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Gaelic language resources
Gaelic is spoken on a daily basis in: Ireland
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Additional background on
Gaelic
The Goidelic languages (also sometimes called the Gaelic languages or collectively Gaelic) are one of two major divisions of modern-day Insular Celtic languages (the other being the Brythonic languages). There are three attested Goidelic languages: Irish (Gaeilge), Scottish Gaelic (G�idhlig), and Manx (Gaelg). Shelta is sometimes mistakenly thought to be a Goidelic language when it is, in fact, a cant based on Irish and English, with a primarily English-based syntax.
The Goidelic branch is also known as Q-Celtic, because Proto-Celtic *kw was originally retained in this branch (later losing its labialization and becoming plain [k]), as opposed to Brythonic, where *kw became [p]. This sound change is found in Gaulish as well, so Brythonic and Gaulish are sometimes collectively known as "P-Celtic". (In Celtiberian, *kw is also retained, so the term "Q-Celtic" could be applied to it as well, although Celtiberian is not a Goidelic language.)
Another significant difference between Goidelic and Brythonic languages is the transformation of *an, am to a denasalized vowel with lengthening, �, before an originally voiceless stop or fricative, cf. Old Irish �c "death", �cath "fish hook", d�t "tooth", c�t "hundred" vs. Welsh angau, angad, dant, and cant. Otherwise:
the nasal is retained before a vowel, jod, w, m, and a liquid: Old Irish ban "woman" (< banom) Old Irish gainethar "he/she is born" (< gan-je-tor) Old Irish ainb "ignorant" (< anwiss) the nasal passes to en before another n: Old Irish benn "peak" (< banno) (vs. Welsh bann) Middle Irish ro-geinn "finds a place" (< ganne) (vs. Welsh gannaf) the nasal passes to in, im before a voiced stop Old Irish imb "butter" (vs. Breton aman(en)n, Cornish amanyn) Old Irish ingen "nail" (vs. Old Welsh eguin) Old Irish tengae "tongue" (vs. Welsh tafod) Old Irish ing "strait" (vs. Middle Welsh eh-ang "wide")
Gaelic
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All data is derived from UNESCO.
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