"The " is not interchangeable with "Scottish Highlands" as it refers to the language and not to the geography. Also, many parts of the Highlands no longer have substantial Gaelic-speaking populations, and some parts of what is now thought of as the Highlands have long been Scots-speaking or English-speaking areas such as Cromarty, Grantown-on-Spey, etc. Conversely, several Gaelic-speaking communities lie outwith the Highland, Argyll and Bute and Outer Hebrides council areas, for example the Isle of Arran and parts of Perth and Kinross, not to mention Nova Scotia, North Carolina, and other areas to which there was significant migration. also increasingly refers to any region where Scottish Gaelic is spoken as a first language by much of the population.