Читать книгу Reading the Gaelic Landscape онлайн

10 страница из 56

Visitors to Scotland are sometimes confused about the identity of the two languages unique to the country, Scots and Gaelic. Neither appears to be the Scottish language. Scots has its origins in Northumberland English, one of the three dialects of Old English. Whilst Irish is the language of Ireland, Scottish Gaelic, to which it is closely related and whence it sprang, is not the language of Scotland. Such confusion has not always existed. Writing from Jarrow Abbey, Bede the 8th century Northumbrian monk cites Gaelic as the language of the Scots. Fordun, the Scottish historian writing at the end of the 14th century, saw Gaelic as the Scottish language. Even at the beginning of the 16th century, John Major, another Scottish chronicler, records that most Scots, until recently, spoke Irish. By which he meant Scottish Gaelic.

Figure 1: Gaelic-speaking Parishes in 1806

The speech previously confined to the Lowlands of Scotland now became known as Scots. The use of the word ‘Irish’ by Major is significant, as it shows that a Lowland writer perceived Gaelic as a foreign language. By doing this, he removed it from mainstream Scottish identity. Lowland values and lifestyle were now central. Calling Gaelic Irish also distanced the Highlands from the Reformation and allowed an anti-Catholic focus to be directed at some Highlanders. In the mid-18th century, Dr Johnson referred to Gaelic as Erse, meaning Irish.