Ireland Irish wordcloud

What’s the native language of Ireland called?

Irish. Not Gaelic.

As you can see from reputable sources like Rosetta Stone and Ethnologue, that language is called Irish. Ask an Irish person and (s)he will confirm that.

So where did ‘Gaelic’ come from, you ask? ‘Gaelic’ is the Anglicized version of Irish’s name in Irish: Gaeilge. So when someone says “I got this cool bracelet with a poem written in Gaelic on it!!!!!!1” they are doing the equivalent of saying “I speak Español” or “I can read Ruskiy.”

Want to learn Irish? Amazon.com has Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur Approach, Living Language, and more specifically for the Irish language.


Image source: http://www.lochariach.com/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_colorbox/public/page_images/irish_background2.png?itok=KDm7sGfV

2 thoughts on “What’s the native language of Ireland called?”

Comments are closed.