Re: Gaelic thing

On Tue, 9 Jul 2002 19:21:40 +0000, Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:

>On Monday, July 8, 2002, at 02:43 , Keith Gaughan wrote:
>
>> From: Abrigon Gusiq [mailto:abrigon@YAHOO.COM]
>>
>> Um, maybe it's just a local thing here, but Erse *is* Scot's Gaelic.
>> Irish, on the other hand, it Irish Gaelic.
>
>Quite right - and the term is not very polite either.
>
>'Erse' was originally a lowland Scots variant of the word 'Irish' and
>was applied derogatively to the Gaelic speaking Scots highlanders,
>implying that they were wild & uncouth like the Irish  (thus, of course,
>insulting both highlanders and Irish).
>
>One normally now speaks of (Scots) Gaelic.   Irish is and always has
>been Irish (Gaelic).
Then why has every book I've seen that mentioned the subject say that
"Erse" is a proper term, or _the_ proper term, for Irish Gaelic? There's
something extremely screwy going on. Another CIA conspiracy?

Jeff J.

>Ray.
>
>CENEDL   HEB     IAITH,         CENEDL   HEB    GALON
>A nation without a language [is]A nation without a heart.

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