Overview and Statistics
Diagrammatic representation of the development of the historic Indo-European languages of Scotland:
| Proto-Celtic | Northumbrian | Old Norse | |||
| Pritennic | Brythonic | Goidelic | Early Northern Middle English | ||
| Pictish | British | Old Irish | Early Scots | Southern Middle English | Norn |
| Cumbric | Middle Irish | Middle Scots | Early Modern English | ||
| Gaelic | Modern Scots | Scottish English | |||
According to the 2001 census Scottish Gaelic has 58,652 speakers (roughly 1% of the population of Scotland). In total 92,400 people aged three and over in Scotland had some Gaelic language ability in 2001. A Scottish Government study found out that 85% of Scotland's adult population speak Scots.
Read more about this topic: Languages Of Scotland
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—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)