Speaking to a One Year Old

[DeTamble]

I am in Uganda, Ear-Afraga, learning Gàidhlig by myself and the only person I have to converse with is my just turned one year old, Ruairidh.
I need help with some words, I've tried dictionaries but I'm not having a lot of luck, as the words are odd.

Here goes, in Gàidhlig what do you say to a very young child when telling them to piss, or telling them that they have just peed. What is the baby-speak word for pee pee in Gàidhlig? Likewise for poo. These words seem to be mentioned a lot when there's a toddler in the house...

Next, when he falls over (he's just learnt to walk in the past week) I say 'sorry' to him. As in 'sorry that happened', not as in 'sorry, I apologise for that'. So, what would a Gàidhlig speaker say to a little one after they've fallen over?

What did children call their parents? I've seen Mummy and Daddy spelt in Gàidhlig, but is that actually what mothers and fathers were called there? What is the word for baby, again I've seen baby spelt in Gàidhlig, I think it was something along the lines of beibidh, but were they originally called that?

I think that's all for now, there are more but I can't remember.

Tapadh leibh!

[GunChleoc]

baby is leanabh

Other terms of endearment for children are mo luran, a ghràidh, and since it's a boy, mo laochain, a sheòid.

I don't know if there are special children's terms for poo poo and pee pee, since traditionally body parts were just body parts and nothing to get worked up about.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

[DeTamble]

Tapadh leibh GunChleoc. Much appreciated on the endearments!

I didn't actually mean body parts with the other words, but the words of the function to urinate, have urinated etc. As in when explaining to a toddler that they should sit on the potty to urinate, rather than on daddy's shoe.

[GunChleoc]

Oops, I had some typos in there - some apostrophes too many.

[Níall Beag]

Not wanting to rain on anyone's parade, but that age is very important for language development. You would be better speaking to your child in your own language. While it's perfectly possible to bring up a child bilingually or multilingually, that requires competent speakers of all the languages in question, and your language level says "beginner". As a result, your Gaelic will necessarily be broken up in English, so your child will learn it as though it were part of English, rather than a distinct language.

If you want him to learn to speak Gaelic, there are other strategies that won't teach him it, but at least will prepare his brain to deal with it better if and when he later learns it. I was monolingual as a child, but I sang along to French pre-schooler songs when I was about 3-4*, and when I finally started learning French at 11, I had very little trouble with the pronunciation.

* I stopped before I went to school -- my mum knew I'd end up getting teased if I sang in French in the playground, so she weaned me off them by teaching me more English nursery rhymes and songs a few months before school started.

[Gràisg]

Hi De Tamble,
Mamaidh Dadaidh,
Piss in relation to talking to children is dìdeig - A bheil thu ag iarraidh dìdeig? Do you want a piss?

Gaelic4parents have a forum too that may be of some help to you.
http://www.gaelic4parents.org/

Chuc in Alaska has spoken Gaelic only to his youngest daughter from an early age
http://gaidheal.blogspot.com/
He's a member of this forum and he might have a few tips, urls etc for you if you sent a PM to Tearlach61

[Seonaidh]

Tha mi ag aontachadh ri Niall an seo. Tha cuimhne agam air teulu Cuimreach - màthair, athair, 2 nighean 10-15 a dh'aois agus mac 4-5 a dh'aois. Bha na pàrantan ag ionnsachadh Cuimris, bha na nighnean aon-chànanach Beurla agus bha na pàrantan airson am mac a thogail aon-chànanach Cuimris. Cha robh sin ag obair idir.

I'm with Neil on this one. I recall a Welsh family - mother, father, 2 daughters 10-15 years old and a son 4-5 years old. The parents were learning Welsh, the daughters were English monolingual and the parents wanted to bring the son up Welsh monolingual. It wasn't working at all.

[AlasdairBochd]

Although I didn't learn to speak much Gàidhlig as a child, except for a few stock phrases and counting to 10 (my father wasn't fluent), we often sang Gàidhlig songs and so I had no trouble with pronunciation when I finally started to learn seriously, and the words I sang came to mind again very quickly. I think it was a great help.
On the other hand, my eldest son learnt basic Japanese from a television show designed to teach the language when he was about three years old. He wasn't put in front of it, he just liked the sound and would watch it every morning on his own. It confused his mother no end.

[DeTamble]

I’m not trying to teach him Gaelic at this point, I’ll send him to a GME school for that when he’s older.
Basically, I’m just trying to learn words and phrases which I will actually use in daily speech, because I find words in context easier to remember.

His Father and I speak a mix of English, French and Luganda with him and to each other, and every one else here speaks Luganda to him, I think throwing some Gaelic into the mix now won’t make much difference.

I’ve downloaded some songs from Gaelic4Parents, thanks for the link Gràisg.

[Fear na coille]

Words in context for sure. How many can finish this: Hail Mary full of grace the .... is with thee, blessed art thou among ....., and blessed is the fruit of thy .... Jesus. Holy ...., Mother of ...,
etc...

Pattern recognition will be a benefit to any and all learners.. Let them be children or adults...

[An Gobaire]

Here goes, in Gàidhlig what do you say to a very young child when telling them to piss, or telling them that they have just peed. What is the baby-speak word for pee pee in Gàidhlig? Likewise for poo. These words seem to be mentioned a lot when there's a toddler in the house...

Next, when he falls over (he's just learnt to walk in the past week) I say 'sorry' to him. As in 'sorry that happened', not as in 'sorry, I apologise for that'. So, what would a Gàidhlig speaker say to a little one after they've fallen over?

What did children call their parents? I've seen Mummy and Daddy spelt in Gàidhlig, but is that actually what mothers and fathers were called there? What is the word for baby, again I've seen baby spelt in Gàidhlig, I think it was something along the lines of beibidh, but were they originally called that?

Ok first up.

Dìdeag is not wee, but "to peep, keek" with the eye.

Dileag is wee wee.

The adult word is mùin.

So a phrase you could use would be

"A bheil do dhileag agad"? Do you need to wee?
"Tha mo dhileag agam." I need a wee wee.

For pooh. You could use: puban, or spelt puban. Or to be less direct: gnothach... which means "business".

i.e Tha gnothaich agam. I want a pooh.
A bheil do ghnothaich agad? Do you want a pooh?
Tha mo phuban agam. I need/want a pooh.

For your "sorry" question, I would say something like: (Child's name) bochd. - poor (child's name). Or just "Tha mi duilich, a ghràidh." I'm sorry dear.

"Duilich" is sorry and can be used in both senses of the word. Sorry that happened, or I am sorry (apology). But it's literal meaning is actually in the sense you require. "Ò, bha siud duilich." "Oh, that was "sorry". (sense of feeling sorry that something happened; b' e rud duilich a thachair - it was a sorry thing that happened)

Children call their parents today "Mamaidh", "Dadaidh". If you look at the Speaking Our Language videos on www.learngaelic.net - you will see that.

A Mhamaidh, A Dhadaidh (vocative case)

Baby as you say is often "bèibidh" these days. Leanabh is used for baby and child in general , and "naoidhean" is a new-born baby.


Tha mi an dòchas gu bheil seo feumail dhut.

I hope that this is useful for you! Now, I would recommend you going to http://www2.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaidhlig/faclair/bb/bb.html to practise pronouncing these words...you'll find sound files for most of them, though maybe not for "puban, pupan" or "mamaidh, dadaidh". The native speaker used in these sound files is a Lewisman.