sìon vs. dad

[caiptean]

Hey all,

I'm a bit confused as to which "anything" I should use when. Sìon or Dad? Does it depend on tense? Mood? Or is it just personal preference?

Tapadh leibh!

[GunChleoc]

I'm not sure... it might depend on the expression as well. Have a look at the expressions on Faclair Beag, they might help give you a feel for it.

[faoileag]

In Teach Yourself Gaelic Unit 19 Page 231, it says that 'càil' is used maily in Lewis and Harris, 'dad' in Skye, the Uists and Barra. 'Sgàth' is an alternative in Barra, and 'sian' in Uist. 'Ni' in Argyll, and 'stuth' in Islay.

So take your pick.

I have the impression that certain expressions tend to stick to certain versions, eg 'Tha càil a dh'fhios agam'. 'Dad sam bith'.

[akerbeltz]

Hm I'm generally wary of these geographic indications, they're often based on the author's personal experience. Which may of course be right but it can also be wrong.

The maps in AFB are of course not giving the complete picture either but I would put more confidence in them because they're an aggregate of different sources and generally not impacted by personal experience beyond a voters knowledge of their OWN variant.

Looking at the maps for sìon/dad/nì/sgath (short vowel by the way) and càil, only sgath seems to have a strong Hebridean bias (though from Lewis to Barra), càil seems a northern form though not unheard of further south. Dad in particular seems common across all areas except Argyll. Sìon appears absent from W Ross but we don't have that much data on W Ross yet so that may change.

[bb3ca201]

Hey all,

I'm a bit confused as to which "anything" I should use when. Sìon or Dad? Does it depend on tense? Mood? Or is it just personal preference?

Tapadh leibh!

No difference...they all mean the same thing. Many of the varieties "càil, dad, sian, etc." tended to be focused on one island/area or another; however, the native Gaelic speakers I know don't usually focus on one equivalent themselves.

[Zwalla28]

The lewis woman I speak to uses càil almost exclusively.

That said, the man from Harris I speak to has a bit more variation, but not much.

I don't think I actually contributed anything there but there you go.