XPost: soc.culture.welsh, soc.culture.cornish, soc.culture.irish
XPost: soc.culture.scottish
From: Féach@d.óir
Scríobh "allan connochie" :
>
>> That's just it, they don't. Scots speakers come into contact with
>> English on an everyday basis, Irish and Scots Gaelic are virtual
>> strangers to each other.
>
>Scots Gaelic speakers and Irish speakers also come into contact with English
>speakers on a daily basis! Hence the only difference is that Scots is a
>closely related lanaguage to English. Just because Irish and Scots Gaelic
>speakers don't come into contact everyday doesn't mean they aren't closely
>related languages though!
That they're closely related I'd agree, it's self-evident. But the
relationship between the Gaelics isn't similar to Scots/English.
English is a majority language, the languages it comes into close
contact with decline. Irish and Scots Gaelic are barely in contact,
and neither poses a threat to the other (though English poses a threat
to both, as it does to Scots).
>In fact wouldn't I be right in saying, and no
>doubt I'll soon know if I'm wrong, that at least in its written form Gaelic
>was at one time virtually identical whether it was in Scotland or Ireland?
It was one language. Separation began around 1600 or so, with the end
of native political power in the Gaeltacht (accelerated anglicisation
of the King of Scots through the union of crowns, flight of the Earls
in Ireland and all that)
>Whilst the written Scots of the 15th and 16thC was quite different from the
>written English of the English south.
Like I said, Scots and English are converging, while Irish and Scots
Gaelic are diverging.
--
'Donegal: Up Here It's Different'
© Féachadóir
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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