taigh — 'the house'
    taigh — '(a) house'
    The form of the (definite) article depends on the number, gender, case, and initial sound of the noun.

    (i). an, am, and an t- are used with masculine singular nominative nouns:

    an cat — 'the cat' (also for nouns which cannot be lenited)
    am balach — 'the boy' (nouns which begin with labial consonants)
    an t-òran — 'the song' (nouns which begin with vowels)
    (ii). a' is used before a lenited consonant; there are two cases:
    a' chaileag — 'the girl' (feminine nominative and dative)
    leis a' bhalach — 'with the boy' (masculine dative and genitive)
    (iii). na and na h- (before a vowel) are used in the feminine genitive singular:
    na mara — 'of the sea'
    na h-Alba — 'of [the] Scotland'
    (iv). na and na h- (before a vowel) are used in the nominative and dative plural of both genders:
    na cait — 'the cats'
    na h-àireamhan — 'the numbers'
    (v). nan or nam (before a labial) are used in the genitive plural:
    nan cat — 'of the cats'
    nam balach — 'of the boys'

    Official recognition

    Bilingual signs in English and Gaelic are now part of the architecture in the Scottish Parliament building completed in 2004.
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    Bilingual signs in English and Gaelic are now part of the architecture in the Scottish Parliament building completed in 2004.

    After centuries of persecution, prejudice and neglect, Gaelic has now achieved a degree of official recognition with the passage of the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act.

    As well as being taught in schools, including some in which it is the medium of instruction, it is also used by the local council in the Western Isles, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar. The BBC also operates a Gaelic language radio station Radio nan Gaidheal (which regularly transmits joint broadcasts with its Republic of Ireland counterpart Raidió na Gaeltachta), and there are also television programmes in the language on the BBC and on the independent commercial channels, usually subtitled in English. The ITV franchisee in the north of Scotland, Grampian Television, has a studio in Stornoway. Viewers of Freeview a non-subscription digital TV service can receive channel, TeleG, which broadcasts for an hour every evening.

    A full Gaelic language TV service, however, similar to S4C in Wales and TG4 in Ireland, has been under consideration. As in Wales, the showing of programmes in the language as opt-outs on the main channels has been regarded as inadequate for the 58,552 who speak it, and as an annoyance to some of the English or Scots speaking 5,003,459 who do not. In fact, this annoyance may be largely assumed: the evidence is that at least one Gaelic television programme produced by the BBC attains viewing figures in excess of the number of Gaelic speakers that could view it in Scotland. No complaints are being received by the BBC about Gaelic-language television programmes on BBC TV channels, perhaps because subtitling them in English makes them equally accessible to non-Gaelic speakers.

    Bilingual road signs (in both Gaelic and English) are gradually being introduced throughout the Gaelic-speaking regions in the Highlands and elsewhere across the nation. In many cases, this has simply meant re-adopting the traditional spelling of a name.

    The Ordnance Survey has acted in recent years to correct many of the mistakes that appear on maps. They announced in 2004 that they intended to make amends for a century of Gaelic ignorance and set up a committee to determine the correct forms of Gaelic place names for their maps.

    Historically, Gaelic has not received the same degree of official recognition from the UK Government as Welsh. With the advent of devolution, however, Scottish matters have finally begun to receive greater attention, and the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act was confirmed by the Scottish Parliament on 21 April 2005.

    The key provisions of the Act are:

    An electronic noticeboard displaying Fàilte gu stèisean Dùn Èideann ("Welcome to Edinburgh station")
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    An electronic noticeboard displaying
    Fàilte gu stèisean Dùn Èideann
    ("Welcome to Edinburgh station")

    Following a consultation period, in which the government received many submissions, the majority of which asked that the bill be strengthened, a revised bill was published with the main improvement that the guidance of the Bòrd is now statutory (rather than advisory).

    In the committee stages in the Scottish Parliament, there was much debate over whether Gaelic should be given 'equal validity' with English. Due to Executive concerns about resourcing implications if this wording was used, the Education Committee settled on the concept of equal respect. It is still not clear if the ambiguity of this wording will provide sufficient legal force to backup the demands of Gaelic speakers against the whims of local councils.

    The Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament unanimously, with support from all sectors of the Scottish political spectrum on the 21st of April 2005.

    The Education Act of 1872, which completely ignored Gaelic, and led to generations of Gaels being forbidden to speak their native language in the classroom, is now recognised as having dealt a major blow to the language. People still living can recall being beaten for speaking Gaelic in school.

    The first solely Gaelic medium secondary school, [Sgoil Ghaidhlig Ghlaschu], was opened in Glasgow in 2005 (several Gaelic medium primary schools and partially Gaelic medium secondary schools also exist).

    The new face of Gaelic music. Seattle based Gaelic punk band, Mill a h-Uile Rud write and sing entirely in Gaelic and use the language on their website
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    The new face of Gaelic music. Seattle based Gaelic punk band, Mill a h-Uile Rud write and sing entirely in Gaelic and use the language on their website

    In Nova Scotia, there are somewhere between 500 and 1,000 native speakers, most of them now elderly. In May 2004, the Provincial government announced the funding of an initiative to support the language and its culture within the province.

    The UK government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect of Gaelic.

    The Columba Initiative, also known as Iomairt Cholm Cille, is a body that seeks to promote links between speakers of Scottish Gaelic and Irish.

    Church

    In the Western Isles, the isles of Lewis, Harris and North Uist have a Presbyterian majority (largely Church of Scotland - Eaglais na h-Alba in Gaelic, Free Church of Scotland and Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.) The isles of South Uist and Barra have a Catholic majority. All these churches have Gaelic-speaking congregations throughout the Western Isles.

    There are Gaelic-speaking congregations in the Church of Scotland, mainly in the Highlands and Islands, but also in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Notable city congregations with regular services in Gaelic are St Columba's Church, Glasgow and Greyfriars Tolbooth & Highland Kirk, Edinburgh. Leabhar Sheirbheisean - a shorter Gaelic version of the English-language Book of Common Order - was published in 1996 by the Church of Scotland, ISBN 090762412X.

    The relationship between the Church and Gaelic has not always been an easy one. The widespread use of English in worship has often been suggested as one of the historic reasons for Gaelic's decline. Whilst the Church of Scotland is supportive today, there is, however, an increasing difficulty in being able to find Gaelic-speaking ministers.

    Place names

    The following are names of either Gaelic origin or of other origin with their Gaelic translation:

    Aberdeen — Obar Dheathain
    Aviemore - an Aghaidh Mòr
    Brechin - Breichin
    Dingwall - Inbhir Pheofharain
    Dornoch - Dòrnach
    Dumfries — Dùn Phris
    Dunblane - Dùn Bhlàthain
    Dundee — Dùn Dèagh
    Dunfermline - Dùn Phàrlain
    Dunkeld - Dùn Chailleann
    Dumbarton - Dùn Breatann
    Edinburgh — Dùn Èideann
    Elgin - Eilginn
    Forres - Farrais
    Fortrose - A' Chananaich
    Fort William — An Gearasdan
    Glasgow — Glaschu
    Gleneagles - Gleann na h-Eaglais
    Inverness — Inbhir Nis
    Kilmarnock - Cill Mhearnaig
    Lismore - Liosmòr
    Paisley — Pàislig
    Perth — Peairt
    Rosemarkie - Ros Maircnidh
    St Andrews - Cill Rìmhinn
    Scone - Sgàin
    Stirling — Sruighlea
    Stornoway — Steòrnabhagh
    Whithorn - Taigh Mhàrtainn (also, formerly, Rosnat and Futarna)

    Personal names

    Gaelic has a number of personal names, such as Aonghas, Dòmhnall, Donnchadh, Coinneach, Murchadh, for which there are traditional forms in English (Angus, Donald, Duncan, Kenneth, Murdo). There are also distinctly Scottish Gaelic forms of names that belong to the common European stock of given names, such as: Iain (John), Alasdair (Alexander), Uilleam (William), Caitrìona (Catherine), Cairistìona (Christina), Anna (Ann), Màiri (Mary), Seamus (James). Some names have come into Gaelic from Old Norse, for example: Somhairle ( < Somarliðr), Tormod (< Þórmóðr), Torcuil (< Þórkell, Þórketill), Ìomhair (Ívarr). These are conventionally rendered in English as Sorley (or, historically, Somerled), Norman, Torquil, and Iver (or Evander). There are other, traditional, Gaelic names which have no direct equivalents in English: Oighrig, which is normally rendered as Euphemia (Effie) or Henrietta (Etta) (formerly also as Henny or even as Harriet), or, Diorbhal, which is "matched" with Dorothy, simply on the basis of a certain similarity in spelling; Gormul, for which there is nothing similar in English, and it is rendered as 'Gormelia' or even 'Dorothy'!; Beathag, which is "matched" with Becky (> Rebecca) and even Betsy!, or Sophie.

    Many of these are now regarded as old-fashioned, and are no longer used (which is, of course, a feature common to many cultures: names go out of fashion). As there is only a relatively small pool of traditional Gaelic names from which to choose, some families within the Gaelic-speaking communities have in recent years made a conscious decision when naming their children to seek out names that are used within the wider English-speaking world. These names do not, of course, have an equivalent in Gaelic. What effect that practice (if it becomes popular) might have on the language remains to be seen. At this stage (2005), it is clear that some native Gaelic-speakers are willing to break with tradition. Opinion on this practice is divided; whilst some would argue that they are thereby weakening their link with their linguistic and cultural heritage, others take the opposing view that Gaelic, as with any other language, must retain a degree of flexibility and adaptability if it is to survive in the modern world at all.

    The well-known name Hamish, and the recently established Mhairi (pronounced [va:ri]) come from the Gaelic for, respectively, James, and Mary, but derive from the form of the names as they appear in the vocative case: Seumas (James) (nom.) → Sheumais (voc.), and, Màiri (Mary) (nom.) → Mhàiri (voc.).

    The most common class of Gaelic surnames are, of course, those beginning with mac (Gaelic for son), such as MacGillEathain (MacLean). The female form is nic, so Catherine MacPhee is properly called in Gaelic, Caitrìona Nic a' Phì.

    Several colours give rise to common Scottish surnames: bàn (Bain - white), ruadh (Roy - red), dubh (Dow - black), donn (Dunn - brown), buidhe (Bowie - yellow).

    Loanwords

    The majority of Scottish Gaelic's vocabulary is native Celtic. There are a large number of borrowings from Latin, (muinntir, Didòmhnaich), ancient Greek, especially in the religious domain (eaglais, Bìoball from Ekklesia and Biblia), Norse (eilean, sgeir), Hebrew (Sàbaid, Aba) and Lowland Scots (briogais, aidh).

    In common with other Indo-European languages, the neologisms which are coined for modern concepts are typically based on Greek or Latin, although written in Gaelic orthography; television, for instance, becomes telebhisean (cian-dhealbh could also be used), and computer becomes coimpiùtar (aireamhadair, bocsa-fiosa or bocsa-sgrìobhaidh could also be used). Although native speakers frequently use an English word for which there is a perfectly good Gaelic equivalent, they will, without thinking, simply adopt the English word and use it, applying the rules of Gaelic grammar, as the situation requires. With verbs, for instance, they will simply add the verbal suffix (-eadh, or, in Lewis, -igeadh, as in, Tha mi a' watcheadh (Lewis, watchigeadh) an telly (I am watching the television) (instead of "Tha mi a' coimhead air a' chian-dhealbh"). This was remarked upon by the minister who compiled the account covering the parish of Stornoway in the New Statistical Account of Scotland, published over 170 years ago. However, as Gaelic medium education grows in popularity, a newer generation of literate Gaels is becoming more familiar with modern Gaelic vocabulary.

    Going in the other direction, Scottish Gaelic has influenced the Scots language (gob) and English, particularly Scottish Standard English. Loanwords include: whisky, slogan, brogue, jilt, clan, strontium (from Strontian), trousers, as well as familiar elements of Scottish geography like ben (beinn), glen (gleann) and loch. Irish Gaelic has also influenced Lowland Scots and English in Scotland, but it is not always easy to distinguish its influence from that of the Scottish variety. See List of English words of Scottish Gaelic origin

    Source: An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Alexander MacBain.

    Common Scottish Gaelic words and phrases

    See also

    External links

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    Scottish Gaelic for beginners

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