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> Irish and Scottish are very similar, but they are not mutually intelligible

Not true.

They are mutually intelligible to a high degree. Native speakers, speaking slowly and clearly can understand most of what each other are saying.

I speak some Irish and have personal experience of this.

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Yeah, to a degree, my dad speaks Irish and he says the same. But it's not quite enough to be considered the same language. It's comparable to Norwegian and Swedish, or Portuguese and Spanish.

Irish speaker here who has attempted to learn some Scottish Gaelic, and currently lives in Denmark, I think the Norwegian-Swedish comparison is probably apt. Although I think Irish/Scottish Gaelic are possibly even more divergent than that.

Side note: as an Irish speaker, reading Manx Gaelic, with its Welsh/English derived spelling system feels like what I imagine having a stroke feels like.

> Side note: as an Irish speaker, reading Manx Gaelic, with its Welsh/English derived spelling system feels like what I imagine having a stroke feels like.

Ha! That's a great description for how completely unsettling reading Manx is.

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