As to the southern limits of Gaelic speech in Scotland, the boundary between Gaelic and English in medieval times was the so-called Highland line, and at the War of Independence it is probable that it extended to Stirling, Perth and the Ochil and Sidlaw Hills, the Inglis being limited to a very narrow strip along the coast. Dr J.A.H. Murray traced the linguistic frontier in 1869-1870 with the following results. The line started about 3 m. west of the town of Nairn on the Moray Firth and ran in a south-east direction to the Dee, 4 m. above Ballater. On the other side of the Dee it began 4 m. above Balmoral and followed the boundary of Perth and Forfar as far as Glen Shee, where it went off to the south-west as far as Dunkeld. After passing Birnam Hill it turned due west until the upper part of Glen Almond was reached, where it bent to the southward, passing through Comrie and along the braes of Doune to the Teith, 3 or 4 m. below Callander. Thence it ran along the north shore of Lake Monteith to Gartmore, and from there to Rowardennan on the east side of Loch Lomond. On the west side it passed through Glen Douglas down Loch Long and the Firth of Clyde, leaving Bute and Arran to the west. At the present day this boundary has probably receded to the extent of several miles, and even in 1870 there were districts such as Bute and the region round Dunoon where Gaelic was only spoken by the oldest natives and the immigrant population. The language is not found in the north-east of Caithness, the boundary running, according to Murray, roughly from a little north-east of Lybster to the mouth of the Forss. Celtic was driven out of Shetland and Orkney by Scandinavian some time during the middle ages. (See further J.A.H. Murray, The Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland, London, 1875; Revue celtique, vol. ii. pp. 180-187.)

Until the 18th century Gaelic was spoken in Galloway and on the uplands of Ayr and Lanark. The following figures from the census returns illustrate the decrease in the number of persons who speak Gaelic:—

Monolinguists.Bilinguists.
1881No return231,594 (this includes Gaelic monolinguists)
189143,738210,677
190128,106202,700

In the last-mentioned year it appears that nearly one-half of the speakers of Gaelic are reported from the counties of Inverness and Ross (23,893 monolinguists and 82,573 bilinguists). From about 1300 we find Scottish emigrants filtering into the glens of Antrim, where the Gaelic that is spoken is still unmistakably Scottish. There have long been local societies of Highlanders for the cultivation of their native tongue, the most important one being An Comunn Gàidhealach (founded 1891). This society holds an annual gathering called the Mòd (= Eng. “moot”) on the lines of the Welsh Eisteddfod, and recently the Scottish Education Department has countenanced the teaching of Gaelic in Highland schools. But the political element plays little or no part in the language movement in Scotland, and the latter is not likely to assume the proportions of the Gaelic League in Ireland. As a rule, however, Highlanders are better able to read their own language than Irish Gaels, for, the majority being Protestants, they are encouraged to read their Bibles. There are only two periodicals which devote half their space to Gaelic. The one is An Deo-Greine (“the sunbeam”), founded October 1905; and the other is the Catholic propagandist quarterly Guth na Bliadhna (“the voice of the year”), started in 1904. Up to 1905 a fortnightly newspaper printed wholly in Gaelic appeared in Prince Edward Island, under the title of An Mac-talla (“the echo”), and efforts have been made to revive it. A weekly newspaper wholly in Gaelic was started in 1908 by R. Stuart Erskine under the title of Alba.

Authorities on Scottish Gaelic.—The first grammar of Scottish Gaelic was compiled by W. Shaw (An Analysis of the Galic Language, 1778). The most useful one was that published by Alexander Stewart, Elements of Gaelic Grammar (Edinburgh, 1801). A revised edition of this work with many additions and corrections was published by H.C. Gillies, London, 1902. This book is rather spoilt by the author’s attitude, and requires to be supplemented and corrected. G. Henderson and C.W. Robertson have published important papers on the modern dialects in the Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, the Celtic Review and the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness. The most useful work on Gaelic philology is Alexander Macbain’s Etymological Gaelic Dictionary (Inverness, 1896) (a later edition by W.J. Watson). The chief dictionaries are Dictionarium Scoto-Celticum, published by the Highland Society of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1828); R.A. Armstrong, Gaelic Dictionary in two parts (London, 1825); N. McAlpine, Pronouncing Gaelic Dictionary (Edinburgh, 1847) (this book gives the pronunciation of Islay); Macleod and Dewar, Gaelic and English Dictionary (latest edition, Edinburgh, 1901); Faclair Gàidhlig, published by E. Macdonald, Herne Bay, appearing in parts since 1902.

(c) Manx.—Our sources of information with regard to the language of the Isle of Man are even more scanty in the early period than they are in the case of Scotland. There are a number of references to the island in Irish literature, but the earliest monument of the vernacular we possess is the version of the Book of Common Prayer made by Bishop Phillips in 1610. In this translation the traditional Irish orthography is not followed. The spelling resembles the orthography which was employed in Scotland by the compiler of the Book of the Dean of Lismore. How far this system was used is a question which it is difficult to decide. In Scotland the Irish orthography has prevailed in a slightly modified form, but Manx writers adhered to a mode of spelling which was as phonetic as any system based on English, or, probably more correctly Anglo-Scottish, orthography could be. This fact, combined with the rapid phonetic decay of the language, makes it extremely difficult to discover what sound-values are to be attached to the various symbols. At the beginning of the 18th century English was not understood by two-thirds of the natives, and in 1764 the S.P.C.K. issued a paper containing this statement: “The population of the Isle is 20,000, of whom the far greater number are ignorant of English.” But from this time English gradually crept in. The last edition of the Manx Bible was issued in 1819, and of the New Testament in 1840. The present writer’s great-grandmother refused to speak English, his grandfather (b. 1815) preached in Manx and English, and his father (b. 1844) only spoke English. The following figures illustrate the rapid decline of the language:—

Monolinguists.Bilinguists.
187519012,340 (out of a population of 41,084 exclusive of Douglas)
1901None 4,419

Manx stands in a much closer relation to Scottish Gaelic than Irish, and fishermen state that they could understand a good deal of what is said in South Argyll, though they are quite at a loss at Kinsale. Manx exhibits the same tendency as Scottish to use analytical and periphrastic forms in the verb, thus jannoo, “to do,” is used like Scottish deanamh with an infinitive to express the past and future. The present has acquired a momentary (future) signification, and the past participle ends in -it (Scottish -te). The negative is cha as in Scotland and Ulster. Manx goes as far as northern Scottish in dropping unstressed final vowels, e.g. chiarn, “lord,” Irish, tighearna; -yn is the favourite plural ending in substantives. The nasal mutation has been partly given up. Old Irish stressed ĕ is frequently retained, e.g. fĕr, “man,” Irish făr (spelt fear), and the vowels ŏ and ă are confused as in Scottish, e.g. Manx cass, “foot,” Scottish cas, Irish cos. Manx is divided in itself about the treatment of short accented vowels before ll, nn, m. According to Rhys the south side lengthens, whilst the north side diphthongizes; e.g. Irish crann, “tree,” clann, “offspring,” S. Manx krōn, klōn, N. Manx, kroun, kloun (written croan, cloan). In the matter of stress Manx is quite original, going farther even than the dialects of the south of Ireland. Not only does it shift the stress in the case of heavy derivative suffixes like -ān and reduce the preceding vowel, e.g. Ir. fuarān, Sc. fuaran, Manx frān, “spring,” but even in cases like caghláa, “variety,” Sc. Ir. caochladh, O. Ir. coimmchloud; coráa, “voice,” Ir. comhradh. The Mid. English stress on the final is further retained in words from the French such as ashóon, “nation,” livréy, “deliver.”

As other features peculiar to Manx we may mention the following. An intervocalic s or sh shows a tendency to become lisped and voiced to d. In monosyllables post-vocalic final m, n, are often preceded by an intrusive b, d respectively, thus ben “woman,” may be heard as bedn. Ir. a becomes more palatal and is often æ. Ir. sc becomes st, sht, e.g. Ir. fescor, “evening,” Manx fastyr; Ir. uisce, “water,” Manx ushtey.

Authorities on Manx.—The place and personal names of the Isle of Man have been collected by A.W. Moore in Manx Names² (London, 1903) (33% of the proper names are Scandinavian). The chief source of information about the spoken language is J. Rhys, The Outlines of the Phonology of Manx Gaelic (London, 1895) (the book has unfortunately no index and no texts). The only serious attempt to represent spoken Manx graphically is the transcription of a song by J. Strachan in the Zeitschr. für celtische Philologie, vol. i. p. 54. The native grammarian is J. Kelly, who in 1803 published A Practical Grammar of the Ancient Gaelic or Language of the Isle of Man, usually called Manks. This book was republished by W. Gill for the Manx Society in 1859, and a facsimile reprint of this latter was made for Quaritch, London, 1870. A useful little book entitled, First Lessons in Manx was published by Edwin Goodwin (Dublin, 1901). There are two dictionaries, one by A. Cregeen, Douglas 1835, which is now being reprinted for An Cheshaght Gailckagh, a Douglas society which is endeavouring to encourage the use of Manx and to get it introduced into the schools. The other dictionary is by J. Kelly in two parts—(i) Manx and English, (2) English and Manx, published by the Manx Society in 1866. Kelly also prepared a Triglot of Manx, Irish and Gaelic, based upon English, which has never been published. A useful paper on the language appeared in the Transactions of the London Philological Society for 1875 by H. Jenner, “The Manx Language: Its Grammar, Literature and Present State.”