Scottish Gaelic

Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig AFI: [ˈkaːlikʲ]) is a language Indo-European of the Celtic branch, a member of the Goidelic languages, which arrived in Scotland around the 5th century, when ethnic Gaelic Scotti from northern Ireland settled the west coast, carrying a variety of Old Irish which replaced Old Irish. ancient language of the Picts spoken in the area until then (hence its similarity with the Gaelic spoken in Ireland and the Isle of Man). Later, linguistic borrowing from the Angles and Viking invasions would increasingly relegate the language, until around 1500, during the reign of James IV, local courts and bardic schools were created in the Hebrides, which were the cradle of the Highland Clan System and a haven for the Gaelic language and culture, heavily repressed for centuries.

It is currently spoken by some 60,000 people in the northern regions of Scotland, a figure that represents less than 1% of the Scottish population —out of a total of 5.1 million—; for those who speak it, there are several newspapers and radio programs available. On April 21, 2005, the law making Scottish Gaelic one of the official languages of Scotland, along with English, was passed in the Scottish Parliament. It is always called Scottish Gaelic [Scottish Gaelic] and not Gaelic (to differentiate it from Irish and Manx) or Scottish [Scottish] (not to be confused with Scots [Scots], a Germanic language close to English).

History

Scottish Gaelic is one of the traditional languages of the Scots and the historical language of most of Scotland. It is not clear how long Gaelic has been spoken in Scotland. Although there are those who affirm that it was spoken in Argyll before the arrival of the Romans, it seems that the most certain date is the fourth century, with the kingdom of Dalriada, which united the old province of Ulster, in the north of Ireland, with the west of Scotland, thus accelerating the spread of Gaelic, which was also helped by the establishment of the Gaelic-speaking church. Toponymy seems to indicate that Gaelic was already spoken in the V century.

This language eventually displaced that of the Picts north of the River Forth and, until the late 15th century, was known in English as Scottis. Its decline began on the continent in the 13th century; Two centuries later, the Tierras Altas/Tierras Bajas divide already existed.

At the beginning of the 16th century, speakers of Inglis called Gaelic Erse, i.e. Irish, becoming Scottis the collection of Middle-spoken English dialects in the kingdom of Scotland, and hence the modern Scots or Scottish. However, Gaelic still occupies a special place in Scottish culture and was never entirely disenfranchised as a national language. Many Scots, whether they speak it or not, consider it to be a fundamental part of their national culture, although there are also those who consider it merely 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 High Land clans for several centuries. The language preserved heritage and adherence to pre-feudal laws and customs (such as in the use of the expressions tuatha and dùthchas). It suffered especially from the persecutions suffered by the Highlanders after the Battle of Culloden in 1746 and during the Highland Evictions. Certain pre-feudal attitudes are still seen in the complaints and claims of the Highland Land League of the late 19th century.

It is possible to distinguish between Highland Gaelic, which would correspond to what is known as Scottish Gaelic, and Lowland Gaelic, now extinct. The latter was spoken in southern Scotland before the introduction of Lowland Scots. However, there is no evidence of the existence of a linguistic border between the north and the south, nor between Argyll and Galloway. The dialects on both banks of Moyle Strait, which linked Scottish Gaelic with Irish, are also extinct today.

Current distribution of Gaelic speakers in Scotland

The 2001 British census showed a total of 58,652 speakers in Scotland (1.2% of the population over three years of age). Compared to the 1991 census there has been a decrease of 7,300 people (11% of the total), this means that Gaelic continues to decline in Scotland. Efforts to reverse the situation have so far been made, but have had limited success. Considering the data related to civil parishes (which allows a continuous study of the status of Gaelic since the XIX century) two circumstances new ones have taken place that are related to the decline of Gaelic:

No civil parish has a proportion of Gaelic speakers greater than 75%, with Barvas (Barabhas) and Lewis (Leòdhas) having the highest percentage (74 %).

The main stronghold of Gaelic continues to be the Outer Hebrides (Na h-Eileanan Siar) where the percentage of speakers ranges from 61% to 50% in all parishes. The parish of Kilmuir in the north of the Isle of Skye (An t-Eilean Sgitheanach) is also over the 50% threshold.

Outside the Outer Hebrides the only areas with a significant percentage of speakers are the island of Tiree (Tiriodh) (41.4%) of the Inner Hebrides (Na h- Eileanan a-staigh) and the island of Lismore (Lios Mór) in the central Western Highlands (28.8%). Despite this, the weight of Gaelic is very low. Out of a total of almost 900 civil parishes in Scotland:

• Only 9 of them have a higher proportion of gaelic speakers than 50%.
• Only 20 of them have a proportion of gaelic speakers greater than 25%.
• Only 39 of them have a ratio of gaelic speakers more than 10%.

Outside the main gàidhealtachd (areas where Gaelic is spoken) there are relatively high numbers of speakers, but isolated from other Gaelic speakers they have little opportunity to use the language commonly.

Spelling

Scottish Gaelic is written using the Latin alphabet, using only 18 letters to write it:

a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u

The letter h, now used mainly to indicate the lenition of a consonant and aspiration, was not used in the old orthography, since lenition was indicated by a dot above the consonant. The letters of the alphabet were given traditional tree names: ailm (elm), beith (birch), coll (hazel), dair (oak), etc., although this rule is no longer followed.

The quality of consonants is indicated in part by the vowels that surround them. Vowels are classified as caol ('thin', that is, e and i) or leathann (' widths', that is, a, o and u). The spelling rule is caol ri caol is leathann ri leathann (‘thin to thin and broad to broad’). Thin consonants are palatalized, while wide ones are velarized.

Because of this orthographic rule, an inner consonant cluster must be surrounded by vowels of the same quality to indicate its pronunciation without ambiguity, since some consonants change their pronunciation depending on whether they are surrounded by wide or thin vowels. For example, the t of slàinte ([slaːntʃə]) with t of bàta ([paːtə]).

This rule does not affect the pronunciation of vowels. For example, Gaelic plurals are usually formed with the suffix an: bròg, [proːk] ('shoe')/brògan, [proːkən] (shoes). But due to the spelling rule, the suffix is written -ean (although pronounced the same) after a slender consonant, as in taigh, [tʰɤj] ('house') /taighean, [tʰɤjən] ('houses').

From 1976, the Scottish Examinations Commission made certain changes to this rule. For example, the past participle suffix is always written -te, even after a wide consonant, as in togte ('raised'), and not the traditional togta. When pairs of vowels coincide, it is not always clear which vowel should be pronounced and which one was introduced to satisfy this spelling rule.

Stressed vowels omitted in speech may also be omitted in informal writing. For example:

Tha mi a dòchas (‘Espero’) → Tha mi ’n dòchas

Once the spelling rules are learned, the pronunciation of written texts is quite predictable.

The diacritics used by Gaelic are the grave accent (`) and the acute accent (´). The grave accent is the most used to mark long vowels and marks in the case of ò [ɔ: ] and è [ɛ:] a different sound from that of é [e:] and o [o:].

Pronunciation

Most of the letters are pronounced similarly to other European languages. The broad consonants t and d and often n have a dental articulation (like Irish and Romance and Slavic languages, in contrast with the alveolar articulation typical of English and other Germanic languages.The non-palatal r is an alveolar vibration, like the Galician rr.

The "voiced" stop consonants b, d, g are not voiced in Gaelic, but rather voiceless unaspirates. The "voiceless" stops p, t, c are voiceless and are pronounced with a strong aspiration (initially post-aspirate, medially pre-aspirate). or end). Gaelic shares this property with Icelandic. In some Gaelic dialects, stops at the beginning of a stressed syllable are voiced if followed by a nasal consonant. Like for example, taigh ('a house') is [tʰɤi], but an taigh, ('the house') is [ən dʰɤi]. Also occurs tombaca (‘tobacco’), [tʰomˈbaxkə].

Consonants with lenition 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. The lenition of l, n and r is not shown in the script.

fh is almost always silent, with only three exceptions: fhèin ('same'), fhathast ('yet') and fhuair (independent past form of the irregular verb faigh, a' faighinn 'to find', 'to get'), pronounced [h].

There are certain features that should be noted:

• The accent usually falls on the first syllable: for example drochaid (‘un bridge’), [^troxat.]
• Epenthetic vowels are introduced between certain adjoining consonants, specifically the vibrant ones (l or r) and certain consonants of the following:

tarbh (‘toro’): [tharav]

Alba (‘Escocia’): [alapa].

• The schwa ([sp]) at the end of a word is lost if it goes from a word beginning by vowel. For example:

duine (‘a man’): [^t]njø]

an duine agad (‘your man’):

Grammar

The noun has two genders (masculine and feminine) and its number can be singular and plural. Scottish Gaelic, like the other Celtic languages, lacks an indefinite article, and the very form of the noun can indicate, in turn, the indefinite form (dùthaich, 'country' or 'a country '). This language has the definite article, which varies considerably in form (and causes lenition) depending on the case of the noun and gender: a' chlann ('the children'), an t-ainm ('the name'), an dotair ('the doctor'), am bràthair ('the brother').

Like the other Celtic languages, it is an inflectional language that has the following cases and which are manifested by lenition (in most cases): nominative / accusative, dative, genitive and vocative. As for the sentence order, the verb comes first, then the subject and the object (V+S+O) at the end: Bidh (V) mi (S) a' dol (OD) dhan oilhigh (CCL) a-màireach anns a' mhàdainn (CCT) ('I'll go to university tomorrow morning').

It is worth noting the importance of the so-called prepositional pronouns, formed by means of the form of the tonic pronouns and some preposition; for example: agam ('in me' ← aig+my), annam ('in me' ← ann+my), leam ('with me', 'by me' ← le+my ), etc., which are used to express actions such as “have” (A bheil bràthair no piuthar agad?, 'Do you have a brother or sister?'; Chan eil Beurla aige, '(He) doesn't know English'), define yourself as a subject ('S e oileannach a th' annam, 'I am a student'), ask what a subject is called subject (Dè an t-ainim a th'ort?, 'What is your name?') or present the afflictions or conditions (Tha an t-acras orm, ' I'm hungry'), etc. Literally, 'is there something in/with/to/etc. someone’: Tha seann chù agam (lit. ‘There is an old dog in me’ ← ‘I have an old dog’).

The Gaelic verb has voice (active and passive), mood (indicative, subjunctive and imperative), tense, number and person. Furthermore, verbs have two forms: the independent form and the dependent form (in addition, the future form has a relative form). It lacks an infinitive form distinct from the others (the infinitive must be built from the verb root to be used in sentences and can have an aspirate and an unaspirate form). In addition to the verb bhith ('to be'), Gaelic has only 10 irregular verbs.

For the verb to be, in Scottish Gaelic there are three ways of expressing it:

• Subject presentation: use of particle is together with the tonic pronoun in emphatically (Is mise Seumas, 'Soy Jaime'.
• Subject description: use of the form tha / chan eil (Tha e glè bhrèagha an-diugh, nach eil?"Today's a good day, isn't it?"
• Definition of the subject: use of the form 's e / chan e
  • Definition of the subject by name with indefinite article: use of the form 's e/chan e + name + prepositional pronoun 'S e dotair a th' innte, '(She) is (a) doctor'.
  • Definition of the subject by a name with a defined article: use of the form 's e/chan e + dynamtic tonic pronoun / own name + defined article name ( 'S e mise an sagartI'm the priest.

Computer system

Like Welsh, Scottish Gaelic has two systems of reckoning, decimal and vigesimal.

Sample Text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Tha gach uile dhuine air a bhreth saor agus co-ionnan ann an urram ’s ann an còirichean. Tha iad air am breth le reusan is le cogais agus mar sin bu chòir dhaibh a bhith beò nam measg fhein ann an spierad bràthaireil.

‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and, endowed as they are with reason and conscience, should behave towards one another in a brotherly manner.’

Saint John V 1 - 8

• 1. An toiseach bha am Focal, agus bha am Focal maille ri Dia, agus b’e am Focal Dia.
• 2. Bha e seo air tùs maille ri Dia.
• 3. Rinneadh na h-uile nithean leis; agus

Official recognition

Bilingual signs in Gaelic (green) and in English (black).

Despite having been banned and relegated from public education and public use for centuries by the English and also Scottish authorities, in 2005 the Gaelic Language Act (Gaelic Language (Scotland)) was enacted Act) achieving a degree of official recognition by the Scottish Government, giving it the same respect as English and entrusting its promotion and development to Bòrd na Gàidhlig.

Gaelic is taught in schools and the Scottish government, through Bòrd na Gàidhlig, is trying to increase the number of students studying Gaelic in both the Highlands and Lowlands, and has therefore initiated a plan to recruit more teachers than can teach it and to increase the number of educational establishments of all levels where it is taught. BBC Alba began operating in 2008, broadcasting much of its content in Gaelic. The BBC also operates Radio nan Gàidheal.

Bilingual Gaelic-English road signage has gradually been introduced in Gaelic-speaking areas of the Highlands, Islands and Argyll. In many cases it is just the re-adoption of the traditional spelling form (such as Ràtagan or Loch Ailleart instead of the anglicized forms of Ratagan or Lochailort respectively). Recently the Highland Council (Comhairle na Gàidhealtachd) has intended to introduce bilingual road signage throughout its area of jurisdiction, to which some residents have resisted.

Media

• Radio:
  • BBC Radio nan Gaidheal
• Television:
  • BBC Alba
  • Tele-G
  • Gaelic Digital Service
• Press:
  • The Scotsman