Re: Gaelic in Scotland

I heard 2 Scottish people say that Gaelic was the original language of
Scotland. I know that the situation was more complex than that. Was
there ever a time when Gaelic was the main language of all Scottish
people?

No. It was the majority language for a few centuries, though.


My understanding is that in the south west, where some of my
ancestors came from, they spoke a language more similar to Welsh
until English replaced it. Similarly, Anglian in the south east.

Anglian arrived a bit before Gaelic. The south-east was Welsh-
speaking before that.


It depends what you mean by "original" and by "all Scottish people."

Before the Celtic-speakers arrived, there were inhabitants speaking
Pictish, which is not related to the Celtic languages and probably was
not Indo-European.

Most folks in the biz now think Pictish was Celtic. There is more
placename evidence than had been noticed a few decades ago. (A book
published a few years ago tried to relate it to Saami, which may be
geographically plausible but doesn't have much else going for it).

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