Once again duilich! for the long delay in posting. It's been hard to keep up with Gàidhlig at the moment as so much is going on. Where to begin?
First of all, the classes aren't on any more so I don't have that regular weekly memory jog. I really ought to have gone back to the Cearcall Còmhraidh, but I couldn't be bothered going along to the other end of Sràid a' Phrionnsa. Leisg, I know, but that's the honest truth.
Secondly, Tormod and I don't talk and text nearly as much as we used to, and if I'm honest, this friendship was one of the main drivers behind learning Gaelic as I had to learn it on the spot. These things happen and it's sad, but that's the way things go.
Thirdly, I'm in the process of buying a taigh, which is starting to be a bit of a b**lache. That, coupled with the fact that...
Fourthly, I have a new job and I'm moving to A' Ghearmailt. Not great for learning Gaelic, but interestingly Scottish Gaelic seems to be unusually and surprisingly popular* there. Maybe I'll manage to continue learning.
In any case, I'll still try and carry on learning. I've been inspired by a good writer friend of mine who started her own blog (no longer existing) to track her progress in learning Polish. She's now been learning it for five years and seems pretty good, all because she was dogged in her desire to learn it. I too am very tenacious (to a fault, it turns out), so I'm sure I'll keep at it. Plus, to all those who think they're getting "too old" to learn a new language, she was in her late 30s** when she started, so there's no excuse! (Yes, I'm looking at you. You know who you are.)
* "popular" is always a very relative term when it comes to Gàidhlig
** I really don't consider late 30s or early 40s old at all, even though mid to late 40s used to be the world average life expectancy as recently as 1950!
Tuesday, 28 June 2016
Thursday, 21 April 2016
Latha na #Gàidhlig
'S e latha na Gàidhlig a th'ann an-diugh! And so it's time for an update.
When I started this blog, I had secretly hoped that my learning would be filled with weekly or even daily discoveries of new and exciting vocabulary and grammatical epiphanies. I'd read blogs by other friends and acquaintances who tracked their progress in learning a new language and I'd hoped to do the same. BUT... there's one problem in my case - tha mi glè glè leisg. Seriously lazy. I spend the large majority of the twenty-four hours of the day in a horizontal position. Work does take up a lot of my time and so the last thing I feel like doing afterwards is stare at a screen* browsing Learngaelic.scot or struggling with the silly sound files on Taic.
When I first started learning German and French properly during high school, I really went at it. My zeal back then amazes me even now! I would memorise endless vocab lists and read aloud passage after passage just because I loved hearing the nasal sounds of French or the back-of-throat German sounds come out of my mouth. When I couldn't sleep, I would have conversations in my head between a French person and a German person (with the occasional Italian rudely interrupting) to pass the time and hopefully send me to sleep. Sometimes, though, I didn't know a word and just HAD to look it up. So three small dictionaries lay on the floor next to my bunk bed for about three years.
But I don't do any of this now. I don't need to for French or German. But maybe I should start up night-time Gaelic conversations to help me sleep. If I'm honest, though, despite all that effort, my French and German really progressed when I visited France and Germany. Speaking the language with speakers of that language really is the best way to learn it. By far. And I don't do that in Gaelic. So that's my #goal for the next few months. Speak more. Listen more too. Learn all these words ending in -adh. I'll need to start torturing Tormod with my super-slow mangled Gaelic more regularly. Friendships need testing every now and then anyway ;-)
And then maybe by the next Latha na Gàidhlig I'll feel sufficiently justified to add Scottish Gaelic to my list of languages on Facebook. Cuz that's what matters, right?
P.S. Really getting into Beag Air Bheag le Iain Urchardan. It's not super easy but they speak slowly enough that I can note down words I dinnae ken.
* yes, yes, I know a smartphone has a screen. Pipe down! No more questions or comments! (Jokes! Please comment if you take the notion)
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| from SocialMediaAlba.scot |
When I started this blog, I had secretly hoped that my learning would be filled with weekly or even daily discoveries of new and exciting vocabulary and grammatical epiphanies. I'd read blogs by other friends and acquaintances who tracked their progress in learning a new language and I'd hoped to do the same. BUT... there's one problem in my case - tha mi glè glè leisg. Seriously lazy. I spend the large majority of the twenty-four hours of the day in a horizontal position. Work does take up a lot of my time and so the last thing I feel like doing afterwards is stare at a screen* browsing Learngaelic.scot or struggling with the silly sound files on Taic.
When I first started learning German and French properly during high school, I really went at it. My zeal back then amazes me even now! I would memorise endless vocab lists and read aloud passage after passage just because I loved hearing the nasal sounds of French or the back-of-throat German sounds come out of my mouth. When I couldn't sleep, I would have conversations in my head between a French person and a German person (with the occasional Italian rudely interrupting) to pass the time and hopefully send me to sleep. Sometimes, though, I didn't know a word and just HAD to look it up. So three small dictionaries lay on the floor next to my bunk bed for about three years.
But I don't do any of this now. I don't need to for French or German. But maybe I should start up night-time Gaelic conversations to help me sleep. If I'm honest, though, despite all that effort, my French and German really progressed when I visited France and Germany. Speaking the language with speakers of that language really is the best way to learn it. By far. And I don't do that in Gaelic. So that's my #goal for the next few months. Speak more. Listen more too. Learn all these words ending in -adh. I'll need to start torturing Tormod with my super-slow mangled Gaelic more regularly. Friendships need testing every now and then anyway ;-)
And then maybe by the next Latha na Gàidhlig I'll feel sufficiently justified to add Scottish Gaelic to my list of languages on Facebook. Cuz that's what matters, right?
P.S. Really getting into Beag Air Bheag le Iain Urchardan. It's not super easy but they speak slowly enough that I can note down words I dinnae ken.
* yes, yes, I know a smartphone has a screen. Pipe down! No more questions or comments! (Jokes! Please comment if you take the notion)
Thursday, 3 March 2016
Air an t-slighe dhachaigh bhon mhonadh
Latha math dhuibh. Only two weeks remain of my Gaelic course and the class has dwindled down to a faithful remnant. We are following the structure of "Can Seo" which covers the comings and goings of Swotty Mary and ADHD John to and from the moor, with or without the dog or shinty stick. Apparently, 's toil le Iain a bhith anns a' mhonadh ach 's fheàrr le Mairi a bhith aig an taigh còmhla ri a màthair.
The teacher is pleasant and friendly enough. I'm just struggling to take stock of what I have learnt concretely over the weeks.
I'd say one of the things I definitely have a better grip on is the dative case - I now get how the little floating "t-" disappears after "air" or "anns an" for masculine nouns beginning with a vowel, etc., etc. That said, we haven't really covered feminine nouns and it was only yesterday that we looked at the slenderisation of the end of feminine nouns in the dative (what the...?? how on earth do I pronounce 'chaileig', 'làir'? Is this change noticeable in fast speech?). All the same, I'm no longer shocked or confused by the whole thing. A' dol dhan mhonadh and a' coiseachd air an rathad faisg air a' mhuir repeatedly does hammer the point dhachaigh eventually.
As for the genitive, don't ask..
Anyway, yesterday was the feasts of Saints Fergna Britt, Slebhene and Suibhne (Sweeney) a b'e abachan an Eilein Ì a bh'annta. So there you go.
The teacher is pleasant and friendly enough. I'm just struggling to take stock of what I have learnt concretely over the weeks.
I'd say one of the things I definitely have a better grip on is the dative case - I now get how the little floating "t-" disappears after "air" or "anns an" for masculine nouns beginning with a vowel, etc., etc. That said, we haven't really covered feminine nouns and it was only yesterday that we looked at the slenderisation of the end of feminine nouns in the dative (what the...?? how on earth do I pronounce 'chaileig', 'làir'? Is this change noticeable in fast speech?). All the same, I'm no longer shocked or confused by the whole thing. A' dol dhan mhonadh and a' coiseachd air an rathad faisg air a' mhuir repeatedly does hammer the point dhachaigh eventually.
As for the genitive, don't ask..
Anyway, yesterday was the feasts of Saints Fergna Britt, Slebhene and Suibhne (Sweeney) a b'e abachan an Eilein Ì a bh'annta. So there you go.
Wednesday, 6 January 2016
Back from Saor-Laithean
Bliadhna Mhath Ùr!
Gabhaibh mo leisgeul for the long absence. Life gets in the way, ken? Quite a few updates to report on later. And hopefully I'll manage to update this a little more regularly than I have done.
For starters, last December I went to my first bothan ann an Dùn Éideann with Alasdair Mac Ille Bhain (Whyte) á Muile (Mull). I hope to go to another this month, though as yet there has been no news thereof.
I'll also be restarting my Gaelic lessons with the cooncil towards the end of January. That should give me some fodder for this blog, tha mi an dòchas.
Best wishes for 2016!
Gabhaibh mo leisgeul for the long absence. Life gets in the way, ken? Quite a few updates to report on later. And hopefully I'll manage to update this a little more regularly than I have done.
For starters, last December I went to my first bothan ann an Dùn Éideann with Alasdair Mac Ille Bhain (Whyte) á Muile (Mull). I hope to go to another this month, though as yet there has been no news thereof.
I'll also be restarting my Gaelic lessons with the cooncil towards the end of January. That should give me some fodder for this blog, tha mi an dòchas.
Best wishes for 2016!
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| Dealbh bhon Street Party air Sràid nam Prionnsan ann an Dùn Éideann. Chan eil cuimhne agam air mòran idir, ge-tà... |
Tuesday, 20 October 2015
Gaelic lull...
Seall far a bheil mi gu ruige seo!
Sorry there hasn't been a post for a few weeks. There was no Gaelic class last week and I forgot to post an update the week before.
So far, we've learnt about a few of the different ways of saying 'the'*. The word for 'the' changes depending on whether the noun is masculine or feminine, and whether it is in the nominative case or the dative case.
Masculine nominative
an before c, d, g, l, n, r, s, t
am before b, f, m, p
an t- before a vowel
Examples: an taigh, an ceann, an leabaidh, am peann, am bàta, an t-ìm, an t-achadh
Masculine dative (the dative is used after prepositions)
a' with the following noun aspirated (an h is inserted after the first consonant, except d and t)
an before a vowel
Examples: leis a' pheann, air a' bhòrd, anns an achadh
Feminine nominative
a' with following noun aspirated if starting with b, c, f, g, m, p
(There are more rules but this is all we've learnt so far for feminine nouns)
We've also learnt a few things about the verb Bi (To Be, as featured earlier)
The present tense has four forms:
tha - this is the positive independent form Ex. Tha mi sgìth - I am tired
chan eil - this is the negative form Ex. Chan eil mi sgìth - I am not tired.
a bheil - this is the positive question form Ex. A bheil thu sgìth? - Are you tired?
nach eil - this is the negative question form Ex. Nach eil thu sgìth? - Aren't you tired?
The past also has four forms like the present tense:
bha - this is the positive independent form Ex. Bha mi sgìth - I was tired
cha robh - this is the negative form Ex. Cha robh mi sgìth - I was not tired.
an robh - this is the positive question form Ex. An robh thu sgìth? - Were you tired?
nach robh - this is the negative question form Ex. Nach robh thu sgìth? - Weren't you tired?
The future has four forms, but there is also an extra form after words like question words:
bidh - this is the positive independent form Ex. Bidh mi sgìth - I will be tired
cha bhi - this is the negative form Ex. Cha bhi mi sgìth - I won't be tired.
am bi - this is the positive question form Ex. Am bi thu sgìth? - Will you be tired?
nach bi - this is the negative question form Ex. Nach eil thu sgìth? - Won't you be tired?
cuine (etc.) bhitheas - the relative form Ex. Cuine bhitheas tu air ais? - When will you be back?
*And I thought German was bad... At least der, die and das are a little more different from each other than an, a', an t-, etc.
Sorry there hasn't been a post for a few weeks. There was no Gaelic class last week and I forgot to post an update the week before.
So far, we've learnt about a few of the different ways of saying 'the'*. The word for 'the' changes depending on whether the noun is masculine or feminine, and whether it is in the nominative case or the dative case.
Masculine nominative
an before c, d, g, l, n, r, s, t
am before b, f, m, p
an t- before a vowel
Examples: an taigh, an ceann, an leabaidh, am peann, am bàta, an t-ìm, an t-achadh
Masculine dative (the dative is used after prepositions)
a' with the following noun aspirated (an h is inserted after the first consonant, except d and t)
an before a vowel
Examples: leis a' pheann, air a' bhòrd, anns an achadh
Feminine nominative
a' with following noun aspirated if starting with b, c, f, g, m, p
(There are more rules but this is all we've learnt so far for feminine nouns)
We've also learnt a few things about the verb Bi (To Be, as featured earlier)
The present tense has four forms:
tha - this is the positive independent form Ex. Tha mi sgìth - I am tired
chan eil - this is the negative form Ex. Chan eil mi sgìth - I am not tired.
a bheil - this is the positive question form Ex. A bheil thu sgìth? - Are you tired?
nach eil - this is the negative question form Ex. Nach eil thu sgìth? - Aren't you tired?
The past also has four forms like the present tense:
bha - this is the positive independent form Ex. Bha mi sgìth - I was tired
cha robh - this is the negative form Ex. Cha robh mi sgìth - I was not tired.
an robh - this is the positive question form Ex. An robh thu sgìth? - Were you tired?
nach robh - this is the negative question form Ex. Nach robh thu sgìth? - Weren't you tired?
The future has four forms, but there is also an extra form after words like question words:
bidh - this is the positive independent form Ex. Bidh mi sgìth - I will be tired
cha bhi - this is the negative form Ex. Cha bhi mi sgìth - I won't be tired.
am bi - this is the positive question form Ex. Am bi thu sgìth? - Will you be tired?
nach bi - this is the negative question form Ex. Nach eil thu sgìth? - Won't you be tired?
cuine (etc.) bhitheas - the relative form Ex. Cuine bhitheas tu air ais? - When will you be back?
*And I thought German was bad... At least der, die and das are a little more different from each other than an, a', an t-, etc.
Thursday, 24 September 2015
Trèanaichean
Over the last few weeks I've been reading the surprisingly interesting blog Trèanaichean, tramaichean is tràilidhean by Alasdair MacCaluim. I say surprising because I wouldn't consider myself someone who is particularly interested in trains. But Mr MacCaluim's blog is very good. It's also all in Gaelic so it's excellent for reading practice. I often read it on the bus where I don't have easy access to dictionaries so I reckon I only understand about 30%, or maybe less, but I do think it's helping me to learn vocab and expressions.
For example, in a recent post he mentions meadhanan sòisealta which I didn't understand at first. But then, given the context of the rest of the post (mentioning Twitter, etc.), I realised that sòisealta sounds a lot like social when said aloud, and meadhanan looks a bit like media. So a reasonable guess would be that meadhanan sòisealta is 'social media' in Gaelic.
A lot of language learning is like this and I find it most effective. I remember similar things happening when learning German, weirdly by knowing the etymological Latin roots of English words and morphemes and thinking of their German equivalents. Who says etymology ain't feumail (useful)?
Anyway, the other reason I like reading the blog is that my nephews (one in particular) are a bit mad about trains. While some of this might just be Thomas-mania, I think they're going beyond that to being interested in trains for themselves, the way they work, where the railways go, etc. So it might come in handy reading all about trèanaichean!
For example, in a recent post he mentions meadhanan sòisealta which I didn't understand at first. But then, given the context of the rest of the post (mentioning Twitter, etc.), I realised that sòisealta sounds a lot like social when said aloud, and meadhanan looks a bit like media. So a reasonable guess would be that meadhanan sòisealta is 'social media' in Gaelic.
A lot of language learning is like this and I find it most effective. I remember similar things happening when learning German, weirdly by knowing the etymological Latin roots of English words and morphemes and thinking of their German equivalents. Who says etymology ain't feumail (useful)?
Anyway, the other reason I like reading the blog is that my nephews (one in particular) are a bit mad about trains. While some of this might just be Thomas-mania, I think they're going beyond that to being interested in trains for themselves, the way they work, where the railways go, etc. So it might come in handy reading all about trèanaichean!
Gaelic class and manly nouns
Well, as I suspected, the class I wanted to go to was cancelled due to a lack of uptake so I moved to the same level but on another night. The unfortunate thing is that this is at the same time as the cearcall so no more cearcall till around Christmas, if not April next year!
The class was fairly simple which is to be expected for the first one. All the same, it did get into some grammar points, yet with an emphasis on speaking. We discussed the dative or prepositional case for masculine nouns.
The rules for the definite article of masculine nouns is as follows:
- if the noun starts with a b, f, m, p (labials), the article is am
- if the noun starts with a vowel, the article is an t-
- if the noun starts with anything else, the article is an
However, if the noun follows a preposition such as air (on), aig (at), anns (in + def. art.), etc., the article and the noun change:
- if the noun starts with a vowel, the article is an (not an t-)
- otherwise, the article is a' plus lenition, e.g. "am muir" after air becomes "air a' mhuir"
I found this very complicated but we went over it several times with conversations and games so I think I have it in my head now. The thing is that's just the masculine nouns! I know it gets more complicated with feminine dative nouns, but that's for another time.
On another note, I watched this sweet programme on the iPlayer last night which combines two of my loves. The programme Trusadh looks at a woman from Uibhist a Deas (South Uist) who knits an Eriskay jumper (geansaidh Èirisgeach) for Pope Francis (am Pàpa)
The class was fairly simple which is to be expected for the first one. All the same, it did get into some grammar points, yet with an emphasis on speaking. We discussed the dative or prepositional case for masculine nouns.
The rules for the definite article of masculine nouns is as follows:
- if the noun starts with a b, f, m, p (labials), the article is am
- if the noun starts with a vowel, the article is an t-
- if the noun starts with anything else, the article is an
However, if the noun follows a preposition such as air (on), aig (at), anns (in + def. art.), etc., the article and the noun change:
- if the noun starts with a vowel, the article is an (not an t-)
- otherwise, the article is a' plus lenition, e.g. "am muir" after air becomes "air a' mhuir"
I found this very complicated but we went over it several times with conversations and games so I think I have it in my head now. The thing is that's just the masculine nouns! I know it gets more complicated with feminine dative nouns, but that's for another time.
On another note, I watched this sweet programme on the iPlayer last night which combines two of my loves. The programme Trusadh looks at a woman from Uibhist a Deas (South Uist) who knits an Eriskay jumper (geansaidh Èirisgeach) for Pope Francis (am Pàpa)
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