Stephanie Keilman, age 16, of Utica, N.Y., for his question:

WHERE DID THE GAELIC LANGUAGE COME FROM?

The Gaelic language belongs in the Celtic branch of the Indo European family of languages. The Gaels introduced it to Ireland from Europe and later to the Isle of Man.

Irish invaders took the language to Scotland about A.D. 500. Around 1300 this Common Gaelic language divided into two branches: Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic.

Spoken Irish began to split into dialects soon after 1200. The three main dialects are now those of Munster, Connacht and County Donegal.

Invaders from England tried to impose the English language upon the Irish and Scots, beginning in the 1100s and 1200s. By 1800, Gaelic speakers were in the minority in Scotland and by 1851, only about one fourth of the population of Ireland spoke Gaelic.

After Ireland became independent in 1922, Irish became its official language. About one person in five in Ireland can speak Irish today, but only about one in 20 use it daily. About 85,000 persons in Scotland speak Gaelic.