Càit' a bheil thu a' fuireach?

[Semune]

I was wondering what the actual definition of this sentence is. I have seen it either answered as if you were living in a permanent location (i.e. Tha mi a' fuireach ann an Maryland (I live in Maryland)) or in a weekend getaway setting (i.e. Tha mi 'fuireach san taighosd(I am staying in the hotel))

Does the question in the subject handle -both- situations? Where do you currently live AND where are you staying(while visiting)?

Tapadh leat!

[Seonaidh]

Càite a bheil thu a' fuireach?

Ma bhios Fìobhais agad (no, 's dòcha, Beurla Ghallda sam bith, ach chan eil mi cinnteach air sin), 's ann nas fhasa a tha ga thuigsinn.
If ye ken Fifish (or, maybe, any sort of Scots English, but I'm no sure o' that), it's easier to understand it.

"Where di ye stay?" "I stay in ...." (e.g. Kirkcaldy, Cupar, Aberdour)
- a chleachdar airson far a bheil do thaigh-se
- is used for where your hoose is

fuireach = stay

[Gràisg]

Hi Sheume, feuch an duilleag seo, Aonad 3 airson tuilleadh 'Càit a bheil thu a' fuireach'.
Try this page, Unit 3 for more 'Càit a bheil a' fuireach'
http://www.storlann.co.uk/ceumannan/modalan/modal2.html
teacsa an seo/ text here:
http://www.storlann.co.uk/ceumannan/ois ... e1.2.3.pdf

's docha gum bi na leanas feumail dhut cuideachd
Perhaps what follows will be useful to you too:

'Co às a tha thu?/ Càite a bheil thu a' fuireach? 'S ann à Dolair a tha mi bho thùs, baile beag ann an Siorrachd chlach Mhanainn. Ach, an-dràst' tha mi a' fuireach air an Eilean Sgitheanach aig Sabhal Mòr'

Where are you from?/ where do you stay? I am originally from Dollar, a small village in Clackmannanshire. However, at the minute i am living on the Isle of Skye at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.'

Bhon duilleag seo:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/alba/foghlam/beag_ ... dair.shtml

[Níall Beag]

All my life in (Scottish) English I've said either "I stay in..." or "I'm staying in..." wherever. Either one can be used equivalent to "I live in...", and "I'm staying in..." is also used for hotels etc.

My first Gaelic teacher told me about the funny looks she got when she moved to England and told people where she was "staying", because in England you either "live in" or "are living in" a place.

But not so in Gaelic -- "a' fuireach" is both. So "tha mi a' fuireach ann an taigh" (I live in a house) and "tha mi a fuireach ann an àite campachaidh" (I'm staying in a campsite) both use the same verb.

[Semune]

Hi Sheume, feuch an duilleag seo, Aonad 3 airson tuilleadh 'Càit a bheil thu a' fuireach'.
Try this page, Unit 3 for more 'Càit a bheil a' fuireach'
http://www.storlann.co.uk/ceumannan/modalan/modal2.html
teacsa an seo/ text here:
http://www.storlann.co.uk/ceumannan/ois ... e1.2.3.pdf

's docha gum bi na leanas feumail dhut cuideachd
Perhaps what follows will be useful to you too:

'Co às a tha thu?/ Càite a bheil thu a' fuireach? 'S ann à Dolair a tha mi bho thùs, baile beag ann an Siorrachd chlach Mhanainn. Ach, an-dràst' tha mi a' fuireach air an Eilean Sgitheanach aig Sabhal Mòr'

Where are you from?/ where do you stay? I am originally from Dollar, a small village in Clackmannanshire. However, at the minute i am living on the Isle of Skye at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.'

Bhon duilleag seo:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/alba/foghlam/beag_ ... dair.shtml

Tapadh leat! Tha mi à na Staitean Aonaichte agus tha mi a' fuireach ann an Staitean Aonaichte. Eilean Sgitheanach? Tha i àlainn!

Thanks! I am from the United States and I live in the United States. Isle of Skye? It is beautiful!

Thanks for the reply, that clears it up quite a bit! Also a big thanks to Níall Beag and Seonaidh!

[GunChleoc]

Some corrections: prepositions have special forms before the article, and you're saying THE United States, plural. So, you get:

Tha mi às na Stàitean Aonaichte
Tha mi a' fuireach anns na Stàitean Aonaichte.

Cum ort!

[Níall Beag]

Perhaps what follows will be useful to you too:

'Co às a tha thu?/ Càite a bheil thu a' fuireach? 'S ann à Dolair a tha mi bho thùs, baile beag ann an Siorrachd chlach Mhanainn. Ach, an-dràst' tha mi a' fuireach air an Eilean Sgitheanach aig Sabhal Mòr'

No offense to Alasdair, but I wish the BBC would edit stuff when they publish stuff from learners to other learners...

Anns an t-Eilean Sgitheanach, surely...?

[Gràisg]

Well spotted Niall but no t?, a-nis Aonad 3 a-rithist (Unit 3 againn)

C1-2-3-35 c. Cailean: Càit a bheil thu a’ fuireach, a Chairistìona?
Cairistìona: Tha mi a’ fuireach anns an Eilean Sgitheanach.
Cailean: Cò ris a tha e coltach?
Cairistìona: Tha e uabhasach brèagha

[Semune]

Some corrections: prepositions have special forms before the article, and you're saying THE United States, plural. So, you get:

Tha mi às na Stàitean Aonaichte
Tha mi a' fuireach anns na Stàitean Aonaichte.

Cum ort!

Tapadh leat!

[Níall Beag]

Well spotted Niall but no t?, a-nis Aonad 3 a-rithist (Unit 3 againn)

C1-2-3-35 c. Cailean: Càit a bheil thu a’ fuireach, a Chairistìona?
Cairistìona: Tha mi a’ fuireach anns an Eilean Sgitheanach.
Cailean: Cò ris a tha e coltach?
Cairistìona: Tha e uabhasach brèagha

Google has about the same number with the t- as without, hence my mistake, but you're right in that "anns an Eilean" fits the normal grammatical pattern correctly.

[akerbeltz]

unless the author's dialect has developed a prosthetic t in eilean anyway

[Níall Beag]

This leathann ri leathann s caol ri caol that they're on about...

This leads me into thinking of the N in "an" as broad, which I'm not sure is always true. I mean, the distinction between a clitic and a prefix is pretty blurry, and I keep hearing the article being slenderised before a word starting with a slender vowel*, but I've still got this broad pronunciation stuck in my mouth, which make "an eilean" next to impossible to pronounce.

* But not normally before a word starting with a slender consonant. This is why I'm hacked of with the leathann ri leathann thing -- it seems like certain consonant clusters aren't subject to this rule in pronunciation (see Catrìona and mnathan a' ghlinne-sa) although the GOC doesn't seem to account for syllable boundaries in writing.....

[GunChleoc]

Concerning the article:

And the article itself actually
Even though the plural definite articles <na> ans <nan> have initial N's, they are pronounced with /n-/. Before vowels and lenited F, the final N strenghtens to /n̴̪/ and /ɲ/, depending on the environment.

http://www.akerbeltz.org/beagangaidhlig ... ar_lnr.htm

Grammar words and names are often a bit weird. Just think of the pronunciation of is in isolation - broad s.

The possessive an (3rd person plural) also goes with the following vowel, as well as the consonant. You can see the changing consonant in the spelling in the am variation, but it can also turn into ang, which you don't see in the orthography.


As to a' ghlinne - check the section on consonant clusters here: http://www.akerbeltz.org/beagangaidhlig ... ition2.htm

g in gl is always pronounced as broad and therefore doesn't need to be marked by the orthography as broad or slender. However, the l can be broad or slender, and that's what the orthography marks with the following vowel.

[akerbeltz]

In essence true though I need to update that site SO badly.

Gaelic has what I've dubbed "variable n" or which means that there is a small set of words which end in single broad -n mostly involving the definite article (an, nan, dhan, dhen, ron...) that change quality to /N/ /Nʲ/ (excluding /ŋg/ and /ŋʲgʲ/ before c g for a moment) depening on the broad and slender thing.

Which means that you get the following:
air an eilean /ɛrʲ ə Nʲelan/
on athair /ɔ Nahɪrʲ/
dhan taigh /ɣaN tɤj/
leis an dealbh /leʃ əNʲ dʲɛLɛv/

Remember also that the definite article before lnr drops off in spoken Gaelic:
air an rathad /ɛrʲ ə Ra.əd/
leis an rionnag /leʃ ə RuNag/

In terms of getting rid of the wrong pronunciation - practise with deliberately wrong spelling i.e. instead of air an eilean write air a neilean, instead of fon òrd write fo nòrd. As long as you remember that virtuall all initial LNR sounds are strong (/L Lʲ N Nʲ R/) not weak (/l n r rʲ/), then that should put you right.

Be careful though, this does not happen to ANY -n. For example, the possessive an "their" does not follow this pattern so you get:
air an athair /ɛrʲ ə nahɪrʲ/ "on their father"
air an athair /ɛrʲ ə Nahɪrʲ/ "on the father"

Ah I love the phonology of Gaelic.

[GunChleoc]

In essence true though I need to update that site SO badly.

I'll have to get you a TARDIS so you can go back in time to do that at your leisure