Revue celtique - National Library of Scotland

.1 86 Présent Limits of îhe Celtic Langmge in ScotlanJ.
side of Loch Lomond, and across to Loch Katrine, is the only part i
which Gaelic is spoken, though there is now « probably not a person:
the parish who cannot understand and speak English. No Gaelic
spoken below the pass of Balmaquha. Between that and Rowardennai
Gaelic is used in some familles, and is in pretty common use aba
Rowardennan. But it has long ceased to be taught in school, and h;
not been used in church for half a century, with the exception of
annual sermon at Inversnaid, discontinued in 1868. » West of Loo
Lomond, (jaelic is extinct among the natives of Luss, but there is a ce:
stant influx of slate quarriers, servants, etc., who speak Gaelic, frc
Argyllshire. English alone has been used in church for fifty years, tl;
last Gaelic minister having been Dr. Stewart, one of the translators
the Gaelic Bible. Even he, in the latter part of his ministry, had a Gael
service only once a month. In Arroquhar, Gaelic is still in gênerai us
but receding. Divine service is regularly in Gaelic and English.
With regard to the identity of dialect between the Scottish Highlanr
and a part of Ulster (a point to which my attention was first called I?
H.I.H. Prince Lucien Bonaparte), I hâve been favoured with inform.
tion from the Rev. Classon Porter, of Larne, and Robt. Mac Adar
Esq., of Belfast, an eminent Celtic scholar, and well acquainted with t
dialectical divisions of the Irish. The district in question is « the Gle
of Antrim, » opposite to Kintyre, with the adjacent Isle of Rachrin (ai
glicized Rathlin) ; the area has been much circumscribed within livii
memory, but still extends from Cushendall on Red Bay, northward
near Fair Head, and inland over the mountainous district, to a breadth
8 or 10 miles. « The people are evidently the sameasthoseof Argy
as indicated by their names, and for centuries a constant intercourse h
been kept up between them. Even yet the Glensmen of Antrim go regl
larly to the Highland fairs, and communicate without the slightest dif
culty with the Highlanders. Having myselfconversed with both Glensm
and Arranmen, I can testify to the absolute identity of their speech. »
R. Mac Adam, Esq. The Celtic of ail the rest of Ulster, viz., in Doneg;
and isolated patches in Derry, Tyrone, and south of Armagh, Mi
considerably from the Scottish Gaelic, and is truly an Irish dialect. B
there is not the slightest reason to deduce the Glensmen from Scotlam
they are a relie of the ancient continuity of the population of Ulster a
Western Scotland.
The most advanced outpost of the Celtic in the Old World is the I:
of St. Kilda, lying far out in the Atlantic, to the west of the Hebride
The language is entirely Gaelic, none of the natives knowing any Engli.|