 Although the first written signs of Scottish Gaelic having diverged from Early Modern Irish appear as far back as the 12th century annotations of the Book of Deer, Scottish Gaelic did not appear in writing or print on a significant scale until the 1767 translation of the New Testament into Scottish Gaelic.It is believed that Irish remained the majority tongue as late as 1800 but became a minority language during the 19th century.It is an important part of Irish nationalist identity, marking a cultural distance between Irish people and the English.