New learners book!

[Níall Beag]

Amazon alerted me to a forthcoming new book the other day:

Gaelic in 12 weeks by Roibeard O Maolalaigh and Iain MacAonghuis.

Robert was one of the guys who wrote Hugo's Gaelic in Three Months, which I thought was vastly superior to anything from Teach Yourself or Colloquial. I haven't seen the new book (it isn't out yet), but if I see it on a shelf in the near future I'll compare it to the Hugo one.

[*Alasdair*]

this months ago n Amazon. Was meant to be coming out in November but got delayed. Looks like it is coming out in April - Birlinn

£6.89 for the book or £9.89 for book and CD on Amazon.

Scottish Gaelic in Twelve Weeks

Seems a fair deal.

Scottish Gaelic in Twelve Weeks has been written both as a self-tuition course for beginners and also for use within the classroom. You may want to learn Gaelic because of a general interest in Celtic or Scottish history and culture, or because it was the everyday language of your ancestors . The cynical observer may wonder if the exercise is worthwhile, when only one and a half per cent of Scotland’s population speak the language. However, Gaelic is far from dead; in some parts of the Highlands and Western Isles it is the everyday language, and it represents an important part of the United Kingdom’s cultural mix. There are Gaelic-learning classes in almost every area of Scotland.

Each lesson in the book contains some essential points of grammar explained and illustrated, exercises, a list of new vocabulary (with a guide to pronunciation, in International Phonetics notation), and an item of conversation.

Roibeard Ò Maolalaigh organises Beginners’ Gaelic Courses at the University of Edinburgh, where he lectures in the Department of Celtic and is Director of the Centre for Irish Studies. His consultant Iain MacAonghuis is a native speaker of Scottish Gaelic who was born and bought up in the Western Isles. He lectured for many years at the School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh (where he is an Honorary Fellow), and has written and broadcasts on a range of Gaelic subjects.

[Rù-ra]

I was told by the publishers that Gaelic in 12 Weeks is basically a new updated version of Gaelic in 3 Months.

[Níall Beag]

Thanks -- I figured as much, and thought the name was probably just because of copyright. And then I misread John MacInnes's name and thought he was someone else (I still get confused by transliterations...)

I hope they've stuck to their guns on the accents issue -- the original book used acute and grave accents not (they claimed) as an explicitly anti-GOC statement, but because it makes it so much easier to pronounce correctly out of the book (which is undeniably correct).

Even if they've caved and ditched the acute, this book still gets my recommendation. The old book avoided the use of frivolous "situational" stuff and just taught you to say what you wanted to say, not parrot the most suitable phrase-book phrase.

I didn't use the book on it's own -- I was going to a conversation circle regularly and went to the SMO for short courses, so I don't what it's like as a sole source of learning, but the fact that it was laid out logically, by language feature instead of introducing language seemingly haphazardly within loose topics meant I found it much easier to use as a secondary source than Teach Yourself, which I hardly ever opened after buying.

The Hugo edition has been out of print far too long, and I'll be very glad to see this edition finally hit the shelves.

[yellow-ceitidh]

Tha 'Teach Yourself' Gaelic aig mi....

I don't just rely on the one resource, I also read CNAG and Ur-Sgeul, listen to Gaelic music, use Beag air Bheag, Colin and Cumberland as well as a the YouTube Can Seo for pronounciation and there's a couple of Gaelic geocities courses as well. When I can afford it I might go on an SMO class or do a distance course.

[neoni]

12 weeks?

mar a chanas iad - aye, right

[GunChleoc]

Nach robh Gàidhlig fileanta agad an dèidh dà sheachdain? Nàire ort!

[neoni]

dìreach aon, leis an fhirinn innse...

[GunChleoc]

Nach ann glic a tha thusa!

[Neas Olc]

Bhithidh mise a'rannsachadh air sin, tha TY Gaelic agam ach tha'n tidsear agam ag-radh ruinn gu bheil fabhtan amaideach ann chan eil cuir Gàidhlig mhath dhan neach-cleachaidh. An-drasd' cò diu, chan eil rud eile sam bith againn.

Will be looking for it, have TY, teacher says it's got errors, gives bad Gaelic, but nothing else at the moment.

[Níall Beag]

TY has some classics "sin an taigh-osda".

Great Gaelic. As long as you're talking to someone with Alzheimers.

[neoni]

's toil leam TY gu mòr, chan eil mi a' tuigsinn carson nach toil le duine eile e.

seadh, chan eil e sgoinneil mur a h-eil rud sam eile agad cuideachd, ach mar reference tha e ceart gu leòr

[yellow-ceitidh]

I found a website on the internet that helped with basic gramar and stuff, then realized that TY misses out the 'mi' in 'Tha mi gu math', making it 'Tha gu math'. Mine is also used as a doodling book, and as a storage place for random pieces of paper.

[Coinneach Cìr]

then realized that TY misses out the 'mi' in 'Tha mi gu math', making it 'Tha gu math'.

Is that a problem? You'll very often hear the 'mi' dropped by speakers referring to themselves and now that I think on it I wouldn't consider it too unnatural for someone to answer a question referring to someone else in such a manner as long as there was no ambiguity re who was being referred to;

"Ciamar a tha thu a Choinnich?"
"Tha sgìth / toilichte / tinn / gu dòigheil"

Although if my ageing brain serves me correctly I read somewhere 'mi' is the only one that should be dropped in this manner.

[Níall Beag]

I found a website on the internet that helped with basic gramar and stuff, then realized that TY misses out the 'mi' in 'Tha mi gu math', making it 'Tha gu math'. Mine is also used as a doodling book, and as a storage place for random pieces of paper.

If you want to be picky about grammar, the "correct" answer by the rules is:
'S ann math a tha mi.
Ciamar -> 'S ann math
a tha thu -> a tha mi

Of course I put "correct" in quote-marks because the rules shouldn't be followed slavishly, because if they don't match what native speakers say, they're wrong! "Rule" is a misnomer -- they should be grammar "guidelines".

I always thought of Tha gu math as being equivalent to Aye, no bad, even though the question isn't a yes/no one. Can you miss out mi in other answers, or just this one?