Classical Gaelic

Classical Gaelic (Gaoidhealg) was a shared literary form of Early Modern Irish that was in use in Scotland and Ireland from the 13th century to the 18th century.[1]

Classical Gaelic
Gaoidhealg
Native to	Scotland, Ireland
Era	13th to 18th century
Language family	Indo-European Celtic Insular Celtic Goidelic Classical Gaelic
Early forms	Primitive Irish Old Irish Middle Irish
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ghc
Glottolog	hibe1235

Although the first written signs of Scottish Gaelic having diverged from Irish appear as far back as the 12th century annotations of the Book of Deer, Scottish Gaelic did not have a standardised form and did not appear in print on a significant scale until the 1767 translation of the New Testament into Scottish Gaelic[2] although John Carswell's Foirm na n-Urrnuidheadh, an adaptation of John Knox's Book of Common Order, was the first book printed in either Scottish or Irish Gaelic.[3]

Encoding

ISO 639-3 gives the name "Hiberno-Scottish Gaelic" (and the code ghc) to cover both Classical Gaelic and Early Modern Irish.

Notes

1. Ó Maolalaigh, Scottish Gaelic in Twelve Weeks
2. Thomson (ed.), The Companion to Gaelic Scotland
3. Meek, "Scots-Gaelic Scribes", pp. 263-4; Wormald, Court, Kirk and Community, p. 63.

References

• Meek, Donald E., "The Scots-Gaelic Scribes of Late Medieval Perthshire: An Overview of the Orthography and Contents of the Book of the Dean of Lismore", in Janet Hadley Williams (ed.), Stewart Style, 1513-1542: Essays on the Court of James V (East Linton, 1996), pp. 254–72
• Ó Maolalaigh, R. Scottish Gaelic in Twelve Weeks (2008) Birlinn ISBN 978-1-84158-643-4
• Thomson, D. (ed.) The Companion to Gaelic Scotland (1994) Gairm ISBN 1-871901-31-6
• Wormald, Jenny, Court, Kirk and Community: Scotland, 1470-1625 (Edinburgh, 1981), ISBN 0-7486-0276-3