Scottish Gaelic is an Indo-european language spoken in Scotland. Today is predominatly spoken in the
Western Isles and in areas of the north west of Scotland.
Scottish Gaelic is closely related to the other Gaelic languages of Irish Gaelic and Manx Gaelic.
These languages share common grammar and a lot of vocabulary. They do use very different spelling systems however.
Learning one of these languages will not immediatly allow the understanding of the others.
The Gaelic languages are related to the other Celtic languages of Welsh, Cornish and Breton. While they share common grammar elements and some
vocabulary, they are further removed from Scottish Gaelic than Irish and Manx.
The Celtic languages are related to Latin and other western Indo-European languages and the learner will find
some common grammar and vocabulary.
An explaination in simple terms will be given for each element.
Rules where available will be given, along with examples.
Interactive tests are provided to help the learner
The units can be followed in order (remcommended for new learners) or in any desired order as
a refresher. The exercises can be done seperately.
The course is designed for the adult learner who wishes to understand the underlying reasons for the use
words, endings, word changes etc so they can better form their own sentences. It stands in contrast to many
modern learning courses which focus on learning vocabulary quickly and introducing stock phrases.
Overview of the Language
At a first glance the most striking aspect of the Scottish Gaelic Language is the spelling. Indeed the spelling
is one of the most intriging aspects of the language. Many languages have undergone radical spelling revisions (including
English) where the spelling has been modified or simplified to reflect current pronounciation and to make the spelling
more consistent. Gaelic too has seen spelling reforms with a view to standardisation and consistency. However a key aspect
of Gaelic spelling is to retain the original form of the word whilst still showing the modern pronounciation.
An example in English is the word
Night
compared to the German word
Nicht
The German pronounciation with the "ch" is close to how the word would have been pronounced in English in the past.
In English we retain the "gh" as a reminder of the original.
In Gaelic the same idea applies, but much more frequently, so we have word
meadhan
meaning "middle", where the "d" sound has been lost in pronounciation but retained in spelling.
In the next section we will look at Lenition, which is the name given to adding the "h" after a consonant
and how it changes the sound
Another feature of Gaelic is the word order. We will find that the word order is
Verb, Subject, Object
This word order can be found in English when asking a question, but in Gaelic it is always the word order. Instead Gaelic uses
adverbal particles, which we will cover in a later section. As will be seen, this produces a cleaner more consistent sentence
construction.
Gaelic makes a strong use of Idioms which will be unfamiliar to English speakers. This requires the speaker to think in
a different way. Many of the idioms use preposition phrases of the type
"A Car is at me" meaning "I have a car"
or
"Sickness is on me" meaning "I am sick"
For this purpose Gaelic has retained many prepositional pronouns which we will cover in a later section.
So let's begin with a look at spelling.
Spelling
Gaelic is characterised by two specific spelling peculiarities. The most obvious is Lenition
which results in the proliferation of the letter h. H is used as a marker of Lenition. In practice
lention results in a change in sound of a consonant. A table is given in the section on Lention.
The other peculiartity is the use of Broad and Slender consonants. Each consonant can be broad
or slender. A table of approximate sounds is given.
It is worth noting that there is considerable variation in pronounciation due to dialect and the
learner is forewarned
A consonant is deemed broad if it is surrounded by a broad vowel ie A,O,U
A consonant is deemed slender if it is surrounded by a slender vowel ie E or I
To avoid conflict, Gaelic uses a spelling convention called "broad to broad, slender to slender"
which means that any consonant occuring in the middle of a word must have the same type of vowel on
each side.
"bata" meaning "boat", the t is broad because it is surrounded by broad vowels
whereas
"biteag" meaning "a morsel", the t is slender because it is surrounded by slender vowels
Often this results in the inclusion of apparently superfluous vowels in the spelling
Pronounciation
Consonant
Broad
Slender
B
B
B*
C
C
C*
D
D
J
F
F
F*
G
G
G
L
L
L*
M
M
M
N
N
N*
P
P
P
R
R
R
S
S
Sh
T
T
Tch
Note
*When in an initial position or when doubled the consonant adds a "y" sound gliding into the vowel.
Aspiration or Lenition
Lenition is the name given to the change in pronunciation of a consonant resulting in a softening or complete removal of the original sound
Lenition occurs at the beginning, middle and end of words.
Lenition is marked by the addition of an h after the consonant.
Only B C D F G M P S T show lenition in this way. L N and R change pronunciation but this is not shown.
Modern Gaelic spelling uses lenition to retain the etymology or origin of the word while showing the modern pronunciation This occurs in the middle and end of words.
When lenition occurs at the beginning of a word it has a grammatical meaning. This dynamic changing causes learners most concern and difficulty.
Lenition is used among other things to show tense of verbs and case, gender and number of nouns
Table of Consonants
Consonant
Lenition
Pronounciation
B
Bh
v
C
Ch
{ch}
D
Dh
{gh} or y
F
Fh
silent
G
Gh
{gh} or y
M
Mh
v or w
P
Ph
f
S
Sh
h
T
Th
h
Notes
{ch} is pronounced like ch in Scottish Loch
{gh} is to g what ch is to c
The Gaelic alphabet does not have the letters
H J K Q V W X Y or Z
The consonants L N and R do not add h but the sounds do change.
LESSON 1
NOUNS
Overview
Gender
Plurals
Genative
Definite Article
Overview
Gender
Like most Indo-European Languages there are two genders in Gaelic, masculine and feminine.
This is a difficulty that the learner must overcome if they wish to speak the language correctly.
As we will see, the gender of the noun determines the form of the definite article, adjectives and pronouns used.
In general, there is no logical reasoning behind the assigned gender of a noun.
There are however some patterns which can help the learner.
The following are usually masculine
Males
The young of animals
The names of trees
Vegetables
The following are usually feminine
Females
names of countries
names of musical instruments
Number
Nouns have a singular and a plural form. However unlike in English, the singular is used after certain numbers such as twenty, hundred and thousand.
Case
There are 4 cases, Nominative, Genitive, Dative and Accusative
The Nominative case covers the Subject and the Direct Object of the sentence. Ie The Man hit the dog.
The Genitive case covers possession. In English this translates John's dog and The end of the street
The Dative case covers nouns with prepositions such as 'on the table', 'in the house', with a friend
The accusative case is used when calling a person or object. 'John!'
Definite and Indefinite Articles
Indefinite Article
In Gaelic there is no word for the English A or AN (the indefinite article)
Instead the noun stands on its own
A House is Taigh
A Coat is Cota
Definite Article
The definite article is more complicated. There are essentially three words for
THE, An, Na and Nan although An becomes Am, An t- and A' and Na can become Na h- as we will see
The definite article is dependant on the following attributes of the noun
Number ie Singular (Sr) or Plural (Pl)
Gender ie Male (M) or Female (F)
Initial Letter. One of 6 Groups
Case ie Subject, Object, Genitive or Dative
Singular or Plural
Nouns for their plurals differently if they are masculine or feminine. This included the form of
the definite article.
In Gaelic one is singular, but so is 2 and 20 and 100 so beware.
Male or Female
All nouns are either male or female. As we have seen this has little bearing on real gender.
It is really more related to the form of the word and how it forms the plural and genitive.
We have seen it is useful to learn a noun with an adjective to help remember the gender.
As we will see the definite article is not a fool-proof method for telling gender.
Initial Letter
The initial letter changes the form of the definite article. The definite article
sometimes changes the initial letter via aspiration.
The 6 Groups are
B,M,P
C,G
D,T,L,N,R
A,E,I,O,U
F
S,Sn,Sr,St
As we will see AN tends to change before B,M,P.
The letter F is always a special case.
The vowels behave differently.
Case
Like many Indo-european languages the nouns are declined through case. Some languages recognise
many more cases than Gaelic. In English there are still cases but the system is not complete
and is resticted largely to the pronouns.
In English
Subject - He
Object - Him
Genative - His
Dative - to him
Plurals - They, them, their, to them
Gaelic makes these destinctions in all nouns. However in Gaelic Subject and Object are
always the same. Gaelic relies on word order to destinguish between Subject and Object.
Word order is always
Verb Subject Object
Masculine Nouns - Subject and Object (Singular)
For masculine nouns use
EXCEPT
With B, F,M and P use
With A,E,I,O,U use
Grammar Box
REMEMBER -The word for THE depends on the intial letter of the word.
For Masculine nouns (singular) there are 3 alternatives.
We will cover plurals later.
Feminine Nouns - Subject and Object (Singular)
For feminine nouns use
EXCEPT
With B, C,G,M and P use
With F use
With S,Sl,Sn,Sr use
* indicates that the noun is lenited after the definite article
