Fòram na Gàidhlig

Okay, So I'm having a bit of trouble figuring this out.

These examples come from the "Taic" Lessons.

Bha ròn ann air à Chladach

The seal is in on the shore (my literal tr*nsl*t**n)

Chan eil uisge ann anns an t-srut

There is no water in in the stream (my literal)

I've had several example where it uses both terms for "In" or where it is "In on" or "In through" ect.

Why is this? I thought it was a typo at first, but it's been used too many times.

Secondly, this one is REALLY strange.

Tha am Bainne Bhon Fhiadh sin Uabhasach math?

The milk from that deer is very good?

First off, the obvious, He's making a statement so why the question mark?

Secondly... Is there something about Scottish deer that I don't know about? lol!

Well, you've not got them all right, but most of your inaccuracies are pretty trivial (e.g. "is" for "was" in the first one).

The first is actually (unless the text has a mispront...) "Bha ròn ann air a' chladach". Taking the second bit first, "air a' chladach" is "on the beach", with the form changing from "an cladach" to "a' chladach" because it's ruled by a preposition (air - on). Now, the first bit - the bit that you're finding odd: "Bha ròn ann". The best English equivalent for that would be "There was a seal". Without the "ann", the best English equivalent might be "A seal was". The difference may be subtle, but if you consider

A seal was on the beach
and
There was a seal on the beach

hopefully you'll appreciate they're slightly different. In Gaelic, sticking "ann" (literally "in it") after something like "Bha ròn" turns the meaning from the first English given to the second, roughly. It is a way of being slightly vague and impersonal, e.g., "A seal happened to be on the beach" rather than "Look at that - a seal was on the beach".

Likewise, "Chan eil uisge anns an t-sruth" would mean, more-or-less, "Water is not in the burn", which sounds somewhat odd in English - as indeed it does in Gaelic. Just as, in English, you'd more usually say THERE is no water in the burn", so in Gaelic you'd more usually say "Chan eil uisge ANN anns an t-sruth".

It's certainly not common to milk deer in Scotland (and then only tame ones!), though I'm told it's like goat's milk - you can acquire a taste for it, and make cheese out of it. But northern native peoples do still milk reindeer.

And what about "Tha am Bainne Bhon Fhiadh sin Uabhasach math?" -- is it really a question or a it's a typo here?
Bha mi den bheachd nach bu chòir do "?" a bhih ann, ach an uairsin chunnaic mi seo:

Litir do Luchd-lonnsachaidh 568 wrote:“Tha thu à Alba?” thuirt i. “Tha sin inntinneach.”
“An robh thu ann?” dh’fhaighnich mi.
“Cha robh,” fhreagair i<...>

(tha sin an-seo)
Tha e coltach gur e ceist ann, nach e?

Well, exactly my point. The Gaidhlig bits came straight from the lessons I'm taking see Here in exercise 1. http://taic.me.uk/pdf/Lesson6.PDF

And sorry, I'm still having a bit of trouble getting past vs present tense through my head. I know what they are and what the difference is, but I almost always seem to put the wrong one on paper, lol!

Oookay, I was wondering how to distinguish between "It is" and "There is" And that's what the "Ann" thrown in there is for.

and secondly, faoileag, that's really interesting! I've heard of milking goats before, lots of folks around here do, for cheese and butter. I've even heard of milking sheep, though only once. And in mongolia or somewhere they milk Horses (which sounds disgusting!) But I'd never heard of deer....

poor_mouse wrote:And what about "Tha am Bainne Bhon Fhiadh sin Uabhasach math?" -- is it really a question or a it's a typo here?
Bha mi den bheachd nach bu chòir do "?" a bhih ann, ach an uairsin chunnaic mi seo:

Litir do Luchd-lonnsachaidh 568 wrote:“Tha thu à Alba?” thuirt i. “Tha sin inntinneach.”
“An robh thu ann?” dh’fhaighnich mi.
“Cha robh,” fhreagair i<...>

(tha sin an-seo)
Tha e coltach gur e ceist ann, nach e?

I'd say more an expression of surprise than a question.

That or just a typo. There are some of these in TAIC, as the author will readily admit. It's a huge programme to have produced single-handed and voluntarily, for free, and it's not surprising that the odd typo etc creeps in.
I would lose no further sleep over it!

Reindeer
The fat content of reindeer milk is 22%, six times as much as cow's milk. It is the only source of milk for Laplanders in northern Scandinavia, because no other dairy animal can survive in such a cold, hostile environment. It takes two people to milk a reindeer -- one to do the milking and the other to hold the reindeer's horns.

http://www.havemilk.com/article.asp?id=1485

Glè mhath!

Tha am Bainne Bhon Fhiadh sin Uabhasach math?

This one is indeed weird. For starters, it would be better as Tha bainne an fhéidh sin uabhasach math and you're right, in general if something is a question, it should begin with a?/an?/am? in Gaelic. Notwithstanding, there are some interesting instances where a statement can be a question, quite "legally", even in Gaelic but without context it's really hard to tell, even more so in writing.

The usual way of turning "Bha..." into a question is to replace it with "An robh...". However, look at these:

a) The milk from the reindeer was good.
b) Was the milk from the reindeer good?
c) The milk from the reindeer was good?

The "standard" English question form is b). However, c) is not wrong: it "expresses surprise", as somebody said before. And something similar can happen in Gaelic, as your example [probably] shows.

And as Acker says, the "bhon fhiadh" bit is somewhat naff, though not necessarily "wrong" (the English above is similar: more usual would be "The reindeer milk").

The reason for the 'bhon fhiadh' is that that lesson in TAIC is practising the Dative singular of masculine nouns. Genitive doesn't get taught till much later.

It's a grammar course, not a conversation one, and the examples can be a bit contrived.

A-tha! Tha sin taiceil Fhaoileag - cha robh fios agam air sin.
Aha! There's helpful Gull - I didn't know that.