From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scottish Gaelic
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Pronunciation
| [?kaːlik?]
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Native to
| United Kingdom
,
Canada
,
United States
,
Australia
,
New Zealand
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Region
| Scotland
,
Cape Breton
,
Nova Scotia
and
Glengarry County
, Canada
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Native speakers
| 58,552 in Scotland.
[1]
92,400 people aged three and over in Scotland had some Scottish Gaelic ability in 2001
[2]
with estimates of additional 500
[3]
?2000
[4]
in
Nova Scotia
, 1,610 speakers in the
United States
in 2000,
[5]
822 in
Australia
in 2001
[6]
and 669 in
New Zealand
in 2006.
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| Gaelic alphabet
(
Roman alphabet
)
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Official language in
|
Scotland
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ISO 639-1
| gd
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ISO 639-2
| gla
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ISO 639-3
| gla
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ELP
| Scottish Gaelic
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Linguasphere
| 50-AAA
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IPA
phonetic symbols.
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Scottish Gaelic
(
Gaidhlig
, pronounced "Gah-lick") is a
Celtic language
. It is commonly called just
Scots Gaelic
in
Scottish English
. It is a sister language of
Irish Gaelic
and
Manx Gaelic
; all three are
Goidelic languages
. These are related to the
Welsh language
,
Cornish language
and the
Breton language
(these three are
Brittonic
or
Brythonic
languages).
In past times, Scottish Gaelic was spoken across all of
Scotland
except for the Northern Islands (
Orkney
and
Shetland
).
[7]
In the later part of the
Middle Ages
, the kings of Scotland began to speak
Scottish English
and looked down on the
Scottish Gaelic
. After the union of
England
and Scotland, Scottish Gaelic was snubbed and looked down on even more, and
Scottish English
took over.
Scottish Gaelic today is basically spoken in the
Outer Hebrides
and on
Skye
. Generally speaking, Scottish Gaelic spoken across the
Western Isles
is similar enough to be classed as one major
dialect
group, but there is some regional variation.
A
census
in the
United Kingdom
in 2001 showed that a total of 58,652 (1.2% of the Scottish population aged over three years old)
[8]
in Scotland could then speak some amount of Scottish Gaelic. Only the
Western Isles
have more people who can speak the Scottish Gaelic than not (61% of the people there speak Scottish Gaelic). The place in Scotland with the largest percentage of speakers is a village called
Barvas
on the
Isle of Lewis
, where, 74.7% of the people there speak Scottish Gaelic.
Children in Scotland do not have to learn Scottish Gaelic in
schools
, but it is becoming a more popular subject as Scottish Gaelic is an important part of their Scottish culture.
Scottish Gaelic is also used overseas. It is estimated that 1,000?2,000 in
Nova Scotia
,
Canada
, can speak some Scottish Gaelic.
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English
dialects
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Recognised regional languages
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