Scots Gaelic
- noun
- /skɒts ˈɡeɪlɪk/
:
gaélico escocés
- Many people in Scotland are learning Scots Gaelic to preserve their cultural heritage.
Examples
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The school offers classes in Scots Gaelic to help students connect with their roots.
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Well, we know something about it in the sense that the descendent languages from this period in Britain do survive in the form of Welsh and Cornish and Breton, and, slightly more distantly, with Irish and Scots Gaelic.
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In Scotland, road signs are often bilingual, displaying both English and Scots Gaelic.
Synonyms
A Celtic language spoken in Scotland, mainly in the Highlands and islands, different from Irish Gaelic
A Celtic language spoken in Scotland similar to Irish and Manx
A Gaelic language spoken in Scotland and Ireland, especially Scottish Gaelic
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the Gaelic language spoken in Scotland' is directly and compositionally derivable from 'Scots' (relating to Scotland) + 'Gaelic' (a Celtic language). Although 'Scottish Gaelic' is a more common label, the constituent meanings make the referent immediately understandable to learners who know both words.
Etymology
Scots Gaelic gets its name from the parts Scots (people of Scotland) and Gaelic (the old Celtic tongue brought by people from Ireland long ago). Over time that Celtic speech changed in Scotland into its own form, so Scots Gaelic now means the 'language' or 'variety' spoken in Scotland.
