Gaelic in Canada
A' Ghàidhlig ann an Canada
Though the Gaels left Scotland for places all over the world at the time of the Highland Clearances, many of them went to Canada .
At the time, Gaelic was the third biggest language in Canada, after English and French.
It was to Alba Nuadh (Nova Scotia) that most of the Gaels went and Gaelic is still spoken there today.
Gaelic in Canada is still very like Gaelic in Scotland, and you will still hear the different dialects that the Scottish Gaels took with them.
But they have particular words that you will not hear too/very often in Scotland.
In Scotland, we hear people talking about GOC (Gaelic Orthographic Conventions).
That is the guidance which the SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) created on how we should spell Gaelic.
In Canada, they didn't follow the GOC system, and so we still see the seann dòighean litreachaidh (old spelling conventions).
In Scotland the stràcan (accents) are all trom (grave), but in Canada we still see stràcan geur (acute accents), for example: mór instead of mòr , céilidh instead of cèilidh .