ChristopherB
Triglot
Senior Member
New Zealand
Joined 6316 days ago
851 posts - 1074 votes 
2 sounds
Speaks: English*, German, French
| Message 1 of 1 10 May 2008 at 9:08am | IP Logged |
The use of the word "Gaelic" according to Wikipedia:
Quote:
Although Irish and Manx are often referred to as Irish Gaelic and Manx Gaelic (and they are Goidelic or Gaelic languages) the use of the word Gaelic is unnecessary because the words Irish and Manx only ever refer to these languages whereas Scots by itself refers to a Germanic language and Scottish can refer to things not at all Gaelic. The word Gaelic by itself is thus somewhat ambiguous.
Furthermore, due to the politics of language and national identity, some Irish speakers are offended by the use of the word Gaelic by itself to refer to Irish.
Similarly, Scottish Gaelic speakers find offensive the use of the obsolete word Erse (from Erisch, "Irish") to refer to their language. This term was used in Scotland since at least the late 15th century to refer to Gaelic, which had previously been called Scottis.
The names used in languages themselves (Gaeilge in Irish, Gaelg in Manx, and Gàidhlig in Scottish Gaelic) are derived from Old Irish Goídeleg, which in itself is from the originally more-or-less derogatory term Guoidel meaning "pirate, raider" in Old Welsh. The Goidels called themselves various names according to their tribal/clan affiliations, but the most general seems to have been the name rendered in Latin as Scoti. |
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This doesn't seem to solve much, other than highlight the ambiguities of the word. Can anyone shed some light on how the word "Gaelic" in the linguistic sense ought then to be used? Should "Irish" and "Scots" (the latter of which being Germanic dialect) be referred to as "Irish Gaelic" and "Scots Gaelic" only? I know in Ireland it's commonly referred to as just Irish, whereas in Scotland the word Gaelic seems to be much more prevalent.
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