Welsh publisher brings Tolkien classic in Celtic languages together
nation.cymru
nation.cymru
It's interesting that unmodified "Gaelic" apparently refers to Scots Gaelic in Wales. If you asked me about "Gaelic", I'd assume you meant Irish Gaelic.
Unless you know better, or of some reform, in which case I defer!
I'm from the United States.
(While we're here, we might also note that the term "Erse", referring to Scots Gaelic, is in fact the word "Irish".)
Could it have been some lost continental Germanic/Celtic tribe? Seems less likely on balance. Maybe a big discovery still to come that will clear it up. A tomb somewhere under a housing estate in Glasgow or something.
Online people can get a bit snippy about calling it the wrong thing, even though they don't necessarily have a great grasp of the language itself. There's a lot of post-colonial baggage with regard to people's relationship with the language (IMO)
In Ireland, the term Gaelic typically refers to the general Irish identity and culture. Almost always, when people use the term Gaelic in everyday speech they're referring to Gaelic Games, which are the indigenous sports of Ireland. Gaelic Football, Hurling, Handball, and rounders. The GAA ( Gaelic Athletic Association ) that governs the games are in every village, town, and city, and the sports are probably the strongest expression of Gaelic culture in the country.
Some highlights of the 2 most popular games.
Gaelic Football https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT5Zjx4fTXI
These languages, sadly largely killed off in the name of I don't know what, are as the final Tolkien quote in the comment says: the senior languages of Britain.
Fun fact; Cumbria is named in the same way as Cymru, as Welsh was once spoken there too.
I've never seen a video where Welsh/Breton/Cornish speakers have tried to have conversation, but have seen a few Irish/[Scottish] Gaelic conversations.
And at one point way back they all would have been intelligible. Shame it didn't follow the Scandinavian evolution, or they may have had an easier way back from having a "prestige language" take over.
Wasn't that how all Britons referred to themselves throughout what is now England back in the day?
Of course its speculation from my side but it wouldn't be surprising if it was related to the Romans effectively "demilitarizing" the local society to reduce the likelihood of rebellions and general civil unrest.
That might have worked fine enough as long you had a professional army guarding the borders but when that army was gone everyone was effectively left defenceless.
Something like that seemed to have happening in Spain and Gaul as well. Except unlike in Britain the local populations managed to somewhat assimilate their Germanic overlords.