[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.

[Asraelite]

Yeah, to a degree, my dad speaks Irish and he says the same. But it's not quite enough to be considered the same language. It's comparable to Norwegian and Swedish, or Portuguese and Spanish.

[messe]

Irish speaker here who has attempted to learn some Scottish Gaelic, and currently lives in Denmark, I think the Norwegian-Swedish comparison is probably apt. Although I think Irish/Scottish Gaelic are possibly even more divergent than that.

Side note: as an Irish speaker, reading Manx Gaelic, with its Welsh/English derived spelling system feels like what I imagine having a stroke feels like.

[biorach]

> Side note: as an Irish speaker, reading Manx Gaelic, with its Welsh/English derived spelling system feels like what I imagine having a stroke feels like.

Ha! That's a great description for how completely unsettling reading Manx is.