Irish and Gaelic Irish? Plus other quesitons!

**Burly Brute** · 1st April 11, 01:45 PM

I decided to boil all my questions into one thread as to make it easier.

Q1: There is a school out here that offers, what's the difference?:

Elementary Irish
Elementary Irish-Gaelic

Q2: How many Goidlic(sp) languages are there? How many have evolved, what's the skinny?

Q3: In regards to the whole celtic-gaelic saga, how do the languages play a part? I mean, in regards to gaels being celt, but not all celts being gaels, how does the language influence/differ in this whole uber-super structure?

Q4: How similiar is Irish Gaelic and Scot Gaelic? Which one would provide a better foundation, if one were to pursue learning the other as well?

Q5: Dialects galore! Anyone able to boil down the Gaelic dialects across the board? Ireland, Scotland, Manx!?

Whoever undergoes this task, God speed! And thank you!

-BB

**Nick the DSM** · 1st April 11, 02:35 PM

Every gaelic language came from Irish, the same as Irish Gaelic. The other two surviving forms are Scots Gaelic and Manx.

Its sort of like the Romance languages, based on latin and you can learn the other languages with mastering one of them.

**marvelredneck** · 1st April 11, 03:28 PM

Originally Posted by Burly Brute

I decided to boil all my questions into one thread as to make it easier.

Q1: There is a school out here that offers, what's the difference?:

Elementary Irish
Elementary Irish-Gaelic

Q2: How many Goidlic(sp) languages are there? How many have evolved, what's the skinny?

Q3: In regards to the whole celtic-gaelic saga, how do the languages play a part? I mean, in regards to gaels being celt, but not all celts being gaels, how does the language influence/differ in this whole uber-super structure?

Q4: How similiar is Irish Gaelic and Scot Gaelic? Which one would provide a better foundation, if one were to pursue learning the other as well?

Q5: Dialects galore! Anyone able to boil down the Gaelic dialects across the board? Ireland, Scotland, Manx!?

Whoever undergoes this task, God speed! And thank you!

-BB

A1: I suppose they are they same.
A2: There are three Gaelic languages, Irish, Manx(Isle of Man), and Scottish.
A3: I don't understand what you mean?
A4: Irish is very similar to Scottish, in fact, I know some speakers who say they are often times mutually intelligible. And I would suggest learning Irish first, as there is MUCH more material in it, and once you have learned it, it will be much easier to learn Scots.
A5: ?

**Oldhiker** · 1st April 11, 04:33 PM

there are more than three Gaelic languages.

Goidelic Branch - three main ones Scot Gaelic, Irish Gaelic and Manx

Brythonic Branch - three main ones Welsh, Cornish and Breton.

many other sub species of each branch

There are 7 Celtic nations, one of which does not speak gaelic - Galicia which speaks a Spanish based language but has Celtic gentics.

**marvelredneck** · 1st April 11, 04:43 PM

Originally Posted by Oldhiker

there are more than three Gaelic languages.

Goidelic Branch - three main ones Scot Gaelic, Irish Gaelic and Manx

Brythonic Branch - three main ones Welsh, Cornish and Breton.

many other sub species of each branch

There are 7 Celtic nations, one of which does not speak gaelic - Galicia which speaks a Spanish based language but has Celtic gentics.

Maybe you misread, he said GAELIC languages, not Celtic in general. There ARE only three GAELIC languages, the Brythonic languages are a seperate branch of Celtic languages and not Gaelic at all. But both Goidelic and Brythonic are Celtic.

**jheby** · 1st April 11, 04:54 PM

I can't really answer your all your questions. But I can tell you there is a great course on CD from the Modern Scholar series titled: "Icons of the Iron Age: the Celts in History and Archeology." You can likely find it at your local library or check www.modernscholar.com. This series of lectures gives great information about the origins, locations, history, archeology, languages, etc. of the Celts.

**Burly Brute** · 2nd April 11, 01:17 AM

Originally Posted by marvelredneck

Maybe you misread, he said GAELIC languages, not Celtic in general. There ARE only three GAELIC languages, the Brythonic languages are a seperate branch of Celtic languages and not Gaelic at all. But both Goidelic and Brythonic are Celtic.

This is where it get's confusing. I know the somewhat distinctions, but my history on Gaels and Celts is so...lacking? Ugh! Not that this hurts me in the languages per se, but it's something I want to investigate more thoroughly.

thanks for everyone's responses!!!

-Zach

**McElmurry** · 2nd April 11, 08:14 AM

As a follow-up. If I were to learn Irish would I be able to read (with some difficulty) historic Irish or highland/hebridian literature? I assume the older the literature the more difficult it would be to read. How far back could one reasonably expect to read with some understanding?

**marvelredneck** · 2nd April 11, 09:44 AM

Originally Posted by McElmurry

As a follow-up. If I were to learn Irish would I be able to read (with some difficulty) historic Irish or highland/hebridian literature? I assume the older the literature the more difficult it would be to read. How far back could one reasonably expect to read with some understanding?

Probably back to the Early Modern Period.

**Canuck of NI** · 4th April 11, 01:40 PM

Marcus Tanner recently wrote a very good modern survey of the Celtic languages called "The Last of the Celts." In it, he surveys the history and survival (and survivability) of all the existing Celtic languages, including Manx, Cornish, and Breton. One revelation the book had for me is that their fellow (Lowland) Scotsmen used to refer to Highlanders as "The Irish." Whether or not that was done in a spirit of sarcasm or was actually linguistically and culturally accurate is not for me to judge.