Useful links

[English below]

Fàilte gu snàth cabadaich na seachdaine

Tha an snàth seo do dhuine sam bith a tha airson cabadaich mu chàil sam bith sa Gàidhlig gun snàth ùr a thòiseachadh (ach faodaidh tu ma thogras tu).

• Feumaidh tu post ann an Gàidhlig (gu susbainteach co-dhiù, tha beagan suidseadh còd nàdarra obviously taghta)
• Faodaidh tu cabadaich mu chàil sam bith a thogras tu.
• Na biodh iomagain ort mu dhèidhinn mhearachdan (co-dhiù do chuid fhèin, no a nì càch).
• Chan fhaodar Google Translate (no a leithid) a chleachdadh airson postadh a chruthachadh.

—

Welcome to the weekly learners' chat thread

This thread is for anyone who wants to chat about anything in Gaelic without starting a new thread (though you can if you want).

• You must post in Gaelic (substantially at least, a bit of natural code switching is fine)
• Chat about anything you like.
• Don't worry about mistakes (either yours or anyone else's)
• No using Google Translate (or any other machine translator) to create posts.

Siuthad!

Does anyone know of any variations of Iain? I felt a bit flustered hearing a mother at the local group say are child's name is John but in gaelic, noting she is from S.Uist. Hearing the name reminded me of hearing the pronouncation of Domhnall for the first time.

I will endeavour to ask De an t-ainm air do mhac, if in doubt tomorrow but i'm feeling a tad embaressed, so trying a bit of recce.

I have seen multiple references to Scottish Gaelic courses on Memrise but can't actually find said courses on their website, or any official reference to it. Did they have one at some point and don't have it any longer? Am I looking in the wrong place?

Learning Gaelic on Duolingo or SpeakGaelic, or elsewhere? Or maybe you're thinking about it?

If you've got any quick language learning questions, stick them below and the community can try to help you.

NB: You can always start a separate post if you want – that might be better for more involved questions.

My family surname was originally Mac a Mhaighstir, would the pronunciation "mac ah ma xstir" be accurate? (With "x" representing the guttural ch/gh sound).

My first post (so be gentle with me lol!) What are the rules for using A bheil? and An do? to ask a question :)

I have thought about learning Gaelic for a while now what would be the best way to start learning and what are the most efficient methods of learning Gaelic. I have seen the resources section pinned but I am unsure of how to use the resources. I also have Duolingo premium account and have tried the Gaelic lessons but wasn’t a fan. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all! I'm a dual national visiting Scotland and learning about my family history. As a macpherson I know our clan motto to be 'touch not the cat bot/without a glove' Wondering if anyone could confirm the gaidhlig translation is "Na bean don chat gun lamhainn" which is what I was advised by the Clan Macpherson museum website? (I only ask as I saw a native speaker online say that this seemed incorrect to them)

Thank you in advance :)

edited to fix typo

Hi all! I'm a dual national visiting Scotland and learning about my family history. As a macpherson I know our clan motto to be 'touch not the cat bot/without a glove' Wondering if anyone could confirm the gaidhljg translation is "Na bean don chat gun lamhainn" which is what I was advised by the Clan Macpherson museum website? (I only ask as I saw a native speaker online say that this seemed incorrect to them)

Thank you in advance :)

Reading stuff onlline I offten come accross Gaelic that is very different to the "standard" way of speaking. This is usually true of any language teaching. If we think of the way we were taught english we know that outside of school we rarely spoke like that. Gaelic in its colloquaill form seems to use a lot of truncation and apostrophes and turns of phrases that arent found in most learning manuals. A bheil duine an seo a b urrain do luaidh eisimpleirean? I really want to learn stuff that people actually say, and more importantly be able to understand it. I saw one phrase " 'S beag m' fhios" and as I understand it it is another form of saying I dont know, or No idea. But 's beag m' fhios how to pronounce it, I mean where the emphasis would land etc.

Bithinn gle thangeil airson cobhair le seo.

Hi,

There used to be a video on YouTube of a documentary interview with several old Canadian men speaking in Gaelic about how they were forbidden from speaking the language in elementary school, and then singing songs together in that language.

I used to be able to find it quite easily by typing "Canadian Gaelic spoken" or "Canadian Gaelic interview," but it seems to have disappeared.

Did anyone else ever see that video, and do you know where I could find it?

It was really beautiful and heartwarming

I understand this is a very strange request but I'm going to post it anyway. If it doesn't fit with the rules of this subreddit I apologize, please delete and I'll try to find somewhere else to ask the question!

So my wife got me a very nice sword for our 10 year anniversary. We are both Scottish by ancestry, so the sword she bought was a Scottish style sword. I am currently working on making a scabbard for it (which is not relevant to this conversation, just something I'm excited about right now).

Now, all good swords have names so I wanted to give it a name. I think gaidhlig would be a good direction for it given it's style and ancestry. My problem is I can just look at dictionaries/translations to come up with a name, but language is way more complicated than that. So a word that might have multiple layered meanings in english when translated would lose most of the layers (and potentially gain different ones, that might not be appropriate/contextual). So I wanted to try to run it by Gaidhlig speakers for help, or at least to make fun of me for such poor word choices.

So the meaning I'm trying for is somewhere in the family of "seeker/searcher/pathfinder/etc". Both from a backwoods literal context, as well as a philosophical one. The best I could find online was "Lorgaire" but I'm afraid that might not mean at all what I hope it does.

So, any input/thoughts/etc? Again, if this is against the rules on this sub I apologize!

For example if I am the author of a book, I would say it is "mo leabhar" <my book>, right? Not "an leabhar agam", because it will always be ~my~ book. I couldn't find anything about this online and I don't trust google translate. It seems pretty logical to me that it would work like that, but I still wanted to confirm it here.

[English below]

Fàilte gu snàth cabadaich na seachdaine

Tha an snàth seo do dhuine sam bith a tha airson cabadaich mu chàil sam bith sa Gàidhlig gun snàth ùr a thòiseachadh (ach faodaidh tu ma thogras tu).

• Feumaidh tu post ann an Gàidhlig (gu susbainteach co-dhiù, tha beagan suidseadh còd nàdarra obviously taghta)
• Faodaidh tu cabadaich mu chàil sam bith a thogras tu.
• Na biodh iomagain ort mu dhèidhinn mhearachdan (co-dhiù do chuid fhèin, no a nì càch).
• Chan fhaodar Google Translate (no a leithid) a chleachdadh airson postadh a chruthachadh.

—

Welcome to the weekly learners' chat thread

This thread is for anyone who wants to chat about anything in Gaelic without starting a new thread (though you can if you want).

• You must post in Gaelic (substantially at least, a bit of natural code switching is fine)
• Chat about anything you like.
• Don't worry about mistakes (either yours or anyone else's)
• No using Google Translate (or any other machine translator) to create posts.

Siuthad!

One of the most obvvious ones are Bòd and Bod ( Bute and Penis) but there must be many more. Feel free to contribute here with any you know of. Comedic value a plus but not essential to the subject

Halò! I'm new to learning Gaidhlig so apologies everything is in English. I've only been learning for about a month and admittedly have been using duolingo. I dont know what people's opinions are on that and how useful it is for learning the language.

Anyway, I'm currently learning clothing. One thing I've noticed is that there's use of both 'aig' and 'air' to say someone has something on. Phrases in duolingo are like, 'tha còta aig iain,' or 'tha sgoirt air anna.' I'm wondering what the difference between aig and air are and when to use them correctly. Are there masculine or feminine differences to the usage of both or can anyone explain please? There's no direction on duolingo as to what the differences are.

Tapadh leat in advance.

Hey, as title suggests, I'm looking for people in Glasgow to speak Gàidhlig with. I went to a Ghàidhlig primary and nursery and used to be 100% fluent, but since I left the school and had no one to speak with, I've lost a lot of my ability. Trying to get it back now, but I think my efforts will be largely futile if I'm only speaking to myself lol. Let me know if there's anyone in Glasgow who's at least at a conversational level, or indeed anywhere in Scotland tbh. Cheers

Edit: dumb corrections

Is there such a thing as Gàlish like there is Spanglish? I would think that they’re would be considering every Gàidhlig speaker is bilingual?

I’m moving house this weekend and have been trying to think of a nice (possibly funny) house name in Gaelic. Anything so far I’ve thought of in English translates into something either too long or that I don’t like. So I’m looking for some suggestions. My parents house is called Ar Dachaigh and my current house is called Torchwood (my the 6 year old kept saying “Welcome to Torchwood” every time someone came to the door!)

Open to any suggestions but want to stay away from rude translations!

EDIT: my new house is going to be called “An Taigh-Caothaich” (mad house, lunatic asylum!) perfectly sums up me, my boys & my cats 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Tha mi a’ bruidhinn sa bheurla, duilich !!. My mother passed not so long ago and I was wanting to get the quote "untill we meet again" in Gaelic and I was wondering if anyone was able to translate this into Gàighlig, I'm just concerned I may get the grammar wrong ect. Your help would be much appreciated.

Learning Gaelic on Duolingo or SpeakGaelic, or elsewhere? Or maybe you're thinking about it?

If you've got any quick language learning questions, stick them below and the community can try to help you.

NB: You can always start a separate post if you want – that might be better for more involved questions.

I found this jacobite song Oran do Phriunnsa Tearlach and i found the lyrics to it on the internet, but due to the lenght of the song it seem like they don't sing all the lyrics of the song in this version. Can someone help me identify which stanzas(stanza: group of verses, verse line in a poem or song) they sing?

Here are the lyrics in gaelic:

1. Fhir ud tha thail ma àiridh nan Comhaichean,

B'fhearr leam t'hin gu'n cinneadh gnothach leat,

Shiubhlainn Gleann-laoidh a's Gleann'-comhanleat

Dà thaobh Loch-iall a's Gleann'-tadha leat

, Hillirin O an na ho ro,

'S na hillirin O an na ho ri;

Na hillirin O an na ho ro,

Mo lean-dubh mòr o'n chaidh tu dhinn.

2. Shiubhlainn moch leat, shiubhlainn anamoch,

Air feadh choilltean, chreagan 's gharbhlach;

O! gur h-e mo rion an sealgair,

'S tu mo raghainn do shluagh Alba.

Hillirin O an na ho ro,

'S na hillirin O an na ho ri;

Na hillirin O an na ho ro,

Mo leandubh mor o'n chaidh tu dhinn.

3. A Thearlaich oig a chuilein chiataich,

Thug mi gaol dhuit 's cha ghaol bliadhna,

Gaol nach tugainn do dhuicna dh' iarla,

B'fhearr leam fhein nach fhac' mi riamh thu.

Hillirin O an na ho ro,

'S na hillirin O an na ho ri;

Na hillirin O an na ho ro,

Mo leandubh mor o'n chaidh tu dhinn.

4. Fhleasgaich ud am beul a' ghlinne,

Le t-fhalt dualach sois my d' shlinnean,

B' annsa leam na chauch bu bhinne,

'Nuair dheanach tu rium do chomhradh milis.

Hillirin O an na ho ro,

'S na hillirin O an na ho ri;

Na hillirin O an na ho ro,

Mo leandubh mor o'n chaidh tu dhinn.

5.Bha do phòg mar fhion na Frainge,

Bha do ghruaidh mar bbraileig shàmhraidh,

Sùil chorrach ghorm fo'd'mhala ghreannar,

Do chul dualach, ruadh, a mheall mi.

Hillirin O an na ho ro,

'S na hillirin O an na ho ri;

Na hillirin O an na ho ro,

Mo leandubh mor o'n chaidh tu dhinn.

6.A Thearlaich òig a mhic Righ Séumas,

Chunna mi toir mhùr an deigh ort,

ladsan gu subhach a's mise gu deurach,

Uisge mo chinn tigh'n' tinn o'm lèirsinn.

Hillirin O an na ho ro,

'S na hillirin O an na ho ri;

Na hillirin O an na ho ro,

Mo leandubh mor o'n chaidh tu dhinn.

7. Mharbh iad m' athair 's mo dha bhrathair;

Mhill iad mo chinneadh 's chreach iad mo chairdean;

Sgrois iad mo dhuthaich, ruisg iad mo mhathair;

S' bu laoghaid mo mhulad nan cinneadh le Tearrlach.

Hillirin O an na ho ro,

'S na hillirin O an na ho ri;

Na hillirin O an na ho ro,

Mo leandubh mor o'n chaidh tu dhinn.

Edit - title is wrong, the name itself is not Gaelic!

Apologies for the english. My birth name is ‘Chaeli’, and I’ve had a lot of people from Scotland/Ireland tell me in passing that they recognise it as a Scottish Gaelic word.

I know absolutely nothing about Gaelic as I have no Scottish ancestry and would love to learn more ab pronunciation and similar words if any come to mind? Google hasn’t helped me all that much.

Sorry for this being on Beurla and not Gàidhlig,

But, I will be doing a talk in class in the next few days on Gaelic Poetry I need some help with it.

I need help with some poetic techniques that are unique to Gàidhlig. I know a tiny bit about Gaelic Techniques but not a lot.

Please, if anyone can help that would be much appreciated!

Mòran taing!

[English below]

Fàilte gu snàth cabadaich na seachdaine

Tha an snàth seo do dhuine sam bith a tha airson cabadaich mu chàil sam bith sa Gàidhlig gun snàth ùr a thòiseachadh (ach faodaidh tu ma thogras tu).

• Feumaidh tu post ann an Gàidhlig (gu susbainteach co-dhiù, tha beagan suidseadh còd nàdarra obviously taghta)
• Faodaidh tu cabadaich mu chàil sam bith a thogras tu.
• Na biodh iomagain ort mu dhèidhinn mhearachdan (co-dhiù do chuid fhèin, no a nì càch).
• Chan fhaodar Google Translate (no a leithid) a chleachdadh airson postadh a chruthachadh.

—

Welcome to the weekly learners' chat thread

This thread is for anyone who wants to chat about anything in Gaelic without starting a new thread (though you can if you want).

• You must post in Gaelic (substantially at least, a bit of natural code switching is fine)
• Chat about anything you like.
• Don't worry about mistakes (either yours or anyone else's)
• No using Google Translate (or any other machine translator) to create posts.

Siuthad!

I don’t remember much but it was quite blocky looking? I think one of the characters was a blue elephant. It was made in Gaidhlig, or was at least dubbed, and i remember watching it in school. So maybe late 2000s-2010s?

Hi there!

I am creating a welcome sign for a hallway that says “Our Family Home”, can anyone tell me if this would be correct as “an dachaigh teaghlaich againn” or “oran baile teaghlach”? My understanding was that “baile” refers more to a village or settlement - Google is no help! Thanks :)

https://youtu.be/xrcHyq4Ce8I?si=L0rZoiotf7CiNVKg I really like this song and want to use the lyrics to help me learn Gaelic is there anyone willing to transcribe it for me? (I've found similar songs' lyrics but they don't seem to quite match up)