Scots Gaelic Language

Scots Gaelic language, also called Scottish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic Gàidhlig, a member of the Goidelic group of Celtic languages, spoken along the northwest coast of Scotland and in the Hebrides islands. Australia, the United States, and Canada (particularly Nova Scotia) are also home to Scots Gaelic communities. Scots Gaelic is a recent offshoot of the Irish language.

Introduced into Scotland about ad 500 (displacing an earlier Celtic language), it had developed into a distinct dialect of Gaelic by the 13th century. A common Gaelic literary language was used in Ireland and Scotland until the 17th century. By that time spoken Scots Gaelic had developed enough to be considered a separate language from Irish. Manuscripts in a definitively Scots form of Gaelic began to appear in the 16th century, but the first Gaelic book printed, John Carswell’s Foirm na n-Urrnuidheadh, published in Edinburgh in 1567, still adhered to the Classical Modern Irish norm.

Despite an increase in the promulgation of Scots Gaelic, especially after the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, the census of 2001 indicated that fewer than 60,000 people spoke the language. Nevertheless, Scots Gaelic is being revived in the Scottish educational system, and Scots Gaelic media outlets (newspapers, radio and television broadcasts) are available in all regions where the language is spoken.