Looking for a Scottish Gaelic dictionary

**kilted2000** · 17th January 22, 06:14 PM

I started trying to learn Scottish Gaelic about a month ago and I’m in need of a good Gaelic to English dictionary. What would you recommend?

Also, quick question, how mutually intelligible are Scottish and Irish Gaelic?

**DCampbell16B** · 17th January 22, 07:55 PM

Dwelly's was the standard decades ago. IIRC there is an older dictionary posted on Gutenberg.org, but it will be quite different from modern spoken Gaelic. Honestly, I don't know what the most recent dictionary is. Google is pretty good for individual words. More importantly what are you using as a primer? I recommend Roderick Thomson's Teach Yourself Gaelic. But you will need to hear it. There are Youtube videos of introductory Gaelic.

Irish and Scottish Gaelic have such a variety of dialects that there is no simple answer to that. Aran Islanders and Lewis Islanders are speaking different languages. But Islay Islanders and Donegal speakers are fairly close. Donegal Irish uses similar negatives to Scottish Gaelic, differing from standard taught Irish.

**DunRovinStation** · 17th January 22, 08:50 PM

I HIGHLY recommend the radio garden app for your phone. There are several stations, especially in Northern Scotland and the Island that are in SGaelic.
I tried to learn it years ago, but all my brain hears is Norwegian, and it tries to hard to focus on that. LOL.I think my poor brain has maxed out on languages.

**figheadair** · 17th January 22, 11:58 PM

Irish and Scottish Gaelic have a common root but this is now considerable difference between the two. As an example, here is the phrase Good night; Sleep peacefully in both.

Gaeilge (Irish): Oíche mhaith; Codladh sámh (pronounced: Ee-ha wah; Kul-ah saw-v)

Gàidhlig (Scottish): Oidhche mhath; cadal sàmhach (Oy-cha Va; Kart-al sav-ach)

In terms of a Gaelic dictionary, the Gaelic Lexicon is an excellent online source.

**YOJiMBO20** · 18th January 22, 07:19 AM

I’ve been learning Gàidhlig since June using Duolingo, supplementing it with info from learngaelic.scot which happens to have a useful dictionary that includes IPA pronunciation as well as an audio file of someone speaking the word or phrase.