---
title: "Ceart – Notes on Lesson 2"
date: 2014-10-06T07:31:48Z
Blog: ["Kilted Scot"]
category:
    - "Gàidhlig"
    - "Gaelic"
    - "notes"
    - "term1"
    - "week2"
images: ["/images/700/imag0613_1-edited.jpg"]
Type: ["article"]
draft: 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 Math
neach-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.