...Losag?

[Hallow XIII]

Alrighty. I've before me a Gaelic text that I'm supposed to tr*nsl*t* (for those curious: I'm playing Polyglottal Telephone), and though the text is decidedly weird and often contains spelling mistakes it's going okay so far. But I've run into a problem: the text contains two instances of the word "losag", which no dictionary can identify and where the context doesn't provide that much help either.

Instances:

Ma loisg an ceann Iosaig, feumaidh e a cheann a chumail an àird[...]

Seall Iosag sìos a-rithist.

I'm stumped as to what this might be supposed to be. Any ideas?

[akerbeltz]

Errrr... do you have a bit more context, perhaps a screenshot? The only thing that currently springs to mind is that it might not be an L (i.e. LOSAG) but an Ì missing the grace, hence ÌOSAG? But for the most part that only appears in the (sur)name MacIsaac (Ìosga > MacÌosaig). But that doesn't seem to make that much more sense. The Irish have Íosagan for "baby Jesus" but that doesn't help either.

[Hallow XIII]

I can quote the PM.

Stad an obraiche aodaich ris a' bhatharnach. Cheangaladh na h-uilnean nan dà prìosanach cogaidh na chèile ann an cuibhrichean iarainn gus cuir bacadh air an gluasad. caith e na nithean ruadha air an ùrlar. Ma loisg an ceann Iosaig, feumaidh e a cheann a chumail an àird fhathast agus dèan faire air
àrainneachd sèomair. sgread na muinntir ann an sèomar. cho luath 's chuala e a'sgreadadh, ghlac maoim e agus sgrùd e a àrainneachd. Dith e a làimhean air a aghaidh ach cha b'urrainn dha gun stad an fhuil le a meòirean. Seall Iosag sìos a-rithist.

Caith an obraiche aodaich mìr a cluas a bha air a lìonadh le fuil air an ùrlar.

Bha an fhuil air dreach ola leanailteach agus tuit e bho a làimhean a bha imeachd gu mall gun stùr air an ùrlar fodhpa. tuit an isean a bha geàrrte gu ùr a-nuas mìr air mhìr air cruth siosair. Cùm an tàillear a cheann an àird agus chunnaic e colann ghoirt, gidheadh air ghluasad gun dochann agus leig e osna aiste faochaidh.

Bha e cho ana-bhlasta ri grabhail - nuair thig an ceann a sainnsearachd dlùth, rach e à sealladh.

I don't think it's supposed to be a name, though.

[Ceid]

It looks like a person's name of some kind, and if you are playing Polyglottal Telephone, I suspect it's the last person's attempt at rendering of a name, or the version of that name in the t*ns preceeding this one, into Gaelic-friendly spelling--i o s a g. Perhaps it was a variation of "Joseph" that he/she didn't recognize and made it as close to the previous t*ns as possible?

I'm not one to proofread other people's gàidhlig, but there does seem to be some mistakes here, but I'll give it a try, without changing too much of what he/she actually wrote:

"Dith e a làimhean air a aghaidh ach cha b'urrainn dha gun stad an fhuil le a meòirean. Seall Iosag sìos a-rithist."

He presses his hands against it but he was not able to stop the blood with his (her, actually, if being true to what is written) fingers. "Joseph" looks down again. -- I think it is suppose to be a name.

[Hallow XIII]

I guess. It's the only way it makes sense.

On another note: what sense does the "gun" in that sentence make, anyway? It looks as if it says "...without stopping the blood with his fingers".

[Ceid]

I guess. It's the only way it makes sense.

On another note: what sense does the "gun" in that sentence make, anyway? It looks as if it says "...without stopping the blood with his fingers".

Yeah, sorry. My oversight there. I think that's suppose to be the idiomatic way to use "gun"to say "he *still* wasn't able to stop the blood with his fingers."

EDIT: Just double-checked in Colin Mark and yeah, I think that's what it is. Mark gives this example: Bha e fhathast gun tuilleadh - he still hasn't returned.

[Hallow XIII]

Móran taing.

You know what, I think technically this qualifies a cheating, but I have to tr*nsl*t* this into Ancient Greek afterwards so I'm not letting oversights of the Gàidhlig stop me.
Does this look about right?

The cloth-worker waited at the storehouse. They'd link the two war prisoners each together in iron chains so that they'd have trouble moving. He cast the rusty thing to the floor. If Joseph's head burnt, he'd still have to keep his head up and keep watch over the room around him. The people in the room screamed. As soon as he heard them screaming, panic seized him and he scanned his surroundings. He pressed his hands against his face but he still wasn't able to stop the blood flow to his fingers. Joseph looked down again.

The cloth-worker threw a piece of his ear that had filled the floor with blood.

The blood had an appearance like linen oil and was dripping from his hands and was slowly cleaning the floor below them of dust. The smallest, that had been newly cut, dripped down piece for piece (like) a silhouette cut. The tailor kept the head/beginning up high and saw a sore body, that had nonetheless moved without damage and let out a sigh of relief.

It was as disgusting as it was horrible - when the head came close to whisper, he went to look.

[Ceid]

I think "rach e à sealladh" is suppose to be "he/it went from sight/view" i.e. he/it disappeared. Although it should be chaidh e à sealladh. Rach is present tense.


Now I remember why I don't play these kinds of games

[GunChleoc]

It is definitely a capital I, not a lowercase l.

And there's quite a few grammar mistakes in that, which makes it harder to tr*nsl*t*.

[Hallow XIII]

I think "rach e à sealladh" is suppose to be "he/it went from sight/view" i.e. he/it disappeared. Although it should be chaidh e à sealladh. Rach is present tense.


Now I remember why I don't play these kinds of games

Gu fìor, gu fìor.

[akerbeltz]

Based on the whole piece it's a name. But the whole thing is such terrible Gaelic that I'm not sure anything is gained by trying to analyse it, unless you're a researcher looking into learners' mistakes

[Hallow XIII]

Based on the whole piece it's a name. But the whole thing is such terrible Gaelic that I'm not sure anything is gained by trying to analyse it, unless you're a researcher looking into learners' mistakes

Well, the whole point of the game is kinda to be amused by how terribly wrong the text ends up anyway

Ach móran taing leat cuideachd, Akerbeltz! ^^

[Ceid]

Yeah, the game tends to result in badly garbled messes like that, which is kind of the point. Some of the mistakes in the text which Hallow posted may not be the tr*nsl*t*r's fault, but mistakes in the tr*nsl*t**n he/she got and unwittingly reproduced or compounded. At Unilang they have a similar game--the Broken tr*nsl*t**n Game. I've seen the results there and they can end up with something completely incoherent after it's been translated over 5 or so different languages.

Good luck with the Ancient Greek version!