RossEM Posted September 6, 2012 Report Share Posted September 6, 2012 A mate wants a tattoo in Scottish...online dictionaries don't work as you can't put a whole phrase in, so there's no way of telling if the words are in the right order or whether the grammar is correct! Can anyone help??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aled Posted September 7, 2012 Report Share Posted September 7, 2012 Can't help with the Gaelic, but there are some speakers on the Runrig forum. Cheers Aled Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDAV Posted September 7, 2012 Report Share Posted September 7, 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk/alba/foghlam/learngaelic/ Might help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aldivalloch Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 What does your mate want? I have a friend who's currently doing development work in promotion of Gaelic. He would be able to help with translation. I'm going to be away for the next week and won't be on the forum, but if I can help please let me know. I'll check the thread when I get back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utectok Posted September 8, 2012 Report Share Posted September 8, 2012 My sister in law is a gaelic translator pm me the text and I'll get her to translate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RossEM Posted September 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2012 Cheers for your help guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabbers Posted September 10, 2012 Report Share Posted September 10, 2012 A topical story; 20 years ago I bought a house in a remote part of the Hebrides. I put up a Sky dish and was the only house around to own a telly. One day a neighbour asked if they could bring some friends and watch a documentary about a nearby Island called Scarp. I said that I only had 2 chairs so anymore would have to bring something to sit on. At 8'45 on a Tuesday evening, I found myself making tea for 25 people who turned up, each with chair and my front room resembled a chapel meeting. The TV was on, the opening credits and a lady sing in the garlic.... I was looking forward to learning more about the nearby Island, the film "Rocket Post" was about there, a Nazi scientist who went on to develop the V1 an V2 doodlebugs experimented with sending inter island post by rocket before ww2 and made a fool of himself when his rocket exploded. One hour later I was non the wiser, as my new friends left taking their chairs with them, I begged them to tell me what the program had said, it was all in bloody Gallic! "Och you wouldn't be interested, it was just local stuff", they said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr smith Posted September 10, 2012 Report Share Posted September 10, 2012 Just how widespread was the gaelic language around Scotland? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utectok Posted September 10, 2012 Report Share Posted September 10, 2012 Big community in glasgow. Gaelic schools in glasgow and Edinburgh. Mostly spoken on the islands my sister in law is from Harris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Scholl Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 Just how widespread was the gaelic language around Scotland? Most people in the Highlands spoke Gaelic until the mid 1800's or so. After that, it went into decline and is now only spoken as a community language in the Western Isles, and to a lesser extent Skye and Tiree. Even in those areas it's dying. There are no monolingual Gaelic speakers anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spanj Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 A mate wants a tattoo in Scottish...online dictionaries don't work as you can't put a whole phrase in, so there's no way of telling if the words are in the right order or whether the grammar is correct! Can anyone help??? Why would you want a gaelic scottish tattoo if you werent scottish a dn couldnt speak gaelic scottish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr smith Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 The reason i asked about how widespread the language was train station signs are slowly being changed to have english and gaelic on them,possibly even in area's where it wasn't even spoken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walshie Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 Do you really trust anyone on here to give you a proper answer? Your mate could well end up with "I **** my pants" on his arm forever. Mind you, no-one would ever know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davie_M Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 The reason i asked about how widespread the language was train station signs are slowly being changed to have english and gaelic on them,possibly even in area's where it wasn't even spoken. Thats the snp galic was never the languge of scotland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr smith Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 Thats the snp galic was never the languge of scotland Kinda thought that would be the case,transport scotland(government body) are likely to be the culprit.Dunno if it's for the tourists or some kind of brainwashing before the vote 2014. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gutty Boots Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 The reason i asked about how widespread the language was train station signs are slowly being changed to have english and gaelic on them,possibly even in area's where it wasn't even spoken. most road signs on A roads have all been changed to have both languages on, wonder how much all those cost! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr smith Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 most road signs on A roads have all been changed to have both languages on, wonder how much all those cost! Wonder who's getting to recycle the old signs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
four-wheel-drive Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 I do not speak Gaelic but I do quite often talk a load of rubbish if that is of any help to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davie_M Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 Kinda thought that would be the case,transport scotland(government body) are likely to be the culprit.Dunno if it's for the tourists or some kind of brainwashing before the vote 2014. brainwashing before the vote 2014 sounds about right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick miller Posted September 13, 2012 Report Share Posted September 13, 2012 (edited) You should see all the Gaelic programming the beeb provide on freesat, all from the licence fee and all to cater for a relative 'handful' of people. Money well wasted yet again. In the 6 years of working in Jockland I never once heard Gaelic being spoken. Edited September 13, 2012 by mick miller Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aled Posted September 20, 2012 Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 (edited) Well i've visted Scotland (outside a 6 Nations weekend) 2 and i heard gaelic spoken and sang on both occasions........however one visit was to the Isle of Lewis and the other was to the Isle of Mull....... Tight Lines Aled Edited September 20, 2012 by Aled Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aldivalloch Posted September 20, 2012 Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 I'm often surprised by the lack of awareness that the average Scot has about his or her heritage. I see DavieM asserts that "galic (sic) was never the language of Scotland", Well, it was the language of an awful lot of Scotland, exceptions being much of Caithness, and the Lowlands. By the way, DavieM, I see you're from Hamilton. That'll be Hamilton, just south of Glasgow, which took its name from the Gaelic "Glaschu", will it not? A huge number of the place names of Scotland are either Gaelic, or derive from it. One of the reasons that the Gaelic and Scots languages have declined is that they were "discouraged" by the education system, the former particularly so. And whilst I don't want to get into the complex matter of the the Old and the Young Pretenders (the Young being Bonnie Prince Charlie) who came to Scotland in the 18th century, chasing their own personal ambitions, it is absolutely the case that the reaction of the British government to the risings they fomented was brutal in the extreme, and intended for once and all "rebellious Scots to crush" (see the original National Anthem, verse 2). I see it as a sad thing when the legacy of that bruatlity is likely to be the loss of the language, its culture, its traditions and its literature. Of course, plenty people, particularly those outside the Highlands and Islands will see it as no big deal. Well, just wait until YOU are only allowed to speak Arabic...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
four-wheel-drive Posted September 20, 2012 Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 (edited) I'm often surprised by the lack of awareness that the average Scot has about his or her heritage. I see DavieM asserts that "galic (sic) was never the language of Scotland", Well, it was the language of an awful lot of Scotland, exceptions being much of Caithness, and the Lowlands. By the way, DavieM, I see you're from Hamilton. That'll be Hamilton, just south of Glasgow, which took its name from the Gaelic "Glaschu", will it not? A huge number of the place names of Scotland are either Gaelic, or derive from it. One of the reasons that the Gaelic and Scots languages have declined is that they were "discouraged" by the education system, the former particularly so. And whilst I don't want to get into the complex matter of the the Old and the Young Pretenders (the Young being Bonnie Prince Charlie) who came to Scotland in the 18th century, chasing their own personal ambitions, it is absolutely the case that the reaction of the British government to the risings they fomented was brutal in the extreme, and intended for once and all "rebellious Scots to crush" (see the original National Anthem, verse 2). I see it as a sad thing when the legacy of that bruatlity is likely to be the loss of the language, its culture, its traditions and its literature. Of course, plenty people, particularly those outside the Highlands and Islands will see it as no big deal. Well, just wait until YOU are only allowed to speak Arabic...... There is nowt wrong with Arabic the reason that people speak English and not Gaelic and it is the same with Welsh and other languages its that it limits you in who you can converse with ok you may find a few thousand people that speak your language but when compared to English that is spoken over most of the world. Yes you could say that more people actually speak Mandarin or Hindi and that would be correct and if you want to go to India or China that would be fine but in the end the best language to speak is English as you can usually find someone that understands you. The one problem I have always thought about being British is if we decide to learn another language which one do we go for French German etc etc but if you are from another country and want to learn a language the one to choose is English. Another thing that always peas me off with the Scots is they are always saying about independence for Scotland but they forget that half of our government in recent years have been not English but Scottish (Brown Blear etc etc) we could well argue that we would be better off without them. Edited September 20, 2012 by four-wheel-drive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aldivalloch Posted September 20, 2012 Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 Oh, dear, four-wheel-drive, the irony of my comment about Arabic seems to have escaped you. It was aimed, tongue firmly in cheek, at the PW posters who believe - rightly or wrongly - that Islam is hell-bent on the destroying the culture of the westen world and replacing it with its own. As to your assertion that English is a very convenient and useful language in that it is widely spoken and understood, well, you're absolutely right, and it's dead handy for most Brits that that is the case, given their generally lamentable capacity to learn other tongues! But what I was really trying to get across is my belief that it's entirely possible to have an "official" national language (English) without detriment to what one might call "regional" languages like Gaelic, Scots and Welsh. They're important components in maintaining heritage and identity, and should be nurtured and preserved. And, as I said before, the Gaelic language was deliberately suppressed after Culloden as part of a deliberate and often quite brutal policy of subjugating the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. That's a nasty historical fact that just won't go away. As for your final comments about Scottish politicians in Westminster, stop for a moment and consider this. Who voted Tony Blair in? I think you'll find that he represented an English constituency...... And yes, independence is a hot topic in Scotland, and it's entirely possible that you might consider yourself better off without the Scots. But the indignant furore that got up on PW, last time the subject was broached, about the Scots wanting to secede from the Union, left me thinking that you're all a little bit worried and scared that they're actually going to go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
four-wheel-drive Posted September 20, 2012 Report Share Posted September 20, 2012 (edited) Oh, dear, four-wheel-drive, the irony of my comment about Arabic seems to have escaped you. It was aimed, tongue firmly in cheek, at the PW posters who believe - rightly or wrongly - that Islam is hell-bent on the destroying the culture of the westen world and replacing it with its own. As to your assertion that English is a very convenient and useful language in that it is widely spoken and understood, well, you're absolutely right, and it's dead handy for most Brits that that is the case, given their generally lamentable capacity to learn other tongues! But what I was really trying to get across is my belief that it's entirely possible to have an "official" national language (English) without detriment to what one might call "regional" languages like Gaelic, Scots and Welsh. They're important components in maintaining heritage and identity, and should be nurtured and preserved. And, as I said before, the Gaelic language was deliberately suppressed after Culloden as part of a deliberate and often quite brutal policy of subjugating the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. That's a nasty historical fact that just won't go away. As for your final comments about Scottish politicians in Westminster, stop for a moment and consider this. Who voted Tony Blair in? I think you'll find that he represented an English constituency...... And yes, independence is a hot topic in Scotland, and it's entirely possible that you might consider yourself better off without the Scots. But the indignant furore that got up on PW, last time the subject was broached, about the Scots wanting to secede from the Union, left me thinking that you're all a little bit worried and scared that they're actually going to go! My thoughts on the Scottish independence I do not think that it would be a good idea I'm not scared but I fail to see the point we live in a tiny group of islands and I think that we all need each other as a whole we still have some influence in the world or would you prefer that we was insignificant like Monaco. As for us forcing the Scots to speak English this has happened to us many times over many hundreds of years from the Normans to the Romans etc etc that is how we got our language in the first place a bit of this and a bit of that until we ended up with English as it now is being restricted to a language that is only spoken in a small area restricts you in so many ways TV radio finding work. I do agree that we could well try much harder to learn different languages having said that the problem then is which ones do you learn If I was young it would be French and as soon as I had mastard it I would go and live there as it has to be better than this **** hole we live in. Edited September 20, 2012 by four-wheel-drive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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