top of page

Scottish Gaelic

Scottish Gaelic

Summary

Scottish Gaelic is spoken by about 60,000 people, primarily in Scotland, with smaller communities in Nova Scotia and Canada, where the language's heritage remains significant. Part of the Indo-European family, it is written in the Latin alphabet with a unique verb-subject-object (VSO) word order. The language features four grammatical cases, two genders, and fusional morphology, with 11 vowel sounds and 30 consonants giving it a rich phonetic depth. Scottish Gaelic is renowned for its oral storytelling tradition, songs, and poetry, all central to Gaelic culture. Efforts to revive the language have seen increasing interest in Gaelic-medium education and cultural programs across Scotland and beyond.

Stats

  • Language Family: Indo-European

  • Writing System: Latin

  • Writing System Type: Alphabet

  • Writing Direction: Left to Right

  • Tones / Pitch Accent: None

  • Morphology: Fusional

  • Cases: 4

  • Grammatical Gender / Noun Class: 2

  • Number of Verb Tenses: 7

  • Word Order: VSO

  • Number of Vowels (Monophthongs): 11

  • Number of Consonants: 30

Areas Where Spoken

  • United Kingdom (0.09%) (60k)

Resources

Mass Resource Lists

Dictionary

Lessons

Radio

YouTube Videos

Websites

bottom of page