Stumped...

[Blu (Ontario)]

I've been wearing a kilt on and off for the better part of 5 years now and like many of you have heard most of the standard comments, compliments, jibes, and jokes. Ive learned a few good come-backs and tend not to let any of it get under my skin. There is, however, one particular situation that tends to leave me bereft of a response... and that's being spoken to in gaelic... usually by an older Scot.

This has happened 7 or 8 times now and the last time (this past weekend), I wasn't even wearing a kilt! I'm thinking that it would perhaps be a nice gesture to learn a couple of light generic phrases so as to be able to respond in kind. I'm a guy who understands english (mostly) and a bit of high school french. I did manage to stumble my way through a couple of Italian phrases at my daughters wedding. But I don't particularly have a bent for languages and I think it's a bit late in the game to get into studying this one.

From time to time, I see a few gaelic phrases being tossed around the board in posts and sigs. I have to assume there are at least a few Xmarks members who speak it or are familiar with it. I guess I'm trying to determine how best to approach this. Proper pronunciation would obviously be a challenge. Berlitz comes to mind but I think that costs about the same as traditional heavyweight. Any suggestions from the Xmarks gaelic contingent??... I'm stumped! ??:

blu

[Riverkilt]

Good to know the language is still alive up there in the old country.

Here's an elementary Gaelic site I bookmarked when I signed on with an on line Yahoo Gaelic group that folded. Think there may be others too.

Google is your friend...

http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/ionnsachadh/ECG/

My experience trying to learn Gaelic was very similar to my experience trying to learn Navajo....

Ron

[Doc Hudson]

See the links in this thread:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...aelic+Language

[Archangel]

Maybe that's unique to here, I had that happen last year. Mind, it was rude but there you go... If it sounds a bit like "back my hand", it's rude. Firstfoot.com has many phrases but no pronunciation guide.

[Graham]

I had an Irish drunk swear me in gaelic in our local town. He assumed that since I was kilted, I would know what he said.

He was drunk so I ignored him.

[highlander_Daz]

Scots Gaidhlig is a beautiful language, the pronounciation is very different than how it is written.

My favourite website is

http://www.taic.btinternet.co.uk/taic.htm
as you can download sound clips.

I would suggest that you learn a few phrases, record yourself and compare to the sound clip.
its eaisier to understand than it is to actually converse but good luck

[Freelander Sporrano]

Here's a couple more
http://www.savegaelic.org/index.php
Theres a forum here too.

then there this one
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/alba/f...eag_air_bheag/
Good old Aunty Beeb.....

[An t-Ileach]

There's an old Highland saying that if you meet a man wearing the kilt then his language is Gaelic. No longer true, I suppose.

If you are familiar with certain European sound combinations (especially Spanish, German, and French) then you can pronounce Gaelic, no matter how it's spelled. There's a nasal quality about most Gaelic vowels. Forget about "dark" and "light" ells; most Gaelic speakers will understand.

Here's a few phrases:

Madainn mhath (matin - as in French, 'cos that's where it came from - vaa) Good morning
Feasgar math (fesker maa) Good afternoon; Good evening
Oidhche mhath ((ö as in German) - ö ikhye vaa) Good night

Dè mar a tha sibh? OR Ciamar a tha sibh? (Je mara ha shiv? Cemara ha shiv?) How are you?
Tha gu math, tapadh leibh (Ha gumaa, tahpa lev) I'm fine, thank you

Moran taing (ain as in French 'in' - moran tinc) Thanks a lot

Slàinte mhath! (slaanche vaa) Good health!

Saor Alba! (Sör alapa) Freedom for Scotland/Independence for Scotland!

Alba/Eireann gu brath! (Alapa/Eren gu bra) Scotland/Ireland for ever!

Fèileadh beag (é as in French - féla bek) kilt
Fèileadh mòr (féla mor) great kilt

How're those for a while? Best of luck.

[highlander_Daz]

bear in mind your more likely to meet nessie than a gaidhlig speaker in most parts of scotland, I think at the last count it was 75,000 out of 5 million.

shame

[highlander_Daz]

David nice to see you prounounced "slainthe" correctly with the ch sound instead of "Slanj" its like people who say "auld langs zyne" instead of syne.

My grandfather used to get thumped at school for speaking in gaidhlig. it was seen as a riff raffs language. he could speak both Scots and Irish versions as his father was an Irishman.