The Scottish police force came under fire when they updated their website and made it possible for users to translate it to 70 other languages but they forgot to include Scottish Gaelic in their list. This angered the 60,000 Scottish Gaelic speakers in Scotland. Scott Weston was the one who drew the attention of the police to this matter on their Facebook page. Scott is a Curriculum for Excellence development officer at Education Scotland. Scotts comments on Facebook got the support of other other Facebook fans, who supported his post that expressed his disappointment. Other public figures in the country also commented on the issue, given the fact that the government had said that it was putting more effort in the promotion of Scottish Gaelic in the whole country.
Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language that is spoken in Scotland. It falls under the Goidelic branch of languages. Scottish Gaelic was derived from Middle Irish. Scottish Gaelic should not be confused with Scots, an Anglic language that was mainly spoken in the Lowlands of Scotland. Before the 15th century, this Anglic language was referred to as Inglis (English) and Gaelic was referred to as Scottish. After the 15th century, Scottish Gaelic was referred to as Irish so as to distinguish it from Scottish. Currently, Scottish Gaelic is viewed as a separate language from Irish. Scottish Gaelic is closely related to Irish and Manx. The language was introduced to Scotland in the 4th century AD by the Scots who came from Ireland. Between the 9th to the 11th centuries, the language was widely spoken throughout Scotland. However, its dominance began to decline during the 19th century. The influence of Scottish Gaelic can be seen up to now in the different place names, official buildings, mountains and road side signs, which are often bilingual.
Scottish Gaelic speakers can be found in Canada, British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia. Scottish Gaelic is sometimes simply referred to as Galeic. In Scotland, Galeic is pronounced as ‘Galic’, while outside Scotland,, it is pronounced as ‘Geilic’. There are different Scottish Gaelic dialects, which are mutually intelligible. Most speakers of the language can also understand Irish.
