[argentier]

The Irish spoken in the North West of Ireland (Tir Conaill) is pretty much indistinguishable from Scots Gaedhlig.

The real division is between Gaelic (Irish and Scottish) and Brythonic (Welsh, British and Cornish)

[Asraelite]

The existence of a dialect continuum doesn't make them the same language. By that logic, Dutch and German are the same.

Irish and Scottish are very similar, but they are not mutually intelligible. It's very annoying when people use the word "Gaelic" because I never know which language they're referring to. Just say "Scottish"/"Scottish Gaelic", "Irish", or "The Gaelic languages".

[biorach]

> Irish and Scottish are very similar, but they are not mutually intelligible

Not true.

They are mutually intelligible to a high degree. Native speakers, speaking slowly and clearly can understand most of what each other are saying.

I speak some Irish and have personal experience of this.

[Macha]

> Irish and Scottish are very similar, but they are not mutually intelligible. It's very annoying when people use the word "Gaelic" because I never know which language they're referring to. Just say "Scottish"/"Scottish Gaelic", "Irish", or "The Gaelic languages".

Are they American? Then they mean Irish.

Are they Scottish? Then they mean Scottish Gaelic.

Are they Irish? Trick question, Irish people don't use the word.

[macleginn]

Northern (Donegal) Irish is to some extent mutually intelligible with Scottish, but it is very different from the eastern and southern varieties. The notion of the dialect "continuum" is a bit misleading here since the three varieties of Irish have been separated by English speaking regions for some time, and there are no intermediate forms.

[nyeah]

I've often heard "Irish" for Irish and "Gaelic" for the Scottish one. Is that not used systematically?