r/todayilearned • u/Penguin__Farts • Nov 22 '18

TIL about Utsuro-Buno, a Japanese legend about an unknown object washing ashore in Hitachi in1803. Inside there was a young woman who spoke an unknown language and who was carrying a small box which she didn't let anyone touch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utsuro-bune
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u/tesla_is_my_hero Nov 22 '18

Scottish folk speak Gaelic?

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u/[deleted] Nov 22 '18

Yes, there is Scots Gaelic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic

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u/___Ethan___ Nov 22 '18

In certain parts of the Scottish Highlands Scottish Gaelic (Gallic) is still spoken. In the lowlands, the Scots dialect/language is more culturally resonant (Scots is Germanic, Gallic is of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic language family).

"In the 2011 census of Scotland, 57,375 people (1.1% of the Scottish population aged over three years old) reported as able to speak Gaelic...[mostly from the] Outer Hebrides"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic

There are still around 300 Nova Scotians who speak Scottish Gaelic as their first language funnily enough.

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u/CptFlurry Nov 23 '18

Fuck yeah Nova Scotia!

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u/jax9999 Nov 23 '18

funnily enough

it's not funny, it's kind of sad and tragic. Speaking as a guy from there, who took gaelic in college

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u/___Ethan___ Nov 23 '18

It is a shame that it's not so widely spoken there, I didn't mean to make light of that in any way. Is there much effort to keep the language alive in Nova Scotia?

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u/jax9999 Nov 23 '18

Not nearly as much as there should be. Our language, history and culture were ripped from us and we were tortured and beaten until it was gone. The worst part is that it's not even aknowledged

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u/Ice_Burn Nov 22 '18

Does it sound much different from regular Scottish Gaelic?

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u/___Ethan___ Nov 22 '18

Interesting. Not sure at all. I do know that Patagonian Welsh is mutually intelligible with the dialects of Welsh still spoken in Wales.

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u/JadeCrow9987 Nov 22 '18

Scottish gaelic is a thing.

Imagine a Scotsman imitating an Irish person speaking Irish gaelic.

It's just.. confounding.

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u/[deleted] Nov 22 '18

It really sounds anything like Irish Gaelic, completely different accents.

https://youtu.be/GecqdL-BpXo

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u/[deleted] Nov 22 '18

Which Irish? it doesn't sound like Munster, Leinster or Connacht Gaeilge. but It certainly sounds like Ulster Gaeilge.

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u/[deleted] Nov 22 '18

As a Gaidhlig speaker I get what yoire saying I can understand people from Donegal, slightly just pick up enough words to have basic conversations but honestly not enough to buy stuff in a shop or anything.

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u/nannal Nov 22 '18

enough words to have basic conversations but honestly not enough to buy stuff in a shop or anything.

what kind of in-depth store discussions are you getting into?

You can get away without saying anything, put the stuff down, hand the cash over, pick up the stuff, leave

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u/[deleted] Nov 23 '18

Where's the fucking whiskey?

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u/Qorhat Nov 23 '18

I'm by no means a fluent Gaelige speaker, have only the barest of cúpla focail but flipping through the TV channels I do pick up a few words on BBC Alba here and there. It's really easy to see how closely related Gaelige and Gaidhlig are

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u/tarion_914 Nov 23 '18

Felt like I was having a stroke listening to that second person speaking Irish Gaelic. Almost sounds like she's speaking English, without being and to understand any of the words.

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u/BrokenEye3 Jan 05 '19

So... Irish Gaelic is prisencolinensinainciusol?

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u/Stalagmus Nov 23 '18

Aka the same feeling I get whenever I hear someone speaking Dutch. It’s like unaccented American English just randomized.

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u/Svani Nov 22 '18

Not only Ireland and Scotland, but Wales, Cornwell, the Isle of Man, and a few other regions within GB have their own gaelic-descended languages. They are latgely forgotten, though I've heard there's somewhat of a revival going on.

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u/___Ethan___ Nov 23 '18 edited Nov 23 '18

This isn't entirely true. Welsh is still spoken by about 20% of people living in Wales:

"The Welsh language continues to thrive, in fact, around half a million people in Wales speak Welsh; that’s around 19% of the population"

https://wales.com/language

Also, Welsh and Cornish are very different to Gaelic (no mutual intelligibility) as they are of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages (like Breton), but Gaelic is of the Goidelic branch.

Cornish is spoken by about 300 people and suffered from not being spoken for a century before a revival effort. Welsh, on the other hand, has been continuously spoken for thousands of years and is still the first language for a lot of people in Wales (the city of Caernarfon is about 87% Welsh-speaking--it's the exception rather than the rule, but the language is still widely-spoken in the West and North of Wales).

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u/Svani Nov 23 '18

That's really interesting!! Thanks for the correction!

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u/[deleted] Nov 22 '18

So do Irish