Fòram na Gàidhlig

Meal do naidheachd! Cuin a bhios na clasaichean a' toiseachadh? San fhoghar?

Congratulations! When will the classes start? In autumn?

Tapadh leat! Bidh, bidh na clasaichean a' toiseachadh san fhoghar.

Thank you! Yes, the classes will be starting in autumn.

Meal do naideachd!! Tha mi glè thoilichte air do shon. Tha dòchas agam gum bi na clasaichean math. 'S toigh le mo bhràthair eachdraidh mheadhan-aoiseil cuideachd. Bu toigh leis ann an Sasann a dh'ionnsachadh. An samhradh seo bidh e a' dol gu Ath nan Damh airson seachdain airson clas eachdraidh goirid.

Congrats! I'm very happy for you. I hope the classes will be good. My brother likes medieval history too. He'd like to study in England. This summer he's going to Oxford for a week for a short history class.

Tapadh leat. Gun tèid gu math le do bhràthair! Leugh m' athair mheadhan-aoiseil ann an Ath nan Damh o chionn fhada. Bha e a' leughadh ann an Emory ann am Georgia, ach chaidh e a null thairis aon bliadhna. Chaidh mi agus mo phiuthar gu Ath nan Damh ant-Samhainn. 'S toil leinn! Ach, 's fhearr leum Cill Rimhinn...

Thank you. Good luck to your brother! My father studied medieval history at Oxford a long time ago. He was studying at Emory in Georgia, but he went abroad one year. My sister and I went to Oxford in November. We love it! But, I prefer St Andrews...

Meal do naidheachd, a Mhairead!
Nach sgoinneil sin!

Congratulations, M.
Isn't that brilliant!

Sin thu fhèin, a Mhairead! Tha mi 'n dòchas gun còrd an cùrsa riut

Well done, M! I hope you will enjoy the course

Tapadh leibh!!

Oilthigh Chill Rìmhinn! Nach ro fhad' às a tha sin air do shonsa ann an Ainster?

Snandrews University? Isn't that too far away for you in Anstruther?

Seriously, though, there's gae few of us in Fife as speaks Gaelic. Who do you ken?

Gu deimhinne, chan eil ach uimhir glè bheag dhuinn ann am Fìobha aig a bheil Gàidhlig. Cò tha thu eòlach air?

Chan eil mi eòlach air mòran--direach anns a' chlàs na Ghàidhlig agam anns a' Chill Rìmhinn.

I don't know many--only in my Gaelic class in St Andrews.

Aig aon àm bha bean glè ghnìomhachail ann ann am Fàclann - ach tha i air gluasad a-nis a Ghlaschu airson trèanadh tidseir a dhèanamh (FMG).

At one time there was a very active woman in Falkland - but she's moved to Glasgeaux now to do teacher training (GME).

Tha mi a' creidsinn gu bheil còmhlan craic ann ann an Dùn Phàrlan - 's dòcha Oidhche Luain no Oidhche Màirt - nuair nach eil mise ann co-dhiù.

I think there's a conversation group in Dunfermline - maybe Monday or Tuesday night - when I'm not around myself.

Tha mi eòlach air tseab ann an Ceann Rois. Agus smaoin nach eil ministear Gàidhlig ann am Milnathort.

I ken a chap in Kinross. And I think there's a Gaelic-speaking minister in Milnathort

Chan eil e droch! Tha Gàidhlig on ghlùn aig òraidiche anns an sgoil dhiadhaireachd anns an Oilthigh Chill Rimhìnn; tha e à Leòdhas. Tha co-dhiù beagan Gàidhlig aig an seaplain na h-oilthigh cuideachd. Tha mu deich oileanach ann anns a' chlàs na h-oidhche agam.

That's not bad! A lecturer in the School of Divinity in St Andrews is a native Gaelic speaker; he is from Lewis. The university chaplain speaks at least a little Gaelic too. There are about ten students in my evening class. *I can't say this in Gaelic, but most of them are postgraduates. (I don't know the construction for "Most of X are Y".)

Tha a' mhòrchuid dhiubh nan iar-cheumnaichtean. ("in their postgraduates" - a common construction when saying someone's role or temporary status, job etc. "Tha mi nam oileanach" - I'm a student)
or
'S e iar-cheumnaichean a tha anns a' mhòrchuid dhiubh. (The classic X = Y construction.)



The use of a plural ('nan' = in their) after the uncountable 'a' mhòrchuid' (singular form, plural reference) may well ruffle grammatical feathers again, but hey ho!

A couple of corrections - most of them are the same subject, really:

ann an clas na Ghàidhlig - only 1 article per phrase

anns an Oilthigh Chill Rimhìnn - same principle here - only the last noun can have an article

aig an seaplain an h-oilthigh - again, and oilthigh is masculine

mu dheich oileanach ann anns a' chlàs - you only need "ann" once, and: Tha mu dheich oileanach ann an clàs na h-oidhche agam - double article again, so lose one when you add "na h-oidhche"

Chan eil e droch dona - "droch" needs to be followed by something, e.g. droch shìde.

Oh aye, the Gaelic genitive. For native English speakers, think of something like "the head", "the cat", "the man". Now, one could stick that lot tohether rather clumsily as "the head of the cat of the man" - just as one might say something stupid in Gaelic like "an ceann den chat den duine". But usually we'd use some sort of genitive construct. In modern English, that tends to reverse the order, as a "genitive" is really a noun behaving like an adjective and adjectives usually go in front of nouns in English - so we get "the man's the cat's the head". Oh no we don't, do we? We just leave the first "the" - and the rest vanish, viz. "the man's cat's head". Similarly in Gaelic, where adjectives usually come after nouns (so the order doesn't get reversed), we don't say "an ceann a' chait an duine" but, just as in English, we only use "the" with the "man" word, viz "ceann cat an duine".

The other "nasty" is "in". For reasons best known to whoever invented Gaelic (I jest), "in" is usually rendered "ann an". While in speech, esp. when unambiguous, this is often shortened to just "an", that's not what we usually write. To make matters more interesting, when there's an alt (definite article) present, we use "anns" in front of it, whether it's "anns an duine" (in the man), "anns a' chat" (in the cat) or "anns na h-eileanan" (in the islands).

The puzzle is how one might say "in school" and "in Fort William School" (or in anywhere else school, but I chose Fort William as it's maybe a clearer illustration). Where one might in English say "in a school", the Gaelic would be "ann an sgoil". However, "in school" would be "anns an sgoil", just like "in the school". As for "in Fort William School" (not that there is such an institution), consider first "Fort William School". This would be "Sgoil a' Ghearasdain". Note: NOT "An Sgoil a' Ghearasdain" - just as in English one would not say "Fort William the School". So, when we talk of "in Fort William School", we use the "ann an" form - "ann an Sgoil a' Ghearasdain". "In school", however, would be "anns an sgoil".

Mòran taing. I know what the genitive is (having studied Latin), but I'm confused about this one article business. In the example above, "the university chaplain", why do I take "the" away from "chaplain" and not from "University"? To me it seems more important to say that he is THE chaplain, rather than A chaplain. But is that implied in Gaelic even though the definite article was kept only with "university"?

Can you also please clarify about (GunChleoc's correction) the double use of "ann"? In that sentence I thought the first ann was part of the construction "there are" and the anns was for "in my class".

Seonaidh, does the "in Fort William School" construction also apply to universities--ie would it be "ann an oilthigh Chill Rimhinn" or "anns an oilthigh Chill Rimhinn"?