Fòram na Gàidhlig

Hello! I'm Olive. I just joined this forum because I'm writing a book series which is about a cursed town. The sailor who supposedly cursed the town in 1947 was Scottish, and left a code written in Scots Gaelic. I have not studied Scots Gaelic myself, so I want to make sure the tr*nsl*t**n is accurate. It says "key for the H" in English. For context, it means that a key will open a secret door when used inside the letter H written in the stone. I have used Google tr*nsl*t* and it says "iuchair airson an h" but I want to check that here before leaving it in my book. I appreciate the help!

You could try using ogham: Iuchair an uatha https://www.faclair.com/ViewEntry.aspx? ... E4C0CAE25E

The letter h is used mostly for grammar markings in Gaelic, you might want to consider using a core letter.

GunChleoc wrote: ↑Fri Aug 13, 2021 7:01 am You could try using ogham: Iuchair an uatha https://www.faclair.com/ViewEntry.aspx? ... E4C0CAE25E

The letter h is used mostly for grammar markings in Gaelic, you might want to consider using a core letter.

This is a very good point, and to clarify for the OP:

The letter H isn't a true "letter" in Gaelic and replaces an older convention of adding an accent mark to certain consonants.

Culturally, therefore, it is unlikely that an H would be used to mark anything. Indeed, if the stone in question isn't very recent, the letter H would be entirely alien and unless the stone was made by someone from a different language background it would not have an H on it.

Thank you both for the replies. The headstone and secret message were written by someone who died in 1947, so it isn't too old. He was from Scotland and died in the US. He wrote in Scots Gaelic because he liked it, and wanted his secret messages to be more hidden. I'm not sure what you mean by a core letter, honestly. I know nothing about Scots Gaelic. Could you suggest a replacement for me please?

Gaelic uses these letters: ABCDEFGILMNOPRSTU

Thank you!
Is "iuchair airson an s" better?

Yes. If you want to go Ogham:

iuchair na suile https://www.faclair.com/ViewEntry.aspx? ... C528930594
or
iuchair na saile https://www.faclair.com/ViewEntry.aspx? ... 55B327692D

And does the sentence actually mean "This is the key for the..."? Then it's

Seo iuchair...

If you want to stay with the s:

Seo iuchair dhan s

airson isn't wrong, but I think this sounds better.

It means "use a key in the letter S", but it's meant to sound vague, so just like "key for the S", or whatever sounds best in Scots Gaelic.
Thank you for all the help! I think I'll go with "iuchair dhan s"

Sounds good to me.