Fòram na Gàidhlig

Getting round to adding all the comparatives to my adjective flashcards in Quizlet (a big night in let me tell you) and noticed what looks like a typo in AFB.

The entry is for 'spraiceil', actual text pasted below

http://www.faclair.com/ViewEntry.aspx?I ... 6DA77EE760

spraiceil /sbraçgʲal/
bua. coi. -
harsh, severe

The comparative bit has only a hyphen — 'unch' is normally used for unchanged and the Dwelly entry on the right has it as -e, so I'm assuming it's a typo?

What do I win?

A firm handshake and a mòran taing

Am Faclir Beag wrote:an dall air muin a' chrùbaich
the cripple sitting on the shoulders of the blind

Nach ann cùlaibh air beulaibh a tha seo?

Yes and no. We always give the correct idiom in the target i.e. we don't tr*nsl*t* Gaelic idioms literally because that's, well, pointless. Sometimes, you can guess the meaning of a literal tr*nsl*t**n (like "make shellfish while the tide is out") but even then, it's no good to anyone looking English > Gaelic because NOBODY who is looking for "make hay while the sun shines" will search for "shellfish".

We're marking these with fig. these days though so it's clear that it's an idiom/figure of speech which may be quite different, literally speaking, from the English.

Oh, but is there in English such idiom as the cripple sitting on the shoulders of the blind?
I know such thing as the blind on the cripple (in Russian too), but I have not ever heard about them vice versa.
If such idiom exists, what is the sense of it?

Actually, you're right, there isn't. It must have been an entry going back to when I had not non-literal tr*nsl*t**n for this idiom. The correct English idiom is "the blind leading the blind". I've fixed it. Many thanks for bringing it up!

Oh... I've understand now. Sorry, I've mixed up all these things.
Here, in wikipedia, there is The Blind Man and the Lame - the story about "the cripple sitting on the shoulders of the blind", the same fable as I've read in Russian.
And so, "an dall air muin a' chrùbaich" is about another thing, i.e. about the means of no use.
Thank you!

poor_mouse wrote: Oh... I've understand now. Sorry, I've mixed up all these things.
Here, in wikipedia, there is The Blind Man and the Lame - the story about "the cripple sitting on the shoulders of the blind", the same fable as I've read in Russian.
And so, "an dall air muin a' chrùbaich" is about another thing, i.e. about the means of no use.
Thank you!

No, you're quite right -- it's clearly a reference to that idea, and the inversion of the two means that what could be useful is now utterly useless. The nearest equivalent in English is "the blind leading the blind" but the Gaelic implies a lot more stupidity for both sides...