Scottish Gaelic belongs to the Celtic family of languages and is closely related to Irish Gaelic and Manx. Welsh, Breton and Cornish, the other Celtic languages, are more distant cousins.

No other modern language has been spoken in Scotland for so long as Gaelic. It is at the very heart of Scotland’s history and culture and its imprint is almost everywhere in the nation.

ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT
Settlers brought Gaelic to Scotland from Antrim in Ireland over 1500 years ago and it quickly spread from its initial base in what is now known as Argyllshire. At one time Gaelic was the language of the Scottish court and of the majority of the country’s population. But Gaelic began to lose ground in the early Middle Ages as the Scots language made progress in south-east Scotland. Gaelic continued to flourish in the Highlands and Islands, particularly during the heyday of the Lordship of the Isles in the 14 and 15th centuries. But as the power and influence of the Lords of the Isles declined, Gaelic’s status also weakened.

DECLINE
Economic hardship in the late 18th and 19th centuries resulted in both forced and voluntary emigration from the north of Scotland which meant that many thousands of Gaelic speakers left for the industrialising Lowlands or for the New World mainly in Canada but also Australia. This, together with factors such as the failure to give Gaelic its proper place when universal education was established in the late 19th century, caused the number of Gaelic speakers to decline.

REVIVAL
Remarkably after centuries of repression, it is still spoken by around 65,000 people in Scotland. Gaelic is strongest in the Western Isles but there are substantial Gaelic communities elsewhere in the Highlands and Islands and in the nation’s cities. Gaelic is currently enjoying a revival in its fortunes with more interest being shown in the language and its health that at any other time. Crucial to supporting this revival have been developments in education and in promoting Gaelic culture. Gaelic playgroups and Gaelic-medium education at both primary and secondary levels have undergone unprecedented growth in many areas of Scotland. Gaelic is increasingly used on road signs notices and in advertisements, and with the setting up of a fund to provide a Gaelic television service in 1992, more Gaelic television and radio programmes are now available than in the past. At the same time there has been a healthy and growing interest in Gaelic music and arts.