Next year I have the option of taking Irish or Scottish Gaelic at University. I'm leaning towards Scottish Gaelic as it is more in tune with my ethnicity (while I'm Scottish-Irish by decent, I'm way more Scottish than Irish). Does anyone here speak Gaelic? Is it a hard language? Do you think there will ever be a resurgence in popularity? Any info would be great, thanks.

My name, Ian, is Gaelic.

Kind of hard. The spelling looks as though a retard was picking letters out of a hat and decided to call them "words" (no offence to anyone, it's a very nice language when spoken).

Examples:
Beaudchais (Thank you)
Geimhreadh (Winter)

Pronounced, respectively, 'bekkas' and 'gyee-ryee'. Odd language.

Oh yeah man. Who would guess Celidh is pronounced "Kay-lee." I could figure out the pronunciation quickly though.

Oh yeah man. Who would guess Celidh is pronounced "Kay-lee." I could figure out the pronunciation quickly though.

Yeah, I'm sure once you get the pronounciation and little things like what letters aren't pronounced (which should be not terribly hard for an English speaker!), it shouldn't be terribly difficult. I know only one person who learned Gaelic, and he's a retard. Heh.

Are you on the East coast? There seems to be a lot of interest in Gaelic over there... and next to none here in BC. I don't think any of the Universities here even offer Gaelic. Well, at least UBC and SFU don't.

It's one of the most difficult IMHO. Besides the endless tables of declensions and conjugations to memorize, few of it regular, you also have the wonder of mutation, which changes the beginnings of words on an almost random basis.

Ie solt die brun'n karre gebruk'n. Of woi de witt'n hem'm?

If you know this, YOU ROCK!

Ie solt die brun'n karre gebruk'n. Of woi de witt'n hem'm?

If you know this, YOU ROCK!

"Je kan de bruine kar gebruiken of wil je de witte hebben"?

What does this have to do with gaelic?

Ie solt die brun'n karre gebruk'n. Of woi de witt'n hem'm?

If you know this, YOU ROCK!

I duno what the hell that is but it sure as hell ain't Irish.

We did it in school, Irish that is. I thought it was ok. Hard at times but definitely learnable.

Bhuel... Go neiri and t-adh leatsa a chara!

Chuaigh me go dti an siopa agus cheannaigh me an crack. D'ith me an crack.

Irish gaelic is more prevalent, and still used in many parts of ireland. I'd do that one. My old latin teacher who also taught me some ancient greek gave me a book so I could try and teach myself Irish Gaelic, but the pronunciation is so difficult, and the book was supposed to come with a record with all the words pronounced for you but unfortunately he didn't have it anymore.
So naturally I'm jealous that you're going to get to learn either dialect properly.

Irish gaelic is more prevalent, and still used in many parts of ireland. I'd do that one. My old latin teacher who also taught me some ancient greek gave me a book so I could try and teach myself Irish Gaelic, but the pronunciation is so difficult, and the book was supposed to come with a record with all the words pronounced for you but unfortunately he didn't have it anymore.
So naturally I'm jealous that you're going to get to learn either dialect properly.

Gay-lick?
If you are very connected to your heritage and whatnot, go for Scottish Gaelic. Especially if you have family there and want to impress them. Be a proud Scottish man!
However, I am biased toward Irish because I like the accent better.

Póg mo thón

I took a few years of gaelic in early primary school back in. It was so long ago, that I don't remember any of it. It was required back then, but I'm not even sure if it is anymore. To date, I've never met anyone else that speaks it. There was one girl that went to some special school that offered it as an elective, but she was horrible at it. Supposedly, there are parts of Ireland that still speak it, but nowhere near cork.

Just a side note really - I developed an interest in Scottish Gaelic from the music of Runrig (http://www.runrig.co.uk), a scottish band, and it seems to me a really nice language - I wanted to learn it but couldn't find the time sadly.:(