learn gaelic

Ciamar a tha thu?

I had a difficult time finding someone who speaks Gaelic even in Skye. On next return, I will try harder. I was told that when the “oldies” come to town in Portree (some market day?) that they often spoke Gaelic, but we didn’t have the opportunity to check that out. Ho hum. :\

Look up lyrics to songs in Gaelic… you get a small lesson in pronunciation that way. My favorite right now is Ailein Duinn on the Rob Roy soundtrack (performed by Capercaillie), but another good “starter” album is Celtic Odyssey. If you can sing it, maybe you can learn the words, and maybe you can learn what they mean…

is a good source of some basic Gaelic (Gaidhlig) rules and phrases used in the Outlander books. I’ve learned a few, anyway. You’ve got to read those books… there’s lots of Gaelic thrown in, and they’re good besides.

The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon has LOTS of Gaelic terms in it, typically terms of endearment, like a charaid and a leannan ... and though I have yet to research those, I’ve come to understand their meaning by context (I think a leannan means darling or the like, for example).

I have learned to say Slainte! (pronounced “sloynt-uh”), meaning “cheers!” or “to your health” or something. I’ve wondered forever how to pronounce that.

Here is a good lesson/pronunciation guide I am using. Curses to them for using Real Audio format for the sound bytes, but otherwise it is very good.