Dervala writes about Gaelige:

Sometimes he tries to read the signs in broad, slow Canadian, which makes me laugh more. This language does not let in foreigners easily (my name is written "Dearbhaile" in Irish). It is full of conditional tenses, inflected nouns, and strange sub-dialects. It can sound Scandinavian, somtimes even like Hebrew. There are no words for 'yes' and 'no', which accounts for our national reluctance to commit. "Are you well?" we say, and "I am", is the answer.