Anglo-Saxon

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Has anyone studied the Anglo-Saxon language? For those who don't know, Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, is the linguistic ancestor of all modern English (and Scots) dialects. The appearance of the written form looks more like modern German than modern English, and this is because it predates the heavy influence of Anglo-Norman French and the Latin of scribes and priests.

I studied it briefly in high school for kicks. The inflection system was a b***h, and the lack of standardization didn't help. Don't remember too much now.

I thought that Scottish was a Gaelic rather than Germanic language. I must have been wrong.

There is Scottish Gaelic, mostly spoken in the Highlands and Islands. It heavily influenced Scots.

Old English is basically a Germanic language since the Saxons were Germanic mercenaries hired by the post-Roman ruler of Britannia (England) to fight his wars for him. That king ran out of money to pay them, and they couldn't get back home, so they decided to take over the place instead. Eventually, they did, despite an all out war waged by the Celts. The Scots and the Irish spoke a Celtic tongue, basically two different versions of what we call Gaelic. Gaelic is NOT an Indo-European language, indeed it's not quite clear where it came from. The Celts themselves have somewhat mysterious origins, like the Basques in Spain. The Romani (Gypsies) were finally tracked down to around 1000 AD and an apparent migration of a tribe from India into Europe. Then there's the Ainu of Japan, who are genetically Caucasian. How did Caucasians make their way to Japan? Nobody knows. Obviously, the history of human origins has more holes than swiss cheese. Did I mention African tribesmen and East Indians with Israelite DNA?

Yes, Gaelic is Indo-European.

Part of the Jewish diaspora migrated into southern India and parts of East Africa, that's plain to see.

I have read the dual language version of Beowulf translated by Howard Chickering, Old English is interesting. I was going to study it, but I should probably restart and finish my study of Latin first.

Anyone know where the quote is from?

Scots is more or less a dialect of English that is sometimes considered to be a separate but closely related language (it's really all semantics). Scots is not the same as Scottish English, which is roughly the standard English language spoken with a Scottish accent and a few Scottish words thrown in. English has been spoken in the Lowlands of Scotland for about as long as Scottish Gaelic has been spoken in the Highlands and on the western coast. The Scots invaded Scotland at roughly the same time as the English invaded England. The Britons (now the Welsh) lived throughout what is now England, and the Picts lived through most of Scotland. The Scots, during the Roman era, lived in Ireland and formed a kingdom called Dál Riata, and the Dalriatians (Scots) later lost their Irish possessions and focused on conquering Caledonia instead. Eventually the kingdoms of Pictland and Scotland merged, forming the Scotland we know today.

Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx Gaelic all share a common ancestor, sometimes called Old Irish; together these languages are called the Goidelic languages and together with the Brythonic languages (Welsh, Cornish, and Breton) make up the Insular Celtic languages. The Continental Celtic languages (Gaulish, Lepantian, Celtiberian, and Gallacian) are all extinct. The Celtic languages, possibly through an intermediate ancestor including the Italic languages as its descendants, is a branch of the Indo-European language family.