Any Scots Gaelic speakers here?

[Eric Schutte]

Urchurdan and Paul,

Ciamar a tha thu mo caraidh? Is mise Eric agus sann an Cusick, Washington State, USA, a tha mi. Se Garda (policeman) a th'anam.

OK guys, that will be all for Eric's lousy Gaelic today until I can get a Scots gaelic dictionary....stay tuned. It may taker a little while but I will translate and then answer your posts...Thank you very much for helping me.

Eric

[Dall_Piobaire]

Eric..check out Beag a Beag on the BBC! You might want to get tapes so you can listen to the pronounciation as well.

[Eric Schutte]

Dall Piobaire,

Thanks my friend. I have now added that site to my favorites and will study it dilligently....

Of course that will be after I study my new bagpipe tunes.....

Thanks again,

Eric

[Dall_Piobaire]

Ha, I know from whence you come. Have you joined Gilivray's pipetunes site? There is another good one for ya!

[Urchurdan]

Urchurdan and Paul,

Ciamar a tha thu mo caraidh? Is mise Eric agus sann an Cusick, Washington State, USA, a tha mi. Se Garda (policeman) a th'anam.

OK guys, that will be all for Eric's lousy Gaelic today until I can get a Scots gaelic dictionary....stay tuned. It may taker a little while but I will translate and then answer your posts...Thank you very much for helping me.

Eric

Halo a' Eric, Tha mi gu math tapadh leat. Tha do Ghaidlig sgoinneil.

That was good advice from Dall piobaire (Blind piper, unless his name is Dall?)
Listen to the sounds, thats important. Piping too? I am impressed...One wee thing, a Garda is an Irish Policeman, Scottish Gaelic can be - Poileasman or fear poilis (policeman) or perhaps oifigear poilis (police officer) - the more modern useage is Poileasman - sounds like it looks pole aish man
Tom....

[Paul]

Halo a' Eric, Tha mi gu math tapadh leat. Tha do Ghaidlig sgoinneil.

That was good advice from Dall piobaire (Blind piper, unless his name is Dall?)
Listen to the sounds, thats important. Piping too? I am impressed...One wee thing, a Garda is an Irish Policeman, Poileasman or fear poilis (policeman)
or perhaps oifigear poilis (police officer) is Scottish - the more modern useage is Poileasman - sounds like it looks pole aish man
Tom....

I really need to attach pronunciations to words more. I can speak things I can't write and write things I can't speak!

[Eric Schutte]

Urchurdan and Paul,

Thoir mathanas mo caraid.....Is mise a Siorram, nach Garda. Tapadh leat ri do foighidinn.

Is mise miannaich sibh slan leat! Toilich, gleidh an comhradh siuthad!!

Slainte!

Eric

[Urchurdan]

Well done Eric, grammar for today:-

Is mise siorram.... My name is sheriff...or I am sheriff....

When saying what you do (occupation) you say 'se siorram a th'annam.. literally 'it is a sheriff in me...The gaelic construction takes a bit of getting used to, as it is such an archaic language, for instance Dall piobaire, Dall is using that as a name, which is fine - but in Gaelic, the construction is noun then adjective so if you were saying blind piper, it would be piobaire dall.
You are doing so well for an absolute beginner, keep it up....it gets harder as you go along - sorry, I wish I could say it gets easier, but......

Mar sin leat an drasta.....Tomas Macanta Urchurdan...See if you can work out my middle name, It describes me quite well, I would never make a siorram....

[Eric Schutte]

Halo Urchurdan,

Macanta = Meek one? Am I correct? Also thanks for straightening me out on my grammar. I'll keep trying to keep proper sentence structure in mind.

Sincerely,

Eric

[Urchurdan]

Meek, tha sin ceart, sgoinneil.....

Aye, its not easy, remember, in the sentence, the verb comes first, then the noun then adjectives.
Tha sin ceart. (ha shin kersht) Literally - is-that-right. Remember the verb comes first but putting it into engish, it translates as 'that is right'.
Don't panic lol it will start coming together, start at the beginning with pronunciations and sentence structure, don't try to be too ambitious and it will start to make sense.
Try to translate these.
Tha mi duilich. Tha e sgith. Tha iad blath. Tha sinn fluich. Tha teant agam. Tha feileadh agat. Tha seacaid aige. Tha cu agam. Tha mo c(h)u dubh. Tha seacht sgiannan d(h)ubh aga.
A tip, watch the lention ie an 'h' is added after the first letter of some words, i have bracketted them above so as hopefully not to confuse you.
My first name for instance in Gaelic is Tomas, in English this is spelt Thomas. This really isn't correct, as when you put the 'H' in, the 'T' becomes silent, so Thomas should be said as 'Homas. (Hoe-mash) If I say my name I say Is mise Tomas ( I am Tomas) However, if you address a man who has a Gaelic name, you lenit it - add the 'H' after the first letter, so then you would say - Halo a' 'Homas. The 'A' is the equivalent of the olde English 'O' so you are literally saying Hallo O Tomas.
Anyway, Tha mi duillich - your head will be reeling by now, I will leave you to digest this and go and get ready to go to work,
Feasgar mhath.... Tom.....