A Hundred Thousand Welcomes!

THE GAELIC LANGUAGE
So you want to learn Gaelic? Great! Welcome to the Gaelic language, the language of the Scottish Gaels in the north-west of Scotland. Gaelic belongs to the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It is closely related to Irish spoken in Ireland and extinct Manx (although it is now being revived) on the Isle of Man. Its distant relatives are Welsh (spoken in Wales and even in Patagonia, Argentina!!), extinct Cornish (also is being revived in Cornwall, England), and Breton spoken in north-west of France.

The language was spoken in many parts of Scotland from the 9th to the 11th centuries. It was brought to the country from Ireland by Irish settlers. Although, over several years, with no contact from the remaining Irish people in the original homeland, the diversity occurred, making the language spoken in Scotland more and more unintelligible to that of Ireland.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, many Gaelic-speakers were removed from their homeland in the Highlands and Islands by landlords. They were forced to emigrate to faraway lands in Canada, America, Australia and New Zealand.

Gaelic is now still spoken by around 70,000 people, especially in the Gaidhealtachd (or better known as the Highlands and Islands and its literal meaning is "Gaelic-speaking area", because it is where the majority of Gaelic-speakers live. It is also spoken by some descendants in Nova Scotia, Canada, since many of the Scottish Gaelic-speaking immigrants came to settle in Nova Scotia and in some other parts as well during the Highland Clearance in the 18th Century.

LEARNING GAELIC
Despite the fact that Gaelic may be extinct in decades' time due to the lack of its official status in the United Kingdom and its low number of speakers, there are many reasons for learning the language. You may want to learn it out of a general interest in languages. You may want to learn it because of your family background: for example, you being born overseas but have roots in Scotland or your parents or grandparents speak the language and you want to learn your ancestral language. Perhaps you already speak a Celtic language and want to learn another. Whatever your reason, I hope you will enjoy my brand new course that is very easy to use and fast to learn! Enjoy!