Sin or Sinn?

[CumbrianBloke]

Gàidhlig

Beurla

Hallo a h-uile duine

Please forgive me if I use English – it’s just that it’ll be quicker. I haven’t worked out how to do the accents yet and this is my first entry on this excellent forum.

I’ve been learning Gaidhlig since I fell over last year and put my ankle into plaster for three months! It’s been something I’ve wanted to do for ages (learn Gaelic, that is, I don’t recommend the other at all) and it’s been great fun. I’ve been using Robertson and Taylor’s “Teach Yourself” course and it’s been splendid. But I’ve nobody to practice on down here in Cumbria and every so often I think of a problem to which I can’t find an answer.

So, could anybody help me with the following query? The other night it occurred to me that sin (that) and sinn (we) sound very much the same. So, how would you know whether somebody was saying, for example, “that’s better”, tha sin nas fhearr as opposed to “we are better”, which I would take it is tha sinn nas fhearr? Do you just need a very good ear?

Latha math an-drasda

[akerbeltz]

sin has a weak n /?in/ at the end, sinn has a palatal n /?iN?/ (same as the Spanish ñ) at the end. Hard to make for English speakers, even harder to hear. My advice is to work on pronouncing it right, you can usually guess from context what someone else means.

Incidentally, I've started adding the sound files to the Faclair Beag, sin/sinn isn't there yet but so far we have the following (which isn't bad for one evening):
acras.mp3
adha.mp3
adharc.mp3
adhbhar.mp3
adhbrann.mp3
adhlac.mp3
adhradh.mp3
aghaidh.mp3
aifreann.mp3
aillse.mp3
aimsir.mp3
ainm.mp3
airde.mp3
airgead.mp3
aiseag.mp3
aite.mp3
Alba.mp3
a-mhain.mp3
anail.mp3
aoigh.mp3
aois.mp3
aosta.mp3
arach.mp3
aran.mp3
ard.mp3
arm.mp3
athair.mp3
balachan.mp3
barr.mp3
beagan.mp3
caileag.mp3
caill.mp3
caite.mp3
caitheamh.mp3
call.mp3
calltainn.mp3
cam.mp3
campa.mp3
caochail.mp3
carn.mp3
claoidh.mp3
corrag.mp3
craiceann.mp3
curran.mp3
daoimean.mp3
faighnich.mp3
faoighe.mp3
gaol.mp3
garbh.mp3
laghach.mp3
lar.mp3
marag.mp3
margadh.mp3
naoidhean.mp3
putag.mp3
saighdear.mp3
slaightear.mp3
sparr.mp3
taghadh.mp3
taois.mp3
tarbh.mp3

[GunChleoc]

Nach trang a bha thu!

Fàilte ort, CumbrianBloke, and don't hestitate to come to us with further questions or to try out your Gaelic - I recommend the threads in the bilingual section for that.

[CumbrianBloke]

Tapadh leibh, Akerbelz. Tha e gle math a tachairt ruibh. Bha mi cuir feum air ur aite-lin (? Website ?). Tha e uabhasach math.

Sorry if I kept you up all night recording those mp3s. I’ll look forward to hearing the sin/sinn version on Faclair beag sometime – honestly can’t tell the difference on any of my Robertson tapes. I probably need to get a hearing aid. But I was please to find that it wasn’t an entirely daft question. Thanks for your prompt response.

Le meas. CumbrianBloke

[poor_mouse]

Tapadh leibh, Akerbeltz!

NB: "saggitarius" in the article "saighdear" -- it's "Sagittarius", isn't it?