Fòram na Gàidhlig

Hey everyone,
I'm Coempa from Holland.
I'd been looking into gaidhlig for a while, trying to learn the language, when I stumbled upon this forum.
This place seems like a great opportunity to learn the language, talk to other learners and native speakers, and hopefully make some new friends!
You'll get to know me along the way, I guess..

Tapadh leibh

Fàilte chridheil ort!

Fàilte dhan Fhòram, a Choempa! Ciamar a bha thu a' faighinn a-mach mu dheidhinn a' Ghàidhlig?

Welcome to the Forum, Coempa! How did you discover the Gaelic?

akerbeltz wrote:do bheatha dhan dùthaich!

'S toigh leam sin, akerbeltz.

Màiri na Coille wrote:Fàilte dhan Fhòram, a Choempa! Ciamar a bha thu a' faighinn a-mach mu dheidhinn a' Ghàidhlig?

Welcome to the Forum, Coempa! How did you discover the Gaelic?

Tapadh leibh, a Mhàiri!
I honestly don't know how I discovered the language, I can't quite recall. I think I heard the Silly Wizard version of the song 'Fear a Bhata' one day, and I decided on searching for other versions of the song when I stumbled upon a gàidhlig version of the song. In the 'suggestions' bar I saw a video called 'learning our language', which I ended up clicking. I think that's how got indulged with the language.
I have no idea when I started being interested in celtic music and folklore, it just happened.

Fàilte bhuamsa cuideachd, Coempa!
Welcome from me too!

Tha daoine eile san Òlaind a bhios ag ionnsachadh Gàidhlig. Thadhail mi orra air Skype.
There are other people from the NL learning Gaelic - I've met them on Skype.

Gur math a thèid leat!
Good luck!

Agus Ann Desseyn, ged is Flannrach ise

faoileag wrote:Fàilte bhuamsa cuideachd, Coempa!
Welcome from me too!

Tha daoine eile san Òlaind a bhios ag ionnsachadh Gàidhlig. Thadhail mi orra air Skype.
There are other people from the NL learning Gaelic - I've met them on Skype.

Gur math a thèid leat!
Good luck!

Tapadh leat, a fhaoleaig.
Then I shall meet them in due time

Also, a quick question; what does the word 'air' mean exactly? I've seen it used in many different ways. 'air skype' means on skype. And in the lyrics to 'Ged a sheol mi air m'aineol' it t-lates to 'to' and 'in'.

'air' basically does mean 'on' nowadays, but it's used in a lot of idiomatic expressions where you have to take the whole phrase, not tr*nsl*t* word for word.

'aineol' means 'the state of being a stranger or foreigner'. Tha mi air m' aineol means 'I'm a stranger (here)'.
Ged a sheòl mi air m' aineol > although I sailed as a stranger / to places where I was a stranger = to foreign places

Ah yes, I see. Makes it just a bit more complex. Also, what's with the tr*nsl*t* censoring? I caught on and said t-late, but I'm not quite sure what the whole deal is with that.

One of the problems faced by any site that operates in a "scarce" language - particularly, e.g., one that is not yet included in tr*nsl*t*.google and so forth - is that it gets swamped with folk asking for tronslotions of odd bits of stuff, e.g. mottos, tattoos or sundry short phrases. And, by and large, such folk have no great interest in actually learning the language, or even promoting its use etc. So the starts you see appearing in words like "tronslote" and "tronslotion" are part of a warning mechanism. However, you don't get the stars if you use Gaelic, e.g. "e*d*r-the*ng*ch*dh" and so forth.

There's all manner of things that are different when you start l00king at other languages - you must have noticed this even between Dutch and English. Like, if I mind right, you don't usually use a word-for-word tronslotion of "I am going to Groningen tomorrow" if you say it in Dutch, do you? But it would actually be quite similar in Gaelic (Tha mi a' dol a Ghroningen a-màireach) - main differences with English being word order (verb first in Gaelic).

As for "air" and "on", there are places where English uses "on" but Gaelic does not use "air", e.g. if you're talking about the time you spent on a moderately-sized island you might say "I was on Texel" in English, but "Bha mi ann an Texel" (literally "in") in Gaelic: what does Dutch do in this circumstance?

Co-dhiù, fàilte dhan fhòram! Welkom op het forum!

Seonaidh wrote:One of the problems faced by any site that operates in a "scarce" language - particularly, e.g., one that is not yet included in tr*nsl*t*.google and so forth - is that it gets swamped with folk asking for tronslotions of odd bits of stuff, e.g. mottos, tattoos or sundry short phrases. And, by and large, such folk have no great interest in actually learning the language, or even promoting its use etc. So the starts you see appearing in words like "tronslote" and "tronslotion" are part of a warning mechanism. However, you don't get the stars if you use Gaelic, e.g. "e*d*r-the*ng*ch*dh" and so forth.

I see what you mean. I thought it'd be something like that, it makes perfect sense.


I've never really thought about Dutch and English, both come naturally and I'm not sure which is my mother's tongue, although I use Dutch more often where live. From Dutch to English and vice versa is also just a matter of word order. 'Tomorrow/morgen' could be placed before or after ' to/naar Groningen', whereas the placement is set in English.
One more thing I find confusing is the word 'tha'. I've seen it used as yes, but also in combination with 'mi' -> ' tha mi', like you just did to explain the Groningen thing to me.


Also, I find it funny how I have to stop myself from saying 'tapadh leibh' whenever I want to thank someone.

coempa wrote:

Also, I find it funny how I have to stop myself from saying 'tapadh leibh' whenever I want to thank someone.

Haha, I've done stuff like that too. My real problem is thinking in Fraelic (French/Gaelic). I started Gaelic first so that when I began French speaking sessions I wanted to say "Tha" every time I was supposed to say "Oui"! But now I'm starting to internalize the French, too, so I start thinking in sentences like "Nuair bha mi petite..." It's very confusing!