View Message

Gaelic is the pre-English language spoken traditionally in northern and western Scotland (the Highlands). It's closely related to (and most think derived from) Irish, still the official language of Ireland.

---

Gaelic was spoken in much of the rest of Scotland as well, but replaced in those areas by Scots (simplistically an English/Gaelic mix, but a full language in its own right) and later English as the everyday spoken tongue starting as much as 800 years ago.

---

Only about 50,000 native Gaelic speakers (1% of the population) remain in Scotland, but the language, after nearly dying out, is experiencing an upsurge of interest by Scots and others who are studying it.

---

Gaelic is a beautiful language in the way it is spoken and written, but is fairly tough to learn partially because the spelling doesn't correspond well to the way words are pronounced.

---

- Daividh