Galwegian Gaelic - History and Extent

History and Extent

Gaelicization in Galloway and Carrick occurred at the expense of Old English and Cumbric, a British dialect. Old Irish can be traced in the Rhins of Galloway from at least the fifth century. How it developed and spread is largely unknown. The Gaelicization of the land was complete probably by the eleventh century, although some have suggested a date as early as the beginning of the ninth century. The main problem is that this folk-movement is unrecorded in the historical sources, so it has to be reconstructed from things such as place-names. According to the placename studies of WFH Nicolaisen, formerly of the University of Edinburgh, the earliest layer is represented by placenames with the prefix Sliabh- (often anglicized Slew- or Sla(e-) and Carraig (= a fishing station; anglicized as Carrick). This would make the settlement roughly contemporary with what was then Dál Riata. The Gall-Gaidhel (the Norse Gaels or "foreign Gaels"), who gave their name to the area, appear to have settled in the ninth and tenth centuries. Many of the leading settlers would have been of both Norse and Gaelic heritage, and it was the Gaelicisation of these Norse leaders which distinguished them from other Norse lords of northern Britain such as those in Shetland, Orkney and Caithness.

It is quite possible that even as late as the twelfth century, Cumbric (a Brythonic language related to Welsh) was still spoken in Annandale and lower Strathnith (where a man called Gille Cuithbrecht has the Gaelic nickname Bretnach ), but these areas seem to have been thoroughly Gaelicized by the end of that century. A couple of legal terms also survive in medieval documents. The demise of Cumbric in the region is even harder to date than Gaelic.

The likely eastern limit reached by the language was the Annan. The reason for that is that Gaelic placenames disappear quite rapidly after this boundary, although a handful of Gaelic names also appear in Cumbria. In the north it was possibly cut off from other Scottish dialects in the 14th, if not the 13th century.