June 10, 2026
By Ryan Martin
Growing up in Cape Breton, also known by its Mi’kmaq name Unama’ki, my elementary school’s music classes often tasked us with singing traditional Gaelic songs. Though my classmates and I were more or less oblivious to the meaning of the words, such comprehension had little or no bearing on our ability to memorize the Gaelic lyrics, and to this day I can still sing “Calum Crùbach” in its entirety. At the time, I understood this to be a kind of gesture towards a language and a culture that, for all intents and purposes, were inaccessible to me. After all, I lived and attended school where English was the only language spoken; the Gaelic speakers of Cape Breton felt as though they were worlds apart from me. Now, however, I realize that the Gaelic language is inextricable from the particular manner of speaking English that is found on Cape Breton Island, regardless of whether or not myself and my classmates were aware of it. It is for this reason that I want to take the time to outline a few of the Gaelic influences on Cape Breton English.
First, a point of clarification. “Gaelic” typically refers to the language Scots Gaelic. It also sometimes refers to the separate but related language Irish Gaelic, more commonly called “Irish”. Both Scots and Irish Gaelic have an influence on Cape Breton English, although the strongest influence is from Scots Gaelic, and I use “Gaelic” to refer to Scots Gaelic unless otherwise specified.
Next, a brief history lesson. According to The Dictionary of Cape Breton English, Gaels began migrating to Cape Breton from Scotland in the mid to late eighteenth century, largely residing in coastal areas and along rivers and lakes such as Bras d’Or Lake and Mira River (Davey and MacKinnon xxxix). However, as coal and steel industries grew, Gaelic-speaking Cape Bretoners began “to seek jobs in the coal and steel communities. This, in turn, created language contact between several nationalities, particularly Gaelic and English” (xliii). This contact would have a profound impact on Cape Breton English, even as the number of Gaelic speakers in Cape Breton declined. According to The Highland Village museum, “due to educational policies and economic disparity, English became the language of choice in schools, politics, business and religion,” all of which led to the decline of Gaelic in Nova Scotia. Still, organizations such as The Highland Village and Colaisde na Gáidhlig (The Gaelic College) have worked tirelessly to preserve and promote the Gaelic language in Cape Breton to this day.
With that said, how does Gaelic manifest in Cape Breton English? Although The Dictionary of Cape Breton English takes note of the various Gaelic loanwords that made their way into Cape Breton English through industry (xli), I am less interested in highlighting these specific words – which have largely retained their Gaelic definitions in the transfer – than I am in how the language has grammatically and structurally shaped the way that Cape Breton English is spoken; I will therefore leave vocabulary out of my discussion.
To begin, one particularly famous example – which was hidden in plain sight from me! – can be found in the Rita MacNeil song, “It’s a Working Man I Am.” As Gaelic researcher Emily McEwan-Fujita points out, the song’s title contains a grammatical structure that is particular to Gaelic: the copula. For example, such a copular construction might appear as: “Is e duine gasda a th’ann,” which translates literally to “It is a fine man that is in him.” The purpose of such a construction is, in part, for emphasis, not unlike saying “I am a working man” or “I’m a working man myself.” In Cape Breton, such a construction is not uncommon; for instance, “She’s a busy one, she is.” Without even knowing it, I have been hearing the copula for my entire life!
Gaelic scholar Lewis MacKinnon observes that Nova Scotians with a Gaelic background “tend to say ‘I am wanting [to go, etc.]’ instead of ‘I want [to go etc.]’” (MacKinnon qtd. in McEwan Fujita). The reason for this is, of course, because of the Gaelic construction of the phrase: “Tha mi ‘g iarraidh [a dhol],” which literally translates to “I am wanting.”
Prepositions are a whole other beast in Cape Breton English. For instance, the word “after” is used quite particularly in Cape Breton English, for example, “I am just after having supper” (Davey and MacKinnon, “after,” 3) in lieu of “I just ate supper.” The Dictionary of Cape Breton English suggests that the word’s usage stems from English “contact with Gaelic” (3). Meanwhile, in my own journey to learn Irish Gaelic, I have personally noticed a carry-over from the language into Cape Breton English, in the form of the preposition “on.” In Irish, if you wanted to say, “I have a headache,” you would say, “Tá tinneas cinn,” which translates literally to “A headache is on me.” As a result, I have heard some Cape Bretoners refer to their ailments in this very way: “I’ve got something on me” or “Something’s on me.”
Even the infamous Cape Breton/Newfoundland phrase, “Who’s yer fadder?” can be traced back to the Gaelic according to McEwan-Fujita in the form of: “Có a b’athair dhut?”
Works Cited and Consulted
Davey, William. “Informal Names for Places in Cape Breton: Nicknames, Local Usage, and a Brief Comparison with Personal Nicknames.” Onomastica Canadiana, vol. 72, 1990, pp. 69-81.
Davey, W.J and R.P. MacKinnon. Dictionary of Cape Breton English. University of Toronto Press, 2016.
“The Gaelic Language.” Baile nan Gáidheal-Highland Village. . Accessed on March 4, 2026.
McEwan-Fujita, Emily. “Gaelic & English.” Celtic Life International Magazine. 2 June 2023. /. Accessed on February 1, 2026.