English is not Britain's only language. Not even close. There are languages that were on these islands long before English moved in,
and they're still around today. Each and every one of them has characteristics that would blow
the average English speaker's mind. That's a heck of a revelation. Cornish counting is base 20. What? So let's get to know these Celtic languages better, and who knows, maybe
even learn a little bit of them, too. It's time for another RobWords. In this video, we're diving deep into five
languages, Scottish Gaelic, spoken in Scotland,
the Manx language of the Isle of Man, Welsh from Wales,
Cornish from Cornwall, and Irish. No, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, It'd just be dumb. It'd leave a massive Irish
elephant in the room. Plus, Irish is spoken by some people in Northern Ireland, which, at time
of recording, is still part of the UK. To cover my ask further,
also conspicuous by its absence from this video, will be the language of Scots,
which isn't Celtic. Now, I don't speak any of the languages
we're about to explore. In fact, all of them are considered
endangered to some degree by UNESCO, except for Welsh, but even
that's marked as vulnerable. But luckily, I have found speakers of
all of them, and Stephen, Marian, Breesha, Kensa, and Arthur
are going to guide you and me through. Now, the first thing to point out is
that the Celtic languages that exist today can be split into two,
two separate branches of the Celtic language tree, which diverged
a few thousand years ago. First, you've got the Goidelic languages,
Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx. Gaelic and Manx, both formed
as offshoots of Irish way back. And this trio are the Gaelic languages, and they all call themselves
something along the lines of Gaelic. See? Although the whole naming thing
can be a little complicated. In Ireland, you call it Irish, right? Yeah, I think in Ireland,
people often take a little bit of umbrage when it's referred to as Gaelic because
they'll point out that's Scottish Gaelic. But we either call it Irish,
if we're saying it in English, or Gaeilga, which is the Irish Irish
word for the language. So you would be very hard-pressed to find an Irish person who would
ever refer to it as Gaelic. I've seen Gaelic referred to as Gaelic,
Scot's Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic. Which of those are legitimate
to use and which maybe aren't? They're all legitimate,
but also, so it's Gaelic. It's the name of the language
in English, isn't it? So, the majority of people I know in Scotland call it Gaelic, but there are
folk that also call it Gaelic. Is it straightforward with manx? Am I using the right
word if I just say manx? When you are using the right word.
There are lots of different ways. So people will just call it manx,
the Manx language, because it exists. But some people will call it Manx Gaelic and show its link with the
other Gaelic languages. And then in Manx, we call it "gilg",
"erilg", or "gilk". Depending in the part of the island,
you have different pronunciations. That's the Goidelic branch. But then you have the Brythonic languages. These are Welsh, Cornish, and Breton,
which is actually spoken in France. These languages are Celtic,
but they're not Gaelic. They share an ancestral language that was forced into pockets along the west
of Britain as the Anglo-saxons drove the Celtic Britons
to the fringes of the island. Of the three, Cornish and Breton
are the most similar to one another? They think that when we split in the
sixth century, the Welsh go to Wales,
what become the Cornish go to Cornwall, but also the Bretons, and then they
then go across the sea to I see. So they separated from the Cornish later
than the Cornish separated from the Welsh. So how different are these
languages from one another? For example, can a Welsh speaker
understand Cornish? Cornish, yeah, because it's the same branch as Welsh, but Manx,
Gaelic, the other branch. I mean, I could figure it out written. I could see patterns,
but I wouldn't be able to understand it. Can you understand
Manx or Scottish Gaelic? When you sent me those videos of the people speaking Manx and then
the Scottish Gaelic speaker. With the Manx video, "Hello little people, Learn Manx!" I really noticed that the words were
almost identical to the Irish words. They were obviously focused on simple
vocab, but it was the exact same. Even the phrase they were using for I would like, I can't remember
the exact Manx one.. "By vie lhiam" In Irish it's ba mhaith liom. Scottish Gaelic video, she was obviously
a very fluent native-level speaker. I think she said she grew up speaking the language, so she spoke quickly
and with quite a strong accent. And that wasn't as easy to follow It
wasn't that I was just listening to it the way I would to a native Irish speaker,
certainly a native English speaker. But I was still able to follow a lot
of the words, a lot of the grammar. And I think a really native, strong Irish speaker,
because I'm not a native speaker, would probably be able
to follow it very, very closely. There you go. Now, one of the best ways we can support
these languages is by learning them. And I found Gaelic teacher Stephen and Welsh teacher Marian
through this video's sponsor, Italki. Italki is a website and app where you have
one-on-one personalised lessons with native speaking teachers,
teaching over 150 different languages. There are over 30,000 teachers to choose from, so you know you're going
to find the right one for you. Pick the language you want to learn,
look at the massive list of teachers available to you, and choose one
that suits your schedule and your budget. It took me absolutely no time to find
Marian and set up a lesson with her. You really can do it in just a few clicks. And because the lessons are one-to-one, you can get a tailored
learning experience. Welsh actually has more
vowels than English. So we have seven vowels. Wait, where are you getting seven from? So I'll tell you them in Welsh. [sounding out:] A, E, I, O, U, W, Y. So the W and the Y are vowels in Welsh. The best part of Italki is there are
no subscriptions, no commitments. You just pay as you go. And lessons start at only $5. Millions of people are already using Italki to start their
language learning journey. So why don't you? Italki has given me a special promo code, Rob Words 5, where the first
50 people to use it can get $5 free with their first Italki credit
purchase of $10 or more. So click the link in this video's
description and get learning with Italki. Now, all of these are distinct languages. I therefore want to be careful not
to generalise too much about them, but there are systems and characteristics
that they have in common. For example, in any of them, answering a yes and no question
is not as simple as you might expect. We don't have a yes or no. There's not one word for yes or no. You reply by repeating the verb
that the question is asked in. That's the same in manx. If you're asked a question,
Are you doing something? You're basically using that
part of the verb to be to say yes. In English, this would be like me asking you, are you going
to subscribe to my channel? And you saying, I am,
rather than just, yes. Please do it.
As far as you can tell, breton is the only one with words that we
can easily compare with yes and no. Now, once you've got your head around that concept, there's another
fundamental that you'll need to rethink. Cornish counting is base 20. What? We go to 20 because fingers and toes,
counting fish coming in off the boats. Then we start again.
So 1 on 20, 2 on 20. You know when you learn French and you're like, What do you mean
I have to go 17 and 60? Cornish were doing
that right from the start. And the Welsh, for them, 40 is 2 20,
50 is 10 on 2 20, 60 is 3 20, et cetera. There are remnants in Irish,
and it still exists in Gaelic, too. Gaelic, it's còigead.
That's 50. That's a vigecimal system. But in the schools now, in the Gaelic medium schools,
they use decimal. That's cool, right? Now, another characteristic of Celtic
languages that frankly knocked my socks off because it doesn't happen in English,
is that the sound at the start of a word can change depending
on its grammatical context. Okay, this is a little tough to explain,
but it is totally worth it. Just bear with me. So for example, the Welsh word for Wales
is 'Cymru', but it isn't always. Any time you drive into Wales and you see
the sign 'welcome to Wales', have a look at the Welsh sign,
which It says 'Croeso i Gymru'. So Gymru with a G,
should be Cymru with a C. But it's gone through a soft mutation because the I, Croeso i,
is a soft mutation trigger. So this is something that all
learners very much enjoy about Welsh. I bet. And in the Goidelic languages, there are also triggers
for changing how a word starts. One of them is something
called the vocative case. Now, cases can be a bit complicated, but the result of this one is
that a person's name can differ depending on whether you're
speaking to them or about them. Check this out.
For example, Seumas becomes a Sheumais. That's where some Scottish names in English have come from,
like Hamish and Varry. They've come from the vocative form
of Seumas and Màiri, respectively. Wait, Seamus and Hamish are the same
names, just in different cases? Yes. You've blown my mind. Not to be outdone, Manx Gaelic also
messes around with people's names. My name's Breesha, and if you were talking
to me in Manx, you would call me Vreesha. Yeah, so the Isle of Man gets called both
Manin and Vannin in the Manx language, and that's because of that initial sound
change thing I've just been talking about. Actually, let's get on to place names because it's in them that these languages
are there for all to see. For example, all those words you associate
with the Scottish landscape, Lough, Glen, Ben, they're all from Scottish Gaelic,
and the same goes elsewhere. The most vivid, real, living example of the language for anyone
in Ireland today is place names. So right down to the smallest little place to capital city
to everywhere in the country. I mean, Dublin originally comes
from dubh linn, which is black pool. People will, when they think of the Welsh language, they'll think
of Welsh place names. I can feel where you're going with this. No, I'm not going for Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychw
yrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch no, no.
Wow. How was that?
Was that near? That was pretty good. Thank you very much. No, I was going to ask
something simpler than that. I was going to ask the terms that
pop up in Welsh place place name. What do these all mean? Welsh place names are very descriptive. So any place that starts with Aber,
you'll know it's by the coast because Aber means an estuary,
where the river meets the sea. Then Llan is a very common name. Llan was the land that a church stands on. So anywhere with Llan probably
has a church or had a church. My favourite place name is Penzance,
because people have heard of Penzance. It means holy headland,
But it could also mean holy head. Now, the patron saint of Penzance is St John the Baptist,
who, of course, was beheaded. Brownwilly is the highest point in Cornwall and Bodmin Moor, but it's
Bron Wennilie and its Hill of Swallows. So it is coming from the Cornish name. So place names are a way through
which English speakers can find themselves using these Celtic languages,
whether they know they're doing it or not. And another is through the everyday
words that we've borrowed from them. There's some simple examples like banshe, smithereens,
shebeen, hooligan. Shebeen?
Sheebean, like a little bar. You know that? I know it's very commonly used, actually,
I think in South Africa, but it comes from the Irish,
a síbín, which would be a little… I think it's actually an illicit pub. It's an old Irish word.
Oh, there you go. So yeah, Banshee, shebeen, smithereen. And there are probably
several other- Galore. Galore comes from Irish.
What does that mean in Irish? Galore, a lot of. For my money, probably the most delightful gift to English from the Celtic languages
is the word 'penguin', which is thought to probably come
from the Welsh for 'white head'. But it's often pointed out that there are
surprisingly few Celtic words in English for saying they've lived
side by side for so long. Indeed, the received wisdom among
linguists seems to be that the languages of the Britons had very little impact
on the development of English. There are compelling
arguments to the contrary. For example,
some linguists say that English owes its so-called meaningless do
to the Celtic languages. That's when we use the word do,
apparently redundantly, in sentences like, do you like cheese, or I do not
like pelicans, they're creepy. The idea that that came from Celtic is
by no means mainstream. The argument that the ancient Britons had
little influence on English is usually put down to the idea
that the Old English-speaking Anglo-saxons were so uncompromising
in their encounters with the locals that they made little allowance
for picking up the lingo. But whether that's true or not, there's no doubt that every one of these
languages has suffered as a result of the arrival of English because
they've lost speakers to English. Most extreme examples among them are Cornish and Manx, which have both, at one
point or another, been declared extinct. They're now both considered revitalised. In fact, Kensa says she doesn't reckon
Cornish was ever extinct at all. Basically, there's this myth that
Dolly Pentreath is the last speaker of Cornish, and she dies in 1777,
and therefore the language with her. Then basically the Cornish revival,
because it is a revive language, is dated from 1904, and I looked
at the gap between the two. So not only were books being written,
books are being produced, dictionaries are being It's
been talked about newspapers. It's been mentioned. We know that there are families where you can trace the intergenerational
transmission. Intergenerational transmission being such
a key marker of language vitality. Is it used as a community language now? And is it used outside of the context of
let's speak some Cornish? Not really. Could you see it ever being, though? It would be nice to get to that point. How we get there is the next big thing. Manx now is, and the number of speakers,
is it rising? It is.
Did it hit a low and it's now recovering? It's on the up. It's got this wonderful
Phoenix-like story. That's why how we like to talk about Manx. People were over enthusiastic in dismissing it a long time ago,
and it's defied all expectations. And it gives a glimmer of hope to other
minority languages around the world. And we get people from other language communities coming here to find out
exactly what's happened for Manx. How is it in a position where it is taught in the schools,
where it's used in Tynwald Court, where it's used in everyday conversation
for people where you see it around you? And It is this real combination of grassroots activity
and government support. We're a small language and a small
language community, so you have to really work together and
not work at cross purposes, I think. That's Manx and Cornish, but how are the other more widely
spoken languages actually doing? Gaelic, where is it spoken now? Well, I'm sitting here in Angus,
but it's the Western Isles. It's been the Western Isles
for quite some time. I remember it's been the main
stronghold of the language and still is. But there are communities of Gaelic speakers in the cities,
Glasgow and Inverness in particular. When people are asked in Ireland,
Do you speak Irish? There's often quite a very high level of people who will say, Yes,
they can speak some level of Irish, often around 50 % or even
more would say they can. And the reason for that is probably because it's a compulsory
language in school. So everyone who's been through the Irish education system has had at least
10 or more years of learning Irish. So that's probably why a lot of people will feel they have
a considerable grasp of it. When it comes to everyday use or real fluency or command,
it's a much smaller number. It's probably 20 % or less. And the areas where it is most widely spoken would be in what
are called Gaeltacht regions. So they're predominantly in the west
of the country, Kerry in the southwest, Galway in the west,
and Donegal to the northwest. And then in the capital, Dublin,
there are pockets where it's not that it's not a Gaeltacht region, but there are all-Irish
language schools known as Gaelscoileanna. And there will be a lot of people in the
capital with a strong command of Irish. And then there are a couple of other
little Gaeltacht regions around the country, but they would be the regions where you
have the most amount of native speakers. But the reality is that it's been
on the decline for centuries, and over the last century,
that has just simply accelerated. So even though it's still compulsory
and it's still an attempt to really The original goal was to make it
the main language of the state. I think that those days are long gone, and
now it's in a preservation stage, really. But interestingly, in the last few years,
I would say, probably in the last 10, 15 years, it has become
cool again to speak Irish. And there's a lot of young people
are really embracing the language. We had a thing recently where Paul Mescal,
the Irish Oscar nominated actor, spoke Irish in an interview,
surprisingly off the cuff. He was asked at some red carpet
event to answer a few questions. He did quite well. He carried off the interview. It was charming. I think a lot of people
identified with that. I think there's people who now embrace
it much more from that perspective. Okay, I don't have to be a wonderful speaker, but it's something that our
ancestors It's something that a lot of people are proud of and we
should connect with it. How raw and sore is the issue of
English oppression of Welsh? It depends who you ask, I guess. But I think it's
there all the time, I would say. There's always something in the news. Someone has said something. Some famous person has made some gibe or it's a bit of a joke on some
It's a lot of comedy show. It's tiring. But I would say the overall feeling
thing is a very positive one. I think more people are
interested in Welsh. It's become more of a cool thing
to be able to do or to know about. I think things like Gareth Bale, football, Wrexham football,
all these things are help. Well, I promised we'd try to pick up a word or two of each of these languages,
so let's have a go. I asked each of my Celtic speaking pals to try and help us to be
polite the next time we're on their patch. Okay, so to say please, you say "my saillt". My saillt.
That's it. And that's just please to one person. We have singular and plural,
but we'll just do the singular. And thank you. You say, "Gura mie ayd". Gura mie ayd. Gura mie ayd.
That's it. The most common expression is "Ciamar a tha thu?". "Kimmera how"
Perfect. You said it well.
That's true. Good job.
Ciamar a tha thu? "What like is it that are you?"
That's what you're saying. How are you?
But it's just used for hello, essentially. "Ciamar a tha thu?" Good morning in Welsh is "Bore da". Bore da. Bore, is good? Is that good or is that... Bore means morning. Okay.
Bore da. Other way around. Okay. It's "morning good". Maybe you could just
tell me how to say goodbye. Okay, so "Dha weles". Dha weles.
Dha weles. Dha weles. So that's another of those D-H sounding
like T-H because it's D-H-A, "dha weles". So how do I do this without coming across
as the well-meaning, ignorant English guy? I think you're doing a pretty good job. I think the key to that is
listen to what you're told. When someone says, "Don't say
Gaelic", don't say it again. Thank you so much to my mate,
Arthur, there. And also to Breesha, and to Steven, and Kensa, and Marian, who has
her own YouTube channel, by the way. You should check that out. What a great bunch of people. And what beauty lies in their languages. Use them or lose them. If you've enjoyed this video,
I've got plenty more here on my channel. And I've also just started a podcast with
fellow internet word nerd Jess Zafarris. It's called Words Unravelled, and you can either watch it here or listen
to it wherever you get your podcasts. I'll also leave a link below. And I'll catch you in the next thing.
"Gura mie ayd." Goodbye.
