Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Scots Gaelic vrs Irish

  • 09-11-2020 6:46pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 15,176 ✭✭✭✭


    Im really really confused.


    Are these languages considered mutually intelligible?

    Everything i read from linguists says they are.


    But that can just mean ...they can find an older form of a word in one language in another even if that word isn't used any more.

    Or older grammar forms have more in common.

    How mutually intelligible are they?


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 304 ✭✭daphil


    I once read somewhere, that there were only about 800 words that were different between the two.
    The pronunciation is quite different, but if for example, you watch a bit of BBC Alba, and read the subtitles at the same time, a lot of it will make sense to you.
    It's a bit like me, (Cork city Irish), trying to understand a man from An Ceathrú Rua in full flight.


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    I've studied Irish for thirteen years yet I haven't spoken a word of it since about 2005. I finished a course on Scottish Gaelic last Christmas, it took me about two months. I would say Scottish Gaelic or Gaidhlig as they call it is about 85-90 % similar to Irish. I would go as far as saying that it is the same language however it is spelled differently.

    I'll give you an example; the word for sausage in Irish is ispín and the word for sausage in Scottish Gaelic is isbean. These seem like two different words however they are pronounced the same.


  • Registered Users Posts: 971 ✭✭✭bob mcbob


    To give a bit of background, this is where Gaelic came from -

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/kingdom_of_the_gaels/

    There were 2 other nations around this time - the Picts and Britons - this is how they fit in. Both these groups were thought to speak a Celtic language more like Welsh.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/kingdom_of_the_picts/

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/kingdom_of_the_britons/


Advertisement