Fòram na Gàidhlig

My apologies in advance if this is not the right place to ask this question. I have a large brass plaque with a Coat of Arms and a motto or phrase that appears to be written in Gaelic. Can anyone identify if it is and what it means? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

If the IMAGE doesn't display here (not sure if I've used the IMG tag correctly) - it can be viewed at www.in2harmony.co.uk/motto.JPG .

Neither is legible I'm afraid but the second word looks suspicioulsy like "the" which is not a Gaelic word. If you did a rubbing (sheet of paper over it, run a pencil over it at a very flat angle) that might work a lot better.

Much appreciated that you've taken the time to look. I've changed the image, to show each word straight on. The main reason I thought it might be Gaelic is because of the font style - in the third word are they "o" or Gaelic "d"?? Many thanks again.

Thanks for the clearer image. Whatever the language, it's not Gaelic, the last word is spaw and w is a letter not even in the Gaelic alphabet.

Many thanks - a definite negative is better than a maybe. I'll just have to keep on looking at other languages. Appreciate your help.

English used to have a few more letters that are not in the standard latin alphabet. You might want to look into that.

"Fey the deed's baw"?

GunChleoc wrote:English used to have a few more letters that are not in the standard latin alphabet. You might want to look into that.

Such as eth and thorn? As there seems to be a TH digraph in there (if it's English!), it's probably too modern for that to be relevant.

I didn't get to see the original image, so I'm not really sure what I'm looking at....

Thanks everyone that responded to this post. I think I've cracked it though - it's "Let the deed shaw" (or Let the deed show) and is the Fleming motto - a gory reference to the tradition of Fleming severing the head of the murdered Comyn. Particular thanks to Seonaidh as it was your post that pointed in the right direction.

Thanks for telling us!

Lots of people come on and ask for help and then never come back or even respond.