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The Gaels are an Ethno-linguistic group which possibly originated in Ireland and subsequently spread to Scotland and the Isle Of Man . Their language is of the Gaelic Family , a division of Insular Celtic languages. The word in English was adopted in 1810 from Scottish Gaelic ''Gaidheal'' (compare Irish ''Gaedhealg'' and Old Irish ''Goídeleg'') to designate a Highlander ('' OED ''). Gael or ''Goídeleg'' was first used as a collective term to describe people from Ireland; it is thought to have come from British ''gwyddel'' ( Old Welsh ''goídel''), originally "raider", now "Irish person". The Gaels were known in the 18th century in Europe.Goethe refers to the 'noble Gaels' in 1774 in his European bestselling 'The Sorrows of Young Werther.' Many people who do not speak Gaelic are nevertheless 'Gaels' because of their Ancestry and Heritage as persecution of the language failed to extinguish the racial connections of the Gaelic peoples. MYTHOLOGICAL ORIGIN The Gaels, during the beginning of the in the neolithic. provide titles, authors, etc. for these links --> [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1691416 [http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7817] lends credence to such a theory. According to the 'Myth of the History of the Gaels from the Dispersal of the Nations to the Sighting of Ireland' in the . Fenius Farsa is said to have been one of the 72 Chieftains who built the Tower Of Babel and also the creator of the Ogham alphabet and the Gaelic language. HISTORICAL EXPANSION It is known that most likely and with most certainty that speakers of a (or P-Celtic ) language(s), but it is not known whether this represents one population displacing others, an invader becoming a new ruling caste, or simply the spread of a new '' Lingua Franca ''. Before and during the age of the Roman Empire there was a great deal of trade, movement, interaction, and competition among the peoples who, though of neither Ethnicity , fell within the Celt ic, Germanic , or Galicians cultural ferment. Estimates of the arrival of proto-Gaelic in Ireland vary widely from the introduction of , ancestral to modern Irish , Scots Gaelic and Manx, only began to be properly recorded with the Christinization of Ireland in about the 5th Century AD . (It is believed that Ireland's pre-Christian culture disparaged written language.) However, Old Irish — or more correctly, its precursor Primitive Irish — does appear in a specialized written form, using a unique script known as Ogham . This is known to us now almost only in the form of memorial inscriptions or short Epitaphs on pillar-like stone monuments (see Mac Cairthinn Mac Coelboth . Ogham stones are found both throughout Ireland and where Gaelic invaders settled across post-Roman Britain. It is thought to have been in use as early as A.D. 400. They frequently encode nothing more than a name, and it is thought they may represent territorial claims. Starting sometime around the 5th Century Gaelic language and culture spread from Ireland to the southwest coast of Scotland where it may have already existed since Roman times. Uncertainty over this comes as a result of the fact that there is disputed archaeological evidence to support the generally accepted tale of migration while there is some to suggest that there was none — the evidence also points to the population of the area (modern day Argyll ) being constant during the time of the alleged Scottish invasion. This area was known as Dál Riata . The Gaels soon spread out to most of the rest of the country. Culturo-linguistic dominance in the area eventually led to the Latin name for Gaelic speaking peoples, " Scoti ", being applied to the state founded by the Gaels, Scotland ( Alba in Latin). Since that time Gaelic language rose and, in the past three centuries, greatly diminished, in most of Ireland and Scotland. The most culturally and linguistically Gaelic regions are in the North West of Scotland, the west of Ireland and Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia where the descendants of the Highland Clearances were transplanted. The Isle Of Man (, 'Mannin's Isle', from the pre-Christian deity known as Manannán Mac Lír ) also came under massive Gaelic influence in its history. The last Native Speaker of Manx died in the 1970s , though use of the Manx language never fully ceased. There is now a resurgent language movement and Manx is once again taught in all schools as a second language and in some as a first language. A large part of the island's cultural heritage is Gaelic. CURRENT DISTRIBUTION The two comparatively 'major' Gaelic nations in the modern era are Scotland ( Scottish Gaelic -speaking population approx. 60,000 Native Speakers ) and Ireland (which has over 200,000). Communities where the language is still spoken natively are restricted largely to the west coast of each country and especially the Hebrides in Scotland. However, large proportions of Gaelic speakers also live in the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland, as well as Galway , Cork and Dublin in Ireland. There are between 500 - 1,000 Canadian Gaels although they are generally of a very advanced age and concentrated in Nova Scotia , Cape Breton Island and Newfoundland . According to the , there are over 25,000 Irish-speakers in the United States with the majority found in urban areas with large Irish-American communities such as Boston , New York City and Chicago . FAMOUS GAELS
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