Fòram na Gàidhlig

Feasgar math a chàirdean,

A good friend of mine was asking me to tr*nsl*t* a quote sometimes attributed to William Wallace (I'm unsure about its veracity) into Gaelic. The problem is I'm a learner and I fear my Gaelic isn't quite good enough to tr*nsl*t* it idiomatically. Would anyone here be able to give me pointers?

There are a few versions of the quote, which was originally said in Latin (or so I hear). The version my friend asked for was:

"How can I be a traitor when England is foreign to me?"

The others are as follows:

"How can I commit treason when England is foreign to me?"

"How can I be guilty of treason when England is foreign to me?"

It seems to appear in a song called "The Wallace" by the Scottish folk singer Jim McLean, where it appears as follows:

"How am I a traitor, cried Wallace,
When England is foreign to me?"

As I said, if anyone is able to give me pointers on useful idioms here that would be very kind.

Mòran taing.

'Traitor' in Gaelic is usually brathadair or truthaire, or sometimes traoidhtear which is just the English word Gallicised, cf tidsear

I'd probably say "How would I be" rather than "How could I be".
Ciamar a bhithinn nam bhrathadair...

'Foreign' is a little tricker. Cèin is good in a purely "different country" sense, e.g. bathar cèin (foreign products), cùisean cèin (foreign affairs), dùthaich chèin (foreign country), cànan cèin (foreign language). However, gallda(ch) is perhaps better in this sense as it conveys the meaning of "different", "strange", "alien".

Ciamar a bhithinn nam bhrathadair nuair a tha Sasainn gallda dhomhsa?

on a tha... is beer than nuair a tha...

nuair is always in the temporal sense (= an uair).

I understand now. So in that case "Ciamar a bhithinn nam bhrathadair on a tha Sasainn gallda dhohmsa" would be the most natural way of putting it? What if we were to use "guilty of treason" instead of "traitor" i.e. "How can I be guilty of treason"

Guilty, in this sense, is 'coireach' as opposed to 'cointach' with is the emotion of feeling guilty.

And in Gaelic you're coireach ri crimes, so guilty of treason would be "coireach ri brathadh".

MarcMacUilleim wrote:Guilty, in this sense, is 'coireach' as opposed to 'cointach' with is the emotion of feeling guilty.

And in Gaelic you're coireach ri crimes, so guilty of treason would be "coireach ri brathadh".

Mar sin, "ciamar a bhithinn coireach ri bhrathadh, on a tha Sasainn gallda dhomhsa?"

Sin agad e

Ceatharnach wrote:

MarcMacUilleim wrote:Guilty, in this sense, is 'coireach' as opposed to 'cointach' with is the emotion of feeling guilty.

And in Gaelic you're coireach ri crimes, so guilty of treason would be "coireach ri brathadh".

Mar sin, "ciamar a bhithinn coireach ri bhrathadh, on a tha Sasainn gallda dhomhsa?"

"...on a tha Sasainn na gallda domh", maybe?

"...on a tha Sasainn na gallda domh", maybe?

No. Well, domh, possibly, if your fishing for a very southern dialect form. But na gallda doesn't work. Maybe you meant nas gallda, which would grammatically work but not as a tr*nsl*t**n. You can't use 'nam/'nad/'na + an adjective.

Grrr... snarl... bloody iPad touchscreen. I did mean to type dhomh.

I was thinking of "gallda" as a noun. Because it was introduced to me in the sense of the Lowlands, I'd never realised it was actually an adjective. Suddenly a lot of song lyrics make more sense.

The corresponding nouns are Gall and Galltachd

Or did you mean galla

Somewhere along the line I'd picked up the idea that "gallda" was used in place of "galltachd". I'm feeling pretty gòrach now.

No reason to feel gòrach