Dia dhaoibh, a lucht Gaeilge na hAlbain!

I'm doing a brief article on Scottish Gaelic vs. Irish, and I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me?

I'd like to give my readers some ideas as to how the languages differ (other than in terms of pronunciation and spelling). For example, do I recall that Scottish Gaelic still uses the plural "you" in a formal sense (similar to the French "vous")?

Caoimhín, as someone who speaks both languages, I figure you've got a pretty good handle on this, but I figured I'd post the question rather than PMing, so others could address it as well.

Go raibh maith agaibh go léir! (sorry...I don't know how to say "thanks, all" in Gaelic!)

Redwolf

that's right!
There are differences in conjugations too (in the future/present habitual, whether it's preceded by certain verbal particles or not: ceannaichidh mi / cha cheannaich mi...)... mutations... many things.

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

GRMA. These articles are very short (between 400 and 1000 words), so I'm just going to touch on a few differences, as well on when and why the languages diverged. I'm including lots of links, so folks who are deeply interested in the subject can learn more.

Redwolf

One link with all the links (but you may know it already):

http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/gaidhlig.html

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

First off, I'm learning Gaelic, and I definitely do not speak it yet (by a l-o-o-o-ng stretch), and I'm certain that Lughaidh knows a heck of a lot more than I do.

There is one particular verb difference you might mention, which is that Gaelic has no simple present tense (except for the verb bi), leaving one to choose between the present progressive and the future. In most cases, the future is used where Irish would use the simple present, but the present progressive is also used.

An example of the use of the future tense:

Am feur a thig a-mach sa Mhàrt, thèid e a-staigh sa Ghiblean.
The grass that grows [will grow] in March disappears [will disappear] in April.

As an example of when the present progressive might be better, here's something I offered on the "old site", where the request was for "I call on my ancestors to walk with me":

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

That's right, when Classical Irish had a present tense in -(a)idh (molaidh sé...) and a future tense in -f(a)idh (molfaidh sé), they merged in Scottish Gaelic, so they use the same ending -(a)idh for both now. In Literary Welsh and Cornish too, the habitual present and the future tense are identical...

In modern Irish, as you know, the present tense uses the old dependent form in -ann (in Classical Irish, you would say "molaidh sé" but "ní mholann sé" !), and has kept the -faidh ending for the future.
In old tales (told by seanchaíonnaí) for instance, you can still hear the old present in -(a)idh, but not in normal speech, I think.

What is interesting is that in Scottish Gaelic, they have kept different dependent and independent forms in the present/future for most verbs: the dependent forms lose the -idh ending. That's as in Old Irish, but Modern Irish has lost that.
Eg.
molaidh mi > cha mhol mi, gum mol mi, nach mol mi, am mol mi? etc.
èistidh mi > chan èist mi, gun èist mi, nach èist mi, an èist mi? etc.

while in Irish the ending is -ann and doesn't disappear (normally):
molaim > cha mholaim, go molaim...
molann sé > cha mholann sé, go molann sé...

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

That's a great explanation, a Lughaidh. I knew the present situation, but not how it came to be.

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.