Arran Gaelic facts for kids

Arran Gaelic was a special way of speaking Scottish Gaelic that was used on the Isle of Arran. It was one of the last "southern dialects" of Gaelic to disappear.

How Arran Gaelic Sounded

The Arran dialect of Gaelic had some unique sounds. It was part of the "southern group" of Gaelic dialects.

• Sometimes, a sound called a "glottal stop" was used. This is like the sound you make in the middle of "uh-oh." For example, the word rathad (road) sounded like /rɛʔət̪/.
• The "h" sound was often dropped between vowels. So, athair (father) sounded like /aəɾ/.
• Long "l," "n," and "r" sounds were kept. For example, fann (weak) sounded like /fan̪ˠː/.
• A very unusual feature was a "w" sound after certain lip sounds (like 'm' or 'p') before a front vowel. For instance, math (good) sounded like /mwɛh/.

History of Arran Gaelic

Gaelic was spoken by many people on Arran at the start of the 1900s. In 1901, about 25-49% of people on the east side of the island spoke Gaelic. On the west side, it was even more, with 50-74% speaking it.

By 1921, the number of Gaelic speakers across the whole island dropped to less than 25%. In 1931, an old Gaelic calendar called the Féillire reported that out of 4,532 people on Arran, only 605 spoke Gaelic. This meant only about 13% of the population still spoke it. The language continued to decline until the last people who grew up speaking Arran Gaelic passed away in the 1990s.

Today, if you hear Gaelic on Arran, it's usually spoken by people who learned it from other parts of Scotland. In 2011, about 2.0% of Arran residents aged three and older could speak Gaelic.

Studying Arran Gaelic

Arran Gaelic was well-studied before it disappeared. A researcher named Nils Holmer visited the island in 1938. He found that "a fair number of old inhabitants" still spoke Gaelic. He talked to 53 different people from various places on the island. His detailed description of The Gaelic of Arran was published in 1957. It was 211 pages long and included information about its sounds, grammar, and words.

Between 1950 and 1963, a project called the Survey of the Gaelic Dialects of Scotland also interviewed five native speakers of Arran Gaelic.

• The island has a poetic name in Gaelic: Arainn nan Aighean Iomadh. This means "Arran of the many stags."
• A person from Arran, an Arainneach, was also sometimes called a coinean mòr in Gaelic. This means "big rabbit."
• Locally, the name Arainn was pronounced /ɛɾɪɲ/.

When Arran Gaelic Disappeared

The special Scottish Gaelic dialect of Arran died out when its last known speaker, Donald Craig, passed away in the 1970s.

However, there is now a Gaelic House in Brodick, which was set up in the late 1990s. This helps keep the Gaelic language and culture alive on the island.

• Brodick Castle is featured on the Royal Bank of Scotland £20 note.
• Lochranza Castle was used as the model for the castle in the famous comic book series The Adventures of Tintin, in the seventh book called The Black Island.