Gealic has al long history in Scotland. In it's original Irisch form it probably arrived with the Irisch settlers ( called "Scotti" by the Romans between the fourh and sixth centureis AD. From the west coast the language spread over the whole country of Scotland. It gracually diverged from the original Irisch.
The government is trying to eradicate the language. The Jacobites also fought to preserve the language. After the Battle of Colloden in 1746, many expressions of Highland culture were severely suppressed. The Highland Clearances during 1750 to 1860, (Scottish Gaelic: Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal [ˈfuət̪ɪçən nəŋ ˈɡɛː.əl̪ˠ], the "expulsion of the Gaels") were the forced evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, which also partly lost the language . Not long afore, in the 20th century, many Gealic speakers in the Highlands could recall being punished by their teachers for using Gealic in school
Luckely times have chanched, the resurgence of a sense of pride in Celtic identity hads given new life to the most widely spoken Celtic language.
SO LETS LEARN....
TO LEArN GEALIC
LET'S START WITH THE ALPHABET..
We have a shorter alphabet in Gealic than the English version. .Let's see what's different..
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T UV W X Y Z - THE ENGLISH
A B C D E F G H I L M N O P R S T U - GEALIC
J K Q V W X Y Z are not included in Gealic
So we have only 18 letters in the alphabet in Gealic.
The letter H is often used to change the sound of another consonant.. like bh and mh, this sounds like v.
Broad to broad / slender with slender
An important feature of spelling in Gaelic is the distinction between broad and slender.
A broad vowel is one of the vowels a, o, u.
A slender vowel is either i or e.
- broad with broad
- brònach
- spòrsail
- ciamar
- Seumas
- slender with slender
- leisgeul
- duilich
- toilichte
A BHEIL GÀIDHLIG AGAD
A bheil Gàidhlig agad, do you have gealic? We do not speak gealic but we have gealic..
ACCENTS
Vowels can have accents. In Gealic we often use the grave accent like à
ORDER YOUR SENTENCE
If you are an English speaker, you are used to
Subject | Verb | Object (SVO)
this is a sentence structure where the subject comes first, the verb second, and the object third.
Verb | Subject | Object
The important thing to remember at this stage is that the verb (the 'doing word') generally goes at the start of a sentence.
In a basic descriptive sentence, the adjective would come at the end:
Tha Màiri snog
Mary is nice
LEARN HOW TO PRONOUNCE GEALIC
It is also very important to learn pronunciation correctly from the start. There are almost all stable rules for this in gealic. Let me list them for you.
a | short a sound | bata | stick |
à | The long à, with the grave accent | bàta | boat |
bh | v | bha | there were / was |
c | at the end of middle of a word sounds like 'gc' | Mac (magk) | son |
ch | sounds lighter after i or e | loch | lake |
chd | sounds like 'gk' | sneachd | snow |
cn | sounds like 'cr' | cnoc | hill |
dh | If used before a broad vowel (a, o, or u) like the English ‘g’ | dhaibh | to them |
dh | If dh follows a slender vowel (e or i) in the middle or at the end of a word, it is silent | buidhe | yellow |
e | short e sound | le, càite | with , where |
è | The long è, with the grave accent | glè | very |
f | loan words normally use f e.g fòn | fòn | (tele) phone |
fh | fh silent or as ‘h’ | fhuair , fhathast 'h' sound, otherwise not pronounced | received yet |
ghn | sounds like 'gr' | ghnog ( grok ) | knocked |
i | short i sound | ist | shoos |
ì | the long ì is with a grave accent | ìm | butter |
LL | The double L has a broad or slender sound, depending on whether the vowel that comes before it is broad (a, o, u) or slender (e, i). The broad ll can be heard in toll (a hole): | toll | a hole |
LL | The slender double LL can also sound like je.Like in French | gille | boy |
mh | làmh | hand | |
n | ll | naoi | nine |
o | short o sound | toll | a hole |
ò | the long ò is with a grave accent | òran | a song |
ph | The ph sound in Gaelic sounds similar to the sound of the letter ‘f’. | phaigh | pay |
r | The R sound, when it occurs at the beginning of a word, is pronounced like “rr”. | ròn | seal |
r | When R is not the first letter in a word and occurs next to a, o, or u, it is considered broad, and can be heard in fear | fear | man |
sh | pronounced as 'h' | shuas | up |
sgr | pronounced as 'skr' | ||
th | the th sound is pronounced like the English ‘h’ | thaigh | house |
u | short u sound | ugh | an egg |
ù | the long ù is with a grave accent | cù | a dog |
MASCULINE OR FEMININE
All nouns in Gaelic can be divided into masculine or feminine
The Magic of Lenition
The gender of the noun often causes a special type of consonant mutation called lenition. Usually, this causes an extra h to appear after the initial consonant. You can see an example of this with words like "madainn" and "feasgar" (a masculine noun):
Madainn mhath. - Good morning.
Feasgar math. - Good afternoon. / Good evening.
Singular feminine nouns usually cause this lenition in adjectives starting with the consonants:
B, C, D, F, G, M, P, S, and T
..so not in those beginning with:
L, N, R, SG, SM, SP, ST, and vowels.
THA
Tha is used in the present tense for any person or thing, masculine or feminine and singular and plural.
tha mi
tha thu
tha e
tha i
I am
you are
he / it is
she / it is
tha sinn
tha sibh
tha iad
we are
you are
they are
EMPHATIC PRONOUNS
Thusa is the emphatic form for the word thu
mise
thusa
esan
ise
I
you
he
she
sinne
sibhse
iadsan
we
you (pl)
they
CHAN EIL
Chan eil is used is you want to make a negative statement
chan eil mi
chan eil thu
chan eil e
chan eil i
chan eil sinn
chan eil sibh
chan eil iad
I am not
you are not
he / is is not
she / it is not
we are not
you are not
they are not
WHO IS
mo
a
ar
an
am ( afore b,p,f and m )
my
his
our
their
do
a
ur
your
her
your
a, ar, ur, and an / am ( 'her', óur' ýour' and 'their' do not affect the following word. So the difference between 'his'cat and 'her'cat is conveyed by whether the word for cat is lenited of not.
m' athair
d' athair
' athair
a h-athair
my father
your father
his father
her father
ar n-athair
ur n-athair
an athair
our father
your father
their father
The first three on the list are MO, DO and A which means my, your and his. The all effect the following word- they lenite it, this means that an H is inserted after the initial consonant.
PREPOSITIONAL PRONOUNS - TO HAVE
Besides the words 'mo' Gealic uses another way to express by using aig which means 'at' . The verb to have is not used in Gealic language.
Tha ....... agam
Tha ....... agad
Tha ....... aige
Tha ....... aice
I have
You have
He has
She has
Tha ....... againn
Tha ....... agaibh
Tha ....... aca
We have
You have
They have
CEISTEAN - QUESTIONS
We use the phrase A bheil to make a question.
A bheil mi
A bheil thu
A bheil e
A bheil i
am I
are you
is he/it
is she/it
A bheil sinn
A bheil sibh
A bheil iad
are we
are you
are they
e.g Negative questions like I am not is as follows
Nach eil mi
Nach eil thu
Nach eil e
Nach eil i
am i not
are you not
is he/it not
is she/it not
Nach eil sinn
Nach eil sibh
Nach eil iad
are we not
are you not
are they not
bho - FROM
bhuam
bhuat
bhuaithe
bhuaipe
from me
from you
from him
from her
bhuapa
from them