Let me tell you a secret!
Irish Gaelic is not called Irish Gaelic by Irish people in Ireland.
It’s nice that we could get that out of the way. So if you’re looking for another name for the Irish language, you can begin with “Irish“. Many Americans have said that this sounds unnatural to them, but it is how the language is called in Ireland.
For example, it would be perfectly natural in Ireland to ask someone “Do you speak Irish?”, or “I learned Irish in school”.
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And be sure not to call the Irish language simply “Gaelic”. While some people in Ireland will refer to the language like that, it’s an ambiguous term. This is because there also exists Scottish Gaelic, which is often simply referred to as “Gaelic”.
Another Name – How the language calls itself
When speaking in the Irish language, you call the language Gaeilge. Pronunciation of that word does vary between regions of Ireland, depending on the dialect of Irish. Even another language for Irish Gaelic is “Gaolainn” (you’ll see several spellings of this) and it’s a variation only used in the south of the country.
Dia duit mo cara/chara
It always drives me nuts to hear American and British people refering to Irish as “Gaelic”. For the vast majority of Irish speakers (or moderately talented speakers like me) the term is somewhat denigrading, it takes away the language’s definitive status and identity in many ways. And in other ways – Gaelic is just such a twee term and reminds me of Americans fawning over Dardy O’Gill and so forth. I have heard arguements that the term “Gaelic” should be used to help differenciate between Irish, Scottish, and Manx, which I would suggest is idiotic, after all, you never hear these same people argue that Spanish, Italian, and French should be called “Spanish Latin” “Italian Latin” and “French Latin” to help *ahem* “differenciate”… *sighs*
Any American or English/British person reading this, please try to make an effort to call Irish just that – IRISH and refrain from using that twee irritating term “Gaelic”
Go raibh maith agat
Mise le meas.
John