Archaic Gaelic: Decoding a Lost Language (Culture and Language)

In this, the fifth volume in the Culture and Language Series, Sheila McGregor opens up the ancient Gaelic language of Scotland, starting from archaic words and fragments related hunting and fire. By using principles outlined in the first volume - Worldlists - in this series, these fragments of language can be deciphered and provide insights into some aspects of Palaeolithic religion in Scotland. We identify some of Europe’s oldest words and what they tell us about the beliefs and way of life of the deer-hunters who settled in Scotland at the end of the last Ice Age some fourteen thousand years ago. McGregor's First Settler Theory of European language offers an alternative to Indo-European theory, and this book is the fifth in a series of twelve volumes exploring aspects of this theme.