Fòram na Gàidhlig

I came across this sentence I don't understand:

[Bha orm] Peadar Beag nan Clibean [às dèidh mo sheanar] a bhiodh daonnan a' clubadh clòimh nan caorach le 'clibean' mar a bh' aig air. Deamhais bheag iarainn [...] a b' urrainn dhut pasgadh na dà leth son a dhol a sporan an fhèilidh no a-steach do phoca-tòine na briogaise.

I get it except the very words clibean and clubadh - no dictionary tr*nsl*t**n I found would have his grandfather doing with the wool something conceivable, let alone probable. With a massive stretch of imagination I can see him (based on Dwelly's entries for "cliob") as having some folding scissors or pincers and nipping off pieces of wool with those, but why would he do that is beyond my imagination...

I'm pretty certain they're all mis-spellings of the same root "clip" (English) which phonetically comes across in Gaelic as /kləb/ ~ /klib/ ~ /klɤb/ etc and carries the meaning of cutting hair or wool. So clubadh=cliobadh=clibeadh=cloibeadh = clipping/shearing, clibean=cluban=cliopan would be a clipper.

As to what the right spelling is, good question - I'll look into it.

Thanks! So he was cutting wool all the time? I though sheep were only sheared once or twice a year - or was there some occupation (it happens around the turn of 20th century) where the craftsman always had to trim wool, some kind of upholstery perhaps?

It doesn't say he was doing it permanently - daonnan could also just mean that every time shearing took place, he used this clipper.

I've gone with cliop(adh) in AFB. Who is the author? I'm just slightly wary of the clippers without knowing who came up with that word.

A native speaking friend of mine from Benbecula also uses clup or clep (perhaps humorously) for a haircut.

Oh it's very common alright, it's just difficult to find the least wrong way of spelling it

akerbeltz wrote:I've gone with cliop(adh) in AFB. Who is the author? I'm just slightly wary of the clippers without knowing who came up with that word.

Oops, sorry, forgot to answer that. Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul, Tilleadh Dhachaigh, p 19.

East HIghland Gaelic-English as well - doubt if anyone wrote/spelled it, though. Older men went to hairdresser's (or someone's house) for a 'clip' or 'clup'. And I only recall hearing about sheep being 'clipped', not 'shorn/sheared' etc, as a verb. 'At the clipping' or 'at the shearing', as a noun. ('Ris..' again. )

I therefore understood it when reading the same bit as Thrissel in APC.

Tha sin còisear alright, a-steach dhan fhaclair leis

Thrissel wrote:Thanks! So he was cutting wool all the time? I though sheep were only sheared once or twice a year - or was there some occupation (it happens around the turn of 20th century) where the craftsman always had to trim wool, some kind of upholstery perhaps?

I've seen people using clippers or shears to remove the pilling (colloqually known round my way as bobbling -- the formation of little balls of wool fibre on the surface) of woven cloth and even finished clothes. Carpets and rug often need a clipping before being laid, and some people do it after laying. I doubt AP would be writing books featuring carpet-fitters though.

Best guess would be removing pilling from the tweed, but you'd probably want to ask a Hebridean above a certain age if that was the norm.

Of course, pilling occurs on knitted cloth too, and the removal process is similar, but a lot more hassle because a knitted cloth is more flexible and doesn't sit flat, so you're more likely to damage it.

But he carries the shears with him... is he a wool thief?

I came across two other things I don't get in a single paragraph, so I thought I'd stick them here rather than creating two new topics:

Can fhèin Seumas Alasdair, a bha fuireach ann am bothan beag ri taobh nan creag nuair a bha mi òg. Cha robh seachdain nach robh An Sluagh a' falbh ris gu ceàrnaidhean eile dhen t-saoghal. Agus aon uair thuirt e rium gun do shiubhail e air sop-feòir tarsainn a' Chuan Sgìth gu baile mòr a bha a' deàrrsadh fodha anns an dorchadas. "Chan eil mi cinnteach," ars esan, "an e Paris a bh' ann no Lunnainn, ach gun robh tùr mòr iarainn laiste suas ann co-diù, a' dol timcheall gun sgur.

1) I would understand "ri na ceàrnaidhean eile" or "gu ceàrnaidhean eile", but why does he use both the prepositions, the first one with the article amalgamated to boot? It can't be "a' falbh ris = ri+e = ri Seumas" when they're leaving him, can it?

2) Whether it's a "big tower of burning iron moving ceaselessly around the place" or a "ceaselessly evolving" one, what is it? I've always been helpless with these kinds of riddles...

Perhaps the following
1) perhaps Seumas Alasdair was a storyteller and "there wasn't a week when the people weren't away with him to (a' falbh ris gu) the other corners of the world

2) a' dol timcheall gun sgur - rotating (revolving) ceaselessly

Yes, agree with Alasdair. "Ris" is slightly odd but in the context of a fairy story, it's the only thing that makes sense. I'd perhaps tr*nsl*t* an sluagh more freely as the fairy host.

Oh, I see - the Small Folk taking him away! I thought it was an allusion to inhabitants leaving for work on the mainland - in the fairytale context the ri does make sense. TL!

But what is the tower in Paris or London? Do blast furnaces revolve?

Sa Bheurla, tha iad ag ràdh "away with the fairies" (nuair nach eil an neach a' nochdadh gu bheil e ann - san latha a th'ann, cleachdar seo airson Alzheimer's amsaa).

"laiste": feuch "illuminated". Tha tùr ann ann an Lunnainn, 's dòcha gu bheil e laiste, a thèid timcheall gun sgur - sin an Telecom Tower. Tha taigh bidh san roinn a thèid timcheall.