How Gaelic is the English Language?
When I was a kid growing up near Chicago, once on St. Patrick’s Day at school I saw a banner that said “Erin go bragh.” An adult explained that it meant “Ireland forever.” I just thought of it as funny English. As a monolingual English speaker I didn’t realize that it was an Irish phrase borrowed into English (and mangled!), and that Irish it was a totally different language. Only when I started to study Gaelic later on did it occur to me that Irish and Scottish Gaelic were real languages, just like English. A lot of English speakers still don’t realize that they are.
In daily life the boundaries between languages are not as firm as they are in a dictionary or classroom. People borrow words or expressions from another language for necessity, convenience, style, or fun. Borrowing usually happens in situations that linguists call “language contact,” when there is ongoing interaction between people who speak different native languages, or when native speakers of a language learn to speak another language, as a child or as an adult. Language contact can also occur indirectly when people have contact with foreign ideas or things—for example, English speakers can talk about feeling déja vu or schadenfreude while drinking a chai latte and eating a banh mi.
Linguists and language students alike have found that the English language bears interesting traces of historical contact with the Celtic languages, as well as more widely-spoken European languages like French, German, and Spanish.
What are the Celtic languages?
The Celtic languages are a family of Indo-European languages which share a common origin and characteristics. One of the two main branches of Celtic is the Gaelic languages, which in the present day include Irish (Gaeilge), Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig), and Manx Gaelic (Gaelg). (See my blog post “What is Gaelic?” for more about this.)
In contrast, English belongs to an entirely different family of Indo-European languages, the Germanic family, which also includes languages like Scots, German, Dutch, Afrikaans, Norwegian, and Swedish. But a great deal of English vocabulary also derives from Norman French, due to the intensive contact that followed the Norman conquest of England.
How did the Celtic languages influence English? Ireland had been subject to intensive contact through English military conquest, colonization, and political incorporation beginning in the 1100s, while in the Gaelic-speaking Highlands of Scotland, English speakers made the most serious inroads beginning in the 1600s. English speakers thus came into contact with Gaelic culture, and ultimately borrowed words for unique or ubiquitous concepts from Gaelic culture.
At the same time, as English speakers took control of education in Ireland and Scotland, they attempted to stamp out the “barbaric and incivil” Gaelic languages. Gradually in one area after the next, mother-tongue Gaelic speakers were forced to learn English as they entered schools with English-only education, took local jobs working for English speakers, or emigrated for work. But in each area, the way that people learned to speak English was filtered through the distinctive sounds and grammar of their native Gaelic. They passed this way of speaking on to their children, who passed it onto later generations, until it became a distinctive dialect.
The main areas where you can see the influence of Gaelic on English are in vocabulary, grammar, and accent. We’ll look at vocabulary first.
Gaelic Vocabulary in English: “Whisky Galore”
Some Gaelic words have been fully absorbed into English. When a word is borrowed this way, the pronunciation and meaning are usually changed, as speakers put new English sounds and stresses on it, or perhaps even leave out bits, just as “latte” now refers to the milk-and-espresso drink which is called a caffè latte in Italian.
In fact warming drinks are a good place to start, because English speakers have always loved to import a tasty new drink as well as the word for it (tea, coffee, and hot chocolate spring to mind). Plenty of people know that “whisky” means “water of life” (uisge beatha) in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic. This compound word first came into English as “usquebaugh” in the late 1500s. Gradually this word faded out of use, with the last Oxford English Dictionary examples cited in the late 1800s. Meanwhile, “whisky” came into use in the early 1700s—and notice how the “beatha” or “-baugh” (“life”) element was dropped.
“Galore,” a frequent companion to “whisky,” means “in abundance” or “plenty” in English. The word was borrowed from both Irish go leór and Scottish Gaelic gu leòr, both meaning “enough” or “sufficiently.” Galore was first used in print in 1675 according to the Oxford English Dictionary Online, so it is a loan of long standing.
A few years ago, the company Deiseal Ltd. made some Gaelic borrowings into the focus of an advertising campaign for their Ùlpan Gaelic course in Scotland. Dàibhidh Grannd, head of Deiseal, explained why:
“Gaelic is often falsely accused of being inferior or worthless since English speakers understand the borrowed English words being used in it like telebhisean (television) and heileacoptair (helicopter).
“The Ùlpan posters turn this on its head by pointing out that English speakers already have some Gaelic in their English. Languages borrow words from each other; that’s normal, says the posters.
“English, and the numerous languages English has borrowed from, have been assimilating Celtic and Gaelic innovations since the Iron Age: càr (a wheeled vehicle), rìgh (a king), uisge-beatha (whisky) – we have led the technological race at times! As an adult language course largely aimed at English speakers, we’re saying that you already know some Gaelic, but perhaps you weren’t aware of it. Come and discover some more.”
Sporran, a Gaelic loan-word in English
Loch, a Gaelic loan-word in English
“I’m after going”: Gaelic Dialects of English
While Gaelic loanwords often go unnoticed in English, Gaelic grammar used in English attracts attention. Other English speakers often see it either as a quaint reminder of regional origins, or a mistake that must be corrected. Given the common Gaelic influence, it is unfair that in North America, an Irish person’s accent is seen as interesting and mildly prestigious, while in Canada, a Cape Breton or Newfoundland accent shaped by Scottish Gaelic or Irish may have branded the speaker as a hick.
Nowadays Cape Breton’s Gaelic English can also be a point of regional pride. The well-known Cape Breton song “It’s a Working Man I Am” sung by the late Rita MacNeil provides a good example of Gaelic grammar in English. An emphatic statement like this (in contrast to “I am a working man”) closely resembles emphatic constructions in Gaelic which use a special form of the verb called the copula (is e or ’s e in the present tense—e.g., ’S e duine gasda a th’ann, It’s a fine man that is in him). While this statement can also be made in other dialects of English, it’s a very good bet that in this case, the influence is directly from Gaelic.
One more version by the Men of the Deeps for good measure:
An idiomatic Gaelic expression also accounts for one of the most common aspects of Cape Breton English. Nova Scotia judge Jamie Campbell, who grew up in Port Morien, recalled:
“I once cut up all of my father’s seed potatoes just because I had a sharp knife and nothing else to do. He didn’t say ‘You ruined my seed potatoes.’ He said, ‘You’re after ruining my seed potatoes.’”
Bagpiper and author Barry Shears, originally from Glace Bay, also recalled of this turn of phrase: “We always used ‘he was after dying,’ or ‘she was after going downtown.’ Using such phrases was always said to be a sign of incorrect English.” But this construction was the proper Gaelic equivalent to using either the present or past perfect with the adverb “just” in English, in order to express a recently completed action with ongoing effects. In other words, “I’m after doing something” means “I have just done something,” and “she was after doing something” means “she had just done something.”
Lewis MacKinnon, executive director of Gaelic Affairs with the Nova Scotia Government, offers another example of Gaelic grammar in English: “I frequently hear a distinctive expression from people who come from a Gaelic background. It’s the way they use the verb ‘wanting’. They tend to say ‘I am wanting [to go, etc.]’ instead of ‘I want [to go etc.]’”
MacKinnon believes this is due to the influence of the frequently used Gaelic structure “Tha mi ’g iarraidh [a dhol]” which is literally “I am wanting [to go, etc.].”
The unique Gaelic aspects of English in Nova Scotia are becoming more widely known and appreciated now. Gaelic Affairs sponsored a temporary museum exhibit a few years ago titled “The Gaels in Nova Scotia” which included a section on the Gaelic influences on English. It turns out that as well as the grammatical patterns already mentioned, commonly heard English phrases like “Who’s your father?” (Có a b’ athair dhut?) and “There you have it” (Sin agad e) are translations from frequently used Gaelic expressions.
Other varieties of English that linguists call “Celtic Englishes” include Hebridean English and Highland English as spoken by Gaelic speakers and their descendants in Scotland, the Hiberno-English or Irish English of modern Ireland, and some varieties of English spoken in Newfoundland, Canada. The Celtic Englishes project at this link provides many academic studies on this broad topic.
Whether it’s borrowed Gaelic words or the unique patterns of Gaelic speech, the Gaels have imparted a colourful and lasting Celtic legacy to English.
Car, a Celtic loanword in English!
As a boy, I would’ve told you I didn’t know any Gaelic, that my family no longer spoke a word of it. But under the category of Influence, I often heard my grandparents say things like “I’m just after getting back from town,” or “We’re just after finishing our dinner.” At noon, of course, this is farming country.
Then, as we were charging around playing, our mother would tell us to “pull up your brickish!” Or when we got on her nerves, (hardly ever, I’m sure) “Oh, be sanh,” which I thought was French at the time. Only years later did I find out it was an abbreviation of “bi samhoch.”
My grandfather would often greet old friends with something that to me sounded like “camera how!” I thought, well, you hold the camera up to your eye….
When my father would call the pigs to their feed, hardly a necessity, he’d say “mucmucmucmuc.” I thought it was just a random sound. When he was backing a horse into harness, he’d say “beck, beck, beck.” I thought he was saying “back,” but he never pronounced it that way any other time. Was he saying “little,” or the equivalent of “a little more”? He likely didn’t know, himself. He was just doing what his father had done.
My grandmother would refer to her brother, my Uncle Jay, as “JohnJemmuss,” (John James)
As for myself, my daughter has taken me to task for calling that wet stuff on the grass in the morning, “joo,” and for calling a burger joint “MacDawhls” with a nazalised n after the w. I’ve also been told “It’s Tuesday, Dad.” “Yeah, that’s what I said. Chewsday.”
We also say, locally, although it’s dying out, “east the road, and west the road.” But not for north or south.
Nope, no influence at all.
Wonderful examples of Gaelic influence, thanks so much for sharing them!!
While I have no proof, I suspect it’s possible that “y’all,” the famous hallmark of southern US speech, owes its existence to Gaelic and Irish speaking Scottish, Irish and Scots-Irish settlers importing into English a bit of Celtic grammar: the distinction between addressing one person “you,” or several people “you all.”
I have never heard of that being the case, but it is certainly true that many regional English dialects still have a plural word for “you,” which “standard” English also used to have! My favourite is “youse” which I first heard when I lived in Pittsburgh.
From what I can see, the main hypothesis is that it actually came from Ulster Scots “ye aw.” Ulster Scots is a Germanic variety related to Scots and English (unlike the Celtic languages of Irish and Scottish Gaelic):
http://dialectblog.com/2011/02/15/the-remarkable-history-of-yall/
There are competing hypotheses, but none of them involved Celtic languages.
I also just stumbled on this podcast episode which I’m going to listen to while I fold my laundry!
http://historyofenglishpodcast.com/2013/09/06/episode-30-the-celtic-legacy/
thats nonsense Ulster-Scots also has irish words in it. your explanation of the history of “ireland” and “england” glosses over about 900 years of history. You’re wrong on many accounts and are perpetuating politically divisive mythologies.
Get tae yerself! 😀 You’re talking apples and oranges here. Please read the blog post more carefully, it is about how the Scottish Gaelic language has influenced some dialects of English in Scotland and Nova Scotia. It’s not about England at all, and it’s not about Ireland except for a brief mention of English speakers’ attempts to destroy both Irish in Ireland and Scottish Gaelic in the Highlands of Scotland. These attempts are well documented and the effects are still visible today. I support the use of the Ulster Scots language in Northern Ireland alongside Irish in the 21st century. And I don’t doubt that Scots contains some influence from Irish, just as Scots in Scotland contains a bit of influence from Scottish Gaelic in the form of borrowed words.
Interesting posts. Reminds me of phrases such as, ‘What are you at, boy?’ Meaning what was I doing. Influenced by ‘Tha mi aig…?
Moran Taing Dr McEwan for allowing me to use your inspiring title “How Gaelic is the English Language” for my talk in Canmore in October.
‘Se do bheatha!
‘s e ur beatha i’d say personally
Super Interesting
Ran across this on Pinterest, not looking for tattoo but as someone of Scot Irish descent who has studied Gaeilge found it entertaining and educational. When taking Irish classes I realized my Dad’s expressions and prounciations were vestiges of our Celtic heritage. So while the languages hadn’t been spoke in the home for a couple generations, he still said ejeets for idiots.
So here’s my Scottish tattoo question: why is the Edinburgh tattoo called that? Dad would say any ejeet knows that.
Kathleen,
That’s a really good question. As far as I’ve been able to find in dictionaries, the resemblance between the word tattoo for the military & musical display and the word tattoo for permanent markings on/under the skin with ink is coincidental. One dictionary says that the military one came into English in the mid-1600s as tap-too from Dutch taptoe!, literally ‘close the tap (of the cask)!’ but that sounds a little bogus. This dictionary also says that the word tattoo for the designs on skin came into English in the mid 1700s from the Tahitian, Tongan, and Samoan words ta-tau (for the same thing). The ultimate authority would be the Oxford English Dictionary, which always gives the earliest known use of a word in print in English, as well as an explanation of its etymology, but I don’t own the OED and can’t afford the subscription fee to the online edition! If you know anyone who works in a university library, or if you can access a large public library such as the New York Public Library, they will have the online subscription and you can look up the words there! If you do, let us know what they say! I hope that helps and thank you so much for visiting the Gaelic.co blog!
hi Emily,
iv been infatuated with Gaelic music and language since i lived for a while in Aberdeen.The Erisky love lyte,is my all time favourite.Here in Edinburgh we are fortunate enough to have Radio Nan Gael with all its fantastic music.Its so fraustrating not being able to understand what they say. Found your blog today and i look forward to exploring it more.Cheeri Tony G
Mòran taing / Many thanks! Enjoy!
Anthony:
Did you know there is a nice little (free!) iPad app available called the “LearnGaelic Beginner’s Course”.? It consists of 60 lessons accompanied by pictorial illustrations that help to associate the Gaelic words and phrases being taught directly with the objects and actions they describe. I was amazed at how much I of the Radio nan Gàidheal broadcasts I was able to understand after completing it.
This app can be downloaded from the LearnGaelic.net website at:
https://learngaelic.scot/beginners/index.jsp
or directly from the Apple App Store.
The LearnGaelic.net website has a lot of other helpful materials! too —all free of charge. And Radio nan Gàidheal, itself has some programs especially geared towards Gaelic learners such as”Beag air Bheag,” and the “Litir do Luchd-ionnsachaidh” and its companion, “An Litir Bheag.”
I have to say this thread site and the comment thread here has been a delight! I have been searching my family history for years and now thanks to technology i have found connections to my celtic roots. I am interested in learning gaelic but if i learn Irish gaelic would it make it difficult to understand Scottish gaelic?
Thank you for the compliment! I would say that if you are a native English speaker with no previous experience of learning any of the Gaelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, or Manx), then it would initially make it more difficult, because Irish & Scottish Gaelic are similar enough to trip you up when you’re just starting out. But once you have one of the languages more firmly fixed in your head, then it would make it a bit easier to learn another one, in my opinion. Does that make sense? In other words, if Scottish Gaelic is at the top of your language wish list, then start with that. I have another blog post, Learning Scottish Gaelic, that gives lots of ideas for potential starting points. Feel free to post a question there if you don’t see what you’re looking for!
One thing borrowed into English from the Celtic languages of Cornish and Welsh is the meaningless do. These are the only three languages in the world that have it.
At the time of Canadian Confederation (1867), there was no single or common language – initially there was English, French and Gaelic (in 1850, about 10% of the population spoke Gaelic) and a multitude of aboriginal languages, among at least 629 “First Nations”.
In 1850 Gaelic was the third most commonly spoken European language in British North America (now Canada), spoken by as many as 200,000 British North Americans of both Scottish and Irish origin. At that time, Gaelic was probably spoken by one out of every ten inhabitants of British North America (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Gaelic).
Yep. Here is my friend Jonathan Dembling’s paper with his research findings used in that Wikipedia article: https://www.academia.edu/11339666/Gaelic_in_Canada_New_Evidence_from_an_Old_Census
Here is a document that I recently wrote for the Leod Voice, the semi-annual publication of thre Clan MacLeod Societies of Canada.
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GAELIC IN CANADA
At the time of Canadian Confederation (1867), there was no single or common language – initially there was English, French and Gaelic (in 1850, about 10% of the population spoke Gaelic) and a multitude of aboriginal languages, among at least 629 “First Nations”.
In 1850 Gaelic was the third most commonly spoken European language in British North America (now Canada), spoken by as many as 200,000 British North Americans of both Scottish and Irish origin. At that time, Gaelic was probably spoken by one out of every ten inhabitants of British North America (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Gaelic).
The family of my father, Rev. Alastair “Adder” MacLeod (1915-2000), was from St Ann’s, Cape Breton, but he grew up in Sydney (Whitney Pier). His first language at home was Gaelic. I have his Mother’s, well worn, Gaelic Bible – which I cannot read.
His maternal grandfather, John A. (“Little John”) Morrison (1833-1921), had been elected from Victoria County to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly in 1878, as a Conservative. He served only one term. Late in 1879, during a debate as to whether French should be taught in the Nova Scotia schools, a proposal that he did not oppose, he suggested that it was equally appropriate to teach Gaelic. He was not successful on that suggestion.
He made his speech entirely in Gaelic and he must have had to get a ruling from the Speaker to allow him to do so.
About a century later I have been told that that speech was used as a precedent by Sinn Fein, the Irish unionist party (they were first elected to the British Parliament in 1983, but due to their refusal to take the oath of allegiance, they did not take their seats until 1998 in the British Parliament) when they tried to speak Gaelic in either the British or Irish Parliaments. They lost too (I have been unable to locate the actual Hansard record of that speech or ruling).
Here is the English translation of my great grandfather’s 1879 speech, from the book “The History of the Morison or Morrison Family” by Leonard A. Morrison, published in 1880. (see: http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com /users/j/o/h/Russell-W-Johnson/index.html)
► “Mr. Speaker, and honourable gentlemen.
I have been noticing that great initiatives have been set up, and great assent has been given them by some honourable Canadians here, and in other places, to establish the preservation of the French language in this corner of the Dominion, by more pay being given to schoolteachers who teach the French children, the French language.
But I am of the opinion that the venerable Gaelic is as precious and as useful to be taught as any other language; truly, Gaelic is the oldest language, and the best language that is in the world today.
The speakers of English believe that that language is more entitled to respect than Gaelic; but they are foolish, and I am sure that there won’t be found today one person who speaks English correctly, except the man who has Gaelic.
Gaelic was the first language on earth, and when that language isn’t around, there won’t be need of any.
Therefore, if provision is made for the French language, certainly provision must be made for the Gaelic.
The great scholars in the old country tell us that Gaelic is the king of all languages, that it is rich, perfected, artistic, melodious, and expressive, and very good for worship, and every other good thing.
Gaelic is the language that Adam spoke, in the garden, it’s the language of the bards, and the historians, and it must be kept up.
There’s nothing in the French language but poor sputtering; and part of English isn’t much better.
Therefore, I say: Up with the Gaelic in School, and out of school; and if a shilling is obtained to keep up the confused awkward language of the French, let there be ten shillings for the great, honourable Gaelic. Do you hear?”◄
The hyperbole is impressive!
In 1890 Senator Thomas Innis (Independent for BC, but raised in Cape Breton) introduced a bill into the Canadian Senate entitled “An Act to provide for the use of Gaelic in official proceedings.” He claimed that there were ten Scots senators and eight Irish ones who spoke Gaelic (out of the then total of about 85 Senators, or about 21%), and thirty-two members of the House of Commons (out of 263, or about 12%) who spoke either Gaelic or Erse (the Irish variety of Gaelic). He too failed to get Gaelic more formally recognized.
As an aside, another look at the use of Gaelic is set out in the 2007 novel, A Stone on Their Cairn (2007) by Kevin MacLeod. It is set in the communities in St Ann’s between 1897 and 1914. Each chapter contains a mixture of Gaelic and English. It is a very readable history of the time and place, and the Scottish culture there.
Many of you may remember Kevin MacLeod from the 2008 North American Gathering in Ottawa, where he spoke on, and did book signings of that book. In 1992, Queen Elizabeth II invested him as a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (C.V.O.) for personal service to the Sovereign. He was appointed Usher of the Black Rod, Senate of Canada, on March 27, 2008. The Usher of the Black Rod carries out a 600 year old Parliamentary tradition as the personal attendant and messenger of the Sovereign or her representative.
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Stumbling onto this too like others. I’ve always had an interest in the dialects and history of. Most notably in American culture, being born and raised here in California. I really would love to learn the mother tongues of my fathers but I’m afraidwithout another it would only be nonsense in standing and nonsense to people around me