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---title: "Ceart – Notes on Lesson 2"date: 2014-10-06T07:31:48ZBlog: ["Kilted Scot"]categories: ["Gàidhlig"]tags: ["Gaelic","notes","term1","week2"]image: /images/IMAG0613_1-edited.jpgdraft: false---Despite the pace of lesson 2 there were some interesting notes and facts to keep us going through the intensity.
Firstly, the word “cat” in Gaelic is _cat_ and that’s because the word “cat” in English comes for the Gaelic for “cat” which is _cat_. I may have dragged that out a little, the original sentence was too short to be particularly interesting.
_Tha_ is a very frustrating useful word, it is the affirmative answer to a question starting with _a bheil_ which loosely means “are” and therefore _tha_ loosely means “am” as such it can appear to mean “yes” but it doesn’t. However, it can also mean “there is” or “there are” when using prepositional statements/questions which end with the preposition+pronoun combinations such as _agam_, _agad_ or _aice_. I am fairly certain in future lessons we are going to discover that it harbours even more meanings!
Towards the end of the class, in pairs we played through a waiter & customer scenario to practice phrases such as _Dè tha thu ag iarraidh?_ (What would you like to order?) and _Tha mi ag iarraidh …_ (I would like …). At which point we learned _neach-frithealaidh_ which means “waiting person” but which is never practically used in Gaelic.
My usual (2 weeks in a row) partner is also an absolute beginner so we swapped partners and I was with a lovely lady whose parents both spoke Islay Gaelic and so she is familiar with some of the language. We ran through the following conversation a few times, swapping roles on each iteration:
<table><tr><td> <em>neach-frithealaidh: Feasgar MathIain: Feasgar Mathneach-frithealaidh: Ciamar a tha thu an-diugh?</em>
Iain: <em>Tha mi gu math tapadh leat, ciamar a tha thu-fhèin?
neach-frithealaidh: Tha mi gu math tapadh leat. Dè tha thu ag iarraidh?</em>
Iain: <em>Tha mi ag iarraidh brot, tapadh leat.
neach-frithealaidh: A bheil thu ag iarraidh aran agus ìm?</em>
Iain: <em>Tha, tapadh leat.
neach-frithealaidh: Ceart. Tha thu ag iarraidh brot le aran agus ìm. Dè tha thu ag òl?</em>
Iain: <em>A bheil uisge-beatha agad?
neach-frithealaidh: Chan eil. Tha mi duilich. Chan eil uisge-beatha agam.</em>
Iain: <em>A bheil fìon dearg agad?
neach-frithealaidh: Tha gu dearbh. Gloinne fìon dearg?</em>
Iain: <em>Botul. Tha mi sgìth agus fuar agus fliuch.
neach-frithealaidh: Glè mhath. Tha thu ag òl iarraidh botul fìon dearg.</em></td> <td>waiter: Good evening.Iain: Good evening.waiter: How are you today?
Iain: I am well thank you, how are you yourself?
waiter: I am well thank you, what would you like to order?
Iain: I would like soup, thank you.
waiter: Would you like bread and butter?
Iain: yes, thanks.
waiter: OK. You would like soup with bread and butter. What you you like to drink?
Iain: Do you have whisky?
waiter: No, we don’t. I’m sorry. We have no whisky.
Iain: Do you have red wine?
waiter: Yes indeed we do. A glass of read wine?
Iain: a bottle. I am tired, cold and wet.
waiter: Very good. You would like a bottle of red wine.</td></tr></table>
My learned partner was very complimentary on my pronunciation (just being polite I’m sure) and asked if I wanted to try the conversation without referring to the script. To this I replied “No, I most certainly do not want to try that” and after a little gentle persuasion we did anyway. I played Iain.. and I did it, I only fucking did it! Went through the whole conversation without once referring to the script.. chuffed, I am!
Interesting phrases/vocab picked up during this lesson
| **Gàidhlig** | **English** || --- | --- || _eadar-theangaich_ | translate (lit: between tongues) || _an-diugh_ | today || _dè a Ghàidhlig a th’air …?_ | what is … in Gaelic? || _air ais gu …_ | go back to … || _a rithist_ | again || _tha mi duilich_ | i’m sorry* || _ceart_ | OK/fine || _falt_ | hair** || _ghruag_ | wig** |
\* _duilich_ doesn’t just mean sorry, it also means sad and/or difficult.. the sentence _tha mi duilich_ can mean any of the three.
** in this week’s miserable song _Gràidh Geal Mo Chridh’_ the final line in the final verse goes _‘S thug thu ghruag bhàrr mo chìnn_ which is translated in the notes as “My hair is thinned” referring to the woman’s physical state since her love left her. However, according to our tutor from Lewis _ghruag_ doesn’t mean “hair”, it means “wig” so her translation was “you took the wig from atop my head” which added a little amusement to a depressing song!
Lastly, it occurred to me during this class that I really need to get a Gaelic<->English dictionary but apparently there aren’t any good ones! The most recommended was one called ‘Abair: Gaelic-English, English-Gaelic Dictionary’ which cost about £4.95 to buy new, but there are questions over whether or not it is still printed. I’ve found a few copies online varying from around £20 to £2,£499.50 (honestly!) which suggests that perhaps they are indeed limited in supply. I’ll maybe have to trawl around some old second hand bookshops!
I had a quick look online earlier too and found a couple of useful links:
* [Scottish-Gaelic learner’s materials on the Internet](http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/ionnsachadh/ "Scottish-Gaelic learner’s materials on the Internet")* [Faclair online Gaelic-English dictionary](http://www.faclair.com/ "Faclair online Gaelic-English dictionary")* [BBC ALBA: Beag air Bheag](http://www.bbc.co.uk/alba/foghlam/beag_air_bheag/ "BBC ALBA: Beag air Bheag")* [Gaelic4Parents](http://www.gaelic4parents.com/ "Gaelic4Parents")
The latter three actually all came from the first link and I haven’t explored them for long but I think they could be very useful resources for furthering my Gaelic knowledge.
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