Differences between Scottish Gaelic and Irish

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2008)

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Scottish Gaelic is closely related to Irish, although most dialects are not immediately mutually comprehensible^{[citation needed]}, though many individual words and phrases are.

Contents 1 Phonetic and grammatical differences 2 Orthographic differences 3 Differences in vocabulary 4 See also

[edit] Phonetic and grammatical differences

Islay and Argyll Gaelic are fairly similar to Irish. The extinct dialects of north east Ulster, particularly Rathlin Island, were also close to Scottish Gaelic. In Scotland, dialects also existed in southern Kintyre and Galloway which were probably similar to Irish, sliabh being fairly common as an element in Galloway placenames, but quite rare in the Highlands. The dialects of all these regions are also, in turn, the most similar to Manx. While the dialects of northern Scotland, and southern Ireland tend to differ the most from one another in terms of vocabulary, they do share some features which are absent in other dialect areas lying between them. For example, in both Munster Irish and the Gaelic of the north of Scotland, historically short vowels have been diphthongised or lengthened before long sonants. An example of this is the word clann meaning family. In both Munster and northern Scottish Gaelic it is pronounced [kɫaunˠ] whereas in Ulster and Mayo it is [kɫanˠ] and in Connemara [kɫɑːnˠ]. Similarly, im meaning butter is pronounced [iːmʲ] in Munster, Southern Connacht and northern Scotland but [imʲ] in Ulster. In the verb tá of Standard Irish, northern Scotland and Central Munster agree in leniting the initial t, thus one hears thá in Waterford and tha in northern Scotland. West Munster also lenits the t, but only after the preverb a that (an fear a thá ina sheasamh ag an ndoras the man that's standing at the door).

The closest to Scottish Gaelic in Irish is the dialect currently spoken in Donegal, as illustrated by the sentence "How are you?".

Scottish Gaelic — Ciamar a tha sibh? (formal) or Ciamar a tha thu? (informal)

Ulster Irish — Caidé mar a tá tú?, also spelt Cad é mar atá tú?

Connacht Irish — Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú?

Munster Irish — Conas taoi?, Conas tánn tú?, Conas atá tú?

Sibh is used in both Scottish Gaelic and Irish for the plural "you", while Scottish Gaelic also uses sibh as a formal version of "you" (much like French uses vous) (see T-V distinction). Modern-day Irish Gaelic does not use this formal/informal distinction when addressing people. The use of sibh as 'polite' you is a retention from the Classical Irish usage of the plural personal pronouns to refer to the singular in polite communcation, thus sinn we for mé I and sibh you (plural) for tú you/thou. In speaking to friends and family, thu is used in Scottish Gaelic when speaking to one person, thus, in Lewis dialect however, Dè mar a tha thu? is commonly used rather than the polite Dè mar a tha sibh?. All these forms share the structure of the Doric dialect of Scots, Fit like? or literally, What like are you?, a commonly heard expression amongst many in older generations when translating directly from Gaelic.

Also, the negative particle in Scottish Gaelic and Northern Ulster Ulster Irish is cha/chan (chan eil, cha bhfuil/chan fhuil = "is not"; chan is from the Old Irish emphatic negative nichon). In standard Irish the negative particle is ní (níl = "is not", a contraction of ní fhuil); ní is a retention of the normal Old Irish negative)), as illustrated by the sentence "I have no money" (cha and chan fhuil are legitimate Irish forms in , however):

Scottish Gaelic — Chan eil airgead agam.

Ulster Gaelic — Chan fhuil/Cha bhfuil airgead agam.

Standard Irish — Níl airgead agam.

It should be noted that Scottish Gaelic speakers may also use the Irish phrase, or at least sound as if they were, as Chan eil can frequently be shortened to 'n eil or simply nil.

The digraph eu is still used in Scottish Gaelic spelling but is now obsolete in Irish, except in southern dialect writing, as a means to distinguish the vowel é when followed by a broad consonant from the regular rponunciation of é as i in the same environment, thus Béarla [bʲiarlə] jargon; English in comparison to d'éug [dʲe:g] died; passed on. Éa is now used instead of eu in Standard Irish. Béarla is written Beurla in lterary Scottish Gaelic. This is due to a spelling reform and standardisation which took place in Ireland under the auspices of the Irish government during the 20th century. However, at times Scottish writers also adapt the spelling eu to how the combination is pronounced in Northern Gaelic, thus ia, writing Biarla instead of Beurla.

The most obvious grammatical difference between Scottish Gaelic and Irish is that in the former only remnants remain of eclipsis, meaning that Irish has two major mutations to Scottish Gaelic's one. In general, one could say that the grammar of Scottish Gaelic is slightly simpler than that of Irish, while its phonology is more complex,^{[citation needed]} something that also has an impact on spelling.

[edit] Orthographic differences

There are a number of distinctive written differences. Both languages have been reformed in recent decades, which has led to further divergence.

The most obvious orthographical difference is that the accent, or síneadh fada, is written as a grave accent in Scottish Gaelic, as opposed to the acute accent of Irish; hence the word for "welcome" is written as fàilte in Scottish Gaelic and in Irish as fáilte. Irish has no grave accent, only acute accents, while until recently Scottish Gaelic had both grave and acute accents. The recent spelling reform has meant that there are now only grave accents in Scottish Gaelic, the opposite of Irish.

The suffix -sa added to the end of a prepositional pronoun for emphasis, is normally hyphenated in Scottish Gaelic, whereas in Standard Irish it is added to the word (though this is frequently not adhered to), as illustrated by the sentence "I've got money":

Scottish Gaelic — Tha airgead agam-sa.

Standard Irish — Tá airgead agamsa.

A number of letter combinations are possible in written Irish which are not found in Scottish Gaelic e.g. "ae", "bhf". Irish uses "cht" where Scottish Gaelic uses "chd", although "chd" itself was once common in written Irish, as was "cht" in Scottish Gelic.^{[citation needed]} In the combinations "sc"/"sg" and "st"/"sd", Irish now uses "sc" and "st", whiloe Scottish Gaelic uses "sg" and "sd".

Most obvious differences in spelling result from the deletion of silent lenited digraphs (mainly dh, gh, and th) in Irish in spelling reforms, which was only sometimes done in Scottish Gaelic. Overall, Scottish Gaelic orthography is more conservative than that of Irish.

English	Irish	Scottish Gaelic	Notes
Gael	Gael	Gaidheal	Pre 1950s Gaedheal in Irish
day	lá	latha, là	lá is also used in Scottish Gaelic
night	oíche	oidhche	Pre 1950s oidhche in Irish
inside	isteach	a-steach	Pre 1950s isteach in Irish
school	scoil	sgoil	Pre 1950s sgoil/scoil in Irish
child	páiste/leanbh	pàiste/leanabh
without	gan	gun
authority	údarás	ùghdarras	Pre 1950s ughdarás in Irish
office	oifig	oifis	Also oifig in Scottish Gaelic
star	réalt(a)	reul	Pre 1950s réalt(a), réult(a) in Irish
hotel	óstán, teach/tigh ósta	(taigh) òsda	Pre 1950s óstán/ósdán, teach/tigh ósta/ósda in Irish
house	teach (nom-acc), tigh (dat); Munster tigh	taigh
news	nuacht, Ulster nuaidheacht	naidheachd
open	oscail	fosgail	Also foscail in Ulster Irish
year	bliain	bliadhna	Pre-1950s bliadhain in Irish. The form bliadhna (bliana today) is used as a special plural form following numerals and also as the genitive singular; the regular plural is blianta)
radio	raidió	radio	Also réidió and rèidio in spoken Irish and Scottish Gaelic
report	aithris	aithris
government	rialtas	riaghaltas	Pre-1950s riaghaltas in Irish
parliament	parlaimint	pàrlamaid
island	oileán	eilean

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Differences in vocabulary

English	Irish	Scottish Gaelic	Notes
in	i, in	ann, an, ann an	In Classical Irish the forms were "i", "a", "in", "an" - "i/in" when the following sound was slender, and "a/an" when the following sound was broad. In Irish and Scottish, in the spoken language, this distinction on the whole still exists.
minister	ministir, ministéir	ministear	In Irish, aire for a government minister
Germany	An Ghearmáin	A' Ghearmailt
America	Meiriceá, Meirice	Ameireaga
London	Londain	Lunnain
road	bóthar/ród	rathad
cold (sickness)	slaghdán	cnatan	Meaning illness
talking	caint	bruidhinn	Also, cainnt in Scottish Gaelic. Bruíon (formerly bruighean) in Irish means "fighting", "quarrelling"

Irish Gaelic	English	Scottish Gaelic	English	Notes
cuan	harbour	cuan	ocean	A number of words are used in Irish for "ocean"; aigéan is commonly used in geographical nomenclature while simply an fharraige or an fharraige ollmhór are probably the most common forms in everyday speech. Caladh or cala (also in the compound "calafort" < "cala-phort") are commonly used in Irish for "harbour".
An Bhreatain Bheag	Wales	A' Bhreatain Bheag	Brittany	Breatain (Britain) is the same in both, but "little" Breatain is different in each: Brittany in Scottish and Wales in Irish. The Scottish Gaelic equivalent for Wales is A' Chuimrigh, similar to Cymru in Welsh. The Irish for Brittany is An Bhriotáin.

[edit] See also

• Irish language
• Scottish Gaelic