Gaelic app ‘has more users than people who can speak language’

A FREE online service has more users learning Scottish Gaelic than the number of people who speak the language in its first week, according to the app’s developers.

Duolingo was launched in 2011 and now has more than 90 languages to learn on IOS, Android and its website.

The Scottish Gaelic course was launched in the run-up to St Andrew’s Day last week, with nearly 20,000 people signed up ahead of its release.

It has now accrued more than 65,000 learners in just five days, developers said.

According to the last census in 2011, 57,375 people could speak Scottish Gaelic and the University of Edinburgh has suggested 5,460 are currently studying on other platforms – 62,835 in total.

Colin Watkins, Duolingo’s country manager in the UK, said: “To have more people learning on Duolingo in under a week than can speak the language or are currently learning elsewhere is amazing.

“It’s testament to how easy, fun and effective learning on Duolingo can be whether it’s learning Scottish Gaelic or Spanish,

Latin or Japanese. We hope people from across Scotland sign up and start learning .”

He added there is “still some way to go to catch Esperanto, Navajo and Klingon”, which have around 300,000 users each.

Users learn a language by playing various games including typing words or phrases, matching grammar and also speaking or listening to sentences to earn “crowns”.

Words and phrases in early rounds of learning Scottish Gaelic include boy and girl, various animals, and discussing chicken and Irn-bru.