Editing Scottish Gaelic (section)

===Decline===
Many historians mark the reign of King Malcolm Canmore ([[Malcolm III of Scotland|Malcolm III]]) between 1058 and 1093 as the beginning of Gaelic's eclipse in Scotland. His wife [[Saint Margaret of Scotland|Margaret of Wessex]] spoke no Gaelic, gave her children Anglo-Saxon rather than Gaelic names, and brought many English bishops, priests, and monastics to Scotland.{{r|Withers1984|p=19}}During the reigns of Malcolm Canmore's sons, Edgar, Alexander I and David I (their successive reigns lasting 1097–1153), [[Anglo-Normans|Anglo-Norman]] names and practices spread throughout Scotland south of the Forth–Clyde line and along the northeastern coastal plain as far north as Moray. Norman French completely displaced Gaelic at court. The establishment of royal burghs throughout the same area, particularly under [[David I of Scotland|David I]], attracted large numbers of foreigners speaking Old English. This was the beginning of Gaelic's status as a predominantly rural language in Scotland.{{r|Withers1984|pp=19–23}}

Clan chiefs in the northern and western parts of Scotland continued to support Gaelic bards who remained a central feature of court life there. The semi-independent [[Lord of the Isles|Lordship of the Isles]] in the Hebrides and western coastal mainland remained thoroughly Gaelic since the language's recovery there in the 12th century, providing a political foundation for cultural prestige down to the end of the 15th century.{{r|Baoill1997|pp=553–6}}

{{multiple image
| align = right
| image1 = Gaelic1400Loch.png
| width1 = 150
| alt1 =
| caption1 =
| image2 = Gaelic1400nich.png
| width2 = 150
| alt2 =
| caption2 =
| footer = Linguistic divide in the middle ages. Left: divide in 1400 after Loch, 1932; Right: divide in 1500 after Nicholson, 1974 (both reproduced from Withers, 1984)
* Note: Caithness Norn as shown in the orange was also spoken in the 1400s in the same region as the 1500s' picture, but its presence, exact timeline, and mixture with Scottish Gaelic is debated*
{{Legend|blue|Scottish Gaelic}}
{{Legend|#ff0|[[Scots language|Scots]]}}
{{Legend|#F87217|[[Norn language|Norn]]}}
}}

By the mid-14th century what eventually came to be called [[Scots language|Scots]] (at that time termed [[Early Scots|Inglis]]) emerged as the official language of government and law.{{r|Withers1988 |page=139 }} Scotland's emergent nationalism in the era following the conclusion of the [[Wars of Scottish Independence]] was organized using Scots as well. For example, the nation's great patriotic literature including John Barbour's ''[[The Brus]]'' (1375) and Blind Harry's ''[[The Wallace (poem)|The Wallace]]'' (before 1488) was written in Scots, not Gaelic. By the end of the 15th century, English/Scots speakers referred to Gaelic instead as 'Yrisch' or 'Erse', i.e. Irish and their own language as 'Scottis'.{{r|Withers1984|pp=19–23}}