Differences between Irish and Scottish Gaelic

So this turned into more of a soap-box than the systematic comparison I had hoped it to be. In short, they're different. They're also not that different. An old Gaeilgeóir told me yesterday go bhfuill Gaeilge an-mhaith agam. I still can barely spell it though. Hey, we're all Gaels!
Anyway, this is me looking at the differences in spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation between the Gaelics of Scotland and Ireland, from the perspective of someone who is apparently capable of having a decent conversation in both.
Yes, I know I forgot to write the lenition in "Seann Ghàidhlig".
Yes, I know it's "daoibh" and not "dhaibh". Oops.

[@wednesdaysixx2213]

"Language exists in the mouths and minds of the people". I love that

[@wednesdaysixx2213]

Gabh mo leithscéal, is maith liom "Tá na teangacha ina gcónaí i mbéal agus in intinn daoine"

[@serenafox4492]

I am related to O' Briain's of the earliest centuries. Limerick.

[@GwirCeth]

Hey Raghnaid, thanks very much for this video. It is really refreshing to hear this topic discussed by an actual linguist who knows what they're talking about. It's pretty rare. All the best.

[@Michael-mo9cu]

Enjoyed it thanks. I've noticed that on the internet many websites have a language translation option, where Irish and Scottish Gealic is not listed though Welsh is sometimes included. It's like our languages are under represented, I think.

[@calvinnewman775]

I really enjoyed your explanation and learnt so much from this video. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and I look forward to more!

[@pio4362]

Wonderful video! The biggest difference you may find is that many Irish L2 speakers (all over the internet) don't tend to speak with an authentic Gaelic accent, but instead with an awful English one which, if that weren't bad enough, Irish-Americans then come along tragically assuming it to be the authentic one for the language. You'll also notice some of the Irish spelling was bastardised in the mid 20th century spelling reform, making it appear divergent from the Scottish which better retains the original orthography. An Irish native speaker will converse with a Scottish speaker with few problems. If he/she also knows the pre-spelling reform, he/she will read Scottish very well.

[@jeremyallanhall]

Lovely video a Raghnaid, your coda was especially poignant. As a non-Gaeilgeoir descendant of Gaels in Australia it's good to know we can use both languages, even as learners, to start to connect with the community. Maith thú agus go n-éirí leat 😊

[@ENGLISHTAINMENT]

Scots Gaelic was apparently partly formed or changed by the presence of a Brythonic language in Scotland. The syntax is so similar to Welsh. Actually in Irish SIBH is used for formal but it’s pretty rare.

[@johnmccaughey2722]

The picts are thought to have spoken a language similar to welsh, perhaps thats where the change came from.

[@pio4362]

Maybe many hundreds of years ago. For right now, "sibh" just means "ye" as in English.

[@jeanmackenzie4781]

Both Irish and Scott gaelic weren't the same as you said. But the Scottish gealic is more conservative. And the Irish Gaelic has changed over the centuries. But not much very understandable. I m a native scottish gaelic Speaker Would say scottish gaelic and irish gaelic are the same language

[@nthmost]

Hah! I also tried to use sibh with seandoine in Ireland and just didn’t get a reply or any other indication that i was in error. Fortunately my approach to language learning is very much scattershot, and so i also tried just using tú and didn’t perceive that i’d given disrespect. Either way, though, I’m grateful that you just resolved that for me, the fact that there’s not really a formal use for sibh.

[@Judesmood118]

This was so interesting! Thank you for sharing your expertise :)

[@shespeakssoftly]

This is wonderful! Interesting & illuminating.

[@vlnvlaclogbaerhpno]

Excellent video! Thank you so much for posting this, for going beyond the surface, and into some details! I'm also a musician (classically-trained multi-instrumentalist, but I also play Celtic, East Asian, and other world music, and have done a lot of church music work for Catholic churches) and am very interested in linguistics; however, my area of expertise is more East Asian tonal languages, as I speak Mandarin rather fluently, as well as some amounts of Cantonese, Thai, and Vietnamese. Like so many Americans, I have Celtic heritage (Scottish, Irish, and Welsh) that sadly faded away generations ago in the process of Americanization, but I am very passionate about rediscovering that identity and history, especially through music. As with countless other languages, I've only dabbled with Irish and Scots Gaelic; a couple problems I've encountered are that the Irish I grew up hearing (via Clannad) was Ulster Irish, which seems very different in many aspects, and with Scots Gaelic, almost no resources existed until relatively recently, and I doubt the quality of them. Two favorite musical artists of mine are Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh (Irish from County Kerry) and Julie Fowlis (Scottish from North Uist), and they have collaborated together on musical projects for years; both are native speakers who I believe learned English after their native Gaelic tongues. They released a wonderful album, 'Dual,' that I'd highly recommend, where they highlight a lot of the similarities of the music and languages - here's a lovely clip from one of their live performances of a medley from the album - kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJKymZmdqMunbqs

[@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh]

Hi Jesse! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Regarding resources for Gaelic, everything that's on (or linked on) www.learngaelic.scot is definitely reliable and of a good quality. Scottish Gaelic Duolingo is also surprisingly good, and better than your usual Duolingo fare. As for Ulster Irish - there's almost a trope about how different it is. It isn't, really. It's clearly the middle point of the dialect continuum, but it's not necessarily any more different from the two other dialect groups of Irish than they are from each other. There also seems to be quite a sub-community online for learners that want to focus specifically on Ulster Irish. If you already have some familiarity with it, then I'd definitely say go for Ulster Irish as your entry dialect - especially as it *is* the middle point of the dialect continuum so you'll be well-placed to learn Scottish Gaelic, or Connacht or Munster Irish, after that.

[@1goofeygirl]

Fascinating!

[@danielamendola3906]

I've actually not been asked what the difference is by friends of mine, I have been asked if they are the same or are they different, and usually to avoid a monologue I just say 'yes' or 'no' depending oh which one it is.

[@brianboru7684]

They say "tha" in Waterford Irish in Munster as well.

[@ConORiain1]

Do bhí san ana-shuimiúil. Go raibh maith agat. Bha sin glè inntinneach. Tapadh leibh.

[@brianboru7684]

That first sentence looks like Gaelainn na Mumhan.

[@Ensign_Cthulhu]

In short, different enough to have their own particular spelling, grammar, intonation and vocabulary; similar enough to be mutually intelligible.

[@erikdalna211]

This resembles the Scots and English continuum, at least from the Scots perspective. Your Scots Anglicises or becomes more Scots contextually so it can be difficult to say where your Scots begins and English ends while recognising that the degree of Anglicisation effects the extent that non-Scots can understand you. Of course English has a very different power dynamic with Scots than the varieties of Gaelic making for a one way assimilation process.

[@lordracula2461]

The main difference is that gaelic varieties in Scotland and Ireland both have a standard dialect used in TV and education that the other dialects orbit around, that's why they are called separate languages. Whereas lowland scots orbits the English spoken in England and is in total decline as a result, most young people have barely any vocabulary beyond basic everyday words

[@brianboru7684]

@@lordracula2461 No native speakers actually speak standard Irish naturally.

[@lordracula2461]

@@brianboru7684 Yes this is the same as BBC english or BBC scotland english

[@brianboru7684]

@@lordracula2461 Actually native pronunciation is used to read the news. A news reader from Munster will say "inniubh" and one from Ulster will say "inniu" and so on.

[@lordracula2461]

@@brianboru7684 What the fuck are you on about, I agreed with you.

[@Devin_Dean]

I've stayed in Muskerry Gaeltacht in Ireland a couple times but back when my knowledge of the language was very low. I wish there was a community of people (let alone young people) in upstate NY that I could speak with. And ones who arent republicans from a Hibernian Hall

[@internetual7350]

What's wrong with being a republican from Hibernian hall? 😂

[@samaval9920]

Irish Republican or US Republican ?!

[@Devin_Dean]

US@@samaval9920

[@mariemorris7031]

Thank you!!!!

[@519djw6]

*Thank for this comparison between Scottish and Irish Gaelic! I know that you don't want to get caught up in spelling--but the thing that stopped me cold when I tried to learn Gaelic was the totally unphonetic spelling--although same could be said of English or French!*

[@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh]

Well, it (both Scottish and Irish, which have nearly identical orthography) is a LOT more "phonetic" than English or even French. There's only one way for any given combination of letters to be pronounced, and once you learn the spelling rules there's pretty much only one way to spell things when you hear them. It's just *different* to English.

[@rippedtorn2310]

Its totally phonetic. Its just not phonetic english .

[@kevanhubbard9673]

Very similar along with Manx it might be possible that Scots Gaelic had some influence from Cumbric and Pictish although nobody seems certain which of the Celtic language types Pictish belonged to.Then again perhaps these Cumbric and Pictish speakers were in Ireland too?As I understand it it's a bit like Dutch and Afrikaans they are beyond dialects and separate languages but if spoken slowly an Afrikaner could make themselves understood in say Rotterdam but in reality they'd probably just speak in English!

[@selwyngamble4585]

This is such an interesting video! I have to ask are you a Kiwi or Aussie? Cause your English accent is close to home for me lol

[@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh]

Hi! I'm from South Australia but my grandmother grew up in Dunedin and I spent a bit of time on the south island as a kid, although I don't think it's in my accent at all.

[@selwyngamble4585]

@@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh that’s amazing i’m from Christchurch and have been learning Irish for about a year now! I hope to improve and be a fluent speaker one day! Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam!

[@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh]

@@selwyngamble4585 Oh hey! Adelaide and Christchurch are twinned, we have the same city plan as well. My father has a number of cousins in Christchurch and on the Canterbury Plains, so most of my time in NZ has been in Christchurch. Are there many Irish-speakers there? I don't know of any Gaelic-speakers, it's a very English sort of town compared to Dunedin.

[@selwyngamble4585]

@@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh i work at a really popular café and I can say the amount of English people far outweigh the Gaels in the city 😂 However I always try speak Gaeilge to Irish customers when I see them and they get so surprised! I love Celtic languages so much and hope to move on to Gàidhlig when I am more comfortable in Gaeilge. Hope to see more content on this stuff!

[@serenafox4492]

If I were to learn one, which would you advise? How would you advise I travel this path? My ancestors are from Ireland (northern and southern) and Scotland.

[@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh]

If you don't feel particularly closer to one or the other, then I would say learn the one which has an in-person class or speaker community nearest you. Being able to speak it in real life is one of the most effective factors in learning a language, but especially a minority one where you should learn the in-group culture at the same time. Once you've picked one I would advise not to swap to the other until you're fluent in the first though, because the mutual-intelligibility can make it really difficult to keep them straight if you're learning simultaneously.

[@serenafox4492]

@@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh Thank you! Very helpful.

[@sineadward5225]

So can we say 'Gallic vs. Irish' and have people understand we are comparing these two Gaelic languages in question?

[@brianboru7684]

No, because Irish can be referred to as Gaelic as well, and the Gae-lic pronunciation is also used by Scottish Gaels in Nova Scotia and Arygyll.

[@brianboru7684]

Blame the Inglis speakers in Scotland starting to call their language Scots the old word for Gaelic in Inglis the English spoken in Scotland when they were at war with English for the reason why we can't call Scottish Gaelic "Scottish" today.

[@andrewjennings7306]

Glè snog bhidio!

[@danielrecheitrigo1614]

It was nice watching your video, though you evidently were more worried about pan-Gaelighe discussion than actually pointing out the more “pictoresque” 😉 aspects one would expect by the title.

[@weareallfromafrica8373]

Go raibh maith agat,

[@whiskeyvictor5703]

I've been working with Old Irish (Sengoidelc) for about sixteen years now, and with Scottish Gaelic on-and-off since the mid-1980s, and would like to get a Masters in Celtic Studies (or a similar title). Do you know of any universities in the UK/Repub. of Ireland that offer such a graduate program?

[@CuchulainAD]

NUI Maynooth in Kildare in Ireland has an old Irish course.

[@bernardmolloy6241]

Very interesting video. In my honest view, the remaining Celtic language of Scotland should just simply be called “Scottish”. “Scottish-Gaelic” / “Scots-Gaelic” just makes little sense + is such an unnecessary mouthful. As a “Scot” + a “Gael” originally meant the exact same thing. Also the language isnt necessarily just a form of Gaelic. There are many traces of Scotlands other 2 Celtic languages within it, i.e., Pictish + Cumbric. Also, the language was also at one time known simply as “Scottish”. Therefore Scotlands 2 main national languages should simply be called:- - Scottish (Celtic language) - Scots (Anglic language) Furthermore, the strong Cumbric + Pictish traces, substratums, syntaxs + words within the language should be made more known + those parts of the language, be part of the main standard of use. In the language itself too, I feel it would make so much more sense to call it something like “Albannaig”, to highlight that the language is not just Gaelic. I would do similar with the Irish language + officially name it as “Éireilge” + Manx officially as “Mannig”. Still referring to these 3 languages in each of their native tongue as “Gàidhlig”, “Gaeilge” + “Gaelg” just doesnt work, is too confusing + outdated.

[@xotan]

An simiúil ar fad. Tapadh leibh! Bhain mé an-taitneamh as an gclár seo.

[@gubernatorial1723]

2000 Scottish Gaelic speakers and 3000 Irish speakers, in NZ I'm assuming, by your accent? Anyway, as much as anything, it's good to hear a 'brichtie' elucidating so purely on KZbin when there is so much dim language. Being an unredeemed NZ Scotophile and interested in language myself like you, you're probably aware a NZer was prominent in the Scots language movement in the mid-20th century. His heart took him back to Scotland like so many of us. Just by the way you use the word I'm assuming a Gael for you is from the areas of Scotland and Ireland where the language is or used to be spoken in recent centuries. I find it difficult especially to consider Scotland as a whole as 'Gaelic'. And there was certainly only the most estranged of brotherhoods evident between the two countries until recently over the last 400 years. Whereas Gaelic speakers of whatever country have a great deal in common.

[@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh]

Hi! I'm actually Australian, although my grandmother did grow up in Dunedin. As for what a Gael is to me - I certainly wouldn't assume that everyone from Scotland is a Gael, or that all of Scotland is Gaelic, because that's far from the case. I'd say the same of Ireland, because there are a lot of Anglophone Irish who don't seem to have much Gaelic culture in them. But I hesitate to say who is and isn't a Gael. For me, language is a big part of it, but "Who is a Gael?" is an ongoing discussion at the moment. I don't know the numbers of Gaelic- and Irish-speakers in New Zealand off-hand, but I expect it would be a smaller number but similar percent to Australia. I am in contact with learners in Dunedin and Wellington, and of course both Dunedin and Waipu (north of Auckland) were particular hotspots for Gaelic-speakers back in the day. I believe there are one or two learners in Waipu, although I'm not sure - certainly there are people there who remember it being spoken. And on the topic of "Gael", if someone's a diaspora/descendant from Australia, New Zealand, or especially Nova Scotia, and speaks the language, and identifies with the culture, then to me they're a Gael regardless of whether they're from Scotland/Ireland or not.

[@gubernatorial1723]

@@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh We Scots and Irish do share leaving our homelands in massive numbers because they couldn't support us economically, so we miss 'home' deeply being severed from it against our wills. Here in Gisborne, NZ we actually had a Scots Gaelic speaker as the editor of our local paper, but his main enthusiasm was soccer. One of my Maori clients knows her family back for hundreds of years around abouts here which gives her vast inner confidence. Thankfully my family is now back in contact with the family who took over our farm in Kintyre in 1908, but we still miss a sense of rootedness. Glad you're still rotary-hoeing the rich soil of Gaelic. How about a response to Bill Bryson's characterizations of our country's original language. As a mandatory survey-taker for Statistics NZ I put it to an old unwilling Islander Bill's ideas that Scots Gaelic had the most number of abuse terms of any language. He resisted adamantly. I also asked, as myself, knowing Scottish history, whether he considered himself Scottish. Also adamant, despite the Lowlanders ' opinions well into the 1800s. 'The Erse'.

[@gubernatorial1723]

@@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh Such rich languages consumed by English, the cultural good thing of their conquest of all before. Maori here and Gallic there. No doot you've read Bill Bryson's tome on languages where he claims Gaelic has the most swear-words of any. Defiantly denied by a native -speaker I spoke to. But Presbyterianism does that to people. I asked him if he considered himself Scots knowing the Gaels were referred to as Irish by Lowlanders for many years. He was adamant. He was sorry about the dying of his mother-tongue. Maori has 6 or 7 definitions for shyness and 5 for Waituhi , the settlement , or 5 seconds on a main road, our major Maori writer, Witi Ihimaera places his stories. It's a trend here to learn Maori, but to quote a Scot, if you can't sell a cow in the language what use is it? Possibly the most Scottish thing ever said. Like when I had some money hailed on me and despite my scotophilia I chose to take a trip to somewhere warm and cheap, Vanuatu.

[@lauratictoc]

Glè inntinnach

[@letusplay2296]

Ba chóir níos mó aontacht a bheith idir na Gael, go cinnte

[@lorigraham2496]

This sounds more like the difference between British English and US English and Aussie English.

[@shianneshampo723]

Don't forget all the types of American English

[@brianboru7684]

There are almost as many differences between the different dialects of Irish as there are between Irish itself and Scottish Gaelic.

[@seanoriain8294]

Ana-shuimiúil. Glé intinneach. I would, however, point out that the official name of our language, according to the Constitution/Bunreacht na hÉireann, is simply "Irish". True, Irish is one of the Gaelic languages, but there is no other Irish language. English is a Germanic language, but we don't normally call it "English Germanic".

[@brianboru7684]

Conradh na nGaeilge is the Gaelic League in English not the Irish League. The language group is Goidelic not "Gaelic" and English diverged from German long before Irish did from Scottish Gaelic.

[@seanoriain8294]

@@brianboru7684 Your points are true, but those who wish to marginalise the language, to implicitly call into question its constitutional position, call it "Gaelic". Every citizen is free to campaign to change Bunreacht na hÉireann, but until they have succeeded in changing it, democrats would tend to accept what it says.

[@pio4362]

@@brianboru7684 Goedelic and Gaelic are synonyms, you can also use Goedelsh.

[@brianboru7684]

@@seanoriain8294 Native Irish speakers also call it Gaelic in Donegal and Mayo. Personally I prefer Gaelainn what my ancestors in Munster called it.

[@user-fh1rz1uq6c]

@@brianboru7684 Native speakers in Donegal call it "Gaedhealg" (English speakers call it Gaelic). The pronunciation of "Gaedhealg" is the same as Gaelic, except it ends with a "g" sound, not a "c" sound. Until the late middle ages all dialects of Irish called it "Gaedhealg". That is my preference, but I do love to listen to all varieties, especially "Ghàidhlig" which sounds to me like an exotic and very sonorous version of "Gaedhealg". Also, at school I loved the poetry of Seán Ó Ríordáin, especially after hearing it recited in Munster Irish and finding it rhymed in places where it doesn't when recited in Ulster Irish.

[@speddoc1]

I a second-generation Scot raised in America. How can I study Gaelic?

[@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh]

My biggest recommendation for classes is the online classes at Colaisde na Gàidhlig, which is based in Nova Scotia (Canada) - gaeliccollege.edu/learn/online-learning/aga-online-learning/. I also recommend getting in touch with An Comunn Gàidhealach Aimeireaganach (acgamerica.org/) to see if there are any groups or meet-ups near you.

[@shianneshampo723]

Just curious why is Gaelic pronounced differently when you say Irish Gaelic and then Scottish Gaelic in English?

[@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh]

Just local convention in the two countries - in Scotland they are quite particular about pronouncing it "Gallic" (although Scottish Gaels in Canada do pronounce it "Gaylic"). Irish-speakers usually prefer that you call it simply "Irish", but when they say Gaelic, they pronounce it "Gaylic".

[@brianboru7684]

@@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh Gaelainn in Munster. Peig Sayers would have called it Gaelainn.

[@catserver8577]

Would it be more accurate to say these are not separate languages but are dialects?

[@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh]

So the thing is, linguistics can't actually diagnose whether something is a language or a dialect - the line is just too fuzzy. We tend to refer to things as "language varieties" instead. So the line between language and dialect is usually drawn by politics - for example, the Scandinavian languages (just as mutually-intelligible, realistically dialects) verses the Chinese varieties (considered dialects, not mutually-intelligible). That being the case, they are languages, because Ireland and Scotland are separate political entities who want them to be separate languages. My main gripe with calling them separate languages is that Irish has three dialect groupings, which are as distinct from each other as Ulster Irish is from Scottish Gaelic. The whole language family is definitely a dialect continuum, but you could argue for anywhere between one and five "languages" depending on where the political borders fall.

[@catserver8577]

@@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh So in the case of English, in the US we mostly speak United States English. But in different areas there are distinct dialects but no difference in politics or the like. It's all English, but it's different than British English, and different than a variation like Jamaican. What used to be called "patois" here, and the idea there are "Ebonics"(Black American English), these are all just English. If a a person speaks to someone with a different dialect or "patois", it is possible to understand each other. However, some people who speak "patois" English do not want it called a patois and do consider it a separate language. Is this similar to the different kinds of Gaelic? Am I anywhere close to understanding?

[@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh]

@@catserver8577 In the case of AAVE ("ebonics") yes, it's similar. There's enough phonological (pronunciation), grammatical, and semantic (accent) variation to justify calling it a separate language if its speakers want it to be considered such. I don't know about other forms of dialect variation in the US to know if any of the others are distinct enough to potentially qualify. In the case of Gaelic, it's not quite the same on the political front, because neither the Irish varieties or the Scottish varieties are in a position of power over each other. The situation with Scots as compared to English is probably more similar to AAVE, but from a purely linguistics side of things it's all much the same, yes.

[@catserver8577]

@@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh Thank you for explaining. I love language or really, anything that allows people to communicate. I think the US lags behind other countries in learning other languages, and considering how many different people come here, it's too bad we can't be a bit more open to it. I wish I had learned more as a child because now it is difficult. I have only recently started trying Gaelic, and I was relieved at not having to learn as many tenses and alternate words. And then of course I came across videos of people trying to explain that the different areas spoke different languages altogether, and I thought oh, of course. Couldn't be that simple. But I think they are more similar than different, and it must just be politics for some folks.

[@solidus784]

glè inntinneach, taing

[@iamreiver]

Irish fada Scottish stràc

[@derekhollingsworth1704]

Táim ag baint taitneamh as an físeán seo. As Gaeilge bíonn 'Cú' ar 'hound' as Béarla, nach bhfuil? Buíochas leats as an obair seo.

[@jumantewashington8715]

Coisigh/coisich Coiseochidh/coisichidh

[@daithimaccarthaigh330]

GA Irish GD Scottish

[@Bernaren60]

B’fhéidir gurb é an fáth nár fhorbair an Ghaeilge idirdhealú t/v nárbh teanga na cúirte ríoga ná na gcúirteanna uaisle í an Ghaeilge in Éireann, mar gheall ar choilíniú na tíre go luath agus toisc go raibh sí faoi cheannas mionlach na n-uaisleachtaí eachtracha.

[@brianboru7684]

The Irish had their own nobility descended from High Kings like O'Neill, O'Connor and MacMurrough and Gaelicised Anglo-Norman nobles like Fitzgeralds and Burkes who gradually lost prestige after 1500s.

[@Bernaren60]

@@brianboru7684 Táim ag caint faoi teanga na cúirte ríoga.

[@silverkitty2503]

The first difference is this. THEY ARE TWO DIFFERENT LANGUAGES. It would be nice if people respected that. Irish is IRISH its not a british language. This is not an anglophone way of thinking about it. Its being respectful to native irish speakers thank you.

[@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh]

So, I can only presume you didn't actually listen to anything I said. "They are separate languages and no-one seriously contests that". And certainly I never said that Irish is a British language, nor would I ever. It's demonstrable nonsense. I speak Scottish Gaelic. I speak Irish. I have native Irish-speaking friends, and I know native Irish-speaking elders. Funnily enough, they never treat me (or my Scottish Gael friends who are less familiar with Irish dialects) as though we speak a separate language. It's the learners that do that. The two languages are right at the point where linguists step back and say "We can't diagnose this, we'll leave it to the native speakers", and then politics steps in and says "We have the solution!" Gaels that can see the long common history and shared culture also see a shared language with distinct local dialects. Irish nationalists who hate any hint that they might share anything in common with Scotland see two completely separate, unintelligible languages. Cén fáth nach bhfuill tú ag scríofú chugam i nGaeilge?

[@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh]

I also strongly encourage you to check out some of the writings of Ciarán Ó Duibhín, such as this article which addresses the topic. www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/~oduibhin/alba/ouch.htm

[@ailinos]

@@RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh Tá sé ráite is ráite agatsa a Raghnaid. Maith thú!! 🇮🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺

[@FPSIreland2]

Well.. I’m Irish, speak (giota) Gaelidhge, agus tugaim “Gaelic” air mar ainm as Béarla, go raibh míle maith agat.

[@silverkitty2503]

@@FPSIreland2 Is Eireannach orm freisín. Tá tú mícheart. You are wrong. Gaelic refers to gaelic things gaelic football etc. Gaelic culture. Not one specific thing. It's bad English to call Irish gaelic in English. You can use what you please of course but its not correct strictly speaking.