ABSTRACT
In the modern era, the advance of English into the earlier Celtic-speaking areas has continued in all parts of the British Isles but the pace and outcome of the contacts have varied a great deal from one region to another, depending on many sociohistorical, political and other factors. Areas in Scotland and Wales have been characterised by a relatively slow but steady spread of English at the expense of the indigenous Celtic languages. In Scotland, the wave-like process of the withdrawal of Gaelic has continued towards the west and north-west, and has gradually led to the present-day situation in which all areas, except the far north-west and the islands off the north-west coast of Scotland, are virtually completely English-speaking. Throughout this process, various political measures have been used to promote English and to root out the use of Gaelic. These will be further discussed in section 3.3.
