I wonder.......
...when kitties purrrrrrrrrr in Gaelic, do they rrrrrrrroll the rrrrrrrrr’s?
I can remember when I was rather young, being quite surprised in my
early exposures to foreign languages to discover that animals didna necessarily
make the same noises in other languages! What a shock to find out that
in Japan, dogs dinna go “woof woof”! They go “wah wah”. Hehehe. The
same , I discovered, was true for place names. Towns and countries weren’t
called the same thing everywhere. Who knew? *g* Well,
because inquiring hoser minds might be curious, I looked around for Gaelic
animal noises. How do the horseys go in Gaelic, I wonder? (One never knows
when one might find this information useful!) Alas, I couldna find animal
noises in Gaelic, but I did find some place names for this week’s Gaelic
lesson:
IN SCOTLAND
the Highlands a Ghaidhealtachd
uh Geh-ulltochk
Aberdeen
Obair Dheadhain oe-burr-eh-een
Edinburgh
Dun Eideann
doon ae-jun
Fort William an Gearasdan
ung g-yerrustan
Glasgow
Glaschu
glass-choo
Inverness
Inbhir
Nis een-yerneesh
Stirling
Struighlea
stree-la-ee
INTERNATIONAL
Australia
Astrailia
astrah-lee-a
Canada
Canada
canada (Anybody having trouble with that one? )
Nova Scotia
Alba Nuadh
alabbuh noo-agh
England
Sasann
sassun (Thus, Sasannach means ‘English’)
France
an Fhraing
uh ra eeng-g
Germany
A Ghearmailt
uh yerrun-altch
Ireland
Eireann
ae-run
Scotland
Alba
alabbuh
Switzerland
an Eibheis
un yillivish-tch
Wales
a Chuimrigh
uh choomurry
The United States na Staitean Aonaichte
nuh stah-tchun euneech-tchuh
Now, let’s use these in some sentences, aye?
Where are you from? Co as a tha thu? coe as uh ha oo
I am from (the United States). Sann (a Staitean Aonaichte)
a tha mi.
a-oon (uh stah-tchun eunnech-tchuh) uh ha mee.
Where are you going? Cait a bheil thu dol? katch uh vil oo doll?
I’m going to (Scotland!!!) Tha mi dol a (Alba!!!)
ha mee doll uh (alabbuh!!!).
Lady Mercedes
Sourse: Everyday Gaelic,
by Morag MacNeill.
Copyright 1991, GAIRM Publications,
Glasgow