GAELIC

"Celtic" is a branch of the Indo-European language family. The Celtic languages are traditionally grouped into two main branches, Goidelic ("Q-Celtic") and Brythonic ("P-Celtic"), because of a phonetic divergence that is thought to have developed in very ancient times. The living languages in the Goidelic branch of Celtic are Scottish Gaelic, Irish and Manx.

Scottish Gaelic is the oldest surviving language in Scotland, and the only Celtic language to survive to the present day in Scotland. Although we know that there were Gaelic speakers in Scotland by the time of the Roman invasion, we cannot say with certainty how long before that time Gaelic had been spoken in Scotland: probably for many, many centuries.

Language has always had a strong correlation with culture and identity. On the one hand, language is imbued with the values, perceptions, beliefs and culture of the society which uses it. On the other hand, language has a strong social role in forming group identity, by excluding those who don't speak it or even marking off people's origins by their dialect.

From our earliest evidence, peoples in the British Isles were identified and distinguished from one another by their language. Bede, writing in early 8th century, listed the peoples of Britain by their languages. Our first view of a Highland-Lowland split in Scotland comes from c. 1380, when John of Fordun wrote that the cultural divide was along linguistic lines:

The manners and customs of the Scots vary with the diversity of their speech. For two languages are spoken amongst them, the Scottish and the Teutonic; the latter of which is the language of those who occupy the seaboard and plains, while the race of Scottish speech inhabits the Highlands and outlying islands. The people of the coast are of domestic and civilized habits ... The Highlanders and people of the islands, on the other hand, are a savage and untamed race, rude and independent, given to rapine, ease-loving ... hostile to the English people and language ... and exceedingly cruel.

Language is the key to understanding culture. The cultural and linguistic shifts which occurred in Scotland history are reflected in words for the forms of English spoken in Scotland. Before 1400, the term Scottish referred specifically to Gaelic, while the term Inglis referred to the form of English spoken in the Lowlands of Scotland. By 1500, the people of the Lowlands, who dominated national institutions, appropriated the term Scot for themselves and called the Highlanders Erse - a form of the word 'Irish' - on account of their common Gaelic culture.

John Mair, writing in 1521, confirms that the people of the Lowlands were aware that Gaelic (which he calls "Irish") was once widespread throughout Scotland and that language and culture were tightly bound to one another. He also mentions the animosity that the Highlanders bore to the Lowlanders, speaking their alien language:

Just as among the Scots we find two distinct tongues, so we likewise find two different ways of life and conduct ... [the Lowlanders] these men [the Highlanders] hate, on account of their differing speech, as much as they do the English ... at present day almost the half of Scotland speaks the Irish tongue, and not so long ago it was spoken by the majority of us ...

We can see in the writing of George Buchanan (1506-82), who was himself a Gaelic-speaker, that Celtic languages were still strong during his lifetime in the west of Britain, including southern Scotland, and that language - not "race" - was a key factor in ethnicity:

A great part of [Galloway] still uses its ancient language. These three nations [Wales, Cornwall, Scotland], which posses, the whole coast of Britain that looks toward Ireland, preserve the indelible marks of Gallic speech and affinity. But it is worthy of particular notice, that the ancient Scots divided all the nations who inhabited Britain, into two classes, the one they called Gael, the other [Gall].

Edmund Burt, writing in the 1720s, tells us that the people of Inverness not did consider themselves to be Highlanders, not because of the geographical position of the town, but because they did not speak Gaelic:

It is not only the Head borough or County-Town of the Shire of Inverness, which is of large Extent, but generally esteemed to be the Capital of the Highlands; but the Natives do not call themselves Highlanders, not so much on Account of their low [geographical] Situation, as because they speak English.

Well into the twentieth century, the term Highlander was understood to be not just someone who originated in the geographical Highlands, but someone who was a Gaelic speaker.

What constitutes a Highlander? ... I say those who are born in the Highlands and speak the language of the Highlanders are genuine Highlanders, and none others. To test this position, I venture to assert that the present Lochiel, by descent and birth the chief of a Highland clan, is not a Highlander; he is simply an English gentleman. He can enter into all the ideas, thoughts, tastes and emotions of Englishmen; but he is entirely cut off from any such intimate relationship with Highlanders so long as he is unacquainted with the language in which their thoughts are conveyed. I do not say this by way of blame to Lochiel, it is perhaps more his misfortune than his fault; indeed I believe he sees it as a misfortune to him, and has the manliness to acknowledge it.

REFERENCES

A Handbook of the Scottish Gaelic World, pp. 33-9, 56-8, 226-242.

We're Indians Sure Enough, pp. 27-9, 243-252.