What did the Old Gaelic Language Sound Like?

[@kathyborthwick6738LakotaEmoji]

I am learning old Irish Gaelic in my 70ʼs and am starting to think in Irish Gaelic and such has a profound impact in terms of understanding my Irish history!

[@jeepstergal4043]

Which method/school are you using to learn?

[@StacyJaxen]

it does in so many ways

[@santiagotorralbamiliitai6497]

Do you mind sharing your resourcws of learning? Or some recommendation?

[@bobbirobin2051]

I'm so proud of you, you're amazing

[@ryleefeehan9170]

My grandfather’s grandma was the last of us to speak and sing Gaelic and I would love to bring it back

[@TheHeathenCoalition]

Its a beautiful language!

[@kredonystus7768]

Duolingo has Gaidhlig. Both Gaidhlig and Irish Gaelic have lots of resources online. If you are in the UK there are so many places to learn.

[@teramitchell4074]

I have found Rosetta Stone to be the best app for learning languages.

[@johnboyce8279]

Just do it!

[@maryjacobs5920]

Cape Breton has a school. Canada

[@conorsheehan9929]

At the age of five I was sent to the Model school in Limerick . My grasp of English was still childish . From the first day in school I happily encountered lots of new words and ways of speaking . I was commpletely unaware that I was learning another language , it was just lots of new words . We had no books , grammar was never mentioned at all . We learned childish games in Irish . It was fun . By the time I moved to a higher school I was completely comfortable speaking our national language . I learned to read and write Irish in the Sean Chló which was a beautiful , graceful script and inseperable from the spoken words . That beautiful old script was obliterated in the 1960’s for an ugly brutalist imposter . I will never understand why that uniquely Irish pillar of our ancient culture was assassinated overnight and hurriedly buried in an unmarked grave . A gre,at wrong was done to us , but this time by ourselves . I can still read and write in the sean chló and I would dearly love to have it revived to a place of honour . P.S. Here is the spelling of my name in the old script...Concúir . Here is the imposter version....Conchubhair !

[@iavv334]

The war of friends destroyed many things, and unfortunately the Gaelic was one of them. Pro-Anglo elites imposed a horrific spelling reform and an intentionally destructive education system to try to kill of the language in public spaces, and they've more or less been successful. Pride for the language has been at an all time low, and it's up to our generation to try to save the language before its lost. Conchobhar is ainm dom, leis, agus gaiscígh na teanga is ea sinne. 💪 Bail ó Dhia ort. ✝

[@michealbreathnach2928]

Bail ó Dhia oraibh. Chuaigh mo thriúr iníonacha go dtí an Mhodhscoil, tá duine acú án í gconaí. Is scoil mhaith í, cé go bhfuil an teannga beagan níos laige intí le cupla blíain anuas.

[@andrewfahy9153]

I often wondered and thought the same as you Conor. Linguistic vandalism on our beautiful script. It can be brought back.

[@michealbreathnach2928]

@@andrewfahy9153 Ní cheapfainn go dtabharfar ar ais and sean bealach litriú arís. Caithfidh muid úsáid a bhaint as an bealach nua chomh maith is feidir linn.

[@andrewfahy9153]

Beidir Michael, ach is feidir linn an sean bealach litriu a dtabharfar ar ais. Beidir go mbeidh an suim leis na ndaoine oige. Nil an teanga in ait ro laidir anois, ach leis na ndaoine oige, beidir go mbeidh an sceal nios fearr san t-am seo chugainn. @@michealbreathnach2928

[@KGTiberius]

Poetry is a great way to “hear” older linguistic rhyming sounds. Such inferred sounds point to former phoneme inventory or phonemic correspondences, phonological and phonetic change, rephonemicization, and allophonic differentiation (distribution of allophones of phoneme changes). Well done!

[@alanflood8908]

❤❤❤❤

[@jordanandrei4984]

VERY IMPORTANT CORRECTION! In modern Irish, in ALL dialects, the distinction between a tapped r (broad r) and a palatal tap (slender r) and sometimes even the trill (double r) is absolutely still made, it is not at all an old or archaic feature. The use of the English r is a feature of neo speaker who have English as their mother tongue, it’s not a new feature of the Irish language at all. Edit: spelling mistake.

[@arjgro]

Neo Irish seems to be the norm nowadays. Even 25 years ago, I did hear mostly English phonology whenever listening to Irish speakers. Even in the Gaeltacht, the areas of Gaoth Dobhair, Cois Fharraige and An Daingean, I vividly remember those few old people that still spoke a distinctive kind of Irish. The conservative dialects will not survive the havoc caused by An Caighdeán Oifigiúil as taught by teachers with English as their mother tongue. Perhaps confined already to a small group of passionate linguists as we speak...

[@Hadraedan96]

Considering that most Irish speakers have English as their native language, it is probably fair to say that most Irish speakers do not pronounce R with either a trill or a tap. While tapped and trilled Rs certainly do exist in spoken Irish, I find it is very much a feature of Gaeltacht Irish. As a native Irish speaker from Dublin born to non-native speakers, I rarely, if ever, tap or roll my Rs. As the influence of Irish speakers from non-Gaeltacht areas increases, tapped and trilled Rs as a standard feature of spoken Irish will decline.

[@docastrov9013]

​@@Hadraedan96I'm not a speaker but I can tell on the radio they are effectively using their Irish accent English to speak gaelic which makes no sense. Listening to native gaelic speakers from the Hebrides it doesn't sound like Scottish English.

[@oisinlarkin6885]

​@@Hadraedan96 How are you a native speaker if your parents aren't? They learned it as a second language and raised you with it I guess?

[@wisdom.research1051]

You got a lot of comments on this distinction between r' s. May I add that in ancient Hebrew there were two R s, a trilled double (if letter has a inner dot as reading sign) and a basic R. Some Israelis know which R words to trill, but most do not, as it was not figured out by the revival of modern Hebrew, thus not taught . You showed me that other ancient lanquages went thru a similar process, as your Irish speakers point out in comments to you.👍 Good day 😇

[@nbenefiel]

I studied old Irish in grad school in Dublin. It was the hardest language I ever tried to learn, worse than Chinese. Modern Irish is easier, but with old Irish you virtually have to memorize every form of every word in the old texts. Both the prefixes and suffixes disappeared, leaving only the middle of the original word.

[@therevanchist2869]

I really like Gaelic languages, but now, this has me hesitant in whether I should attempt old Irish...

[@TerenceMcSweeney-cf1sd]

Aontaím leat! I have modern Irish but jesus Goídelc is a real headwrecker!

[@millar6070]

When my mother, made myself to learn Gallic, when I was 37, here in Melbourne,Victoria, Australia, this was difficult for me but I had learnt, I believe she gave me a insight into my heritage.

[@brackloon4584]

Nuair a labhraíonn tú nádúr labhraíonn tú an fhírinne.

[@OakwiseBecoming]

English must be a second language for you. Correct English is “made me learn Gallic.” And “learned.”

[@janewrin1830]

@@OakwiseBecoming although in old English, she is correct and in proper British English it is 'learnt' not 'learned'.

[@johnc3403]

Your English is not great though. Time would have been better spent improving that.

[@janewrin1830]

@@johnc3403 this is a reply to millar6070? It is a curious sentence construction, which I assumed meant that English was a 2nd or 3rd language. Now I wonder if it was just affectation.

[@nerthus4685]

Proto Celtic sounds so similar to Latin and reminds me of the tribal names of Gaul reported by the Romans.

[@BaileyJPope]

Proto-Celtic and Proto-Italic are the closest siblings of the descended PIE languages, even Caesar during his conquest of Gaul remarked at how similar Gaulish and Latin were in sound

[@FaithfulOfBrigantia]

​@@BaileyJPope Could the similarity between Celtic and Latin be a reason why the Celtic languages were so thoroughly replaced by Latin, while more distinct languages, such as Basque and Albanian, remained?

[@Leptospirosi]

@FaithfulOfBrigantia Possibly in Gaul, where the spoken Language was close to the roots. Briton, Cornish, Welsh and Irish had gone so far to be almost unrelatable with Romance languages. It is instead possible that the old Gaulic language pronunciation was at the base of how modern French sounds compared to the written version Also, because the Franks the Burgudians and the Visgoths were old german speakers, Latin would work as a lingua franca and they would take over the local pronunciation, rather then the classical one.

[@FaithfulOfBrigantia]

@@Leptospirosi The Insular Celtic languages had gone that far off because they first made their appearence in writing during the high middle ages. Back in the pre-Roman Iron Age, Goidelic, Gallaecian and Celtiberian would be the most archaic and thus closest to Proto-Italo-Celtic, Brythonic would have had large similarities with Gaulish due to second introduction of Celtic in the Islands from Gaul having been only a couple centuries prior. And if Gaulish is similar to Latin, by association so would Brythonic.

[@darkdevil905]

​@@FaithfulOfBrigantiayes

[@SANGPYRE]

loved the little poetry bit at the end, I'm Irish and speak a little bit of Gaeilge and I could understand a little here and there lol. an-deas 🌟

[@FirefoxisredExplorerisblueGoog]

Fascinating how the connection to Italo-Celtic becomes apparent in some of the proto-Celtic words.

[@thegreatermysteries4134]

I was thinking the same thing 👍

[@paulohagan3309]

I read somewhere the two were amongst the earliest langages to split in the Indo-European family.

[@Eugensson]

​@@paulohagan3309the earliest split was probably the Centum-Satem split

[@maureen9115]

My grandmother’s language was Gaelic (1882) until she learned English much later in life after moving to America with her husband & children. I noticed there was some minor similarity to Latin & or Spanish words from getting the old newspaper “Ireland’s Own” & hearing her speak. She raised me alone, her grandchild, so I spent most of my time with her. I wondered about if there was some ancient connection. When she got very old, she forgot English & none of us could no longer communicate. It was very sad.

[@boris035..4]

Coz of Slavic origin..

[@Admiralofthedeeps]

As an Irish person, I am really impressed by your grasp of it. I judged you too soon from your accent and I learned a lot from this that I never got from school. Really impressive man, fair play. Its making me want to speak as Gaeilge more.

[@feasogachsionnach1872]

A well timed video. I'm currently studying Old Irish in University at the moment and oh lord, it's a whole other thing altogether. It's a beautiful language though, would definitely recommend it if ya get a chance.

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

That's awesome. Wish we had Old Irish where I live. Is Old Irish grammar highly inflected? Slán. Hwyl👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[@feasogachsionnach1872]

@@gandolfthorstefn1780 There's a lot of lenition, aspiration, nasalisation etc, that sorta thing. Double vowels, mutations and so as well. Might sound basic to some, I'm not the greatest when it comes to linguistic terms so you'll have to bear with me.

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

@@feasogachsionnach1872 Thanks for the feedback. It sounds even more complicated than Modern Irish. It seems the more ancient the more complicated and a movement towards simplification as a language evolves. As we say in Welsh, 'pob lwc a phob dymuniad da' , good luck and all the best learning Old Irish. 👍☘️Slán.

[@feasogachsionnach1872]

@@gandolfthorstefn1780 Nae bother. It's complicated enough but you can notice similarities if you've an understanding of modern Irish.

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

@@feasogachsionnach1872 Modern Irish is on my short language list to learn. I have the materials and am tempted to start but I'm learning Welsh at the moment. Target: Welsh,Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Breton. Hope I live long enough. The Old Irish resembles Welsh with the dh sound and the th. Mod. Irish sounds smooth whereas Welsh sounds more consonantal. You really use every muscle of your mouth with Welsh.

[@LobertERee]

Great video. I'm always happy when actual good advice on pronouncing the Celtic languages gets out.

[@lowlandnobleman6746]

Off topic, but your username is pure meme gold. That is all.

[@HansMartinHammer]

The S-sound insterting itself between R and D is basically the same that we do in Faroese today between R and T. My middle name Martin, is pronounced more like Marstin. Whilst Faroese is clearly a West-Norse descendant, the close proximity to Scotland and our history with the Irish, has definitely had an impact on our language, and perhaps the Norse had an impact on Gaelic too. Interestingly, the LL-sound from Welsh is also quite similar to the Faroese and Icelandic LL-sound. I know we have words in common with the Scottish dialect of English, probably some with the Irish dialect as well, but it might surprise you to know, that we also share some words with the Gaelic language. Tarbh in Gaelic is Tarvur/Tarfur in Faroese/Icelandic. There are definitely other words too.

[@bobsmith5441]

Fascinating. Thanks for your post.

[@elliodhadh25]

This is class! Thank you for all your research ❤ I speak Ulster Irish and love it. You do a brilliant job with your pronunciations!

[@westernmasswonderwoman3326]

Love this video. Excellent breakdown of the language history and stunning visuals!

[@helenamcginty4920]

I am a teacher of English as a foreign language. English spelling is also often not a clue to pronunciation. My poor little Spanish students where only stresses can pose a problem to new learners, often struggled. A favourite is 'ough'. There are 8 ways to pronounce this group. Eg. Through, bough, cough....... No rules. You just have yo learn them. All languages have their quirks. ❤

[@helenamcginty4920]

Ps. My grandad was bilingual but after years living in England he complained about the Gaelic on Radio Eirean. My (know it all but nice) mum reckoned it was because he had forgotten his Gaelic. But he came from Mayo aged 14 in 1895 ish so maybe the pronunciation by the 1950s Dublin based radio presenters was what had changed.

[@neveo9428]

British establishment looted, committed genocide I'm Ireland for centuries and banned Irish language often, and terrible torture, misunderstanding if an Irish person heard speaking Irish. This is tragic because it wired out the language gradually over the whole if Ireland and iften the native speakers felting feel ashamed of their 'rubbish' language. As a child I asked my Irish mother how to cou t to 10 in Irish - she told me but shrugged off the language as silky or suchlike. Very sad but British did this worldwide ie treated tge people worse than vermin in order to steal the land and anything valuable the coun try possessed. The 'Irish Famine' was a genocide idea by the British who had reduced most Irish to paupers by tge 19th century while the English lived lije King's on the best land and stole crops, cattle, people for slavery and more. During the 'Famine' the British stole many tons of quality food and shipped it to England or used it themselves while millions of Irish starved to death including whole families found on in their homes if they had one in the countryside. The Irish language is still beautiful of course eg 'Hello' translates as 'Dia duit' meaning 'God be with you' with one possible reply being 'God and Mary with you' etc. The language is respectful etc. I would love to speak Irish fluently:)

[@neveo9428]

'misunderstanding" is a typo due to predictive text and should be 'murder'

[@jhnshep]

@@helenamcginty4920 I was born in the eighties in north Donegal, in Irish classes we were using books from 20-30 years prior, and the teachers wouldn't use the latest 'national' print for schools printed in Dublin, and if we did use them, spelling and pronunciation 'mistakes' were corrected along the way for the next person. With something like' Ah the paleans don't know better' lol

@@neveo9428 The same thing happened in Cornwall and is happening in France with Breton.

[@constantius4654]

As an England born person of 100 percent Irish descent (Farrell/Harrigan/Slattery/Hayes) I am forever staggered by the massive knowledge and sheer brilliance dissipated by the Fortress of Lugh. Thank you so much Kevin.

[@Irish780]

Oddly enough irish language was before English

[@bobbirobin2051]

So an Irishman, from england. That's what you are

[@marynoonan6111]

My Great Grandfather spoke Welsh and when he came to Australia, he used to translate both written and spoken Welsh into English for people. My grandfather spoke a bit of Welsh and I liked to hear him speak it. For some reason as a kid, I thought he sounded like a Viking - haha. When I hear an Icelandic person speak English (usually flawlessly!) I reckon I can hear a Welsh accent coming through. He always called me Ionawr (Yonah) (January in Welsh) as I was born on the 2nd of January

[@boris035..4]

Hollywood intelligence :(

[@victorcode2075]

Very interesting. The welsh accent is absolutely beautiful. As an interesting side note I've discussed with some Scandinavians about the differences in dialects/accents and they all agree that Icelandic is the most distant and hard to decipher. One possible reason for this is that Iceland was colonised by mainly male Scandinavians and they used to raid Ireland for women, so there is an influence from Celtic dna/language/culture.

[@andrewfahy9153]

Congrats on your excellent presentation Kevin. Excellent scholarly work on our common high Gaelic cultural heritage. Wonderful pronunciation. If its not all 100% accurate, I would say 98%+. I've heard old Irish spoken in historical documentaries. The intonation and pronunciation was very like yours. Other language pronunciation influences I would agree have influenced how emphases have changed, I would think not for the better. The old language was powerful and for me showed great linguistic ability and understanding. Maybe we should restore our powerful old Gaelic. It is a wonderful achievement that shouldn't be lost, a powerful communication medium.Thank you. Aindreis O Fathaigh, Ireland

[@christinequinn5355]

I totally agree.

[@AlyraMoondancer]

That poetry at the end was *gorgeous!* So beautiful!

[@bigbadseed7665]

As someone who's always been fascinated by language in general, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I now know why "Alba gu brath" is pronouced "Alba gu brach."

[@finnkennedymusic]

"Alba gu brath" is actually pronounced "Aliba gu bra" (nowadays anyway). In Scottish Gaelic the "th" is silent and there is a slight separation between the "L" and "B" in "Alba".

[@LobertERee]

Another weird detail: The word bràth means 'judgment', while brath (short vowel) means 'betrayal'. So it could variously mean 'Scotland until (the day of) judgment' and 'Scotland until betrayal'.

[@ukpatcopatcouk9748]

Earliest settlers were not Indo-European. DYOR

[@bigbadseed7665]

@@ukpatcopatcouk9748 Let me guess. Were they a master race of divine solar beings from Hyperborea?

[@davidmandic3417]

@@LobertERee In this case, t's definitely gu bràth (forever) which used to mean 'to the judgement day'.

[@malicant123]

If the Irish people today spoke Irish rather than English, I think that we would have a far, far better sense of our identity.

[@riohenry6382]

Trust me. I live in a bilingual country. You don’t want that. We select our PM based on language proficiency as we do our senior civil servants. If everybody has a right to be served in their native language, every person who faces the public must be bilingual. So f you grew up in an English speaking area, you better learn French.

[@dianakidd4219]

In America the Irish have never lost their idenity

[@boudica3356]

They have to take it in school but they don’t like it.

[@zombienursern4909]

​@@dianakidd4219My grandparents came over from Ireland. They wouldn't let us speak the old tongue....they wanted us to fit in with our new country. I can only remember two sentences, but there is no one to speak those two sentences. It makes me sad. PS, have a beautiful day! 🎉

[@Shamanscircle1]

I'm working on that at the moment lol.

[@Bjorn_Algiz]

Very interesting and informative to say the least on this topic 😊

[@lynnracine2459]

My grandpa said the rosary in gaelic on his deathbed. The nurses thought he was talking gibberish until a worker from Ireland corrected them.

[@RobertRodgers-r5h]

I love the way the many wonderful varieties of modern Irish sound. I know that there are some very big differences between various cities and towns around the nation, but I love each one of them. They could read aloud something borking, like a phone book, and still make it sound both beautiful and interesting.

[@CarlsLingoKingdom]

Bhideo sgoinneil! Loved it. This really helps explain the confusing orthography in Gàidhlig, and reminds me of the odd spellings in Modern English which are holdovers from Old and Middle English. Glad I could understand a little bit of even the Old Irish, and I'm pleasantly surprised it had some similarities with Modern Welsh as well.

[@erikdalna211]

My 88 year old mother remembers her father’s family speaking (Scottish) Gaelic when visiting from Banff, an area entirely English/Scots speaking now.

[@adamasaventus]

Tha bhideo gle mhath seo eile. Sgoinneil! Thank you for your continued work and research.

[@jcr1029]

13:31-end flipping amazing. I felt buncha goose-bumps when I tried to keep up and sound it all out.

[@susannautterback6815]

So many questions I have for my Irish ancestors now but they are gone. Sadly in my youth I really wasn’t that interested but there are detailed records that my mother wrote down and gave to me. Gives me clues to my past family.

[@selkieart99]

just found this channel & am absolutely in love with this - I've been trying to learn about old Gaelic for ages but finding sources has been pretty difficult

[@marcasdebarun6879]

Few points regarding the loss of /ð/. You state that Munster Irish makes a /ɣ/ if a slender dh comes at the end of a word, which it doesn't. It makes a slender g-sound (i.e. /ɟ/), for example ‘tapaidh’ is pronounced as if spelt like ‘tapaig’. This is the case for final gh as well (e.g. ‘ceannaigh’ → ‘ceannaig’). It can even happen for some dialects with broad dh in past autonomous forms like ‘ceannaíodh’ → ‘ceannaíog’. I also think its incorrect to say that /d/ became /ɣ/ straight away for some dialects. /ð/ merging with /ɣ/ is something that happens universally across all the Gaelic languages in every position, even word-intially. It's much easier to posit that in some dialects /ð/ was just never lost at the end of a word, and later merged with /ɣ/ along with the rest of the /ð/ occurrences in the language(s).

[@weepingscorpion8739]

Yeah, /d/ going to /ð/ first and then merging with /ɣ/ makes a bit more sense.

[@mintcool4545]

Great video. I'm seeing a lot of familiar words from the poems with modern Irish, like "ard", "ron" agus "lán". I can just about understand what the sentences are saying. eg. Old Irish - "Gaeth ard uar" Modern Irish - "Gaoth ard fuar" English - High cold wind

[@eamonnobroithe2988]

Modern Irish: Gaoth ard fhuar

[@michaeldeloatch7461]

Thanks for this look at Gaelic morphological changes. I have never studied any of these languages and they all seem bewildering at first blush to an English speaker. I think I will put them on my to-do list because that poetry was sublimely rendered.

[@alissaharris8035]

Same 😌

[@emom358]

I really enjoy when you do deep dives like this this. Keep up the good work!

[@georgiafrye2815]

I was there in August and in the learned schools are teaching it. Television has Gaelic speaking stations, Signs are in Gaelic and English.

[@s1nd3r3llee]

Ancestors from over there. Thank you for the history language lesson. So important to keep our past alive. 👍🏻

[@FullaEels]

can clearly hear the norse influences in old irish. been trying to learn scottish gaelic on and off for about a decade and it would've been easier to wrap my head around if the th sound had remained in modern variants.

[@safeysmith6720]

If you play as any of the Saxon nations in Total War:Britannia and have a battle with any of the Irish ones, and you zoom in to listen to your soldiers’ chatter, sometimes they say out loud, something like “Look! The Gaels are approaching!” And for some reason I always loved that and it made the hair stick up on the back of my neck!

[@jangtheconqueror]

The comment on the druids preserving the older forms of the language reminds me of how the Icelandic tradition of studying and preserving the Norse Viking sagas has helped Icelandic remain relatively close to Old Norse, whereas the other Scandinavian languages have undergone much more drastic changes

[@weejackrussell]

That's very interesting.

[@boris035..4]

They are all connected true common Slavic origin... You can trace it true the root's of the words.

[@BillyThetit]

The idea that the druids preserved older forms of Irish has no scientific basis. It is true that Julius Caesar wrote that druids in Gaul memorized large chunks of spoken text but that was not in Ireland and much earlier. We hardly know anything for certain about the druids in Ireland. There is a lot of modern fantasy about them though.

[@BillyThetit]

@@boris035..4 Common Slavic was distantly related to Celtic, but it is not ancestral to it. Proto-celtic was also much older than Common Slavic.

[@boris035..4]

@@BillyThetit "Kelti" or Celts were one of Slavic tribes. Mystery sea people - were one of Slavic tribes. Etc., I could be going like this all day long. You wouldn't believe me coz of "ancient Greece" and other hollywood mumbo-jumbo, but one day ( I truly hope) we would know the real history of Earths people!!!

[@tohaason]

Proto-Celtic sounds like it's much more straight forward to pronounce for this non-Celtic European, relative to more modern variants. Very Latin-like indeed. A very good and interesting video by the way. Liked and subscribed.

[@greenhealer7136]

Im teaching myself Scottish gaelic ...its hard, but is such a beautiful language ...I just wish i had someone to talk to so as to learn much quicker...

[@TinusTegenlicht]

I have the same problem, sadly.

[@belstar1128]

isn't it fun ?

[@stuart5107]

Thank you so much for this. It brings back all my early irish teachings from my west of Ireland school teachers. It's a shame they tried to beat the language into us small innocent children, instead of lovingly encouraging us to learn our native language. If any of the were alive now ,I'd simply ask them,why? Again thanks and great pronounceation on your behalf. 🇮🇪

[@elorigendelaspalabras2349]

Amazingly well done!! ❤

[@alexsawa2956]

I always thought French was a beautiful language to listen to... But without understanding a word, I could listen to the poetry read at the end of the video for hours and love each moment of it

[@lindahamilton800]

Wonderful presentation! I appreciate your work. I have been searching fruitless for any explanation of the Welsh u, pronounced almost like French eu, or the beginning of American y. Have you any pearls to drop before me, regarding this vowel shift? It haunts my reading. And thank you so very much for all this output!

[@MrDan957]

That was very enjoyable I love your command of these beautiful languages

[@MyMy-tv7fd]

its a magical sound

[@tobyplumlee7602]

I enjoyed your video very much! Thank you for the great work!!

[@lowlandnobleman6746]

What a lovely language, even if it isn’t always easy for non-native speakers to understand the spelling conventions. Very beautiful. Good video.

[@grenien4109]

caol le caol, leathan le leathan

[@lowlandnobleman6746]

Fair point.

[@karmasong_2.047]

I truly enjoyed watching your fascinating account of the evolution of Old Irish and ancient Goidelic up to the present day. Go raibh míle maith agat!

[@unisophia]

Cladiwos means sword? wow! in Russian tales there’s an additional word always attached to the word “sword”, like a constant epitet, when it’s a sword of a protagonist, a hero: “kladenetz” (or “cladenets”? :)) “metch-kladenetz” (“metch” means sword in modern Russian, so it was like “sword-kladenetz”). the tales we were reading in the childhood weren’t really authentic and usually underwent pretty heavy adaptation, but certain old words were left for the sake of style, and this was one of them. I wonder if there was a connection between the Latin “Gladius”, Gaelic “Cladiwos” and this old Russian/Slavic “Kladenetz” :) if I’m right and it’s more than just incidental consonance (which would be pretty weird, given that it’s the same word in three languages spoken by peoples who obviously contacted each other) then the construction of two words “metch-kladenetz” is tautological, where the first word is basically a translation of the second to modern Russian, while the second word isn’t originally Russian but adopted from Proto-Gaelic, which in turn adopted it from Latin :) probably… :)

[@RachelRaeCraft]

Thank you for your research. I enjoy watching your videos while crafting. Keep up the good work!

[@FortressofLugh]

Thank you very much!

[@craiczaibatsu8930]

This is a great video! Despite being an Irish speaker myself, I never really gave the older versions of the language as much consideration as I have to Old English, outside of listening to pangur bán. You've made me want to read into the subject more. A similar video for the Brythonic languages would be fab.

[@SadieKay1]

Thank you for this video ❤

[@48441000]

I grew up as first generation where English was my first language. My parents and all my ancestors spoke the Gaelic. I pray in Gaelic and I have many expressions. I miss the Gaelic, the language of my heart.

[@user-by2zl3vk5y]

My great grand parents were right from the old country,she was a Duffy,and he was a Daly from cork,I remember them arguing out in the kitchen speaking Gaelic 😢I miss the stories thy told 😊I am proud to be Irish ❤

[@nbenefiel]

I studied Old Irish in grad school. It was the hardest language I ever learned.

[@barryb90]

It's not really. It's just taught so poorly. I had one good teacher throughout school, and everyday he gave us a topic to write a postcard letter to someone, and it stuck in my head.

[@crimthann-fathach]

@@barryb90 They said Old Irish, not modern Irish

[@barryb90]

@@crimthann-fathach my mistake

[@ferretyluv]

You should try Chinese.

[@vampyricon7026]

​@@ferretyluvInfinitely simpler than Old Irish. Speaking as a native Cantonese speaker.

[@shaunwells5015]

the poetry bit at the end was such a lovely touch!

[@stepaushi]

8:02 "It may have went" instead of "It may have gone". I assume that you are using the past participle of the verb "to wend" instead of the modern conjugation of "to go", which borrows its past tense from "wend" but has its own past participle "gone". "Wend" is quite appropriate here. 👍

[@geraldinehughes4490]

Thank you Kevin, this is so valuable and helpful to my understanding, I feel the beauty, I feel it all and I learn so much from you and your stellar productions. I’m charmed. I keep you and your in my continuing prayers. Geraldine

[@gordonyantis941]

Proto Gaelic: "Quite the necessity for magical potions and incantations." Middle Gaelic: "I do believe he's summoning Galadriel herself."

[@carolinegray7510]

The Gaelic sounds within the poems you spoke was beautiful to hear. ❤

[@janinebean4276]

It’s amazing how much more proto-Celtic sounds like Latin!

[@TOBAPNW_]

Latin sounds like proto-Celtic!

[@noelpucarua2843]

Nobody knows for sure what it sounded like.

[@JohnMelka]

Loved this. I have struggled with Gaelic for years and, as part of my love for ancient history (kind of like Shebiheigh) the oral tales. It started by the Book of Conquests some 40+ years ago. You managed to shine a light through a theory I had +thus breaking it, smile) that the pronunciation of the more arcane Gaelic Irish firms was an attempt to crush the language by the combination of Christian Romans and later by the British. I reference Hawaiian, and various Native American languages contrasted by Cherokee, which is alive and well because it developed the oral to written form with it's own "alphabet" which reflects it's unique sounds, not what some missionary wedged them into using the Roman alphabet

[@mikesavage8793]

The bit of Irish I learned seems to have been of the old/archaic version. Ogham was pronounced "og ham" with a fairly soft g. My father was educated through Irish in west Cork. Going from primary school to secondary, the change in words and pronunciation made it like a third language and I didn't understand it.

[@cintage]

That was absolutely interesting. Instant follow!

[@yohanrives3752]

I love irish and other celtic languages. Thank you for the history and linguistic lesson. It's funny how the word for sword sounds like the french word glaive, which is also an old type of sword...

[@hiberniancaveman8970]

The Latin word “gladius” is understood to be derived from the Gaulish language.

[@yohanrives3752]

Interesting, thank you

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

The word glaive sounds similar to the Welsh word cleddyf for sword. If you took out the dd which happens in languages you get cleyf. The f in Welsh is pronounced like a v and so it could be cleyv. French: Glaive Welsh: Cleyv.🤔

[@yohanrives3752]

@@gandolfthorstefn1780 that's very interesting, it's like our languages are cousins without even knowing it

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

@@yohanrives3752 That's a very good analogy. Unknowing cousins discovering each other.

[@colinjames7569]

This is greatly appreciated. You are very astute. You have obviously done your homework into learning more about the archeology of the Irish language. Or rather, Goidelic language(s). And you also placed time frames. Very much appreciated. Gaelige is no chroi ❤. Gia duich. Big fan of your work. ✌️

[@KathleenGreer-hk6yl]

I learned some Irish because I wanted to sing sean nos.

[@RebekahCurielAlessi]

Aacch. Loved this!!! Thank you!! Especially loved hearing the poetry. 🫂

[@entwistlefromthewho]

Two minutes in and there's a whopper of a mistake. Irish did not "lose the /p/ sound" - Brythonic developed it from Proto-Celtic /kʷ/. The change of /kʷ/ > /p/ (and sometimes /p/ > /b/) is quite common. Irish changed /kʷ/ > /k/, hence the cognates 'mab' (Welsh) and 'mac' (Irish) both from Proto-Celtic 'makʷos'.

[@HenrikBergpianorganist]

He didn't say that Irish lost its P sound, he said Gaelic retained the loss of P... But yes, the Brythonic P is a secondary development.

[@marcasdebarun6879]

​@@HenrikBergpianorganistIt's misleading though, because Brythonic also retained the loss of Proto-Indo-European /p/. Whether it later redeveloped it by some other means is immaterial (which Old Irish also did by borrowings from Latin).

[@rapier1954]

It is a bit misleading for sure but not a whopper of a mistake. Overall I think he did a reasonable job. I am not perfect and I doubt anyone could give a perfect presentation. You're welcome to try and we'll let you know how well do!!!

[@damionkeeling3103]

The Gaelic for father is athair which is an example of the loss of initial p but the example he gave was wrong. He gave an example of the kw - pw sound shift which defines q and p Celtic branches.

[@rapier1954]

@@damionkeeling3103Fine amd I agree, but overall the presentation was good. If you think you can do a better job have at it. Try not to make a mountain out of a mole hill.

[@MidnightWillowWriter]

I was just thinking about looking up this topic! Love how my favorite channel is one step ahead of me

[@thomasmcshane7627]

Bail ó Dhia ar an obair! - Had a question and comment. Do you know what evidence there is for there not being a slender 's' sound (the sh of English) in Old Irish? As far as 'fiodh' being a modern Irish word for wood. This is true, but it is rarely used except in the genitive in names for other things - e.g. Crann feá = Beech, Fiaire Feá = a rambler, Spáinnéar Feá = Cocker Spaniel. The Irish for wood (the material) is 'adhmad' and for the forest 'coill'

[@lauriegili6312]

Interesting topic and stunning videography.

[@ciaranwalsh2131]

What a beautiful language predates English by over 1,500 years,what a beautiful lyrical language

[@TineBeo]

Try thousands of years... goes back to Anatolia...

[@marypetrie930]

How do you mean pre dates English by 1500 years? What were the Angles Saxons or other Germanic tribes etc speaking at that time then ?

[@EresirThe1st]

It doesn’t predate English, that’s not how languages work. What a stupid comment.

[@alganhar1]

No, it does not, modern Irish and Scots Gaelic are very different from Old, it is the same with Cymraig (Welsh), the modern language is very different from Old Welsh, enough so that modern Welsh speakers find it very difficult to understand Old Welsh when it is spoken, just as modern English speakers find it difficult to understand much spoken Old English. No language remains unchanged over the course of a thousand and more years, and Irish and Scots Gaelic are NOT exceptions to this rule. The only possible exceptions, and even then not fully, are dead languages not usually spoken aloud any more. Good example being Latin and Ancient Greek. Indeed the fact that these are dead languages, so change very, very slowly over time is one of the primary reasons they are both used for in the Sciences for naming. People such as yourself ned to stop spreading myths such as this, the root languages of English are JUST as old as the roots of the Celtic tongues, and like English the Celtic languages have NOT simply stayed the same over time. Anyone who thinks so is a fool... And no, I am not English, there is a REASON I used Cymraig instead of Welsh for my native tongue.... It is the correct word and does not come from an Anglo Saxon word meaning foreigner....

​@@marypetrie930 an early Germanic dialect. The Irish language was definitely in existence when was later to become the English language was just a regional dialect in northern Germany.

[@67lionsoflisbon37]

Great video, thanks for posting. Very interesting.

[@JALaflinOfficial]

Ngl, hearing those poems in Gaelic made me tear up. Like my ancestors calling to me from the distant shore.

[@williebourke9962]

Like all languages the modern irish language has evolved through time That said there a at least 3 different dialects in modern irish .The connacht ,The munster and the dinegal which has serious inputs from scotch gaelic and is full of colloculasims aka local names for things . Personally i think the munster is the clearest as its spoken in parts of waterford Co cork and co kerry and a smattering in clare and limerick .whereas donegal and connacht is spoken largely in only one county galway and donegal .Ta me abhailte an ghaeilge a chaint agus ta se nios silear e mumha agus nios deachair e contae dunnna ghall .agus nios tapaidh i gallaimh .

[@ritahall8148]

I watched this because my grandmother knew some Gaelic. Very interesting video. The best part was the scenery!

[@ViDuhy]

Irish language is Gaeilge not Gaelic

[@ritahall8148]

@@ViDuhy That's good to know . I think I used my grandmother's spelling, but she was not Irish.

[@zeddeka]

It would have been interesting to add Welsh into the comparison.

[@susanfreeman9500]

I now feel better about my confusion on being confronted with the difference between the spelling and the pronunciation. Thanks!

[@carlosmacmartin4205]

Very interesting, indeed. The Proto Celtic sounds like Greek to my ears. I subscribed. Thank you for sharing.

[@seasickdave]

Yes - Greek to me also

[@molecatcher3383]

The further back in time we go the Indo-European languages, to my ear, begin to sound increasingly similar. At what period did the "common" indo-european language start to splinter into it's different paths ? 3000BC ? , 2000BC ?, 1500 BC?

[@alwilliams5177]

Love your work. This one is a personal favorite.

[@chrisoleary9876]

Go raibh maith agat Caoimhín! Bhi se seo an-suimiuil agus faisneiseach! 😊

[@iavv334]

*a Chaoimhín and make sure you aren't forgetting your fadas, they are very important in comprehending words :p (se is actually a short form of seo, and is read differently from sé) Your Irish is not bad at all! Good on you for making an effort, we definitely need to see more of that.

[@chrisoleary9876]

@@iavv334 Thanks for the impromptu Gaeilge lesson. Fada's weren't working on the device I was using. Duh.

[@michealbreathnach2928]

​@@iavv334Nach aisteach an duine thú. Ar a laghad scríobh sé í ngaeilge agus tá tusa dhá ceartú í mbearla.

[@iavv334]

@@michealbreathnach2928 Dá mb'fhoghlameoir na teanga Chris O'Leary, canathoabh go thabharfainn dó cúnamh nach féidir leis a thuiscint? Tuigim gurbh fhearr linn Gaelainn a úsáid dosna freagrachaibh agus sin i nGaeilscoil, ach is in KZbin comment section atáimid a chara

[@julescaru8591]

Enjoyed this so much ! Thanks for sharing! All the best Jules 👍💕

[@musicmann83]

as a proud mexican of aztec descent i find the different cultures of gaelic languages fascinating!!

[@doubledee9675]

Thank you for this - something I'd never come across before (and I suspect that I'm not alone in that). Those shots of Dublin set me thinking: how much did James Joyce know of this, and how was the speech in the streets pronounced in his time?

[@dirksharp9876]

That is indeed a bummer about the loss of the "th" sound in the Irish language. Note how the two Germanic languages of Icelandic and English, with the widest differences in their evolution, also the two most beautiful modern Germanic languages, kept the th-sound while none of the others did. Coincidence? (I think not) There were some outliers and recently extinct Germanic languages that maintained the th sound such as Jersey Dutch, unlike modern Dutch. I was hoping perhaps one part of the Celtic language branch had preserved it up to now and my bet was on the based Druids of Ireland. Nonetheless it is still wonderful to hear Gaelic spoken, as well as to listen to the beautiful songs we occasionally get to hear.

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

Welsh has preserved the 'th' sound in abundance. E.g. after mutation, analyser is ddadansoddydd. The dd is th sound. Every third word in Welsh just about has this sound. That's why I love the Welsh language. Hwyl👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[@dirksharp9876]

@@gandolfthorstefn1780 very interesting! Had no idea.

[@gandolfthorstefn1780]

@@dirksharp9876 👍Celtic languages are my favorite. They're weird but wonderful.

[@danmaertens7872]

This was awesome, thank you for reading poetry in old Irish

[@gothfather1]

The old language sounds very beautiful. Thanks for making this video! Keep it coming. Kevin, are you of Celtic descent ?

[@dreammachine2013]

Many thanks for that fascinating and informative video! My heart goes out to you❤

[@gustafduell4948]

Lugus makes me really associate to loki in norse myth. Or laugarday or laukar on brakteats

[@mercianthane2503]

That's a bad association

[@gustafduell4948]

@@mercianthane2503 why?

[@EresirThe1st]

They aren’t close at all. He is clearly the Celtic Woden.

[@mercianthane2503]

@@gustafduell4948 Lugh's origins are mithraic. He is a deity commonly associated with oaths, justice and order, basically his true equivalents are norse Týr, roman Deus Fidius and Vedic Mithra and Dharma.

[@gustafduell4948]

I did not mean it is the same but i think it is more to the namne Loke than we know. Why else the utgårda-loke, company on travels, creation of man, laugarday and the lin laukar runik inscriptions? Or mayby it is a heiti/kenning- an onion has many layers, as the complex world? Trixter i always read and just find it sounding stupid. In those days the learned surely knew of both nordic and gaelic gods. Otherwise i am glad found this and taelisins map channels. Gaelic mythology is rather unknown to me. Nordic litterature on the pre christian religion is often rather narrow.

[@fodonogue3]

Loved this! Been trying to learn more about my ancestry in all directions, First Nations and European alike. For the longest time, the closest to any Irish connection I’ve had was simply in one of my last names, O’Donoġue. I should learn a lot more…

[@PhilShnider]

Brown man speaking Irish for the past 20 years. While doing my major did a minor in Irish 😊

[@fintan9705]

The video clip used at 4:54 is of baltyboys hill in the foreground and moanbane and lugnacoille mountain in the background, pretty cool to see my own back yard in one of your videos kevin.

[@cathalodiubhain5739]

Go hiontach ar fad, taighde mionchúiseach. Maith an fear

[@pumirya]

Thanks for another interesting and informative video. Keep up the good work.

[@inhale.exhale.2527]

as a 500 year old irish monk, i endorse this video. 🙏

[@inhale.exhale.2527]

i meant druid. and listening to this at 2x is mindbending. 😂