Languages of Britain and Ireland - History with Hilbert Reaction

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Welcome back everyone. I hope you doing amazing. Britain and Ireland. We have the languages via history with Hilbert.

[00:00:06]Let's jump right in. English is the third most widespread language in the world behind Spanish and Standard Chinese. It's spoken from England to Canada to South Africa to New Zealand to Australia. You know, thanks to the old >> as primary and there's everyone else in the world just about has it as a secondary. empire.

[00:00:30]Wait, that's not what I'm meant to be talking about in this video.

[00:00:33]Um what was it? History with Hilbert history Dutch Frisians and languages. That's the one.

[00:00:41]In this video, I'm going to be having a look at which other languages are spoken in the British Isles because while English is its most famous export, it's by no means the only one. So, let's have a a look. Now in this video, I'm Yeah, obviously there is you know, Irish um Welsh English Cornish, right?

[00:01:07]Um I'm forgetting a few. going to be looking at country by country which languages there are in the British Isles. Yeah, can't forget Northern Ireland and I wonder how many of these will be distinctive languages versus dialects cuz if we do dialects, we're going to be here all day. And in this video, I've decided to put Ireland and Northern Ireland together simply for geographic reasons. So, please nobody start a war in the comments. Yeah, please don't. Not again.

[00:01:37]The first country I'm going to look at is Scotland. I hope you enjoy the video.

[00:01:42]Okay.

[00:01:52]>> [music] >> Scottish Gaelic The most famous and romantic language to come from Scotland has got to be Scottish Gaelic. Gaelic Some basic phrases include slàinte mhath, a toast.

[00:02:05]Ciamar a tha sibh? How are you? Latha Naomh Anndra math dhuit. Happy St. Andrew's Day. Alba gu bràth.

[00:02:12]Alba gu bràth I think I can say that one. Scotland forever. Claidheamh mòr meaning Claidheamh mòr Like You know, you know. big sword. Sasannach meaning Englishman or foreigner literally meaning Saxon. Is that where the claymore gets its name from by the way? It dates back to the Dark Ages and Gum a Fadha Beò Stiùbhart. Long live the Stuart. I mean, come on. This is History with Hilbert. I'm going to put some history in there. Where in Scotland do they speak Gaelic? Mostly in the Western Highlands and Islands. Islands such as Lewis, Harris, Darren, Bob, Mark, and Tom >> And this is of 2001. So, this was 25 years ago this data. This Oh, oh wait. No, those aren't my names. Hold on. Um Islands like Lewis, Harris, Uist, Skye, Tiree, and Islay. These are the places where Gaelic has remained the strongest even though many areas [clears throat] of Scotland which used to be Gaelic speaking have now either become English speaking or both English and Scots speaking, but I'll get on to that in a minute.

[00:03:20]Now, Gaelic is a Celtic language and it originally came from Ireland.

[00:03:26]Okay, you can see it after Old Irish.

[00:03:28]So, that's probably why it's situated on the western side. These all have a Proto-Celtic tree as an ancestor.

[00:03:39]So, Irish and Manx and then I'm imagining we're going to also look at Gaelic Brythonic, Cornish, Welsh, and Breton.

[00:03:48]Now, why did the Scottish Gaelic come from Ireland? Well, I'll explain that.

[00:03:54]Once upon a time, there was a powerful family [music] living in the north of Ireland called the O'Neill. Now, if you think this name looks familiar, well, that's because O'Neill this is the Old Irish version of the modern name O'Neill, still an important and large family. Now, the O'Neill expanded their kingdom and founded a kingdom called Dal Riata and Dal Riata was a kingdom that originally was both across the north of Ireland and the southwest of Scotland.

[00:04:21]So, it's almost like they controlled the pass, you know? And this is how Gaelic from Ireland came into Scotland.

[00:04:30]Now, Gaelic is actually not an official language of the United Kingdom, but there is a BBC radio [music] and TV channel which is entirely in Scottish Gaelic. Wow.

[00:04:44]Interesting. called BBC Alba and Alba as you can remember from Alba gu bràth which means Scotland forever is the Gaelic word for Scotland. I'm now going to play for you a native speaker speaking some Scottish Gaelic.

[00:05:00]Is mise Rosemary chaim a hook a lunn leis de sheas air a bhala bhig a dh'fhaideadh le gearradh mònach.

[00:05:06]A bh'a Gaelic aig mo mhathair, a chara Gaelic aig mo mhathair. Aig an t-seisean chaim a hook a lunn air an dachaigh um far a roinn mi cleachdaig beòil le fad na tìde.

[00:05:14]Ach a ghabh i an t-seisean chaim mi air an dachaigh tron sgoil agus ionnsaich mi Gaelic gu àrd ìde.

[00:05:20]Chunnaic mi an t-seisean seachad an mo dhachaigh le aona chuid as treubhach na Gaelic aig I cannot wait to like have such a low cost like you know, one of those like headphones that translate in real time.

[00:05:40]That's going to preserve so much culture for people because there won't be a need to assimilate because these languages just sound so interesting.

[00:05:51]Aig an t-seisean aig an t-seisean Gaelic aig an t-seisean aig an t-seisean an t-seisean Gaelic Scots wha >> [music and singing] >> hae wi' Wallace bled.

[00:06:02]Scots wham Bruce Okay, so we just segued into the next language. Okay.

[00:06:10]Now, there is some debate as to whether Scots should be considered a language or just a dialect of English.

[00:06:15]Yeah. English. I'm going to make a video about this in future, but for this one, I'm just going to treat it as a language. Now, wee in Scots means small.

[00:06:23]It doesn't have the same meaning as in English. Lads and lasses are boys and girls. Old Lang Syne is a song which is often sung at New Year and it essentially means a long time ago. So, how much of this borrows words and phrases from Scottish Gaelic? I'm fae Glesga means I'm from Glasgow.

[00:06:43]A wee drink o iron brew means a drink of bleach. Why would I no fecht for Charlie? Is why wouldn't I fight for Charlie? Again, the Jacobite >> Why wouldn't I fight for Charlie? Okay, that was horrible. references and if you Dutch, a lot of words in Scots are a lot more like Dutch words. And why is that?

[00:07:01]Well, you'll just have to wait until the history of Scots for that one.

[00:07:04]Their swords they drew an Athol brae and the deals at Killiecrankie-o. This is from a very famous song which I very much enjoy. Link will be in the description. So, where do they actually speak Scots? Pretty much the eastern side.

[00:07:17]Well, they speak it on Orkney, North Orkney, Aberdeenshire, Angus, and Ayrshire. These are the regions where most Scots speakers are. So, if you remember Scottish Gaelic was very much or Gaelic rather was very much spoken in the west on the islands in the islands, Scots is the other side. Scots is mostly spoken in the east again clustering around And a lot of this is just a dialect, right?

[00:07:39]>> around these regions of uh Shetland and Orkney, Aberdeenshire, Angus, and Ayrshire.

[00:07:45]Now, then again to look at the language tree, Scots is a Germanic language. Now, I sort of hinted >> So, Scots is a Germanic language.

[00:07:53]Alongside English, of course.

[00:07:56]Interesting.

[00:07:57]hinted at this earlier. Scots comes in from Old English. Now, I'll have a quick look into this in just a minute and its closest relations are then languages such as obviously English is a close relation. And you've also got a very close relation as I said to Dutch. You can recognize words Frisian as well and to a lesser extent the other Germanic languages there. The reason that the Scots language actually exists is because of the kingdom of Northumbria.

[00:08:22]Northum- Northum- Northumbria that stretches really what really long from Scotland down to I think it did border Mercia or am I missing a border region? Now, Northumbria unlike the modern-day county of Northumberland was a lot larger and actually Northumbria stretched right the way from north of the Humber and sometimes even south of the Humber when it occupied the kingdom of Lindsey around modern-day Lincolnshire. It also went right the way up thanks to King Oswald's conquest open it was probably Oswiu actually who conquered parts of southern Scotland right the way up >> Yeah, and they were the one of the most formidable kingdoms in the Middle Ages.

[00:09:04]Do you I think Abercorn was the northern border of Northumbria. Now, the Northumbrians spoke Old English because they were Anglo-Saxons and they brought the Old English language into Scotland as well.

[00:09:16]Now, when Old English was changed and altered because of the Normans and because of French, it evolved into Middle English. Yet in Scotland where this was much less, the language >> So, you had a less assimilation to or interaction with Norman French French. So, it kind of like it carried on its evolution isolated away. remained much truer to I wonder how that kind of culminates in the future with like people like James the First.

[00:09:44]You know?

[00:09:45]How does that How does It's interesting, you know?

[00:09:49]its original Old English roots and the Scots language was born. I'm now going to play the Scots audio book version of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter called Peter Kinnen in Scots.

[00:10:16]Oh my gosh, this is a different language. This is not a dialect.

[00:10:35]Obviously there's some language like interference my interference there's like some overlap here where you can obviously pick up words, but this is a different language. I take back everything I said.

[00:11:12]Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a different language my man.

[00:11:17]>> [clears throat] >> All right, Irish.

[00:11:24]Or Ireland.

[00:11:46]Next language I'm going to cover is sometimes called Gaelic, but this can be quite confusing as it gets confused with Scottish Gaelic and Irish people actually prefer when the language is called Irish. Now Yeah, a lot of national pride. A few helpful words and phrases in Irish are fáilte which means welcome. Uisce beatha which is the Irish word for whiskey and is actually where whiskey comes from from uisce beatha to whiskey. It's a bit of a long one, but that's where it comes from. Póg mo thóin which is um a rather less polite one. You'll have to look that one up yourself.

[00:12:24]Let's find out.

[00:12:28]Let's find out live.

[00:12:35]Oh.

[00:12:37]Kiss my arse.

[00:12:39]But the Irish are quite proud of it.

[00:12:41]Now the main way that most people come into contact outside That's that's yeah, it's not that bad. side of Ireland with the Irish language is through their names and I'm going to show you now how to pronounce them. So this one is >> All right.

[00:12:56]>> Niamh huh Niamh Niamh huh Niamh huh The H really carries with no letters after. Niamh huh Siobhan Siobhan Siobhan Do you know how to say it? Niamh huh Niamh [music] Sounds like he's not sure.

[00:13:22]Aoife Aoife Aoife Aoife Aoife I would say that because he's saying it two different ways. Aoife >> Each one. Aoife Okay, so this is how you actually pronounce them.

[00:13:41]Niamh Niamh >> Siobhan Siobhan Naomi Naomi >> And I think it's Aoife this one Aoife.

[00:13:51]Now where do they speak Irish Bro, that's Wi-Fi.

[00:13:55]Irish in Ireland. Now as you can see there are regions all throughout the Republic of Ireland where Irish is well spoken. Much less so in Northern Ireland where there is another majority and a different language which I'll get into in a minute. But there are some regions which you can see are probably just under 70 >> definitely tell where England pushed migrated people here for. 50% Irish speakers >> And these regions are called Gaeltachts and there are several. There's some in Donegal, County Mayo, Connemara, Dingle and West Muskerry are some of the largest ones. And Gaeltacht means Gaelic or Irish speaking region.

[00:14:32]Now Irish is doing very well as a language and it's one of the official languages of the Republic of Ireland alongside English.

[00:14:41]Now to look at the Celtic language tree again, obviously Irish comes from Old Irish and before that Primitive Irish.

[00:14:48]Now how did Irish come to Ireland? Well, a long time ago some fancy European farmers brought new bling with them. And while they were bringing that with them they also brought a new language with them, a very old type of Irish which we now call Goedelic. And where did they come from? And all the languages for like Irish and Gaelic and a few of the other ones I'm going to cover are part of the Goedelic family of Celtic languages. Now a lot more happened in the meantime so for example you get the Norsemen coming over and bringing >> like to establish Dublin. the Old Norse.

[00:15:18]Then you also get the English coming over and they conquer an area around Dublin. Now this area keeps expanding and you also get the Scots coming and moving into the north which is where my So now I'm going to play some of the news from Ireland which is completely in the Irish language.

[00:15:42]So this is like a news report.

[00:15:55]Yeah, not a single word.

[00:16:11]So this [clears throat] is Northern Ireland?

[00:16:17]But hold on a minute. Who's this dashing young fellow on a horse? It isn't William of Orange, king of Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland, England and also that other place the Netherlands.

[00:16:34]>> [music] >> Well, it still had orange in the flag.

[00:16:44]>> [music] >> Ulster Scots is then mostly considered to be a dialect of the Scots language which I covered before having come in from Scotland. Now then it also makes sense that the highest percentage of speakers of Ulster Scots in Northern Ireland are those in the north who are then closest geographically See, this is just perfectly like done in terms of like making sense. And the closer you are to a region, the more likely you're going to speak a dialect or a different language that's closer to that language that you're closest to.

[00:17:15]I mean I love it when things just make sense. to Scotland where they came from.

[00:17:19]Now what's the history behind this? Why are there Scots speakers in Northern Ireland a traditionally Gaelic or Goidelic speaking area? Once upon a time when times were simple, English speakers lived in England and Irish speakers lived in Ireland. Now as we already covered in the early Middle Ages, Scots began to develop differently from English.

[00:17:40]Now the English in I think the 12th century invaded part of Ireland around Dublin and over the next few hundred years they kept expanding and fighting against the Irish. Now the Irish had one strong base from which they resisted the English and this was in Ulster. Now there were Irish Gaelic warlords there who fought constantly against the new invaders and also the language That's that's pretty good. I mean England I'm you know, with that momentum that England had at the time surprised they didn't just like wipe them out.

[00:18:13]That would be you know, a horrible thing. I'm glad that they resisted. was a large part of this. The people there were very much still Gaelic speakers and had Gaelic customs and held out against the English who at this time were also Protestants.

[00:18:28]So what the English did who were at this time also unified with the Scottish after James I was they sent many Englishmen and Scotsmen over to Ulster to this very Gaelic region to essentially replace the Irish population. And then you get many people from Scotland who spoke Scots coming into Northern Ireland in an attempt to replace these Gaelic people to assert control over the region and that's why Scots So Ireland is just like this hodgepodge at this point.

[00:18:59]>> came into Northern Ireland.

[00:19:02]>> [clears throat] >> Wales >> [singing and music] [singing] >> How we doing Henry?

[00:19:25]>> [music] >> The most different language to all of these languages.

[00:19:47]I think it's fair to say that Welsh has got a little bit of a reputation of being a language with lots of difficult sounds and really long words that people really don't want to have to learn because they are a real nightmare. Yeah.

[00:20:00]Yeah. to get out. But, you know, this is completely unfounded. And in this one I'm just going to look at some really easy little Welsh phrases, you know, very I feel like he's being sarcastic.

[00:20:11]small, a few words. So, there's nothing to worry about. So, the first one is shwmae. Maybe not. Maybe he's being real. Shwmae. is sort of like hello or welcome. Then there's Dwi Hywel which means Dwi Hywel. My name is Hywel. Bore da Bore da. Glanver.

[00:20:32]is a place where you can visit in Wales.

[00:20:34]It's very nice. Oh, it's a place. Again, nothing too challenging there. So, where in Wales do they speak Welsh? Well, pretty much throughout Wales some degree of Welsh is spoken. Although, in some areas, especially such as Anglesey, Gwynedd, and Pembrokeshire, there are clusters of Welsh speakers. Now, Welsh is the only other language in the United Kingdom apart from English to have official status, but then only in Wales.

[00:21:00]And Welsh is taught in, I believe, all schools. And I think roughly a third of schools are completely taught in Welsh.

[00:21:09]The language of instruction there is Welsh. Obviously, you have the Prince of Wales who um previously was uh Charles.

[00:21:19]So, it's very integrated in some regard.

[00:21:22]As you can see, on the west coast, on the western the western half of Wales is where Welsh is mostly spoken. Again, because the eastern side with the border with England is where English has had more of an effect on the people there.

[00:21:38]So, again, if we look at the Celtic language tree, we see that So, Welsh is yeah.

[00:21:43]Very far away from English. It's in the Proto-Celtic area.

[00:21:50]Not the Proto-Germanic.

[00:21:51]>> [cough] [clears throat] >> And it is of Brythonic. Wales, instead of being in the Goidelic branch like Irish and Scottish [clears throat] Gaelic, is in the Brythonic branch. Now, let's have a look at why there is this distinction between the two.

[00:22:06]So, first of all, once upon a time you had the Brythonic languages being spoken in Britain. So, of course, the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons, they pushed them west. Now, if you remember, in Ireland a different group of European farmers, this is the theory that's believed, went to Ireland and there they spoke the Goidelic languages. Although, the Goidelic and Brythonic languages were still related.

[00:22:28]However, when the Anglo-Saxons came in, they brought in a Germanic language, so more like Frisian or Dutch or German.

[00:22:36]And they pushed the Britons, the Brythonic speakers, into the corners.

[00:22:40]And that's of course why you get in Cornwall, you have Cornish. Like you have all the edges of the of the island being a different language.

[00:22:50]And one of the theories is that then [clears throat] Welsh and Cornish are simply versions of the Brythonic that were being spoken there as well as possible in English.

[00:23:00]>> I'm going to play a little bit of audio from a Welsh vlog channel, which is completely in Welsh. And again, if you want to know where any of the clips came from or want to watch them again or find out more, find out more about the languages, then just follow the links in the description below.

[00:23:20]I got hello.

[00:23:53]Yeah.

[00:23:55]All right, England.

[00:23:57]Which we're going to have Cornish. We're going to have English. What else would we have? I don't know what else we would have. I mean, there's obviously foreign speakers, but I wouldn't count those. No offense, because you have those everywhere.

[00:24:18]We got to be talking about Cornish, though.

[00:24:20]Have to.

[00:24:31]>> [music] [singing] >> Got to be what this is.

[00:24:36]Yep.

[00:24:47]How means hello in Cornish.

[00:24:49]>> How. Fatla geneth means how are you.

[00:24:52]Kernow is the Cornish word for Cornwall.

[00:24:55]Now, where in Cornwall do they speak Cornish? Now, Not a lot. Cornish was actually uh very much in danger of being lost forever, because it did actually go extinct. But, there have been efforts made in recent years to revive the language. And as such, even though there are very small numbers at the moment, there are areas where Cornish is picking up. Now, some of the main areas in Cornwall are Padstow, Bodmin Moor, Land's End, and the Lizard. The Lizard?

[00:25:21]That's a place? They're all areas where Cornish is spoken to some degree. Now, I've made put this map together myself using other information to clearly show where some clusters of Cornish speakers throughout the county of Cornwall are living. But, as you can see, very small numbers at the moment.

[00:25:39]Now, Cornish is another [music] Celtic language and it's in the same vein of Celtic languages as Welsh is. So, it's uh slightly more distantly related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic. And Cornish as well came from the Brythonic languages, the same situation with the Welsh. When the Anglo-Saxons came in, they pushed the Britons, the Celtic inhabitants [music] of Britain, to the corners. And Cornwall actually held out for a very long time.

[00:26:07]There were people in Cornwall called the Dumnonii. And the Dumnonii uh held out against the Anglo-Saxons until they were eventually conquered, I think, by King Athelstan of Wessex. But, Mm. Interesting. Okay. Very lot of history I don't know. Cornwall was an independent Celtic kingdom. And they retained the language right the way up into the early 19th century. And now they are trying to revive the language once again. The first time that I ever heard the Cornish language was actually when I was watching TV and there was an advert for Kelly's Cornish ice cream, which was partially in Cornish. And Kelly's actually does a lot of work to promote the Cornish language. So, I'm actually going to show you that advert now to show case what the Cornish language sounds like. Now, it is partially in English and partially in Cornish. So, good luck telling it apart.

[00:26:56]Good luck.

[00:27:15]This probably hits the a perfect target audience somewhere, but not right here.

[00:27:27]Get on.

[00:27:29]Kelly's Cornish for ice cream.

[00:27:34]All right.

[00:27:35]Manx.

[00:27:37]What is Manx?

[00:27:40]Is this like close to the Scottish border?

[00:27:46]>> [singing] [clears throat] [singing] >> And the last language we're going to look at today is the Manx language from the Isle of Man. Oh, Isle of Man. Just like Irish and Scottish Gaelic, in the Manx language the word for their language is also something similar to Gaelic. Now, we're going to have a look at some Manx words and phrases. Moghrey mie is good morning. Moghrey mie. Fastyr mie Good night. is good afternoon.

[00:28:28]Gura mie eu is thank you. And gow my leshkal is excuse me. Blah is flower.

[00:28:36]And cashtal means castle. Which is That's easy. similar to the Irish cashtal. Where do they speak the different dialects? Well, you have Northern Manx, which is spoken in historically these parishes. And Southern Manx, which is spoken there.

[00:28:51]And it's generally around the edges, the north and south, where Manx is strongest on the Isle of Man. Manx is, again, a Celtic language. It is a Goidelic Celtic language >> live on the Isle of Man? Is it an interesting place? language from Old Irish. So, more closely related to Scottish Gaelic and Irish than to Welsh and Cornish.

[00:29:12]Now, how did uh the Isle of Man end up speaking a Goidelic language instead of a Brythonic language? Well, if we go back again, people in Britain spoke Brythonic. And people in Ireland spoke Goidelic as a rule. But, the Irish, they came across and they founded the kingdom of Dal Riada, if you remember from Scottish Gaelic. And they also settled on the Isle of Man. Makes sense, you know, it's a big island out there in the middle of the waterways that they use.

[00:29:39]bringing their language, Old Irish, with them. Now, of course, then you get people like the Norsemen coming with Viking raids. And Old Norse is introduced Yeah, I bet you a bunch of Vikings went to the Isle of Man.

[00:29:50]Although Old Norse had but a little effect on the Manx language. Although they were an important presence in the area, they ruled the Isle of Man and the Lords of the Isles for quite a while.

[00:30:01]Now I'm going to play a little bit of Manx being spoken.

[00:30:36]Some honorable mentions Oh, no. The languages that died out for other languages of the British Isles are Pictish, Norn, and Cumbric. But unfortunately, they didn't stick around long enough to be included in this one.

[00:30:49]>> So was Pictish like around during the Roman times? All right, everybody. Thank you very much for watching this video.

[00:30:55]>> And then how far did they last?

[00:30:57]>> about the other languages spoken in the British Isles. Now if you're interested in this kind of thing and you're new, just hit the subscribable button and check out some of my other videos.

[00:31:06]Really interesting video, you know. I did not even know Manx was a thing.

[00:31:11]So we learned. We learned a little bit more about some of the histories of Scotland and Ireland, Isle of Man.

[00:31:17]Uh knew about Cornish and Welsh, but kind of kind of got a little bit more out of it in terms of learning how it sounds and some of the basic words. Appreciate you guys for being here. As always, peace out and bye-bye.