Fòram na Gàidhlig

I think you're basically on the right track with that. So, back to 3 and 7, yes, they are both saying that something is 'in' something. It's just that the "logic" here is that the idea of being 'in' something is used for an identity relationship. For 'a teacher' to be 'in' Murdo, is a Gael...

The point is, to get beyond thinking of its tr*nsl*t**n, and think instead of its meaning.

You do find/hear 'double ann' constructions like in 5. 7. is more 'that is in Biggar', i.e. Biggar is a nice place. But I would say (others might disagree, I concede) that you are pushing for 'ann' to mean 'is existing' and a kind of conceptually different 'ann' to mean 'in', except that the existen...

As I understand things, the versions with 'existential ann' sound more correct to my ear, if you are saying/emphasising "There is a shop..." The double 'ann ann' is not such a problem, it might look a little odd in writing, but if I were saying "Tha bùth ann ann am Biggar" these ...

In English, "It's a lovely night" involves a 'dummy pronoun'. Similarly, "It is raining". Think about it for a moment, what's the "It" that is raining? This is a feature of impersonal constructions (though the linguistics gets complicated and is debated). But basically ...

The construction is different. Tha oidhche bhrèagha ann. Here oidhche bhrèagha is our subject, 'a lovely night'. And ann in this kind of sentence is working with Tha to express what English would do with word-order, "There is a lovely night". So, it's a way of something something 'is there...

I think, one of the problems with this kind of discussion is that not all 'features' of languages are necessarily 'borrowed' by contact with others. Some of them develop over time. It's just a bit too simplistic to line up different languages, note similar structural features, and then attribute 'in...

Please understand that while I do have a background in Classics, I'm not a linguist by trade, and certainly not a scholar in Indo-European, so that's my disclaimer for the following. Estimates put the emergence of proto-Celtic at 2500-3000 BC, but who really knows. The emergence of sub-branches with...

I'm still around! There's two or three layers of relationship going on. The first layer is that while Gaelic is part of the Celtic language branch, and Latin and Greek are part of separate branches respectively, they are all still Indo-European, so if you have some experience in IE historical lingui...

It never snows in South Australia! - I have a bit of difficulty myself with the time words here if I want to do a literal tr*nsl*t**n. Maybe this will do: 's gann / 's glè ainneamh gun cuir i sneachd ceann deas na h-Astràilia! You have to say "ceann deas na h-Astràilia" rather than "...

Bidh mi ag ionnsachadh a' Mhongolais an-dràsda, ach tha mi 'n dochas gum bi a' teagasg ann an colaisde an-seo an-dèidh bliadhna no dhà.

Tha mi à Sydney, ach rugadh mi ann an Wollongong.

's mise Seumas MacDhòmhnaill, agus tha mi a' fuireach ann am Mongolia. Ach, rugadh mi ann an Astràilia.

's mise jeltzz air Skype, agus bidh mi gle thoilichte a' bruidhinn 'sa Gàidhlig - chan eil duine sam bith ann am Mongolia leis a' bruidhinn idir!