Differences between Scottish Gaelic and Irish

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Scottish Gaelic is similar to Irish, although most dialects are not mutually comprehensible.

Islay and Argyll Gaelic are also fairly similar to Irish. The extinct dialects of north east Ulster, particularly Rathlin Island, were also close to Scottish Gaelic. In Scotland, dialects also existed in southern Kintyre and Galloway which were probably similar to Irish, sliabh is fairly common as an element in Galloway placenames, but quite rare in the Highlands. The dialects of all these regions, are also in turn, the most similar to Manx. While the dialects of northern Scotland, and southern Ireland tend to differ the most from one another in terms of vocabulary, they do share some features which are absent in other dialect areas lying between them. For example, in both Munster Irish and the Gaelic of the north of Scotland, historically short vowels have been diphthongised or lengthened before long sonants. An example of this is the word clann meaning children. In both Munster and northern Scottish Gaelic it is pronounced /klaun/ whereas in Ulster it is /klan/ and in Connacht /klɑ:n/. Similarly, im meaning butter is pronounced /i:m'/ in both Munster and northern Scotland but /im'/ in Ulster. In the substantive verb tá of Standard Irish, northern Scotland and west Munster agree in leniting the initial t, thus one hears thá in West Kerry and Waterford in East Munster and tha in northern Scotland.

The closest to Scottish Gaelic in Irish is the dialect currently spoken in Donegal, as illustrated by the sentence "How are you?".

Scottish Gaelic — Ciamar a tha sibh? (formal form) or Ciamar a tha thu? (informal form)

Ulster Irish — Caidé mar a tá tú?, also spelt Cad é mar atá tú?

Munster Irish - Conas taoi?, Conas tánn tú?, Conas tá tú?

Connacht Irish - Cé chaoi a bhfuil tú?

In Lewis dialect however, Dè mar a tha thu? is commonly used. All these forms share the structure of the Doric dialect of Scots, Fit like? or literally, What like are you?, a commonly heard expression amongst many in older generations when translating directly from Gaelic.

However, there are some important differences. The most obvious orthographical difference is that the accent, or fada, is written as a grave accent in Scottish Gaelic, as opposed to the acute accent of Irish; hence the word for "welcome" is written as fàilte in Scottish Gaelic and in Irish as fáilte. The suffix "sa" added to the end of a prepositional pronoun for emphasis, is hyphenated in Scottish Gaelic, whereas in Irish it is added to the word, as illustrated by the sentence "I've got money":

Scottish Gaelic — Tha airgead agam-sa.

Standard Irish — Tá airgead agamsa.

Also, the negative participle in Scottish Gaelic is cha (chan eil = is not) whereas in standard Irish it is ní (níl = is not, a contraction of ní fhuil), as illustrated by the sentence "I have no money" (cha and chan fhuil are still legitimate Irish forms in Ulster, though):

Scottish Gaelic — Chan eil airgead agam.

Standard Irish — Níl airgead agam.

It should be noted that Scottish Gaelic speakers may also use the Irish phrase, or at least sound as if they were, as Chan eil can frequently be shortened to 'n eil or simply nil. Some words have "a" in Irish but "u" in Scottish Gaelic, for instance the word for the English language Béarla in Irish and Beurla in Scottish Gaelic. This is due to a spelling reform and standardisation which took place in Ireland under the auspices of the Irish government during the 20th century.

The most obvious grammatical difference between Scottish Gaelic and Irish is that in the former only remnants remain of eclipsis, meaning that Irish has two major mutations to Scottish Gaelic's one. In general, one could say that the grammar of Scottish Gaelic is slightly simpler than that of Irish, while its phonology is more complex, something that also has an impact on spelling.

[edit] Orthographic differences

There are a number of distinctive written differences. Both languages have been reformed in recent decades, which has led to further divergence.

Irish has no grave accent, only acute accents, while until recently Scottish Gaelic had both grave and acute accents. The recent spelling reform has meant that there are now only grave accents in Scottish Gaelic, the opposite of Irish.

Another couple of features, also changed recently, were that "d" and "u" were common in Scottish Gaelic, where "t" and "a" would be in Irish e.g. Comunn-cumann (now "Comann" in Scottish Gaelic).

A number of letter combinations are possible in written Irish which are not found in Scottish Gaelic e.g. "ae", "bhf". Irish uses "cht" where Scottish Gaelic uses "chd", although "chd" itself was once common in written Irish. In Irish one uses "sc" wherever Scottish Gaelic uses "sg". "Sg", too, was once commonly written in Irish.

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ENGLISH	IRISH	SCOTTISH GAELIC
Gael	Gael	Gaidheal
day	lá	latha
night	oíche	oidhche
inside	isteach	a-steach
school	scoil	sgoil
child	páiste/leanbh	pàiste/leanabh
without	gan	gun
authority	údarás	ùghdarras
office	oifig	oifis (also oifig)
star	réalt	reul
hotel	óstán	(taigh) òsda
house	teach/tigh	taigh
open	oscailte (foscailte in Donegal and occasionally in parts of Munster)	fosgailte
year	bliain	bliadhna
radio	raidió (also réidió in speech)	radio (rèidio)
government	rialtas	riaghaltas
parliament	parlaimint	pàrlamaid
island	oileán	eilean

Note that lenited consonants, which can be silent, glottal stops, or act to lengthen a vowel, are written in Scottish Gaelic but omitted in the corresponding Irish words when silent.

[edit] Differences in vocabulary

ENGLISH	IRISH	SCOTTISH GAELIC
in	i	ann
minister	aire (i.e. a government minister, ministir for a clergyman)	ministear
Germany	An Ghearmáin	A' Ghearmailt
America	Meiriceá	Ameirigea
London	Londain	Lunnain
road	bóthar	rathad*
cold (illness)	slaghdán	cnatan
talking	caint	bruidhinn (also cainnt)