BTW. I have started using TYG and also have another dictionary to help me during my learning of my original native tongue ( Gàidhlig ).
You mean to say, you were brought up speaking Gaelic and then forgot it? 'S e bochd sin, tha mi a' creidsinn.
Halò Seonaidh. Ciamar a tha thu an-diugh?
Hello Seonaidh. How are you today. I wasnt actually brought up speaking Gàidhlig but meant to say that I wanted to learn my country's original native tongue. I have got TYG and the other dictionary to help me. I also purchased a course on CD which may help in some small way but dont know yet.
Unfortunately, the "original native tongue" of your area, whatever it was, probably ceased to be spoken by anybody several thousand years ago. In its wake have come a succession of languages, many probably now completely unknown. It is only when records start to be made that we have any knowledge (and that not always reliable) as to what languages were spoken in an area.
It is undeniable that Gaelic became widely spoken in the Argyll area, probably around 5th Century AD, with the movement of a large section of the Scotti there from Ulster. "Scotti", incidentally, is what the Romans (and, later, Anglo-Saxons) called them: their own name, as in Ireland where they originated, was an early version of "Gàidheal".
In time, their language and culture spread through much of the area kent today as "Gàidhealtachd", but never made much progress in that part of Scotland kent as "Galltachd", which probably means something like "Land of the Gauls". Whether that is in response to the fact that, from the time of Queen Margaret, it became fashionable for the royal court of Scotland to speak French; or whether it relates to some memory that the old language of France, Gaulish, was a P-Celtic language not dissimilar to the old language of the Scottish Lowlands, I do not know.
Anyway, to talk of "my country's original native language" begs all manner of questions, not the least of which is what is "my country"? For, in view of the relatively poor agricultural opportunities presented by the Gàidhealtachd, when compared with the Galltachd, it is exceedingly unlikely that there was ever a time when even the majority of people resident in what is now Scotland spoke Gaelic, let alone any claim to universality as "the language of Scotland".
However, it is undeniable that Gaelic language and culture forms a very significant - but certainly not the only, or even the most important - strand in the story of Scotland. For that reason, it well behoves anybody with a wish to capture the essence of "Scottishness" to become familiar with the Gaelic language.
But to refer to Gaelic as "Scotland's original native language" is just plain wrong. One might equally claim that English is "England's original native language, which it patently is not: it arrived in England (and, incidentally, in SE Scotland) at much the same time as Gaelic arrived in Scotland.
Tha seasamh a' chois ron bharail aige, a Sheonaidh. Tha mi smaointinn gu bheil e bruidhinn air Alba mar dhùthaich no rìoghachd. Chaidh "Alba" a stèidheachadh mar Rìoghachd na h-Alba le rìghrean Gàidhealach. Mar sin dheth, 's i a' Ghàidhlig cànan tùsail na dùthcha san t-seagh sin.
Actually a Sheonaidh. He has a case. I believe he's talking about the country/kingdom of Scotland. Scotland was founded as "Alba" by Gaelic-speaking Kings. So, Gaelic is the original language of Scotland in that sense.
Bha Sasainn air a cur air bhonn, no air aonachadh, air an aon dòigh, le rìghrean a bhiodh a' bruidhinn an t-Seann Bheurla Shasannach. Mar sin dheth, chan eil e mì-reusanta idir a bhith ag ràdh gum b' i a' Bheurla Shasannach cànan tùsail Shasainn.
Chan e sin ri ràdh gun robh an cànan stèidheachaidh aig a h-uile mac màthair eadar na crìochan sin aig an àm.
Mar eisimpleir, tha fios gun robh Cuimris ga bruidhinn taobh a-staigh crìochan Shasainn fada as dèidh stèidheachadh na dùthcha sin.
Similarly, England was founded or united by ENglish-speaking Kings, so it would be perfectly reasonable to say that the original language of England was English.
That's not to say that everyone within these borders at the time spoke the founding language! For example, it's known that Welsh was spoken within England's borders long after that country was founded
Seonaidh wrote:but never made much progress in that part of Scotland kent as "Galltachd", which probably means something like "Land of the Gauls".
Naa...
"Gall" simply means foreigner. The same root has been used across Europe. Modern Portugal and Galicia were named Galicia by the Romans, cos that's where the foreigners were. Similarly, an area in what is now Poland and the Ukraine was named Galicia, because they hadn't conquered it, so that's where the foreigners were. And they were different foreigners, because while the
Switching romance "g" to germanic "w" (guardian/warden, guerre/war) we can find Wallonia, the bit of Belgium where the foreigners (French speakers) are.
And the germanic people who invaded Great Britain called the natives Wallis -- whence cometh the names Walsh and Wallace and the modern words Welsh and Wales. And the romance speakers recognise this, hence Welsh being galés in Spanish.
Furthermore, Penicuik has a demonstrably Brythonic name, and recent genetic studies have lent significant weight to the insular theory (that all the Celts in the British Isles, Brythonic and Goidelic, were one people with one language that diverged whilst here) making it less likely that the pre-Anglo-Saxon Lowland Celts called themselves "Gauls".
This discussion is wandering far from home, but I thought I had to point out that the origin of the word Portugal is far from clear. It is generally agreed that the Portu- bit is indeed the Latin word Portus but it is not known with certainty where the -gal bit comes from.
The most popular view is that it came from Cale, the historical name for (Vila Nova da) Gaia, which stands across the Douro from Oporto. At the time, the word would be used to name the harbour there and the surrounding area. But this just begs the questions where Cale came from. The Roman occupiers of what is now northern Portugal called the area Callaecia, which of course gives the modern word Galicia. But this word itself has origins in the Greek name kallaikoi (mentioned by Herodotus) for the Celtic peoples that lived in those parts as far back as 600 B.C. (or even earlier). In any case, Cale is thought to come from this traditional name. And no-one knows where kallaikoi comes from, perhaps from the worship of the goddess later known as Cailleach.
In any case, it seems unlikely to me that the Romans would refer to foreigners as gal-, since to the best of my knowledge Latin had no such root with that meaning. And the idea that Galicia in Central Europe has this kind of origin has also, to my knowledge, been seriously questioned; it is rather a Romanization of Galych/Halych, a Slavic name deriving from halka, a jackdaw.
There is certainly more reason for linking Walloon, Welsh, etc. as coming from a Germanic root walh- meaning 'foreigner'.
Tha thu ceart, Portugaileach - "wal-" - 's e facal Seann-Ghearmailltis a th' ann. Tha mi a' creidsinn gun robh daoine "Welsch" anns an Eilbheis is an Ostaire - ach bha iad Romansch/Ladin is eile.
Tha Cuimris ann an Sasainn an-diugh, faisg air Oswestry (Croesoswallt). Bha "Cuimris" ann an Alba cuideachd.
Insular Celtic - 's dòcha. Afon Wysg (Usk), Esk faisg air Dùn Èideann - cuideachd Yorkshire (tha abhainn an sin "Wiske" cuideachd), Kinneil - b' e "Penfahel" Bede. Agus dè mu dheidhinn na beanntan ann an Somerset/Devon - Quantocks? Tha lochan (lough...) ann an Northumberland.
Na Silures - seann Chuimrich, 's dòcha - ach dè an ainm? "Sìlidh-fhir"?
"Hil-wyr"? - 's e "men of the breed/race" a th' ann. Ach an e Cuimris no Gàìdhlig a th' ann? No bit of a mixture?
An Fhraing - Ffrainc - Pow Frynk - anns a' Bhreatainis (dè "llydaweg" anns a' Ghàidhlig?) 's e "Bro C'hall" a th' innte - "Galltachd"?
Inntinneach. Uill, inntinneach dhomh fhìn, ach 's dòcha gu bheil mi glè shad...
Ciamar a tha thu an-diugh?