Gàidhealtachd

The term is also used to apply to areas of Nova Scotia and Glengarry County, Ontario where the distinctive Canadian dialects of Scottish Gaelic were or are still spoken.

[citation needed] These include Dundee from the Gaelic Dùn Deagh, Inverness from Inbhir Nis, Argyll from Earra-Ghàidheal, Galloway from Gall-Ghaidhealaibh, and possibly Stirling from Sruighlea (though the etymology is uncertain).

Gaelic speakers from what would be considered traditionally English-speaking/non-Gaelic regions today included George Buchanan (from Stirlingshire), Robert the Bruce (from Galloway), and Margaret McMurray (from Ayrshire).

[citation needed] For historical reasons, including the influence of a Scots-speaking court in Edinburgh and the plantation of merchant burghs in much of the south and east, the Gàidhealtachd has been reduced massively to the present region of the Outer Hebrides, the Northwest Highlands, Skye and Loch Alsh, and Argyll and Bute, with small Gaelic populations existing in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

[citation needed] In Canada, at one time Scottish Gaelic was the third most spoken language after English and French; in 1901, there were 50,000 speakers in Nova Scotia alone.