GAEL
(gayl)
A
Gaelic-speaking Celt of Scotland, Ireland, or the Isle of
Man. Common
clues: Highlander; Scottish Highlander; Celt; Isle of Man man;
Certain Scot; Scotsman; Celtic speaker; Dumbarton denizen; Rob
Roy, for one Crossword
puzzle frequency:
3 times a year News: Make
Gaelic official UK language, says MP
Cha
dèan ‘Tapadh leis an fhìdhlear’ am
fìdhlear a phàigheadh. A
‘thank you’ doesn’t pay the fiddler. ~
Gaelic
proverb
The
Gaels or Goidels are speakers of one of the Goidelic Celtic
languages: Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Goidelic speech
originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to western and
northern Scotland and the Isle of Man.
The
Goidelic languages are one of the two branches of the Insular
Celtic languages, the other being Brythonic.
The
modern English term Gael derives ultimately from the Old Irish
(Ancient Gaelic) word Goídel, which was spelled in various
ways by Gaelic writers at different times. The modern Gaelic
spellings are Gael (Irish) and Gàidheal (Scottish Gaelic).
Early
Greek and Roman authors called the Irish Ιουερνοι
and Iverni, respectively, both derived from the Proto-Irish
ethnic name *Iwerni ("people of *Iweriū"). Later
Greek and Latin variants of this name included Ίερνοι,
Hierni, and Hiberni.
Scoti
or Scotti was another generic Latin name for the Irish that came
into use by the 4th century AD. It is not believed that any
Gaelic groups called themselves Scot(t)i in ancient times, except
when referring to themselves in Latin. It is also conjectured
that the Latin term may mean "raider/pirate" as it is
widely accepted that raiders from Ireland were attacking
Britain's west coast during and following the Roman occupation.
Goidel
is thought to have been borrowed sometime during the 7th century
AD from Primitive Welsh Guoidel, "Irishman", (which is
attested as a male personal name in the Book of Llandaff) and may
ultimately be derived from an Proto-Indo-European *weidh-(e)l-o-,
perhaps meaning "forest people," partially cognate with
the Old Irish ethnic name Féni (from Proto-Indo-European
*weidh-n-jo-, "forest people," later becoming simply
"warriors" in Proto-Irish).
Since
the disappearance of Gaelic as a community language in the south
and east of Scotland in the late medieval period, and the
popularity of the terms 'highland Scot' and 'lowland Scot', the
term Gàidheal has been used in Gaelic language
conversation not merely to denote Gaelic identity but also as an
equivalent for the single English word 'highlander'.
Up
until the late 15th century, the Gaelic language in Scotland was
generally named Scottish, both in its Latin form and in Early
Scots. For example, the usage in The Flyting of Dumbar and
Kennedie at the start of the 16th century is Erse (= Irish) and
Inglis (= English). After this time, the Gaelic language
generally became called Erse (Irish) and the lowland tongue Scots
(= Scottish).
Documentary
evidence shows other subsequent alterations in general
terminology, such as the appearance of the Latin term "Scotos
Hibernicos" in 1521 and its English equivalent,
"Scottish-Irish," by the English diplomat Ralph Sadler
in 1558 to refer to Scottish Gaels.
In
earliest surviving writings in the Lowland Scots tongue (which
had hitherto been called Inglis), a form of the term Gaidheal
appears to discriminate between Gaels from the Scottish Highlands
and Gaels from Ireland. In 1596, it appears in James Dalrymple's
translation from Latin into Lowland Scots of the Historie and
Chronicles of Scotland, 1436–1565 as the main element
within the word Gaelic, referring to the language in Scotland,
rather than in Ireland.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Gaels".
|