Gaels: Encyclopedia II - Gaels - Historical expansion

Gaels - Historical expansion

It is not known with any certainty when speakers of a Goidelic (or q-Celtic) language reached Ireland, or how they came to be the dominant culture, or if q-celtic didn't develop entirely in Ireland from a previous dialect. Some believe Goidelic replaced some pre-existing Brythonic (or p-Celtic) language(s), but it is not known whether this represents one population displacing others, an invader becoming a new ruling caste, or simply the spread of a new lingua franca. Before and during the age of the Roman Empire there was a great deal of movement, interaction and competition among the peoples referred to collectively as the Celts; Iron Age Europe can perhaps be best understood as a cultural foment.

Estimates of the arrival of proto-Gaelic in Ireland vary widely from the introduction of agriculture circa 4000 BC to around the first few centuries BC. Little can be said with certainty, as the language now known as Old Irish, ancestral to modern Irish, Scots Gaelic and Manx, only began to be properly recorded with the Christianization of Ireland in about the 5th Century AD. (It is believed that pre-Christian Celtic culture disparaged written language.) However Old Irish - or more correctly, its precursor Primitive Irish - does appear in a specialized written form, using a unique script known as Ogham. This is known to us now almost only in the form of messages on pillar-like stone monuments. Ogham stones are found both throughout Ireland and where Gaelic invaders settled across post-Roman Britain. They frequently encode nothing more than a name, and it is thought they may represent territorial claims.

Starting sometime around the 5th century Gaelic language and culture spread from Ireland to the southwest coast of Scotland where it may have already existed since Roman times. Uncertainty over this comes as a result of the fact that there is no archaeological evidence to support the generally accepted tale of migration while there is some to suggest that there was none - the evidence also points to the population of the area (modern day Argyll) being constant during the time of the alleged Scottish invasion. This area was known as Dal Riada. The Gaels soon spread out to most of the rest of the country. Culturo-linguistic dominance in the area eventually led to the Latin name for Gaelic speaking peoples, "Scotti", being applied to the state founded by the Gaels, Scotland (Alba in Gaelic). Since that time Gaelic language rose and, in the past three centuries, greatly diminished, in most of Ireland and Scotland. The most culturally and linguistically Gaelic regions are in the north west of Scotland, the west of Ireland and Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia where the descendants of the Highland Clearances were transplanted.

The Isle of Man (Manx Gaelic Ellan Vannin, "Mannin's Isle", from the pre-Christian deity known as Manannan Mac Lír) also came under Gaelic influence in its history. The last native speaker of Manx died in the 1970s, but there is now a resurgent language movement and Manx is once again taught in some schools. A large part of the island's cultural heritage is Gaelic.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Historical expansion", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki