Old Irish (sometimes called
Old Gaelic) is the name given to the oldest form of the
Goidelic languages for which extensive written texts are extant. It was used from c. AD 600–900. The primary contemporary texts are dated c. AD 700–850; by AD 900 the language had already transitioned into early
Middle Irish. Some Old Irish texts date from the 10th century, although these are presumably copies of texts composed at an earlier time period. Old Irish is thus the ancestor of
Modern Irish,
Manx, and
Scottish Gaelic.