LL-L: "Celtic connections" LOWLANDS-L, 25.JUL.2000 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 25.JUL.2000 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Criostoir O Ciardha [paada_please at yahoo.co.uk]
Subject: LL-L: "Celtic connections" LOWLANDS-L, 24.JUL.2000 (06) [E/S]

Dear all,

Well, I really was attempting to hold back on the
Irish/Scots Gaelic issue, but I failed miserably, so
here I am.

The last areas where Ulster Irish was spoken on the
coast was in the area known as the Glens of Antrim,
which now largely forms the distict of Moyle within
the Six Counties. In addition there was a small pocket
on Rathlin Island, which may be the "small islands" of
which the informant was talking.

It is entirely correct to consider Ulster Irish as
transitional between western Hebridean Scots Gaelic
and north Connemara Irish, and even in recent times it
was difficult to note what would be considered 'Irish'
and 'Scots Gaelic'. It appears that the so-called
'Tha' line - i.e., the area in which 'tha' for the
verb participle was used (as in Scots Gaelic) in
contrast to 'ta' (as in Irish) - extended in Ireland
(and still extends) as far south as north Mayo, and
indeed I remember reading a truly horrific account of
a visit to a northern Mayo cottage during the Famine
in which the starving child kept repeating sadly "Tha
fein ucras." (I am hungry) whereas in Connacht and
Munster Irish this would be - and I mean no disrespect
to those who suffered - "Ta ocras orm." In Scots
Gaelic the same phrase would be "Tha ucras orm".

Irish never died out in the Six Counties at all. In
the 1991 census over 100,000 persons returned
themselves as Irish-speaking, with Belfast having some
24,000 speakers and Derry 9,000. The Shaw Road area of
Belfast is considered a 'neo-Gaeltacht' (new
Irish-speaking area) and it is supposedly a bilingual
area. When I visited Derry recently I found no
shortage of Irish speakers, and I was told that a
small street within the City walls - I can't remember
its name exactly - was bilingual.

Donegal Irish is particular noted for its closeness to
Scots Gaelic, although never having heard any in
person I can't vouch for how close. However, I would
assume that the Scots Gaelic closest to the Irish of
Moyle would have been Islay Gaelic, and perhaps some
of the other inner Hebrides' Gaelic, such as Coll and
Tiree. I haven't heard the Scots Gaelic of Na
hEileanan an Iar (the Western Isles) although I
understand that it shares a number of superficial
phonological features with Icelandic and Faroese
rather than the rest of the Scots Gaelic-speaking
dialect continua.

Rathlin Island seems to have been an area of a type of
hybrid Scots Gaelic/Irish, and I will check up on it
when I get the chance.

I hope that has been of some help.

Criostoir (Irish)/Crisdean (Scots Gaelic)

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