Which Celtic language is the most spoken?

[Marinus]

The forum was lagging, this might be a double post.

Why?

There are many reasons, but a big one is that Wales has Welsh as one of it's cultural hallmarks, one of its "quirks", Scotland has some other obvious things, such as kilts, bagpipes, Nessie etc... another one is that Scottish Gaelic can also have an "anti-unionist" connotation, more so than Welsh because the latter is a P-Celtic "Brythonic" language, ie. British, and Gaelic is Q-Celtic "Goedelic" from Ireland, ie. another invader, something un-British. Whilst English/Anglo-Saxon can also be seen as an invader by the Celts, it is far too dominant, it became normal and it unified the UK as its common tongue, for the most part.

Also, Scotland has Scottish Gaelic but also "Scots" to divide it, and Scots is just another dialect of English.

[Marinus]

According to Wikipedia, there are ~ 1.7m L2 Irish speakers although there was no controlling for proficiency. It may have included people who only knew a little bit.

I think many of those speakers are "high school Irish Gaelic" level, like what we are taught but never really use outside the classroom. I think that the people who use it as their main language, at least daily outside of school is under 80,000 or something like that.

I saw many Irish Gaelic signs alongside English in airports, ports and other public/mass transit areas the times I went to Ireland, but everyone just spoke English.

[Ruggery]

According to Wikipedia, there are ~ 1.7m L2 Irish speakers although there was no controlling for proficiency. It may have included people who only knew a little bit.

You will not know if the Irish travells spoke the Irish language within their communities.

[Dandelion]

Welsh of course. It's the only Celtic language I have actually heard spoken IRL.

[Dandelion]

Irish is an honorable mention. It's a mandatory course in Ireland, even if most Irish speak English as their native tongue. It's a Celtic language a high number of people is at least initiated in. Many Irish seem to hate the way it is taught and only a tiny fraction of Irish are fluent in it. It's a language with more learners than native speakers.

[Ruggery]

Irish is an honorable mention. It's a mandatory course in Ireland, even if most Irish speak English as their native tongue. It's a Celtic language a high number of people is at least initiated in. Many Irish seem to hate the way it is taught and only a tiny fraction of Irish are fluent in it. It's a language with more learners than native speakers.

You've been to Ireland?

[Dandelion]

You've been to Ireland?

Never been.

[Ruggery]

Never been.

But have you listened to the Irish language?

[Dandelion]

But have you listened to the Irish language?

Only heard Welsh IRL, and Irish on YT (looked it up).

In the video game Age of Empires III some units speak Scottish Gaelic, wish is closely related to Irish. And this song from the soundtrack from the game Metal Gear Solid are in Irish.



Ireland looks nice, btw. Check it out on google street view. Not to mention how fast it has grown in life standard. It's on my 'to visit' list.

[Ruggery]

Only heard Welsh IRL, and Irish on YT (looked it up).

In the video game Age of Empires III some units speak Scottish Gaelic, wish is closely related to Irish. And this song from the soundtrack from the game Metal Gear Solid are in Irish.



Ireland looks nice, btw. Check it out on google street view. Not to mention how fast it has grown in life standard. It's on my 'to visit' list.

Interesting, do you know anything else about the Gaelic or Irish language?