Gaelic :

Our ancestors' language :

Talking to a child or a friend :

There are two words for 'you' in Gaelic:  Sibh [shiv]and thu [oo]. Thu is used when speaking to a close friend or a child while sibh is more formal or polite. It is used when talking to someone who is older or in authority. Sibh is also used when talking to more than one person. If there is any doubt about which to use, stick to sibh.

Gaelic does not have a single equivalent to Yes and No in the English language. Depending on the question being asked they are several ways of expressing negative and positive in Gaelic. Something is or is not, you like or you don't like or it is good or bad.

Pronunciation :

The Gaelic alphabet consists of only 18 letters; 13 consonants are b, c, d, f, g, h, l, m, n, p, r, s, t; there is no J K Q V W X Y or Z. There are sounds in Gaelic quite different from English, which are made up of combinations of letters. Once these are mastered, Gaelic spelling and pronunciation is fairly consistent.

As in English, there are five vowels, A E I O U. The E and I are caol = slender vowels, while A O U are leathann = broad vowels. If there is a accent over a vowel, it makes the sound longer eg; bàta [baahtuh] = a boat and bata [bahtuh] = a walking stick, the vowel is short. Càr [kaahr] a car, and car [kahr]  a twist or turn. Some groups of letters can be silent eg; cèilidh [kaylee] - a ceilidh.

The first syllable of the word in Gaelic is generally stressed but as in English short words are unstressed.

A consonant is pronounced differently when it is preceded or followed by a caol = slender vowel than when is it with a leathann = broad vowel. Also some consonants are pronounced differently depending on where they are situated in a word.

The letter h can be used at the start of a word as in English like hallò or it can be used to 'aspirate' a word when it is usually silent. Also called lenition this changes the sound of the letter bh is like an English v, as in van, ch is pronounced like the ch in loch, dh or gh is either pronounced like a gargled g, or like the y of yellow, fh is silent, mh is like the v in van, ph is an f sound, as in phone, sh or th is either an h sound, as in house, or like the h in house and the y in yellow together. All consonants can be followed by h except l, n, r; they are the only letters that can be written double.

Lenition :

This is a term used to describe how the start of a word is altered when affected by some other words. In writing it means that an 'h' is added after the first letter of the word eg; mòr [more]: big but bròg mhòr [brawk vore]: big shoe.

Masculines and Feminines :

The nouns in Gaelic are all either masculine or feminine but they need to be learnt as not all things female are 'feminine' and male 'masculine'. When a word is 'feminine' , the following adjective is lenited, if the word is 'masculine' the following adjective is unchanged.

Word Order :

In Gaelic, the verb usually comes at the beginning of the sentence; Tha mi à Inbhir Nis: I am from Inverness; Whereas in questions the question word comes before the verb: Ciamar a tha thu? :How are you?

Verb "to be" :

The most common verb in the positive present tense is tha : to be. It is used to mean yes to answer a question and in statements depending on the subject can mean is or there is or there are or am, as shown above.

Some useful words and phrases for meeting friends :

One of the most common topics of conversation, as in many languages, is the weather.  Tha i brèagha an-diugh. [ha ee breea-uh uhn jooh] :It's lovely today.

English / Gaelic Terms :

Links to Gaelic Language Sources and Information :